A Bad Day for Sunshine (Sunshine Vicram #1)(48)

“Yeah, from what I’ve seen, if they spot you following them, you’ll need more than that thin disguise.”

“Thin?” He gestured to himself as they headed out. “There is nothing thin about my disguise.”

“Other than the fact that there is?”

“I’ll have you know I played the lead in Oklahoma!”

Sun laughed softly, wondering, as Fields probably did, what the hell that had to do with anything.

She waited three more minutes, told Anita she was going out, then headed out the side door as well. After making sure they were gone, she walked around the small detention center and down the alley, careful of the shaded areas where the snow was still high and packed hard enough to be hazardous.

Then again, even butter knives could be hazardous in the wrong hands. Like hers. She’d never been accused of being agile.

Her phone had dinged on the way back to town with a message from Daisy Duke. It simply said, 15. That was twenty minutes ago, so Sun hurried.

She opened the back door to the latest and greatest coffee shop Del Sol had to offer, Caffeine-Wah, and stepped into a dark storeroom. The smell of espresso almost dropped her. She hadn’t realized her levels had plummeted so low.

A small blonde came out from behind a stack of shelves overflowing with coffee of all makes and models. She glanced around, her eyes red and swollen, making sure no one was with Sun, then ran to her.

Sun wrapped her in her arms. “Sweetheart,” she said when Hailey Ravinder began sobbing. “Are you okay?”

“No.” She let another round of sobs quake through her, before saying, “My baby is gone.”

Sun sat her at arm’s length and smoothed back her hair. “Hailey, why didn’t you call me? Holy cow.”

Despite her emotional state, her expression went flat. “Sun, my big brother is the best tracker in the state. What else could you have done?”

She had a point.

Even so, there were about a thousand reasons she should have called her, but there was no sense in going into it now.

“And even if Jimmy knows that St. Aubin girl, he would never hurt her. I know every parent says that, but he’s a gentle giant. He is the sweetest kid on the planet, Sunshine.”

“But you’ve never seen them together?”

“No. Never. He walks to the lake a lot and hangs out, but nobody talks to him.” Sun could see the pain that realization caused in her. “Not that I know of.”

“Has he gone missing like this before?”

She lowered her head. “He gets lost in the moment sometimes. Wanders too far. But we’ve always found him. He’s never been out all night.”

One of the two proprietors, a.k.a. two of Sun’s best friends ever, stepped into the dark storeroom and spotted them. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one was looking, then hurried to the pair and threw his arms around them both.

“Is everything okay?” he asked into their hair. “What’s going on? Ricky and I have been worried sick.”

Sun and Auri had lived above Richard and Ricky’s garage—a.k.a. remodeled loft of luxury—in Santa Fe for several years. She’d even officiated their wedding, both men decked out in killer tuxes with their own special brand of flair.

But they weren’t just fashion savvy. They’d started the most successful coffee chain in the city. When they’d heard Sun was moving back to her hometown, they’d jumped at the idea of opening yet another coffee shop there. They loved the area, swearing artists were their people. They were certainly in the right place.

“Is Jimmy okay?” Richard asked Hailey, his spiked black hair a glorious mess.

Before she could answer, Ricky, an Asian god who knew eyeliner like nobody’s business, rushed into the storeroom, presumably between customers, and grabbed a hug from both women before hurrying back to the bar.

It was sad that these were the only two people in the entire town Sun could completely trust with her and Hailey’s secret. There were plenty of people she trusted, but not when it came to her former nemesis’s life. Or her son’s.

In a bizarre twist of fate, one that left Sun baffled to this day, she had been working with Hailey on an investigation for months, even before Sun won the election.

The hot mess of a woman had reached out to her while she was still in Santa Fe, and they had become very close in the months since, a fact that boggled Sun’s mind even more than it had Hailey’s. Funny what the common ground of motherhood, and protecting one’s own, could do for a relationship.

Sun would never forget the first time they met up in a dive halfway between Santa Fe and Del Sol. Hailey had walked in with her tail tucked between her legs, so to speak.

“I’m sorry. For everything we did to you, but mostly for what happened. For the . . . accident.”

Sun shook her head. “It was a long time ago. I hear you have a son.”

Hailey beamed at her. “I do. He’s gorgeous, Sunshine. Just like your daughter.”

The mention of Auri had surprised her at the time.

“I’ve seen her,” Hailey explained. “When she stays with your parents over summer breaks.” She leaned in. “What a beauty.”

And just like that, all was forgiven. As though the woman hadn’t been her worst nightmare for years. As though she hadn’t tried to kill her once and maim her twice. As though she hadn’t been part of the reason Sun left Del Sol in the first place.