A Good Day for Chardonnay (Sunshine Vicram #2) - Darynda Jones Page 0,105
swallowed hard and nodded. “I can try. And then you’ll tell me exactly what happened on that cliff when you were a kid? How Mr. Ravinder helped you?”
“I can try.”
A resigned smile spread across his face. “But first we have a necklace to steal.”
“Think this’ll work?” she asked, turning toward the woman’s house.
“I think you can do anything you set your mind to.”
She turned a surprised expression on him. “You have a lot of faith in someone whose only goals in life are to befriend forest animals and create the perfect mocha latte.”
They walked arm in arm to Mrs. Fairborn’s front door, Auri giving part of her weight to Cruz. Her ankle was still a little sore. She knocked, then stepped back. As nervous as she was, this beat breaking and entering any day of the week.
“Maybe she’s already in bed.” She knocked softly again, then waited.
“She has had a busy few days,” Cruz said. “What with her trying to stab a guy to death, running Mr. Ravinder over in her nonexistent truck, and then having to fess up to it all.”
“It must’ve worn her out,” Auri agreed with a giggle.
He looked down at her. “Try again tomorrow?”
“Yes, only we can go straight after school so I don’t have to sneak out. I think I’m giving it up.” They started back down the steps. “Hanging up my sneakers, so to speak. Get it?” she asked with a snort. “Sneakers?”
Cruz chuckled just as a crash sounded from inside Mrs. Fairborn’s house. They looked at each other, then went back to the door. “Was that glass?” he asked.
Auri knocked and tried the doorknob. “Locked.”
They peeked through the window but couldn’t see much for the curtains.
“Cruz, she could’ve fallen.”
“I agree. We need to check on her. Let’s go around.”
“Okay.”
They hurried through the side gate and into her backyard. A backyard Auri was becoming very familiar with.
“It’s unlocked,” Cruz said, opening the back door and entering the mudroom.
The sound of someone tearing through the house, items falling and more glass shattering hit them. Cruz stopped her with an arm across her torso.
They heard a male voice, angry and volatile. “Where is it?”
Then the sound that broke Auri. Mrs. Fairborn crying. “I don’t know. It was there.”
“You are a lying bitch,” he said.
Auri stood frozen, wanting to run to her but needing to call for help at the same time.
Cruz put his mouth to her ear, and whispered, “Run. Call the police.”
“Wait, what are you going to do?”
“I’m just going to make sure he doesn’t hurt her until the cops get here.”
She nodded, but another thud sounded and Auri’s feet moved before her brain told them to. Cruz’s did, too. They rushed into her kitchen where Mrs. Fairborn sat tied to a chair. A man three times her size stood over her.
“Stop!” Auri shouted.
The man turned, his face the picture of rage.
Auri blinked. “You’re …Are you Billy? Billy Press?”
“Aurora?” he asked, his face twisted in confusion.
“What are you doing?” Before he could answer, she rushed forward, pushed him out of the way, and knelt in front of Mrs. Fairborn. “Are you okay?” she asked, searching for a way to untie her.
The voice that traveled to her was tightly controlled, each word enunciated to precise calculations. “Where’s the necklace?”
She turned and gaped up at him. “The necklace?” She started to point to the downstairs guest room, but something told her if she did, if she told him where to find the necklace, none of them would make it out of Mrs. Fairborn’s house alive.
His fingers curled into two beefy fists in her periphery as he stared down at her, his face twisting in barely controlled rage.
“I—I gave it to my mother. I told you I would. She’s the sheriff,” she added, glancing at Cruz.
He stood a few feet away, his gaze locked onto an oblivious Billy.
She was about to signal for him to run when she found herself airborne. She crashed into Mrs. Fairborn’s glass hutch just as Cruz rushed the man. He delivered a powerful right hook. Then a left.
Billy didn’t know what hit him. He stumbled back, stunned.
Cruz was an amazing fighter from what she’d been told, but Billy was twice his size. And angry. Cruz still knocked him to the ground. The guy didn’t stand a chance until she saw him reach across the floor, his meaty fingers clawing for something.
Auri tried to get to her feet to help Cruz, but she couldn’t move. Her feet wouldn’t listen. Her arms lay motionless as