A Bad Day for Sunshine--A Novel Page 25

  She frowned at him. “It does.”

  “This morning?”

  She crossed her arms. “I was getting to that.”

  “Mm-hmm.”

  “What happened this morning?” Auri asked, her voice hurried. “Besides finding Jimmy. I’m so glad, Mom.”

  “Yeah, well, that was all Levi.”

  “Man’s a machine,” Quincy said.

  Sun hid the pleased smile from him, then she looked at Elaine. “Mom, can you come in here?”

  “Of course.” Elaine put down the knife, picked up the sandwiches, and joined them, but Sun could tell she was a little nervous.

  “During the SAR mission, I found a crumbling shed near Estrella Pond. I didn’t think much of it, but it did grab my attention. I went to check it out and … I remembered.” She drew her bottom lip in through her teeth. “That’s where I was held.”

  The surprised looks on her parents’ faces left little to the imagination.

  “I remembered the smell most of all. But also the tiny windows. And the mattress. And the spiders.”

  “Spiders?” Auri asked, horrified. “There were spiders?”

  “Yes, but I barely remember. You have to think of what I do remember as more like a snapshot than an actual event. I’m still missing so much, but I know I was held in that shed and that’s where we found a body.”

  “I heard that,” Elaine said. “At the search site.”

  “Do they know who it is?” Auri asked Sun.

  “They do. It was Kubrick Ravinder.”

  “Brick?” Cyrus said. “That snake?”

  “The one and only. He’s been up there a while. I’ll know more in a few days, but he could’ve been up there this whole time. No one’s seen him in over a decade.”

  “Oh, good heavens,” Elaine said. “He could’ve been the one who took you.”

  “Yes. I just wanted you to be aware.”

  Auri bit her bottom lip, indicating something weighing her down. “Can I ask one more thing?”

  “Auri, yes. Now and always.”

  “Okay, for now, can I ask why you faked a marriage?”

  It was a question she’d asked herself occasionally. Was it worth it? Did it work? Did any of it matter in the long run? But then she would look at her beautiful daughter and the answers to those questions were always yes.

  “Did you know it was fake?” she asked her. “Before the broadcast?”

  “Yes. I’m sorry.”

  All those years, all those questions swimming around in her head, and Auri had no one to talk to about it. No one to turn to. Sun imagined the shooting pain that pierced her heart was similar to what a heart attack would feel like.

  “Oh, my god, Auri. I’m the one who’s sorry. I was going to tell you, but the time just never seemed right. And then when you got depressed, it really didn’t seem right.”

  “I understand, Mom. I really do. I’m just not sure why you did it in the first place.”

  Cyrus agreed. “You have to understand. We were scared to death. We still didn’t know who took your mom. We didn’t know if he would come back, and we didn’t want him knowing you were his.”

  “Because in our eyes, you weren’t,” Elaine said. “You were 100 percent ours. End of story.”

  A soft hue blossomed over her daughter’s face.

  “I feel like you were my reward,” Sun continued. “My prize for making it through the whole ordeal. I have no idea what I went through, but I do know there were chains and a traumatic brain injury. I deserved you, damn it.”

  Auri perked up at that, and Sun couldn’t believe that after all this time, the truth was coming out. And all because of a bunch of bullies whom she had every intention of arresting for obstruction of justice. As far as she was concerned, they’d released details from an ongoing investigation.

  “And the monument in his honor?” Auri asked.

  “Twofold.” Her dad held up two fingers, just in case no one in the room knew what twofold meant. “First, we wanted to make sure he saw it, whoever he was, and believed it was real. We needed him to think that you were the daughter of someone other than him. Anyone other than him. And second, next time you’re there, look closer at the circles.”

  “Closer?” she asked as did Sun herself.

  The circles? What was up with the circles?

  “Okay, but how did you keep it a secret?”

  “The memorial or the fake marriage?” her dad asked.

  “Well, both, I guess.”

  “Family,” Elaine said. “There are several core members of this town who are like family. In fact, the fake marriage and the memorial were actually their ideas. To throw the abductor off our scent, so to speak.”

  The delicate arches of Auri’s brows knitted together. “So, most people in town think you really married a man named Samson Vicram and that he died in Afghanistan?”

  Sun nodded, almost ashamed. But they’d done it for a good cause. A beautiful cause named Aurora Dawn Vicram. She wouldn’t change a thing if she could.

  Elaine remembered she’d made sandwiches and handed Auri one. “Auri, I am so, so sorry. I don’t know what you overheard, but it had nothing to do with you.”

  “It wasn’t your fault, Grandma. I was the one eavesdropping, though I don’t think I meant to.”

  Unplacated, Elaine looked at Sun. “She could have died because of us. We just keep messing up.”

  “Are you crazy? You guys stuck with me when I wanted to keep her. You didn’t even question my decision when most parents would’ve tried to lock me up and throw away the key.” Sun stood and hugged first Elaine, then Cyrus, and then she stole a sandwich.

  “So, this is it,” Quincy said as he took a bite of a ham and cheese. “No more secrets. I like it. I have questions. So many, many questions.”

  “If you even think of asking my mom about her showgirl days…”

  “Wait, why is that off-limits? No secrets means no secrets. Did you know the Rat Pack?”

  Cyrus choked on his sandwich.

  “Good heavens, I’m not that old, Quincy Cooper.”

  His shoulders sagged in disappointment.

  Auri was studying her sandwich when Sun asked, “Anything else you want to know?”

  “No. I mean, maybe. It’s just, if we’re going for no more secrets, you might want to know one other thing.”

  Sun put down her sandwich. “Okay.” There was simply no telling what would come out of her daughter’s mouth, and from her expression, it looked serious.

  “I did plan to take my life that day.”

  Sun forced herself to remain stock-still, to show no reaction. As a law enforcement officer, she was an expert, but Auri’s revelation pushed her ability to its limit. She had her daughter talking for the first time. She didn’t want to blow it now.

  Auri tucked her chin and said softly, “I was going to jump off the cliffs at the lake.”

  Elaine pressed a delicate hand over her heart, but Sun forced herself to suppress her reaction.

  “I’d climbed up there and was standing at the very edge, working up the nerve to jump, when a man talked to me.”

  Sun struggled to breathe, but only on the inside. Her outside was made of steel. “Who?”

  Auri chewed her lower lip. “He talked to me like we’d known each other forever. He called me Red. He asked me how the water looked and if I thought it was going to rain and was I looking forward to the next school year.”

  “Auri—”

  “Mom, he knew.” She looked at Sun with pleading eyes. “He knew what I was going to do. I don’t know how, but he did.”

  Sun’s cool façade crumbled. She sat with her mouth hanging open before asking, “What did he say?”

  “He told me he’d thought about it once, too, but then he realized that no matter how messed up his life was, there was always someone with a more messed-up life than his.”

  Sun held her breath as her daughter spoke.

  “He was with a boy,” she continu
ed. “His nephew. He walked right up to me and took my hand because he said I was making him nervous and that if I jumped I could die. I told him that was the point, but he told me to quit being stupid. Nobody wanted to die in August. It was too hot for a funeral.”

  Then it hit her. “Auri, was it Jimmy?”

  She nodded. “And Levi. He saved my life, Mom. He saw me up there, and he ran up the mountain to stop me. He just knew. And you always talk bad about him and his family, but I know you’re completely in love with him. I can see why. He’s so handsome and kind. He looks after Jimmy when he doesn’t even have to. And I know his family is bad, but he saved my life, and I love him. I love him and I love Jimmy.”

  Sun put a hand over her mouth as fresh tears cascaded over her lashes. Levi Ravinder. Of all the things she’d expected to learn that day, the fact that Levi Ravinder had saved her daughter’s life was not one of them.

  She swallowed and thought back to all his uncles and cousins and cousin’s cousins. To his abusive father and his murdered mother. He’d been through so much.

  “Thank you for telling me that, bug bite.” She hugged Auri again amid protests of a squished sandwich.

  “Mom,” Auri said into Sun’s shoulder, “can you check on Cruz? I think he may have done something silly. Like defend my honor.”

  Sun sat back. “I gotta tell ya, kid, I like him.”

  Auri blushed again and went back to her sandwich, and Sun had never felt so blessed in all her life.

  “You know, you don’t have to go to school tomorrow. You don’t have to go back to that school ever again.”

  The look Auri gave her was one of absolute resolve. “Mom, what would you do? Because you wouldn’t run away. So, what would you do?”

  Sun tilted her head. “I’d show them that while they may be able to put a hairline crack in my heart, they could never, ever break me.”

  Auri smiled. “I guess I’m more like you than you’d thought.”

  “Oh no, I had a strong inkling.”

  Auri giggled, the sound like champagne bubbles bursting in the air.

  19

  Deputy Salazar responded to a report of a woman stopping

  at mailboxes and going through residents’ mail.

  Upon further investigation, it was the mail carrier.

  —DEL SOL POLICE BLOTTER

  Sun dropped Quincy off at work with the promise of meeting him at the St. Aubin home later, but not before she gave him a little hell.

  “Really?” she asked as they were leaving the house. “You let them interview you?”

  He flushed. “You know how reporters are. They tricked me.”

  “They’re high school students.”

  “They’re sharks in a town full of minnows.” After a minute, he said, “I am so sorry, Sunny.”

  She wrapped an arm around his waist and squeezed. “I know. What line did these sharks feed you?”

  “That it was for a ‘Getting to Know Our Community Leaders’ post for their news program.”

  “And you fell for that?”

  “Apparently.”

  She let him hug her, then left him on the street and made him walk half a block in the snow. Served him right. Sun had almost fainted when she’d seen him in the video.

  With him taken care of, she had a mission, and after making some calls, she found herself at the Ravinder home in the early afternoon. She didn’t know what to expect. If there would be family with them or if word had yet to get out about their uncle Brick’s death.

  In a surprise twist, Sun found out Hailey had come home to gather some things for her son. Jimmy had received a clean bill of health. They’d feared frostbite, but somehow the kid managed to keep all his fingers and toes, a fact Sun found astonishing. But they were keeping him overnight for observation.

  She knocked on the door to the main house.

  Hailey opened it and almost growled at her. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “I came to see your brother. Is he here?”

  She looked around and then smiled at Sun. They kept their distance while talking softly, but Hailey broke the rules and said, “Thank you so much for everything you did, Sunshine.”

  “Sweetheart, Levi found him. He’s amazing.”

  “I know. He’s asleep, but you can go up.”

  Sun took a step back. “Oh no, I couldn’t.”

  Hailey pressed their luck further by grabbing her arm. “Don’t chicken out on me now.”

  “Hailey, if someone sees you being nice to me, it could get back to your uncle Clay.”

  “I know.”

  “Is Jimmy okay?”

  “Yes, thank God. Now go talk to my brother … bitch. But he’ll never tell you a thing.”

  Sun realized someone must have walked up. She turned to see another of the Ravinder uncles, the one they were investigating, slink onto the porch. Clay stood behind her, looking her up and down.

  Like most of the Ravinder clan, Clay looked like a six-foot man in a five-foot-six-inch body. They had a scrunched-up look to them with dishwater blond hair, thin mouths, and patchy stubble.

  Sun knew Levi had a different father from his sister, but she was beginning to wonder if Hailey was a true Ravinder as well. Either the scrunched Ravinder look skipped the women in the family, or she was just as illegitimate as Levi. Neither of them had that je ne sais white supremacy that the rest of the clan enjoyed.

  “You’d better git if you’re going before my uncle kicks your skinny ass off this land,” Hailey said.

  “Thank you.” Sun walked past her and up the stairs.

  “First door on your right.”

  “Unless you want a real man,” Clay said, smacking his lips as he checked her out. “Then it’s downstairs. Second door on the left.”

  She opened the first door on the right without even knocking. Levi could just get mad, but she was not about to endure Clay Ravinder’s ogles any longer than she had to.

  With the curtains drawn and all the lights out, the room was completely dark. Of course it was dark. He’d been up for two days straight. He needed a nap.

  She took her phone and turned on the flashlight, but made sure to angle the beam downward. Poor guy didn’t need to be blinded on top of everything else.

  “Levi?” she whispered, tiptoeing into the room. She didn’t want to wake him, but if he just happened to be awake, she wanted to thank him.

  Right? Wasn’t that what she wanted?

  To be honest, she wasn’t sure how she felt about him saving her daughter’s life and not telling her. The state of her daughter’s well-being hung in the balance and he’d kept it to himself?

  She heard soft breathing coming from deep inside the cavernous room and followed the sound. The whole area smelled like soap and sandalwood. He’d probably taken a steaming-hot shower to warm up after his ordeal, eaten, then gone straight to bed.

  His bed. In his room. And she was in it. The closer she got, the faster her heart beat. He’d saved her daughter’s life, and she’d treated him like a leper?

  Then again, she didn’t treat him any differently from how he’d treated her all these years. In fact, he was much worse. Like he’d had a vendetta. Like she’d wronged him in some way.

  She thought back. Could he be angry with her about Auri? Maybe he’d thought she was somehow responsible for her daughter’s depression.

  By the time she got to the bed, her heart was beating so fast she feared she was having another a panic attack. Levi was lying on a massive oak bed, a thick blanket covering his lower half. Nothing, absolutely nothing, covering his torso or the various appendages associated with his torso.

  She focused the beam on the ground. The light radiating outside the stream helped her see just enough get closer to the bed without tripping on something, like the boots and pair of jeans that littered the ground. She stepped over them and took in the glorious image before her.

  Except for the soft rise and fall of his lean stomach, he was a bronze statue. One her
fingers ached to touch. How could they not?

  A capable hand with long fingers rested on his side. A sinuous arm led up to powerful shoulders, a wide chest, a strong neck, a square jaw, and open eyes.

  She started and jumped back. “What are you doing? Why are you awake?”

  “Because I have an intruder.” His voice sounded thick and sleepy, and guilt washed over her.

  “You most certainly do not. Your sister sent me up.”

  “She has the strangest sense of humor.” He had an arm lying across his forehead. He lowered it to cover his eyes and said, “Get in bed with me.”

  “What? No. I just … I wanted to thank you.”

  “For what?”

  She stepped closer, feeling a bit like a fair maiden stepping closer to a sleeping dragon. “For what you did seven years ago.”

  “And what did I do seven years ago that would ingratiate the impenetrable Sunshine Vicram?”

  “You saved my daughter’s life.” Despite all efforts to the contrary, her voice cracked with emotion.

  He raised his arm and looked at her from beneath thick lashes. “She ratted me out?”

  “Did you tell her not to?” she asked.

  “Why would I do that?”

  Frustrated, she sat on the edge of the bed. Even the thought of Auri contemplating suicide liquefied her legs. The knowledge that she was in so much pain, that she was in such a dark place, stole her breath away. “Did you know what she was planning?”

  After a loud sigh, he turned onto his side to face her, then crooked an arm to use as a pillow. “Of course I did.”

  She bowed her head in thought. “You should have told me.”

  “Like you tell me anything.”

  “What?” She studied his expression but couldn’t tell if he was serious. “What would I tell you?” Now, she could. Yep, he was definitely serious. In fact, the term deadly serious came to mind.

  He’d stilled, and his caramel irises glistened as an emotion startlingly similar to rage seemed to take over. But when he spoke, his voice was dangerously calm. “Are you fucking with me right now?”

  She twisted around to better face him. “Are you fucking with me?”

  He continued to stare as though weighing his options.