A Bad Day for Sunshine (Sunshine Vicram #1) - Darynda Jones Page 0,46
to Auri at the New Year’s Eve party. She’d introduced herself. Struck up a conversation. Something even Auri had difficulty doing.
“I get it, though. It’s hard to be the new girl. She just moved here this summer. But it could’ve been me. I’m a bit much sometimes. I tend to scare people away.”
“Really?” Auri asked, pretending to be shocked.
“I know, right?” She laughed, and Auri loved that she could do that. Laugh at herself. Many people couldn’t. Where was the fun in that? “You know, she looks a little like you.”
Auri raised a brow. “You think?”
“I mean, she’s not quite as pretty but, you know, the hair.”
“Oh, right.” They did both have red hair.
“Except yours is richer. I’ve never seen hair quite that color.” She reached out and took a long strand, totally invading Auri’s space bubble. A bubble she was quite fond of. “It’s copper.”
Auri laughed. “It’s okay. You can say it. It’s orange.”
She joined her. “Kind of, but it’s also gorgeous.”
“Thank you,” Auri said, genuinely flattered. “So, do you know who Sybil’s friends were? Who she hung out with?”
“Wait a minute.” Chastity leaned closer, her brown eyes glossing over. “Are you helping your mom with the investigation? Because I could help, too. I’m great at talking to someone so much they give up and tell me everything they know. I’m considering a job in the FBI.”
“You’d be great,” Auri lied. “So, Sybil?”
Chastity bowed her head in thought. “I don’t know. I just don’t remember seeing her hang out with anyone. Isn’t that weird? I mean, everyone hangs out with someone.”
Not necessarily. A sadness tugged at Auri’s heart. Sybil was adorable. And very likable. Why would a girl who’d started at a school four months earlier have no friends?
The teacher called the class to the floor. That was when Auri noticed Lynelle Amaia and her goons dressed in gym clothes. Lynelle turned to her, held her fingers up in the shape of a gun, and pretended to pull the trigger.
Great. She’d have this to look forward to all day every day. Lynelle in both her first period and her last. Lynelle bookends. Just what she’d always wanted.
But Auri was once again struck with the fact that there had to be more to Lynelle’s animosity than just the raid. She would eventually have no choice but to confront her.
And her investigation was failing miserably. She had yet to uncover a single ounce of information that might help her mom find Sybil.
She needed to talk to the one man she could confide in. The one man she’d always gone to when she felt the world turning against her.
Oddly enough, it was a man she’d never met. A man she’d only seen pictures of and dreamed of and whose voice she longed to hear.
It was time she paid a visit to her father.
Before Sun and Quincy could leave to question the Ravinders about Jimmy, a task Sun was not looking forward to, an official-looking man in an official-looking jacket walked in the front door. An older man with graying brown hair, he had strong enough features to command a room with a single glance. Or perhaps it was his confidence. The way he stood. The expression he wore.
“And who do we have here?” Quincy asked as the guy spoke to Anita.
“He screams FBI,” Sun said.
“Because he’s wearing a parka with the letters FBI on the left side of the chest?”
“Yes. Also, he looks like FBI, don’t you think?”
Quincy gaped at her. “Are you checking him out?”
“What? No. But so is every other female in the room.”
“And women complain about men in the workplace.”
Damn it. He was right. But it was seriously impossible not to notice the guy. “He’s just so chiseled. Wait, he’s coming over.” Pretending to be busy, she picked up an empty box. No idea why.
“Of course he’s coming over. He probably needs to talk to you, what with you being the sheriff and all.”
Sun considered jumping behind the human refrigerator but thought better of it. She had to remain professional even in the face of such comeliness.
He walked straight up to her and held out his hand. “Sheriff, I’m Special Agent Carter Fields.”
A jolt of electricity shot through her. Even his name was sexy. “Sunshine Vicram.” She dropped the box. “Sheriff. The sheriff. Of Del Sol. The county.” She decided to stop while she was ahead.
He paused as though trying to figure her out, then refocused on Quincy.