A Good Day for Chardonnay (Sunshine Vicram #2) - Darynda Jones Page 0,148
of going into shock. Or crying. It could go either way. “You good with this, Salazar?”
She swallowed hard. “I am, boss. I’m—I’m honored. Thank you.”
“Thank you,” she said. “The way you handled the situation with Mrs. Fairborn? You took charge and saved those kids’ lives. I’ve never been more impressed with an officer than I was with you. Nor more grateful.”
Her chin trembled, and she said again, “Thank you, boss.”
Sun nodded and drew in a deep breath as they pulled up to Levi’s front door. Showtime indeed.
Surrounded by her troops, she steeled her nerves and knocked on the thick wooden door.
Levi opened it armed with a dish towel and a faint yet dead-sexy smile. Her chest tightened as his gaze slid past her. It landed on the deputies in accompaniment and the smile faded.
“Levant Ravinder?” she said, only a slight wobble in her voice.
He pressed his mouth together and dropped his gaze to the towel.
“You are under arrest for the murder of Kubrick Farwell Ravinder.”
He dried his hands, then tossed the towel on a side table and let her lead them behind his back as she read him his rights, the width of his shoulders making the cuffs even more uncomfortable.
“Do you understand these rights as I have said them to you?”
He raised his chin a visible notch and kept his gaze locked straight ahead, refusing to look at her.
Clay Ravinder, a stocky man with mousy brown hair and the kind of scruff that was more hillbilly than sexy, moseyed out like he owned the place. The place that Levi had built with his own two hands. Where Clay lived free of charge because they shared the same last name.
“Knew that would catch up to you, boy,” he said to Levi, the level of gloating sickening to Sun. Not that she would expect any less. He picked up the dish towel Levi had discarded and pretended to dry his hands with it.
Sun could see Clay’s mind working. Whatever he’d planned to do to take Levi out would have to wait, but clearly he didn’t mind. He saw this as an opportunity to seize control of the distillery, Sun had no doubt.
Hailey rushed onto the porch as they led Levi away. She glared at Sun, her face twisting in anger. “You,” she said, and for a moment Sun didn’t know if she was acting or not. “He saved your life and this is how you repay him?”
She charged forward, her nails protracted like a cat’s claws. Quincy grabbed her and held her back, but she fought him like a rabid banshee.
Sun cast a worried glance to him. He was supposed to fill her in.
He bit back a curse. “If you don’t calm down, ma’am, I will arrest you.”
“You just try it.” She twisted and turned until Quincy had no choice but to drag her to his cruiser kicking and screaming. He and the officers loaded them both into the back of his SUV and watched as Clay closed the front door to the Ravinder estate softly behind them.
Hailey continued to scream profanities. Levi stared straight ahead, reminding Sun of the calm before the storm.
“How’d we do?” Quince asked her when she walked up to him.
“That woman missed her calling.”
He grinned. “She’s a firecracker.”
Sun laughed, hiding her face in case Clay was watching.
“And dare I say,” Quincy said, daring, “that the man sitting in the back of my cruiser is a tad miffed.”
“You think?”
“Maybe we should’ve, I don’t know, filled him in on the plan?”
“He would never have gone along with it. He would’ve wanted to deal with Clay on his own. No telling how that would’ve ended up. Lest you forget, I’m trying to keep the man alive and out of prison. And. Not or.”
“That’s not going to be easy. He’s even more stubborn than you are.”
Ignoring his statement, Sun asked, “What about Jimmy?”
“He’s with Auri and your parents. They’re meeting us at the cabin later.”
“Good. I just need him safe.”
“Yeah, about that, are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
Sun pressed her mouth to one side in a noncommittal shrug as she looked at the hard lines on the face of the man she loved more than a good bottle of chardonnay. And that was saying a lot. “Ask me tomorrow when he’s had time to cool off.”
“Sunbeam,” he said, sucking air in through his teeth, “I don’t think there’s enough ice in the world that would have him cooled off by tomorrow, but you keep believing that.” He climbed