A Bad Day for Sunshine (Sunshine Vicram #1) - Darynda Jones Page 0,28
half the time. We just drink wine and let Wanda rant. It’s entertaining. I’ll see what else, if anything, I can get out of Karen. Keep me updated.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
Sun and Quincy sat in the cruiser a few minutes, trying to digest everything they’d just learned. Especially the parts the women didn’t want them to learn.
“Wow,” Quincy said, as stunned speechless as his new boss. “Not only are the Dangerous Daughters real, but they know exactly who they are.”
Sun nodded in disbelief. “It’s like my whole world has been turned upside down.”
“Hey, do you think it’s them?”
“The Book Babes?” Sun frowned in doubt. “Surely not. They aren’t old enough, and my mother isn’t even from this area. She was a Vegas showgirl when my dad met her.”
“Oh, I am very aware.” His face softened in memory. “I’ve seen the pictures.”
“That’s so disturbing,” she said, lying through her teeth. Her mother was a hottie. Nothing wrong with that. “Maybe it’s a post. You know, a position passed down from one generation to the next.”
“Maybe.”
“Either way, it’ll have to wait.”
“Let me guess,” he said, guessing. “You want me to find out everything I can about Sybil St. Aubin’s parents.”
“Wow, you’re a good guesser.” She leaned over to start the cruiser when Anita Escobar, her blond administrative assistant, came through the radio.
“Boss,” she said, her voice hushed.
Sun pressed the button on the radio at her shoulder. “Go ahead.”
“Yeah, you need to get back here.”
“On the way. ETA seven minutes. What’s up?”
“There are marshals here. Two of them. They’re pretty much taking over your office.”
“Like hell they are,” Sun said, throwing the cruiser into reverse. “Buckle up, buttercup. It’s go time.”
She’d never gone to war with a U.S. Marshal, but there was a first time for everything.
7
Del Sol deputies responded to a call claiming that patrons
of the Pecos Street Grocers were being harassed by a man on a
drunken joyride with a motorized scooter from Walmart.
It should be noted that Del Sol does not have a Walmart.
—DEL SOL POLICE BLOTTER
Sadly, Auri’s hiatus from the glares was short-lived. Her third class of the day was a veritable cornucopia of narc haters. Yet there seemed to be more furtive scowls than blatant glares. A step in the right direction, perhaps?
She’d made a pit stop between classes at her locker. A janitor was cleaning the red spray paint off it, so she decided to keep her two new books with her. Cruz had looked on curiously, then, realizing what it said, he’d darkened. He dropped her off at her classroom and stalked away as though he’d made a horrible mistake in friending her.
She could hardly blame him.
After repeating the usual routine, handing the teacher her schedule, then sitting in an empty seat, Auri settled herself between a girl in full gang regalia, who could probably kill her with her pinkie, and a guy dressed much the same way, who would look on with delight as she did so. She decided to forgo eye contact and busied herself by taking out a notebook and a pen.
A knock sounded at the door a microsecond after the bell rang. Auri stiffened, praying the principal wasn’t after her again. The teacher, a young woman the width of a two-by-four, answered the door and spoke quietly, but Auri couldn’t see with whom.
The girl turned around to her and raised her chin. “Hey,” she said, her expression both amiable and curious. “What’s your name?”
“Auri.”
“Right. The narc.” She said it with a friendly giggle, and Auri couldn’t help but smile.
The kid behind her laughed, too.
“I’m Beatrice, but everyone calls me Bea. And that’s Raymond.” She gestured to the kid in back.
“And everyone calls me Raymond,” he said, leaning forward to take her hand.
They shook as a brunette from the next row leaned over and whispered to Bea.
“Really?” Bea said. She turned to Raymond. “They’re looking for that girl in fifth with the braids and the glasses.”
“No shit? What’d she do?”
Before Bea could answer, the teacher closed the door and walked to her desk.
“Welcome back, guys. Hope Santa was good to you.”
Some of her classmates nodded. Some shrugged. Most ignored.
“We have a new student today.”
Auri froze.
“This is Aurora,” she said, gesturing in her general direction. “I’d appreciate your best behavior.”
A wave of heat washed over her.
“Why?” someone asked. “She’ll figure out it’s all a lie soon enough.”
The class erupted. Well, most of the class. A couple of the students were still in glare mode, but oddly enough, when Bea turned to them, they suddenly had somewhere else