“I was not a rebel.”
“Yeah,” he scoffed, not bothering to argue. “And this case just gets bigger and bigger.”
“It does.”
He angled his wide shoulders so he could look at her when he asked, “Do you think we have a serial criminal on our hands?”
“It’s sure looking like that could be the case.”
“I’ll call in the dogs.”
An hour later, after checking in once again with their Jane Doe, they pulled into Del Sol right as both of their phones released an alarm similar to an Amber Alert.
“What the hell?” Sun took out her phone and showed Quince the logo plastered on her home screen. He showed her his, a matching set.
“Now?” she asked, astonished the Dangerous Daughters could summon them out of the blue like that. “No one told me we’d be expected to show up for emergency meetings at any time of day or night.”
“They did, actually.”
“Well, yeah, but I didn’t think they’d really do it. Summon us like we’re demons from a hell dimension and they found their great-grandmothers’ book of shadows.”
After he stared at her for a while, he said, “You are an odd person to be around.”
“This better be important. We have places to be and people to put behind bars.”
“Are you going to ground her?” he asked.
“Bug? Only until she’s thirty-five. And to think, every time she promises me something, I believe her. Like I haven’t been in law enforcement for the last ten years.”
“Yeah, your mom did, too.”
She gritted her teeth. Auri caught up to the whole of Sun’s rebellious antics years ago and left Sun to breathe the dust in her wake.
They parked behind the Angry Angler, Del Sol’s favorite—and only—fishing supply store and took the stairs down to the finished basement. The super-secret basement where all the super-secret planning went down. Sun pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head to let her pupils adjust. Sure enough, the gang was all there. Thirteen of the town’s finest, including her parents, the mayor, Mrs. Fairborn, Principal Jacobs, and … and Levi.
Sun stopped short when she saw him, the Sinister Son in all his sinister glory. Mussed mahogany hair, the tips still damp from a recent washing. Shimmering eyes the color of whiskey-filtered sunlight. Powerful shoulders as though sculpted by Michelangelo.
“Sunshine,” her mother said, rushing up to her. “I had to leave Cruz at your house.”
She tore her gaze off Levi. “It’s okay, Mom.”
“He was reading when we left,” her dad said. “But he did eat a huge plate of pancakes. That many carbs should put him out in no time.”
“That’s good.” Sun couldn’t stop her gaze from traveling back to Levi every chance it got.
He sat on a heavy side table in the back of the room, one knee pulled up with an arm thrown over it, and had yet to return the favor. So they were back to ignoring each other. She could deal with that. She could ignore with the best of them. She’d even been called aloof once.
“Sunshine,” Mrs. Fairborn said, shuffling up to her and Quincy, “as Dangerous, it’s your job to call the meeting to order.”
Sun had taken Mrs. Fairborn’s place as the leader of the pack, apparently, but hell if she knew what she was doing. Or what any of them did, for that matter. “Okay. Fine.” She walked to the podium at the front of the room, her mouth watering at the smell of fresh coffee, and banged the gavel softly. “I hereby call this meeting to order. Now, what the hell are we doing here?”
“I’m not sure that’s how it works, Sunshine,” Darlene Tapia said. She’d put down her knitting to offer Sun a withering frown.
“Guys, I have a couple of pretty big cases at the moment. Quince and I really need to get back to the office.”
“Sordid,” Mrs. Fairborn said.
“What? There’s nothing sordid about it. We have to do our jobs.”
“No, Quincy. In here, he’s Sordid. The Son Sordid to be exact.”
“Damn straight, I am.” He offered Mrs. Fairborn a fist bump. She gladly accepted, closing her frail hand into a fist Quincy could bump as Sun prayed for patience.
Principal Jacobs chimed in with, “We need to know what’s going on, Dangerous.”
“With what?”
“You can start with that girl Drew found,” Mayor Lomas said, looking like a cover model, the tips of her short sandy bob brushing her shoulders as she spoke. Softly. Sensually.
Sun rolled her eyes. She seriously needed to get over her crush on the woman.
She chastised the lot of them with a well-timed glare. “Is that why you brought Quincy and me into the clubhouse? To get the lowdown on our cases?”
The mayor scoffed. “I can get the lowdown any time I want. I’m the mayor. I just thought you could fill in everyone else.”
“Look, guys, I can’t share the details of active investigations.”
“Then just share the highlights,” Mrs. Fairborn said. “You know, broad strokes.”
Sun filled her lungs and tried to give them just enough information to appease them. “Okay, Drew Essary found an as-yet-unidentified woman in Copper Canyon.”
“So, still no ID?” the mayor asked.
“Not a solid one. We’re working on it.”
The group chatted amongst themselves as Sun’s gaze crept toward Levi again. She fought his gravitational force until Mrs. Fairborn spoke again.
“Item two,” she said, snapping Sun’s attention back to her like a rubber band. “What is your office doing about Clay Ravinder?”
That caught Levi’s attention. His head whipped around to the elderly woman, his face full of concern.
“If he’s really got our Son Sinister in his crosshairs,” she continued, “we need to do something about it.”
Everyone agreed, their heads nodding in unison.
“How did you even know about … You know what? Never mind. We’re very aware that Clay is trying to wrest control of Dark River Shine from”—her gaze locked with Levi’s for an eternity—“Sinister. I’m working with a couple of people to help bring him to justice before anything like that happens.”
“And who would those people be?” Levi asked, his voice honed to a glisteningly sharp edge.
“I can’t say.”
“Can’t? Or won’t?”
She raised her chin, accepting the challenge. “It’s prudent for the lives of my assets that they remain anonymous.”
“Speaking of Wynn Ravinder,” her mother said, “we want the test to stand. The test Wynn had doctored.”
“Mom!”
“Devilish, sweetheart.” Her mother leaned closer. “In here, I’m Devilish.”
“I just said my assets need to remain anonymous.”
“Well, he escaped, so what does it matter now?”
“He escaped?” Levi asked, his face the picture of astonishment.
Sun wasn’t buying it. For all she knew, he helped, too. “Yes. He escaped yesterday.”
“From prison?” he asked, incredulous.
“No. He had a heart attack—one we believe was self-induced—and escaped when they brought him to the hospital in Santa Fe.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”