After an eternity of will he or won’t he, he let his gaze drop to her mouth and linger there a long moment before it sank lower, and only then did she realize her top two buttons had come undone during the rescue. Before she could see to them, he handed her the water, tilting it toward her lips, and buttoned them for her as she drank from both the water and him.
The backs of his fingers slid across her skin as he worked, causing a ripple of pleasure she couldn’t have tamped down if she’d wanted to. Then, without another word, he tugged her shirt to straighten it, strolled to the driver’s-side door, and left her standing there. Standing there, wondering if she’d made any progress. Only realizing after he’d left she didn’t get a chance to talk to him about anything. About Clay. About Auri. About his new title. Aka, Dad. The suspense was driving her crazy, which was probably his point entirely.
“Boss?”
She took another swig, then turned to her new lieutenant.
“Sorry, boss,” Salazar said as she motioned another motorist through. Her shoulders were tight, her round face taut with concern.
“What’s up?” Sun asked her, heading to help Quincy with the gear.
Salazar followed, still motioning to the occasional vehicle. Zee had taken the south end of the scene while Rojas took the north. They coordinated via radio on when to release vehicles. Salazar’s role was superfluous at the moment, but it never hurt to have an extra set of eyes.
“When you were down in the canyon,” Salazar said almost reluctantly, “Redding showed up asking a lot of odd questions.”
In the middle of rolling up her gear, Sun stopped and looked at her lieutenant. The adrenaline her nervous system dumped into her body raced across her skin like an electrical current. Her predecessor, former sheriff Baldwin Redding, was not a fan of Sun’s. He’d been doing everything in his power to get his old job back since she took office. Not to mention the fact that he was in cahoots with Levi’s uncle Clay. In what capacity, no one really knew, but she’d been handed intel from her spy, aka Hailey Ravinder, that they were working together on something big.
She handed Quincy her climbing gear as he gave Salazar his attention. “What kinds of questions?”
“About our Jane Doe mostly.”
Quincy’s lashes narrowed on Sun before saying, “Can you be more specific?”
“Just the usual stuff, Chief. Who found her. How long she’d been down there. Did we have an ID. How old she was. I guess as a former sheriff his curiosity was piqued?”
The hairs on the back of Sun’s neck stood up as her Spidey senses kicked in. “Maybe.”
Quincy shook his head at her, not buying it for a minute, then threw the bag of climbing gear in the back of her cruiser.
“Odd thing, though,” Salazar added. “I had to ask him three times to stay away from the pull-off. He kept inching closer to the north side of the guardrail for a peek at what you guys were doing.”
“That’s interesting.” Especially considering the fact that the tire tracks and their one and only footprint were on that side.
“Maybe we need to pay him a visit,” Quincy suggested.
“Nah. No need to tip our hand just yet.” She nodded to Salazar. “Thanks for that.”
“Of course, boss.”
Salazar had been recruited by Redding. It was nice to know Sun could count on her allegiance despite that fact.
“What did you want a second look at?” Quince asked her.
“That hair you spotted.” She pulled on a pair of latex gloves and slipped disposable covers over her boots before picking her way across the dirt pull-off to where Quince had seen the hair on the guardrail.
“Wrong color,” he said from the side of the road. “Could be months old.”
“It’s strange, though, don’t you think?”
“This whole situation is strange. Do you think it’s from the assailant?”
She knelt down and tilted her head to look under the guardrail. The clump of hair had wedged itself between the wood post and the metal rail. Almost as though someone caught their hair on it only to have it violently ripped out. At least ten strands from the same head of hair flew in the soft breeze, many with the roots still attached.
“This is definitely from a woman,” she said, tilting her head the other direction. “The bottom half was dyed blond and the tips have a tinge of pink.”
“Men dye their hair, too,” Quince said.
“Do they also wear glitter?”
He made a shrugging sound in thought. “Maybe on special occasions.”
Sun carefully took the hair in her gloved hand and leaned forward to try to get a hint of any scent wafting off it.
When she stood, Quince questioned her with a raised brow.
She shook her head. “It’s been out here too long, but someone really liked shimmering hair care products.”
“Who doesn’t?”
“Forensics will be here in thirty,” Salazar said, securing her phone.
“Great. I’m going to check a couple of places for Clay Ravinder before heading to Santa Fe for an update on our victim.” She wanted to get a look at the minuscule amount of clothes their Jane was wearing, but she needed to get something in her stomach first. “You got this, Lieutenant?”
“Course, boss.”
She took off the shoe covers and put them into an evidence bag that Salazar held open for her. “Good work today.”
Salazar smiled, the act emphasizing the roundness of her cheeks. “Thank you. I’ll keep you updated.”
Sun checked on her other two deputies, Zee and Rojas, before gathering her BFF and heading toward the Ravinder compound. She could lie to herself all day and pretend she really was there to check on Clay Ravinder. To make sure he hadn’t been beaten to death by his nephew. But deep down she wanted to confront said nephew in a less crime-scene-esque area. And with fewer witnesses. Of course, Levi wouldn’t open up in front of all of her deputies, but would he open up when they were alone?
She pulled her cruiser close to the gorgeous mansion Levi had built for his family a few years prior. A far cry from the dilapidated structures that had littered the Ravinder land for years, metal and heavy woods framed every wall inside and out, and huge plate glass windows reflected the blue skyline and the surrounding trees like paintings. She could only imagine the thought Levi put into the place. The care he took choosing each grain of wood. Each sheet of metal.
She knew that Levi, his sister Hailey, her son Jimmy, and Clay lived there, but she wondered if a couple of his cousins didn’t live there as well. They were a pretty tight-knit brood and Levi tended to keep his top employees close.
“Do you think Hailey is here?” she asked Quincy, who’d recently fallen for the woman. Hard. A match she wouldn’t have seen coming with the Hubble telescope.
“She had to go to Santa Fe. If Ravinder is here,” he said, referring to Levi, “can I finally arrest him?” While the whole clan carried the last name of Ravinder, as head of the household, only Levi went by their given name. According to her source, aka Hailey, it was a sign of respect by the rest of the family.
“I told you, Levi didn’t steal your cruiser. He borrowed it.”
He released a melodramatic sigh, then pleaded with her. “Fine. Just let me arrest him a little.”