A Good Day for Chardonnay (Sunshine Vicram #2) - Darynda Jones Page 0,94
Not that she’d ever done acid. Much.
She turned back to the trail. There was a time they could’ve gotten a vehicle up to the mine. It would’ve been rough, but it could’ve happened. Disuse and overgrowth put a stop to that, and while the mine had been boarded up for decades, kids still managed to find a way in. It rarely ended well.
Quincy and the gang were bringing ATVs, but the overgrowth would slow even those down, and Sun didn’t want to wait.
“I don’t care how much Elliot loves that mine, it’s dangerous. And now he has a seven-year-old with him.”
“He knows it like the back of his hand. He trains in there with Seabright.”
“But Adam doesn’t. And he’s only seven. The pit has a way of sneaking up on you.”
The pit was a massive hole deep in the mine and impossible to see until you were falling into it. It dropped thirty feet and led to another level. More than one kid had fallen into it over the years, despite it being boarded up. When a middle-school boy died after falling in a few years back, Sun’s parents started a petition and tried to have it filled in with cement, but the city council dismissed it, arguing it would be impossible to get a cement truck up to the mine.
Difficult, yes. But not impossible. And worth the added cost, in Sun’s opinion. She could hardly blame kids for their curiosity. She’d been one.
“By the way,” Levi said after they’d been walking about forty minutes.
She liked walking with him. And driving with him. And watching him drive. “Yes?”
“We were followed.”
She almost tripped but managed to keep her feet on solid ground. Staring straight ahead, she said, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wasn’t positive.”
“But you are now?”
He nodded.
“It has to be the Delmar family,” she said. “There have been men stationed in town for a few days now. I’m certain they work for them. But they’re still after Elliot? After all this time? They have to know Matthew Kent doesn’t have the money.”
He stayed silent for a long time, then said, “Revenge?”
A shiver raced up her spine. “Not on my watch. How do you know they’re still following us?”
“They’re keeping a watch with binoculars. Or a scope. The lens is reflecting in the trees off to the left.”
“I’m thirsty,” Sun said, turning toward him. She motioned for him to turn around.
He grinned down at her, his powerful frame like a mountain towering over her. When he didn’t move, she rolled her eyes dramatically and walked around him, playing her part and taking the opportunity he’d provided to scan the distant tree line. A single lens flare reflected the sun then disappeared.
She fished a bottle of water out of the backpack and used the cover to depress the push-to-talk button on her mic clip.
“Zee, you there?”
“I’m here, boss.”
“Your mom called. Your house is on fire. You need to go home immediately.”
“Ten-four, boss. Thanks.”
She reached down and turned the knob to change the channel from their standard to their tactical channel.
Zee came on almost immediately. “How many?”
“We don’t know.”
“We’re coming up on your six,” Quincy said.
“They left town early this morning,” Rojas said, turning off his ATV. “Something got their attention.”
“What time was this?” Sun asked.
“My guy at the front desk said they took off about three.”
She glanced at Levi. “Right after Elliot took Adam?”
“That can’t be a coincidence,” he said.
“Sorry about this, guys. Hope you wore comfortable shoes.” They would have to abandon the ATVs for the time being, but at least they’d almost caught up to her and Levi.
“Thank God I changed out of my heels,” Quincy said.
She laughed softly and offered Levi the water bottle. “Signal when you have them in your sights. We’ll distract them.”
Zee came back. “You got it, boss.”
Levi took a few shallow sips before eyeing her with a mixture of humor and interest. “I don’t have any explosives on me.”
After a pitying assessment, she tsked and said, “I thought all you Ravinder boys carried dynamite everywhere you went. How ever are we going to distract them now?”
The breathtaking grin he flashed her implied he had a few ideas.
She had to kickstart her heart to get it beating again. The things he could do to her with a single glance bordered on obscene. She looked around and sat on a fallen log, making the time-out sign with her hands. To an observer, it would look like she simply needed a break. Which she did. She hadn’t slept