A Bad Day for Sunshine (Sunshine Vicram #1)(118)

“Why, Sheriff? You gonna be my friend?”

“If you’ll let me.”

“Yeah, well, you can cut that psychobabble shit right now. How did you know?” He kept moving with her, turning her as he scanned the distance as though he knew Zee was out there trying to get a shot. “How’d you figure it out?”

“The divot,” she said. “The one where your ear meets your temple.”

When Sun had originally seen the slit in Price’s temple, she’d thought it was part of the injury he’d sustained chasing dogs in the middle of the night. Part of the scrapes and bruises when, as he put it, the bushes attacked him. She was wrong.

“Sybil has one, too,” she said, her breath fogging on the air. “It took me a while to make the connection, but once I realized you were somehow related, it all fell into place. That kind of dimple is hereditary. And it’s pretty rare.”

He pulled her around again. “No shit?”

“Sybil doesn’t deserve this.”

“Where is she?” he asked, spinning her around as he scanned the trees again.

“Who?”

“Zee!” he yelled into the quiet night. “I know you’re out there, gorgeous. Let me see you or she dies.”

“Zee’s not here. We didn’t have time to wait for her.”

He hugged Sun to him, his mouth at her ear. “You know, Auri and I have a lot in common.”

“Yeah?”

“I was a surprise to my mother as well.”

“Really?”

“Only my mother threw me away. Of course, the minute my adoptive mother got little ole me, that bitch got pregnant and suddenly I didn’t matter anymore. They had their dream kid. I was an inconvenience. Do you know what they did to me?”

“Why don’t you tell me?”

“They took me to meet her when I was fifteen.” He laughed, the sound bitter in the quiet night air. “I stood on the doorstep to this . . . mansion and rang the doorbell while my parents sat in the car. And Marianna St. Aubin answered the door, her redheaded daughter nipping at her heels. I told her who I was.” He squeezed her tighter as the memories washed over him. “I begged her to take me in, but she said I had the wrong house. Told me to never come back and closed the door on my face while my parents laughed.”

Sun felt the sting of the blade a second before she felt a warm drop of blood slide down her neck. He was getting angrier by the second. She needed to change the subject. “The deputies at the station said you’ve been a great cop.”

He scoffed. “You giving me my job back?”

“I think you have a lot to offer the world.”

“Where are you, Zee?” he shouted, completely ignoring her.

She heard Zee’s voice in her ear. “Can you drop?”

Levi gave the barest shake of his head, but she nodded. If she could get a hand underneath the blade, she could drop to the ground and give Zee the shot.

Levi glared at her, but she ignored him. Closing her eyes, she offered up a prayer and counted off with her fingers out of range of his vision. But before she could drop to her knees, Price fell to his and took her with him, hugging her to his chest, his chin on her shoulder, his mouth at her ear.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, Sunshine on My Shoulders. No cheating.” His breaths came in shallow gasps as adrenaline coursed through him. “No cheating.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

He pulled her even closer, his grip like a vise around her ribs. “How about we both go, huh? I take you out, and then Zee takes me out, and everything is right with the world.”

“As long as Sybil is okay.”

He burst out laughing. “Oh, she’s dead, beautiful. Or she will be soon.”

Sun stiffened and glanced at the unconscious girl in the snow. “What do you mean?”

“OD. She kept fighting me. I got pissed off. I’ve been told I have anger issues.”

“What did you give her?”

“The usual, GHB. Still, I did want to gut her. Leave her in little pieces on Marianna’s porch, just like she left me.”

“You don’t know how hard that was for her.”

He was rocking her now, making peace with whatever demons possessed him, preparing to die. Question was, would he take her with him?

Zee came back on. “One inch to your left, in three . . .”

“I’m sorry it’s come to this, Price.”

“. . . two . . .”

He looked at her from over her shoulder, tears shimmering in his eyes, and whispered his real name. “Cory.”

“. . . one.”

She turned to him, tilted her head to the left, and put the tips of her gloved fingers on his jaw. “Cory.”

Blood exploded across her face, the execution of the order happening so fast she almost lost consciousness. His head shattered before she even heard the shot.

Levi dove for the knife before Cory’s muscles could tighten in reflex and cut her throat. Something she hadn’t even thought of. He held on to the blade until Cory’s muscles realized his brain was no longer in control.

It was barely a second. Maybe two. But it seemed like an eternity until he went limp and fell to the side. Sun scrambled to get to Sybil. Zee and Quincy ran toward them as Sun and Levi checked her.