Chapter 9 #2
Her lips pressed into a thin line and it was the first time I noticed the blood on her mouth was her own.
A deep split slashed the corner of her lower lip.
I raised myself and scanned her body, noting scrapes down her neck, her chest, the beginning of bruising underneath the spray of blood on her arms. A nasty gash sliced her bicep.
She was hurt. My hands loosened around her wrists immediately.
Her fingers flexed in response, but she didn’t move as I continued to look her over.
It was the first moment her eyes left mine, hooded eyelids lowering, feathered lashes hiding the flash of embarrassment I caught in those green irises.
I lifted off of her slightly, relieving her of some of the two-hundred-plus pounds pressing against her.
“Are you hurt? Anywhere other than the obvious?” I asked.
She continued to avoid eye contact. A deep swallow moved the muscles of her neck, followed by the slightest head shake.
“Okay. So that’s a no. What’s your name?”
No response. I considered that she might be deaf, or possibly mute. She’d already surprised me once.
“Name.” I repeated again.
Normally, at this point, I’d either man-handle or threaten someone who wouldn’t talk, but not her.
Why? Because my instincts were screaming at me.
Something was just off. I wasn’t quite sure what or why, but nothing about it felt normal, including the dead man inches away that neither one of us were addressing.
Something about her was off.
Different.
The scene, everything. Everything felt off.
And, damn, my back hurt.
“Alright, listen, it’s up to you how smoothly this goes from here. You continue to fight me, that’s your choice. Because I can go all night. You got that, lady?”
A moment passed before I felt her arms go weak beneath my hold. A subtle submission, but a start. The moment felt like a delicate dance that I wasn’t sure how to navigate.
“Good girl. Now. Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to release you and you’re going to raise onto your knees and put your hands behind your back. You try to run again, I’ll have your ass back on the ground and in cuffs in under ten seconds flat. Got it?”
Her jaw twitched.
“First, you’re going to tell me your name.”
Her head twisted to the side, dismissing me.
“Jane Doe it is, then.”
I shifted off of her, gritting my teeth at the lightning shooting up my back. I yanked her torso up by her wrists. She didn’t like this.
“Sunny.” The single word spat out in a low, husky voice. She jerked out of my hold. “My name is Sunny.”
Sunny? Seriously? A woman with hair as dark as midnight, skin as pale as porcelain, and crimson lips as seductive as sin was named… Sunny?
“Last name?”
“Harper.”
Sunny Harper.
“Okay, Miss Harper. On your knees. Let’s go.” I reached for her armpit.
“Don’t touch me.”
“Don’t make me.”
She lifted herself from the ground and shifted onto her knees.
“Hands behind your back.”
She kneeled, shoulders back, her chin held high despite the tremble that had started the moment our bodies left contact.
“Wrists together, please.” It was the first time I’d ever used the word ‘please’ while cuffing someone.
Colson walked up, gaping at the victim on the ground feet away from us. Then, his narrowed eyes pinned the woman named Sunny Harper.
“You interview her yet?”
“No. Tried to run.” Emphasis on tried.
He looked back down at the dead body, then at the gun she’d dropped to the ground. “You mirandize her yet?” He asked me, leading me to believe that Erickson’s statement had suggested nothing innocent had happened here. On first look, Sunny Harper had killed the man on the ground.
“No,” I nodded to her arm. “She needs to be looked at by a medic before anything.”
She scoffed, “I don’t need to go to the—”
“We’re legally obligated.”
Colson nodded. “I already called it in. Ambulance should be here any minute.”
Just then more sirens cut through the air and the ambulance pulled into the lot, followed by backup.
It was an instant circus.
“I’ll take her over,” Colson said. “You start on the scene.”
I hesitated—shocking myself. I didn’t want to leave her. But that was ridiculous.
I stepped back while Colson jerked her up with more force than necessary, inciting a blow of protectiveness to my system. Another first, ever.
“You have the right to remain silent…” He pulled her away from me. “If you give up the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…”
I watched him drag Sunny by his side, her head held high. Her steps strong, unwavering.
“You have the right to speak to an attorney and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you…”
The headlights outlined their bodies, two long, black shadows stretching eerily across the grass behind them.
Sunny’s head turned, but her eyes didn’t land on mine, they focused on the body that lay at my feet.
There was another flash in that green before she turned back, then disappeared in the chaos.
I looked down at the dead man at my boots.
Half of his face had been blown off, leaving nothing but open flesh and bone.