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

21


Driver reported he swerved to miss a tree.

It was later discovered to be his air freshener.

—DEL SOL POLICE BLOTTER




Sun heard the ATVs coming up the mountain. It only took her and Levi another half-hour hike to get to the mine. She was surprised to hear her deputies coming so soon.

“The state cops must’ve been close,” she said, panting as they studied the opening to the Sawry Silver Mine. Her lungs burned and her legs ached. Clearly she needed more cardio and less Oreo.

The entrance was boarded up with the words KEEP OUT plastered all over it. “They may as well post a sign that says, Hey kids! Come on in! We dare you!”

“They are kind of inviting trouble with all of this.” He pulled away a board that hung loosely over one end of the opening. Dust billowed around him when it broke loose. “Here.”

She walked over and looked inside. “It’s very dark.”

“Scared?” he asked, taking his flashlight off his belt. The flashlight right next to the hunting knife.

She scoffed, ducked inside, and took out her flashlight, too. The dank smell mixed with animal droppings took some getting used to.

Levi crawled in after her, his wide shoulders barely scraping through. He winced and groaned a little, favoring the left side of his rib cage.

“You know, if you get a punctured lung up here, your chances of survival are almost nonexistent.”

“Thanks,” he said, his voice strained.

“Let me have the backpack.” She held out her hand.

“Please.” He whacked it out of the way, then scraped past her into the mine.

Rude.

She followed, the underground cave so dark it seemed to absorb the light from their flashlights the deeper they went. The slits in the wood slats glowed when she looked back at the opening, but the light didn’t reach far.

“How do you want to handle this?” he asked her.

“You’re sure they’re here?”

“I’ve been tracking them for the last two miles. Eli’s dirt bike is tucked behind a copse of bushes about twenty feet from the opening.”

“Do you think Adam came with his brother willingly?”

“I do. I don’t think he would force him.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I am. If I remember correctly, the mine opens up to a chamber of sorts about a quarter mile in.”

Sun spun in a circle, careful not to knock herself out. Parts of the rock ceiling dipped low when one least expected it. “I haven’t been here since I was in high school.”

“Who’d you come out here with?” he asked, ducking under a low boulder.

“Friends. Quincy and a few others.”

“No romantic interludes?”

After an indelicate snort—not that any snort was delicate—she said, “Not unless you count the time Ryan Spalding tried to kiss me.”

“Tried?”

“And failed. What about you? Any romantic rendezvous in a dark, cold, creepy mineshaft?”

“Nah. There are far easier places to get to.”

Figured. She slipped but caught herself. Thankfully, he had taken the lead and missed her acrobatics. “What about with Crystal Meth?”

“I’ve never done meth. Here or anywhere else. Surely, you know that.”

“I mean the girl, which, by the way: poor thing. Her parents suck.”

“I gotta say, I really think they were oblivious.”

“Nobody’s that oblivious.”

“And you brought her up because?”

“You guys were making out the night Seabright was attacked. Outside the bar.”

He stopped and turned back to her. “Making out? Me and Crys?” The fact that he used her nickname so casually caused an unsettling in her stomach. “Where’d you get that from?”

“Crys.”

“She told you that?”

She shined the light in his eyes. Mostly because she could. “Not in so many words. It was very much implied, however.”

He frowned and tilted her flashlight downward. “We were just talking. She was asking for a job.”

“I bet she was. I can only imagine the interview process.”

He didn’t say anything for a few seconds, then asked, “Is your opinion of me really so base?”

His indignation shocked her. And thrilled her. Not that she actually thought so low of him, but he was now one of the privileged. One of the elite with enough money to buy half the state. They thought differently than the rest of the world, however. She was glad to know money didn’t change him. Or maybe it did, considering his tragic upbringing. His deplorable role models growing up.

“You’re right. I’m sorry,” she said, then squeezed past him, breathing in the earthy scent that wafted off his skin like a soft, alluring breeze, and headed farther inside the mineshaft. The ceiling dropped lower and lower and Levi had to duck down even more, putting a strain on his ribs if his breathing was any indication.

He put a hand on her shoulder to halt her and pointed. A couple dozen yards in front of them a soft light went out, while behind them, the ATV turned off. Its sound stopped its muffled echoing along the rock walls.

He twisted the lens on his flashlight. The color changed to a muted blue. Sun’s didn’t have that feature so she turned hers off altogether.