A Good Day for Chardonnay (Sunshine Vicram #2) - Darynda Jones Page 0,83
she needed to know Cruz was okay. And, more importantly, she needed to apologize to him.
After waiting another half hour, she could hear her grandpa snoring and sprang into action. She hopped out of her window—or rather tumbled out of it—and eased her bike out of the drive.
Two cars passed her and her heart got stuck in her throat both times, praying her mom was still at work. Thankfully, both were false alarms.
Cruz’s house was dark when she rode up, but his dad’s truck was in the dirt driveway. Her heart sank. Had he come back early from his trip because Cruz had gotten into trouble?
She turned off her headlamp as she passed his dad’s window and tripped twice as a result while sneaking up to Cruz’s. She knocked lightly, but nothing happened, so she knocked again.
“You’re going to kill yourself one of these days.”
The high-pitched screech that erupted out of her throat would be talked about for generations to come. The night a velociraptor came to town and woke up the entire population of Del Sol. Some people confused it with the tornado sirens. Others, a newborn sperm whale.
Turning to the godlike creature stepping down from the truck, she clutched her chest and gasped. “You scared me.”
“I never would’ve guessed.”
“Is your dad back?”
He closed the door and dropped his gaze. “Not yet.” After stuffing the keys into his pocket, he walked up to her. “What are you doing here?”
“You weren’t answering your texts. I had to check on you.”
Even in the darkness, Cruz’s eyes shimmered when he smiled. “It was my turn,” he said, leading her to a bench on the front porch.
They sat, the only light radiating from a streetlamp a couple dozen feet away. “For what?”
“I was going to come check on you.”
“Oh, well, my grandparents went to bed early.”
He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Your mom’s going to kill you. Then she’ll kill your grandparents when she finds out how often you sneak out.”
“Oh, they’re already on her hit list. They keep setting her up on blind dates. I had to show you this.” She scrolled through her phone until she came to the picture of the necklace.
He took it to get a closer look. “Is this from Mrs. Fairborn’s house?”
“Yes. It’s like the Hope Diamond of the missing persons cases. I read an interview with one of the victim’s family members. An uncle, I think. It’s like he didn’t even care that his niece was missing. He seemed more worried about this old necklace.”
She showed him the article with a picture of the necklace. “It’s apparently really valuable, but from my research, it’s only worth a few thousand dollars. Nothing that would trump his niece’s safety.”
“Where was it?”
“Hanging from a hook by the door. I grabbed a shot on the way out.” She scooted closer. “This proves it, Cruz. Mrs. Fairborn is a serial killer.”
“Holy shit.” He looked at the picture and compared the two before handing her phone back. “You have to show that to your mom.”
She raised her hand to chew on a nail. “I can’t,” she said from behind it. “What if Mrs. Fairborn goes to prison because of me?”
He reached over and pulled a fallen leaf out of her hair. Evidence of the tumble from her window. “If she goes to prison, it’ll be because she most likely killed lots of people, but I get your point.”
She sat mesmerized by the way his lashes cast a soft shadow on his cheeks for a few seconds, then looked past him at the truck. “Is everything okay?”
“What do you mean?”
She lowered her head and said softly, “I saw you. Deputy Rojas took our phones, but you pulled out another in the holding cell.” Her gaze drifted back to his. “Were you texting Deputy Rojas pretending to be your father? Was that his phone?”
He pulled away from her. Just barely. Just enough for her to notice, and she only did that because a light breeze rushed over a part of her arm he’d been protecting.
“He doesn’t actually know, yet, does he?” she asked, the realization startling. Why did he not only have his father’s truck, but his phone as well?
“I’ll tell him when he gets home.”
“Tomorrow morning?”
When he offered her a barely perceptible nod, she decided to drop it. He was lying. She could tell.
“You’d tell me if something were wrong, right?”
A sad smile spread across a face so handsome it stole her breath. “Right.”