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

“If we find them, we catch the killer.”

Sybil grinned maniacally. It was a thing of mischievous beauty. No one would suspect the mild-mannered Sybil St. Aubin to have such an adventurous streak. In fact, if they were caught, no one would believe for a minute Sybil had colluded in their shenanigans. Everyone would blame the whole thing on Auri, as they should, which was one reason Auri decided to bring her in. Sybil and her guileless ways would be safe.

But she also couldn’t bring her into this completely clueless to the ramifications should they get caught. “I want you to think about this before you decide,” Auri said. “It could be dangerous, and we’ll only have a short window to get in and get out. But timing is of the essence.”

“Why?”

“Because Mrs. Fairborn confesses to every single crime committed in Del Sol.”

“Oh …kay.”

“And there was a crime last night.”

Sybil frowned. “Yeah, but that was a stabbing.”

“Exactly.”

“By three males.”

“Yes.”

“There were witnesses.”

“Yep.”

“And she’ll still confess.”

“Absolutely.”

“Hold on.” She held up a palm, calling for a time out. “Tiny, meek Mrs. Fairborn will confess to stabbing a man and running over Mr. Ravinder with a truck even though several witnesses saw exactly who did it?”

Auri twirled a finger around her ear. “I’m telling you, she’ll probably be in the station first thing tomorrow morning. And a crime like that will take her a while. She confesses in great detail.”

“How will we know she’s actually in there?”

It was Auri’s turn to grin maniacally. “I have an inside man.” Sybil gasped. “Is it Quincy? Should we coordinate with him? Go over the plan? Synchronize our watches?”

She frowned in confusion. “I guess, but why would we want to?”

Sybil blinked at her like she’d lost her mind.

Auri blinked back. “So, you’re in?” she asked after an awkward thirty seconds.

That grin Auri knew and loved reappeared. “I am so in.”

They shook hands to seal the deal, then hugged through the window. “See you tomorrow. Remember, wear something breakyand-entery.”

“You got it. Should I bring my lockpicking kit?”

Auri ogled her. “You can pick locks?”

After a flash of panic raced across her face, she said softly, as though embarrassed, “No.”

“Oh. Darn. Well, that’s okay. Bring it anyway. Maybe Cruz can use it.”

Sybil nodded in excitement.

Auri gave her another quick hug, then walked the narrow strip where the cameras wouldn’t catch her. The sky was beginning to darken and she took a wrong step about halfway. While the camera probably didn’t catch it, light flooded the manicured lawn.

She froze for all of five seconds, then ran for it. Sybil giggled at the window as Auri jumped onto her bike and rode around the perimeter to the drive, her pulse drumming in her ears, half expecting to hear sirens.

She rode as fast as she could for a solid two minutes before slowing down. No sirens. Always a good sign. Now onto her second target, the enigmatic Cruz De los Santos.

Cruz lived much closer to Auri, thankfully, but it still took her exactly ten minutes to make it down the mountain and back into town to his house.

She’d never snuck to Cruz’s house, but she knew his room was in the southwest corner around back. She leaned her bike against a tree and tiptoed around the house. Cruz’s light was on, so she hurried past the dark window of his dad’s room and crept up to his window.

Sheer curtains made it impossible to see clearly inside, but they were just barely open down the center creating a slit that she could see through. That was the exact moment she realized what a god must look like.

Cruz stood at his dresser with a towel around his waist. His dark hair and muscular shoulders glistened in the low light of his room as he searched for an item of clothing. Probably underwear, she realized. Heat spread up her neck. What was she doing?

She stood back and pretended not to have seen him when she knocked softly. He walked over, his blurred image getting closer and closer. She could still run. It wasn’t too late.

Then the curtains were open and his smile hit her like a nuclear bomb.

He raised the window, crossed his arms over his bare chest, and leaned against the frame. “If it isn’t Aurora Dawn Vicram. What brings you to the boonies?”

A grin she couldn’t have stopped with a restraining order spread across her face. “I have a proposition.”

He covered his incredible pecs with his hands, and asked, “Are you here to take advantage of me?”

She snorted. “No. Another kind of proposition.”

“Oh, well, come in anyway.” He gestured her inside, and while climbing into a window seemed great in theory, it was anything but.

He had to reach out and lift her over the sill as it dug into her shins. Her arms wrapped around his neck and he slid her inside where they fell back onto his bed, her on top.

She stilled and waited, making sure his dad didn’t come in.

“You know my dad can’t hear us,” he said, his voice hushed regardless and oddly strained.

Cruz’s dad was deaf, not that he let that stop him.