A Good Day for Chardonnay by Darynda Jones

23

Donate blood today!

Please note: It must be your blood.

—SIGN AT DEL SOL URGENT CARE CENTER

Sun and Levi commandeered a ride into Albuquerque on the medevac with Agent Wilcox, making for a very tight squeeze with both a nurse and a paramedic also on board. Because Wilcox’s life wasn’t in immediate danger, the paramedic rode up front with the pilot.

Reception was so spotty, she didn’t get much info from Salazar. All she knew for certain was that Auri was being airlifted to Pres with blunt force trauma to the head.

Sun’s world turned upside down with the news. She hadn’t eaten. Hadn’t slept. Her adrenaline had reached new heights in several ways that day. She was running on fumes and yet she willed the helicopter to fly faster with every ounce of energy she had left.

Levi took her hand, his jaw hard set. He was just as worried as she was.

She had the pilot patch her through so she could call her parents from the helicopter, at first wondering where they were when all of this was happening, then suddenly worried they were hurt, too. But she could not blame them. She had a sneaking suspicion this was all Aurora Dawn Vicram.

Unable to hear half of what they said, she got the most important bits. They were fine. They were following the ambulance that was carrying Mrs. Fairborn. The kids should already be at the hospital.

“Mom, you guys have to calm down. You’ll have a wreck. Why don’t you meet Quincy when he gets to my cruiser and come down with him?”

“This is all our fault,” her mother said, clearly in shock.

There was no getting through to them. Her only hope was for Quincy to hurry and try to catch up. Thankfully, Albuquerque traffic wasn’t bad after nine. They should be fine. And, lest she forget, her dad was in military intelligence and drove missions all through the Middle East. Surely, he could handle a Tuesday night in Albuquerque.

With more than enough law enforcement officials at the mine, Sun ordered Zee and Rojas back to town to help Salazar with the crime scene. And yet another dead body. Del Sol seemed to have entered The Twilight Zone. Mid-season. And with ratings plummeting.

The DA was going to go ballistic. The mayor was going to kill her. Yet Sun couldn’t find it in her to care. Her daughter could have died. She still could. Nothing else on Earth mattered.

She ordered Quincy back to her cruiser with her laptop and other essentials. Considering he had a mountain to get down, he could be in Albuquerque in a little over an hour if he double-timed it then drove at the speed of light. Thank God for emergency lights.

Auri and Cruz were still en route as the team at the medical center would’ve had to stabilize them before the flight. Sun and Levi were ordered to wait inside the building, but they refused. They saw to Agent Wilcox, then watched from the parking lot as the helicopter came in for a landing.

Sun ran to it the second it touched down and tried to talk to Cruz over the whir of the blades. Levi pulled her back so the staff could do their jobs, which made sense though she didn’t appreciate his efforts in the least. They unloaded him just as a second helicopter crested the horizon.

He looked so pale, so ashen, Sun was reminded just how fragile life could be. He lay shirtless with a clear wrap covering his wounds. Three of them. Blood had pooled beneath the wrap, his normally flat abdomen distended with internal bleeding. Despite all this, he was fighting them. They were having a difficult time securing him.

Sun ran forward and took his hand, yelling over the sound. “Cruz! You’re okay.”

He looked at her and tried to focus, but she could tell he was struggling. His eyes rolled back and he pushed at their hands as they tried to get his arms back under the restraints.

“Where’s Auri?” he asked, as though they’d taken her.

Sun brushed his hair out of his eyes and got close to him. Gave him something to focus on. “They have her, baby. She’s right behind you.”

That seemed to calm him. His pupils dilated as he looked at her. They hung the IV and rushed past her to get Cruz into surgery. Sun had been assured they’d called in their best surgeon.

They stood back and the first helicopter took off as another medical team rushed forward. The second helicopter touched down. They lifted Auri out and Sun’s world fell away.

Auri’s hair was caked with blood, her head wrapped in gauze, and her neck in a brace. Her arms were strapped down, her hands folded at her waist, and her face—her perfect face—was swollen and pale, punctuated with scrapes and bruises of all sizes and shapes.

Sun didn’t realize she was falling until Levi caught her. Her bones had dissolved, and his solid arms clamped around her midsection, holding her upright. She watched as the team secured Auri’s IV and rushed her inside.

Quincy flew into the parking lot, lights blazing, with Cyrus and Elaine Freyr right behind him. He’d caught up to them and escorted them all the way through town and to the hospital.

Levi and Sun followed the gurneys, but were stopped by a nurse who looked like she could handle herself in a wrestling tournament, and quickly shown to a waiting area.

“She has a subdural hematoma,” someone in a lab coat said. Sun’s mother cried out. Sun stood in shock. “We’re going to have to operate, Sheriff. On both of them. Do we know where the boy’s father is?”

“I’ll try to get a hold of Chris,” Quincy said, talking about Cruz’s dad.

“Quincy, what happened?” Sun asked, staying him with a hand on his arm.

He sank into a chair. She followed. “As far as we can tell, the kids walked in on a robbery.”

Sun blinked in confusion. “A robbery? At Mrs. Fairborn’s?”

“I’m getting the footage from Salazar. She was first on the scene.” Quincy’s eyes were red-rimmed and Sun could tell he was barely holding it together as well. “It looks like Auri ran right into the middle of it. She tried to stop the suspect from hitting Mrs. Fairborn, so he hit her instead.”

Sun’s stomach clenched around shards of glass in response.

“All we know for certain is that Cruz and the suspect fought. Cruz won but he took one hell of a beating. According to Mrs. Fairborn, Cruz had the upper hand until the perp found a knife on the floor. He’d been tearing through her drawers. Clearing off her shelves. He was looking for something.”

“Do we know what?”

“Not yet.”

Sun nodded. “Have Zee go through Auri’s cell phone and laptop. I want to know if anyone has threatened her in any way.”

“You got it.”

“Quincy,” she said as he stood. He sank beside her again. “Thank you. For my parents. For everything.”

“Of course, boss. I’m going to make some calls. Text me if they come out with an update.” He squeezed her hand and took off.

They were in Pres, the same hospital as Seabright.

Levi scrubbed his face. He seemed to be in as much shock as she was, but he was also angry. With everyone and everything, including Sun. “Why would she rush into the middle of a robbery?” The accusing glare he cast her way knocked the breath from her lungs. “Haven’t you taught her better?”

“Yes, I have.” Her vision blurred. “At least, I thought I had. She’s so hardheaded.”

“She’s you, Shine. You incarnate.” He stood and stalked out the sliding glass doors, leaving her dumbfounded. Leaving her bereft. Leaving her. His words stung far more than she would’ve liked, and she fought a telltale quivering of her chin.

“Sun,” her dad said, “if this is anyone’s fault—”

“No, Dad. No.” She held up an index finger to stop him. “This is not your fault.”

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.

The prognosis was good. The doctor said the swelling could have been much worse and it didn’t seem like it would affect her memory or speech, but they wouldn’t know for certain until she woke up. Even then, the true extent of her injuries could take months to uncover and her recovery could take even longer if indeed she didn’t have permanent damage.

Sun made a mental note to call Hailey tomorrow so she could let Jimmy know, and to call Sybil’s parents so they could break the news to her. At least she wasn’t with them this time. Thank God for small miracles.

She sank into the chair and watched Levi watch Auri, his expression impossible to read, and she was dying to know what he was thinking.

Quincy snuck in and knocked softly. “Sun,” he said.

She sat up and waved him in.

He seemed upset and she almost didn’t want to hear what he had to say.

“Cruz is out of surgery.”

She stood expectantly. “And?”

“It looks good. They think they got everything patched and cleaned out, so hopefully no infection. And he’s strong. That’ll help.”

She put a hand over her heart. “Thank God.”

“Sun, there’s more.”

Her brows slid together. “What?” It wasn’t until that moment that she noticed the wetness shimmering in his eyes. “Quince?”

“Apparently,” he said, his voice cracking, his expression full of sorrow, “his father had a stroke when they were camping near Angel Fire during spring break.”

“What?” She thought back. “That was weeks ago. Is he okay?”

Sun knew Chris De los Santos, but Quincy had been friends with him. He covered his eyes and his breath hitched in his chest.

“Quincy, no.”

“Cruz carried him more than two miles to their truck and took him to a hospital in Taos, but it was too late. He died before they got there.”

“No.”

Quincy broke. A sob escaped and his shoulders shook. He had to turn away. “They said it took them four hours to get Cruz to let go of him.”

“No.” The floodgates opened. “No wonder he wouldn’t let Auri go,” she said, covering her face with her hands. How much more could that kid take?

“He has no one,” Quincy said.

“No, he has a grandfather, right? In Riley’s Switch? He works construction with him in the summers.”

Quincy shook his head. “That’s who I’ve been talking to. When I couldn’t get a hold of Chris, I called Philip, but Philip isn’t his biological grandfather. He was Chris’s foster dad.” His voice cracked and Sun rubbed his back. “He helped with the cremation and asked Cruz to live with him, but Cruz said he wanted to stay with some friends until school let out. He told him he was staying with Chris’s best friend.”

“Who is that?”

“Me, apparently,” he said right before he broke completely. He walked out, struggling to breathe.

Sun turned to Levi. He looked as astonished and heartbroken and crushed as Sun felt. She didn’t know how close he and Chris had been, but they’d been friends. She knew that much, because Levi was friends with all the cool people in town, and Chris De los Santos was one of the coolest.

He stood as though his body would no longer allow him to sit. She took one look at him, at the devastation etched into his face, and wanted nothing more than to console him. To make all of this go away. Instead, he strode past her as though worried he would break completely.

A nurse came in before she could go after him. Though he was Auri’s critical-care nurse, Sun had asked him to find out what he could about Mrs. Fairborn. “They admitted Mrs. Fairborn for observation,” he said, checking Auri’s IV and taking some readings.

“Are you going to be right here for the next little bit?” she asked him.

“Absolutely. I won’t leave this station if you need to grab something to eat.”

“Actually, is there some place I could take a shower?”

“Sure thing, Sheriff.”

Fifteen minutes later, Sun set her emergency bag on the closed toilet seat and combed through it until she found her toothbrush. The nurse found her a shower she could use down the hall from ICU, God bless him. The fragile threads holding her together were starting to fray. The seams ripping apart. The worn edges starting to show.

She brushed her teeth, then stepped into a shower so hot it would blister her skin. Why didn’t Cruz say anything? How could the father of a minor in her town die and she not know about it? Shouldn’t someone have let her know?

Cruz must have felt so alone. In turmoil and agony. And he had no one. The image of him refusing to let Auri go after having to let go of his father forever almost broke her. It stung her eyes and burned her throat.

The totality of the last several days hit her at once. She sank to the floor, as the scalding water rushed over her, and pressed both hands to her mouth to silence the sobs racking her body. And then she cried. Until her eyes swelled. Until her muscles ached. Until her stomach heaved. She cried until someone knocked on the door, the sound so soft she almost didn’t hear it.

“I’ll be out in a minute,” she said a microsecond before she realized it could be someone with news of Auri.

She grabbed the towel they’d loaned her, wrapped it loosely around her body, then went to the door. Levi stood on the other side.

“Auri?”

He shook his head. “She’s still asleep. You’ve been in here a while. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Of course,” she said between hiccups. She averted her face, suddenly self-conscious. She was a sheriff. She needed to start acting like one. “I’m almost done if you want the shower. You can use my emergency kit, though I don’t have any clothes that will fit you.”

He pushed his way in and closed the door behind them. “I’ll wait in here.”

“Oh. Okay. I’m almost finished.” She stepped back into the shower and closed the curtain, realizing she hadn’t even shampooed her hair yet. She held her breath while she lathered and rinsed to keep another sob from escaping, only allowing small gasps of air to enter her burning lungs.

He opened the curtain and, without hesitation, pulled her into his arms soaking wet. She didn’t feel too bad about having a total meltdown in his arms. He cried, too. He held her tight enough for her to melt into him. And so she did.