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

Her mom shook her head. “No, it is.”

“Mom, if that little redhead wants to do something, there is apparently nothing you or I can do about it. Once her mind is set, there’s no stopping her.”

“Levi is right,” her dad said. “She is you incarnate. God help us all.”

Sun sat stewing in all the ways she raised her daughter wrong. She wanted her to be independent, but not too independent. She wanted her to be strong and powerful and ready to take on the world, but had Sun given her too much freedom? She’d never had to worry about Auri. She got good grades. She had tons of friends. She was outgoing but not overbearing. She’d had some rough patches, like when she’d contemplated taking her own life when she was seven. But their lives had been so full since then.

Auri was bright, her intelligence off the charts, but Levi was right. Why would she rush into the middle of a robbery? Especially after everything Sun had taught her. Unless she didn’t know Mrs. Fairborn was being robbed, which led to the inevitable question: why was she there in the first place?

So many unknowns her head hurt. Her dad brought her a sandwich from vending and took one out to Levi. Sun was surprised. She thought Levi had left her there. Not the least bit hungry, she ended up devouring the whole sandwich nevertheless. Levi came back in, sat right beside her, and ate as well.

His eye was healing, but it almost looked worse than it had the day before. The bruises had spread and covered half his face. She reached up and touched the stubble on his jaw. He looked at her just as Quincy walked in.

“Salazar uploaded the dashcam and bodycam footage. She’s sending it now.” He handed her the laptop from her cruiser and sat on her other side.

Sun logged in and they first watched the dashcam footage. Salazar was responding to a call about suspicious activity in the area when something in the distance came into view. “What is that?” Sun asked, leaning closer.

As Salazar pulled forward, the image became clearer. It was Cruz, walking down the middle of the highway that turned into Main. Clearly in shock, he was carrying Auri in his arms. She lay draped over them, her head and limbs hanging limp.

Sun’s hands shot to her mouth as she watched in horror.

He stumbled, caught himself, and took a couple more steps before he sank onto his knees, careful to keep Auri’s head from hitting the pavement. He cradled her to his chest and waited as Salazar pulled to a stop in front of them.

Salazar called it in, ordered dispatch to send units from Las Vegas, and hurried out of the vehicle.

Even in the black-and-white image, Sun could see that Cruz’s clothes were soaked in blood. He walked as far as he could before the blood loss became too much.

Salazar tried to ease Auri out of his arms, worried he would drop her, but he held fast. After a couple of minutes, his head lolled back, and she was finally able to convince him to lay Auri on the pavement, for her own safety, as another vehicle approached.

The driver got out and Salazar threw him a pair of gloves, ordered him to get Cruz down and apply pressure to his abdomen. The man, a local farmer, obeyed instantly, though Cruz was none too happy about it. He pointed to Mrs. Fairborn’s house as the man tried to hold him down, as though telling them to go check on her. When another vehicle approached, Salazar did the same with them. And so on until she had half the town out there.

Once the ambulance and a unit from Las Vegas arrived, Salazar hurried to Mrs. Fairborn’s house. The footage switched to her bodycam and Sun saw firsthand the wreckage that was once a home.

“What the hell?” she asked, her breath catching in her throat.

“He was definitely looking for something,” Quincy said.

Levi took her hand as they watched. Salazar called out the door for another pedestrian to get a first responder to the house as she checked Mrs. Fairborn. The woman sat slumped in a chair. At her feet was an unconscious man, the floor beneath him a sea of blood.

“Intruder has no pulse,” Salazar said into her mic before returning her attention to Mrs. Fairborn.

“Sunshine,” her mother said, watching from Levi’s other side. “What is going on?”

Sun unwelded her teeth to answer. “A missing persons case and a girl unwilling to accept defeat.”

“Just like her mother,” Levi said, his jaw just as tight.

She wanted to kiss him.

“She looks so tiny,” her mom said, her nose red from blowing it so often.

They’d moved Auri from post-op into ICU, a cracker-box room with a glass wall and lots of equipment. Auri did look tiny in the bed, her small, willowy frame like a doll’s. No, a fairy’s. A fiery-haired fairy’s. The kind that reveled in mischief. She definitely fit the bill.

“We’re getting a hotel,” her dad said. “We’ll be just down the street.”

“Thanks, Dad.” She kissed the man’s cheek. He wrapped her tight.

Her mom took her turn. “Call if she wakes up before we get here tomorrow morning.”

“Thanks, Mom. I will. But I doubt she’ll wake up any time soon. They have her on the good stuff.”

“Can we bring you anything?”

“No. I have my emergency stash in the cruiser.”

“Okay, honey.” She dabbed her eyes and smiled sadly as they left with a final wave.

Levi had been standing just outside the door. He came in and took the seat her father vacated.