A Bad Day for Sunshine (Sunshine Vicram #1) - Darynda Jones Page 0,113
to see if they could borrow a safe house, although the St. Aubins might just want to take her somewhere safe. “Who’s up first?”
“Your call,” her chief deputy said through a yawn. “Not sure I could keep my eyes open, but I can take point first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Thanks, Quincy. I’ll stay tonight and work on getting her moved somewhere safe. You get some rest.”
“You got it.”
He started to walk off when she added, “You know who would be great right about now?”
He turned back. “Who?”
“Lieutenant Britton. We could really use him, don’t you think?”
Quincy frowned at her and said, “Who?” before doing an about-face and walking away.
Expecting nothing less, she gave his back a sassy thumbs-up, swearing to get to the bottom of that fiasco. As soon as she had time to breathe, that is.
After grabbing a cup of coffee, she sat across from the state trooper who’d joined her on the night watch. There were only a couple of hours before dawn when help was due to arrive. She just hoped she could stay awake that long.
Of course, the fact that a tall, ebony-skinned hottie with an authentic U.S. Marshal’s badge sat down next to her would definitely help. He handed her a sandwich, then stretched out his legs, clasped his hands behind his head, and closed his eyes.
“Come here often?” she asked him as she took a bite of the turkey club.
“Every chance I get.”
She moaned, having had no clue how hungry she’d been. “I don’t think you understand what carbs do to my ass.”
“Nothing I wouldn’t like to do to it, I assure you.”
A sharp tingle jolted through her, and she had to stop and count the days since her last visit from Shark Week, because what in the actual fuck? Was she ovulating? She was currently in the throes of drooling over not one, not two, but three men. It was very unlike her.
It had to be Levi’s fault. Every time he looked at her, every time he got near, she felt like her girly bits had started their own reality TV show called Hormones Gone Wild.
“Do you mind?” the trooper said, pointing toward the vending area.
“Not at all. We’ll hold down the fort.”
“Thanks. Be back in ten.”
Sun took another bite, then balanced her coffee cup with her sandwich and massaged her neck with her free hand.
“I can do that for you,” Deleon said, though how he knew what she was doing mystified her. He had yet to open his eyes.
“Have at it.”
A calculating grin slid across his face. “Not here.”
She lifted a brow in question. As though he could sense her inquiry, he gestured toward an empty room.
She scoffed, shook her head, then took a page out of his playbook. She leaned her head against the wall behind them and closed her eyes.
But all she could see was that man. That infuriatingly exquisite man she’d loved for as long as she could remember. The way he carried Sybil through the snow. The way she’d clung to him.
And he’d let her. Cradled her. Whispered words of encouragement into her ear every few yards.
The clang of metal crashing onto the floor startled her out of her thoughts. “What was that?”
When she didn’t receive an answer, she turned to Deleon, but he was gone.
“Marshal?” she called into the empty hall. “Hello?”
Another sound whirled her around. It came from one of the empty rooms. She put her sandwich and coffee on the chair Deleon had vacated and walked toward the noise, placing one foot carefully in front of the other. The lights flickered, enveloping her in absolute darkness for a few seconds at a time.
Not creepy at all.
She called out. “Are you okay in there?”
When she still didn’t get an answer, she drew her duty weapon and held it down and to the side with both hands.
“Marshal? If that’s you, respond if you can.”
Could the kidnapper have come after Sybil? A hundred scenarios flashed in her mind. None of them good.
OD’ing on adrenaline, she eased closer and closer to the door. “This is Sheriff Sunshine Vicram. I have my weapon drawn. I am giving you one final warning to identify yourself.”
She heard rustling and the sound of paper ripping when she inched the door open, only to find Levi Ravinder sitting on the hospital bed, shirtless with his shoulders hunched, trying to wrap his ribs with a blood-soaked bandage.
“Levi?” She holstered her weapon and hurried over to him. “What happened?”