A Bad Day for Sunshine (Sunshine Vicram #1)(50)

“I mean, you had four, and now you’re down to the one?”

“Two, actually. Uncle Clay is here, as you know. And Uncle Wynn is in prison in Arizona.”

Right. Sun did know about that one.

“Uncle Wes died. Cancer.”

She did not know about that one.

“And Uncle Brick ran off to California. Nobody’s heard from him in years.”

“Really?” she asked, surprised. She also had no idea why they’d called him Brick.

Hailey nodded, and if she hadn’t bitten her cheek and looked away, Sun may have believed her. As it stood, she knew more about that uncle than she was letting on.

But she also knew Hailey was a good person. Motherhood had changed her. Jimmy was all she cared about, and she was clearly willing to go to great lengths to keep him safe.

“Hailey, don’t you think it’s strange that all of this is happening my first day on the job? Do you think your uncle knows we’re onto him? Do you think he had anything to do with any of the disappearances? Whoever took the St. Aubin girl knew how to get past their security system. Knew how to sneak her out without anyone hearing. Had a solid plan and executed it with laser-like precision.”

“A solid plan? Laser-like precision?”

“Yes.”

She chuckled, the sound void of humor. “Yeah, my uncle had nothing to do with it. Trust me.”

“What about Redding?”

Her mouth thinned. “He’s definitely smart enough. And more than capable.”

Sun nodded and took Hailey’s hands into hers. “I have to get back. Please keep me updated.”

“You’ll do the same?”

Sun nodded. Before she left, she turned back to Hailey and asked, “How is he?”

“Oh, hell no.” The blonde crossed her arms over her chest, adamant. “I’m not doing that.”

“What?”

“If you want to know how my brother is, you’ll have to ask him yourself.”

Sun scoffed. “Like that’ll happen. Like he would answer me, anyway. That man hates my guts.”

That time, Hailey scoffed. “Right. That’s why he named the distillery after you.”

Sun gaped at her, then shook her head. “Dark River Shine?”

“Shine,” she said, heading for the front for a coffee. “He’s always called you Shine.”


Shine, as in Dark River. The thought boggled Sun’s already rattled little mind.

She checked in with the marshals, who were traipsing about her town in search of escaped fugitive Ramses Rojas. They had two possible sightings thus far, both promising, but they couldn’t zero in on a location or figure out who Rojas would be staying with.

With Auri taken care of for the evening, Sun set Anita on the task of communications with the mission coordinator, the person who organized the search party starting at 7:00 a.m., then she took Zee and headed to the trailhead to meet up with Quincy and Fields.

“So,” Sun said to Zee as they drove back through the mountain pass toward Ravinder land.

Zee’s hair had been pulled back into a tight bun, emphasizing her wide eyes and shapely cheekbones.

“We’ve known each other for a while, right?”

“Yes, ma’am,” she said, her tone wary.

“So, don’t take this the wrong way, and I apologize if this sounds sexist, but with your looks and your body, why did you become a sniper for the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office when you could have been a supermodel?”

Zee laughed out loud. “I could ask you the same thing, Blondie.”

“Please.”

“I don’t know. It was just something I’d always wanted to do.”

“Kill people from a safe distance?”

Another chuckle. “Keep people safe from a safe distance. I wanted to be the one they called in when all else failed, you know? I’m not sure you would have hired me had you known this, but when I started, I wanted to be a hero.”

Sun understood that all too well. She pulled down her visor when they turned into a low-hanging sun, only a couple of hours away from dipping under the horizon. “What happened?”

“What do you mean?”

“Everyone in law enforcement has their reasons for signing up. For many, it’s a desire for control. For power. For some, it’s a desire to solve a puzzle. To bring bad guys to justice.”

“And for you?” she asked.

Sun cracked a sly smile. “I wanted to keep people safe, too.”

“Okay, then what happened to you to make you want to keep people safe?”

“Hmmm, that would be a story for another day.”

They pulled in behind the Yellow Jacket, which was an ancient pickup the size of a remote-control car.

“Are we going up?” Zee asked, wondering if she should change into her hiking boots and parka.

“It doesn’t look promising.” She stepped out of the cruiser.

“Hey, sis,” Quincy said. He’d been leaning against the Tonka truck.

Zee waved, and Fields just stared.

“Did Levi see you?” Sun asked Quincy.

Fields shoved him. “Like he was a lighthouse on a clear night.”

Quincy raked a hand down his face. “That man is not normal. He spotted a deer mouse under a patch of leaves at ten yards. Then went on to tell us it was too small and what that meant for the area and how it was responding to its environment and the deforestation happening a few hundred miles to the north and how it was all tied together.”