A Good Day for Chardonnay (Sunshine Vicram #2) by Darynda Jones

“You just try it.” She twisted and turned until Quincy had no choice but to drag her to his cruiser kicking and screaming. He and the officers loaded them both into the back of his SUV and watched as Clay closed the front door to the Ravinder estate softly behind them.

Hailey continued to scream profanities. Levi stared straight ahead, reminding Sun of the calm before the storm.

“How’d we do?” Quince asked her when she walked up to him.

“That woman missed her calling.”

He grinned. “She’s a firecracker.”

Sun laughed, hiding her face in case Clay was watching.

“And dare I say,” Quincy said, daring, “that the man sitting in the back of my cruiser is a tad miffed.”

“You think?”

“Maybe we should’ve, I don’t know, filled him in on the plan?”

“He would never have gone along with it. He would’ve wanted to deal with Clay on his own. No telling how that would’ve ended up. Lest you forget, I’m trying to keep the man alive and out of prison. And. Not or.”

“That’s not going to be easy. He’s even more stubborn than you are.”

Ignoring his statement, Sun asked, “What about Jimmy?”

“He’s with Auri and your parents. They’re meeting us at the cabin later.”

“Good. I just need him safe.”

“Yeah, about that, are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

Sun pressed her mouth to one side in a noncommittal shrug as she looked at the hard lines on the face of the man she loved more than a good bottle of chardonnay. And that was saying a lot. “Ask me tomorrow when he’s had time to cool off.”

“Sunbeam,” he said, sucking air in through his teeth, “I don’t think there’s enough ice in the world that would have him cooled off by tomorrow, but you keep believing that.” He climbed into his car amidst a bombardment of language so colorful, her new lieutenant blushed. Then Quince winked at Sun. “Denial is a glorious thing.”

It was. It really was.

By the time they got to the cabin, Levi had figured out it was a ploy, probably because Hailey calmed down and explained what was going on. According to Quincy, Levi didn’t seem to care.

“If I only had one word to describe him,” Quincy said when Sun entered the rustic garage, “it would be homicidal.”

Levi was still in the back seat. Still cuffed. Still livid by the hard set of his jaw.

“You left him in there?” Sun had driven to the cabin at a slower pace and taken a few side roads to make sure they weren’t being followed.

“I am not unlocking those cuffs until he calms down,” Quincy said.

“You’re bigger than he is.”

He snorted. “Yeah. Like that would matter.”

He was right. Skill trumped body weight most of the time, and few were more skilled than the man sitting in the back seat of Quincy’s cruiser.

“I tried talking to him,” Hailey said. “He’s impossible once he gets like this. Best to just let him cool down.”

Which was not likely to happen until they uncuffed him. It was a vicious cycle.

Sun scanned the site. They’d chosen that particular cabin not only because of its seclusion, but also because it had an attached garage, a rarity in the cabin world. It was important no one see them going from house to vehicle. The team had no idea how many minions Clay and Redding had on their payroll who could be watching at any given time.

The cabin belonged to a friend of her dad’s who was summering in the Hamptons.

“People really do that?” she’d asked her dad when they’d come up with the plan.

“’Parently.”

Quincy had stocked it with the essentials earlier. God only knew what he considered essential, but it should be enough to get them through the next week or so while Wynn tried to ascertain exactly what Clay’s plan was. How and when they were going to make the attempt on Levi’s life.

The mere thought weakened Sun’s knees. She would arrest him a million times if it meant keeping him safe, so he could just be furious.

“Okay, thanks, guys. I’ll uncuff him.”

Quincy held up a hand. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea, boss.”

But Hailey had a little more faith in her. “I think she’s got this, Deputy.”

He grinned down at her. “It’s Chief Deputy, actually.”

She wiggled her shoulders in a soft shiver, her excitement betraying her like a cat flicking its tail. It was no wonder Quincy had volunteered his services as personal bodyguard and put Salazar on Cruz duty. Passing the buck already.

Sun opened the back door of Quincy’s cruiser and scooted onto the seat beside Levi. He’d now had the cuffs on for over half an hour. Behind his back, no less. He could not possibly be comfortable. But he didn’t look at her. Didn’t ask to have them removed. Didn’t move a muscle.

Oh, yeah. He was pissed.

Oddly enough, she didn’t care. She studied the profile of the man beside her. The man she’d loved since the beginning of time, so it seemed. The feelings that had threatened to overwhelm her when she was fake-arresting him—when she was leading his large hands behind his back, his sinewy forearms constricting, his jaw hardening—resurfaced.

A wave of emotion she hadn’t expected swept over her. The last few days of her life had taken its toll. Not only with Auri and Cruz and even Mrs. Fairborn and the whole secret society thing, but to learn the truth after so long. To learn that Auri had been conceived not out of hatred or deviance, but out of love. A love that had endured for almost three decades. To learn that her rescuer was none other than the man of her dreams. That, like Cruz with Auri, he’d almost died protecting her.