A Bad Day for Sunshine (Sunshine Vicram #1)(107)

When he refused to give her better access, refused to part those sculpted lips any farther, she took hold of his chin and gently lowered it. She inserted the swab and ran it along the inside of his cheek.

He never took his eyes off her, and she began to tremble, but why? Why in God’s name did Levi’s nearness make her tremble? Did he really affect her so powerfully?

He could, she supposed, if she were twelve. She didn’t want him to be the one. To be Auri’s father. Because that would mean the worst thing in the world. It would make him the worst kind of person in the world.

But he wasn’t. She’d seen his kindness again and again.

The thought that he could do something so savage made no sense. Yes, he was a Ravinder, but he was so different from the others.

A scream came from the lobby. “I did it!”

Sun looked out and saw Hailey at the front desk.

“Please, I need to speak to the sheriff. I did it.”

“Son of a bitch.” Levi raked a hand through his hair.

“What is she talking about?”

“Nothing. She’s crazy.”

When Sun motioned for Anita to let her back, Levi changed his mind. “Fine, I did it. I killed him.”

“What?”

“I killed him. Kubrick. That was all me.”

“Why? Did he abduct me? Were you partners?”

“Partners? In the abduction and rape of a seventeen-year-old girl?”

“I’m just trying to understand.”

“You’re going to think what you’re going to think. Nothing I say will change that.”

“Bullshit.”

“You’ve made up your mind, Vicram. And even if you haven’t, the fact that you need a test to prove I’m an honorable person pretty much leaves us out in the cold.”

“I did it!” Hailey said as she ran back to them.

“Hailey, what the hell?” he asked, his tone like a razor blade.

“Shut up. I killed Uncle Kubrick.”

Levi crossed his arms over the expanse of chest he carried around. “Okay, how did he die?”

“What?”

“How did you kill him?”

“With . . . I—I shot him. With a gun.”

He smirked at Sun, then asked Hailey, “What kind of gun?”

“I don’t know. I don’t remember. It was a rifle.”

Levi deadpanned her. “Will you arrest me already?”

“Why?” she asked him, wondering if he knew. “How’d he die?”

He stepped closer and bent down until their mouths almost met. “I stabbed him through his cold, cruel heart.”

Sun felt like he’d just stabbed her through the heart as well. She nodded to Quincy, who took him to processing.

“Wait,” Hailey said, trying to grab ahold of Levi’s arm as Quincy handcuffed him. “What just happened?”

Quincy escorted him to processing.

“You and your brother were playing a game. He won.”

“Please, Sunshine, let me confess. I was . . . he did it for me.”

“Don’t listen to her!” Levi shouted as Quincy escorted him away.

Sun waited for him to get out of earshot, then asked Hailey, “What do you mean?”

“I—I can’t explain.”

She sat at her desk. “I need more than that.”

Hailey took a seat across from her and closed her eyes.

Sun recognized the shame immediately. She knew it all too well from her time at Santa Fe PD.

“He—Uncle Brick hit Jimmy.”

Sun stood and took the seat next to her. By the look on her face, he’d done it more than once. “Hailey, I’m so sorry.”

“He’d been verbally abusive to him for years. I did everything I could to keep them apart. But I didn’t know he was hitting him. We just thought . . . he falls a lot, you know?”

Sun nodded and gave her time.

“Then Levi found out, and—” She filled her lungs, the breath shuddering through her. “A judge will look kindlier on someone like me killing him rather than my brother. The family needs him. If Levi goes to jail and Uncle Clay takes the reins of the business, Jimmy will have nothing when I’m gone. Clay will run it into the ground. Or just turn it over to his connections in the South.”

“Hailey, I can’t just—”

“Brick was a piece of shit, Sun.” A sob retched from her throat, and Sun took her hand. “In more ways than one.”

“I’m sure he was, but—”

“He broke his arm.” Another sob escaped her. She covered her face for a solid minute, struggling for control of her emotions. She swallowed hard, then continued, “That day. The day Levi went after him. Uncle Brick yanked Jimmy off the tractor so hard he broke his arm.” She covered her face again, overcome by guilt. From behind her hands, she said, “He was three.”

Sun’s vision blurred with a wetness that was stinging the backs of her eyes. Disabled kids were so vulnerable to bullying and abuse. She knew the statistics. The heartbreaking, mind-boggling statistics.

But what now? On the one hand, none of this had anything to do with Sun’s abduction. On the other, Levi had killed a man. For all the right reasons, sure, but unless it was self-defense . . .