Chapter 27 Jagg
JAGG
The front door of Frank’s slapped shut as I pulled Sunny into the parking lot. The bugs roared over the heat wafting over my already-boiling skin.
“Jagg. You’re hurting me.” Sunny’s calm voice pulled me from my rage.
I softened my grip on her hand but didn’t let go.
“Where’s your truck?” I sneered.
“Under the oak tree over there.” She nodded to the far side of the building.
“What the hell are you doing parking in the shadows? Don’t you know by now to park under a street light or lamppost? And if there isn’t one, find somewhere else to go.”
Damn this woman’s fearlessness.
The woman was me.
I heard the front door open and slam shut behind us, and for a moment, I actually wished someone would come up on me.
I needed another fist fight to release the truckload of adrenaline flooding my veins.
I looked over my shoulder to see a couple beelining to their Can-am Roadster as if they’d seen a ghost. Tourists.
We rounded the building and I stopped cold. Sunny jerked against my hold.
“What?”
“I’m assuming those weren’t there when you got here.”
Her jaw dropped as she followed my gaze to where the moonlight illuminated two long, thin scratches running down the entire length of her 1972 Chevy Cheyenne.
“Oh my…” her voice faded in a breathless whisper as she jogged to her truck and ran her finger down the scratches. She kneeled down, examining the damage. “I’ve been here literally ten minutes. Who could’ve… why?”
Sunny had not only been publicly bullied, someone had also keyed her truck.
Oh, hell no.
I pulled the gun from my belt and spun around.
“Stop.” Sunny surged to her feet and grabbed my arm with both hands. I literally dragged her through the dirt.
“Jagger, stop. Please.” She dug her heels in, dropping her weight against my pull. “Stop you idiot, macho-male maniac. Stop!” She dropped my arm—more like flung it down. “Do not go back in there, Jagg. It’s not worth it.”
I stopped, pivoted. “Someone keyed your truck.”
I started to turn but she yanked me back.
“It’s not worth it Jagger. Who cares about my damn truck?” She stood toe to toe with me. “And what are you going to do, anyway? Beat up the entire bar? You think my car will be in one piece after that?”
That gave me pause. Going back in there and cracking skulls in Sunny’s name would only make it worse for her.
She was right.
“Just… calm down, Jagg.”
I stared at the front door of the bar, gun in one hand, Sunny on the other.
Sunny’s focus remained on the side of my face. She took a deep breath, then another, until finally, I found myself releasing an exhale.
“Good. Thank you. Come on.” This time, she pulled me across the parking lot.
Once at her truck, she fisted her hands on her hips. “Well… damn.”
I forced my focus to switch from kicking ass to solving the problem at hand. “A buddy of mine can fix the paint first thing in the morning.”
“I don’t need you to handle it.”
“I know.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her with me. “Let’s go.”
She jerked her hand back. We squared off like two sumo wrestlers, right there under the fluorescent lights of Frank’s.
“Where?”
“I’m driving you home. I’ll have my buddy come get the truck.”
“What? No.”
“Dammit, Sunny.” I dropped her hand and began pacing, stalking back and forth like a madman, flexing and unflexing my fists with each step.
Sunny stood motionless, watching me like someone might a recoiling snake. Her hair danced around her face in the breeze, strands of ebony against her lips. God those lips.
I planted my feet and turned to her. “What the hell are you doing here, anyway?” I demanded.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but getting dinner. I don’t cook.” She squinted. “Why are you here?”
“I come here all the time. The stool at the end of the bar is molded to my ass. I can handle the crowd here.”
She jerked back her chin, affronted. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means a beautiful woman with a target on her back should have better judgment than to swing by a dive-bar on the way home. Especially alone.”
“I’ll have you know I’ve been here dozens of times since I moved here.”
“Trolling for men?”
“Fuck you.”
My hands fisted at my side.
“Don’t talk to me like that,” she continued. “And you think a single woman can’t handle herself?”
“Based on what I was looking at when I walked in, no, I don’t think so.”
“What would you have had me do? Bust a bottle over the redneck’s head? Break those pretty little blonde’s noses? Put a damn spell on the place?” Her voice cracked with the last one, and of all the insults that had been hurled in her direction, that one apparently stung the worst.
“Listen, Sunny. This is a small town, with all the small-town clichés, right in the middle of the Bible Belt. When a pastor’s son’s face gets blown off in the city park, people are going to talk.
They’re going to want answers. And I get that, Sunny.
” I shot her a look. “My entire job is to get answers. The entire town is already looking at you. Questioning you, your every move. And when your stubborn ass saunters into the one bar frequented only by locals, you’re asking for it.
Whether you like it or not, people are blaming you. ”
Heat flared behind those green eyes. “You think I don’t know that?”
“Exactly. That’s my point. You know that, so why did you come here? You need to lay low until this thing blows over.”
“If you’re so desperate for this thing to blow over, why don’t you and the Lieutenant tell everyone I shot Griggs in self-defense and move on? Close the case?”
“Did you kill Griggs, Sunny?”
“No. I’ve told you a hundred—”
“Then someone else did and I’m not going to let you roll over for this. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I did that. Your attack wasn’t random. And I know you believe that, too, which is why you shouldn’t have gone to Frank’s tonight.”
“I was hungry. There wasn’t much more thought to it than that.”
“Then, regardless, you should have walked out when they started chastising you. I guarantee you someone would have eaten the three pieces of lettuce you ordered.”
She glared at me.
“I’m not doing this with you anymore, Sunny. I’m not arguing like a child and I’m sure as hell not going to put up with your arrogant, fearless, defiant behavior.”
“Who asked you to put up with me? Who asked you to even help me?”
“Cut the bullshit, Sunny. You need to drop the armor you wear.”
“Fine. I’ll drop it right here.” She spun on her heels and stalked away from me.
I grabbed her elbow, spun her around.
“You walk away from me again and I will hog tie you, throw you over my shoulder and carry you home.”
Her nostrils flared as she stood strong against my hold, staring me down as I was her.
God, I was frustrated. Beyond normal, anyway.
I dropped her arm. “Dammit, Sunny, you claim to be an expert at Krav Maga, right? You should have walked the heck away. Diffused the situation.”
“Really? That’s what you would have preferred I’d done, huh? Run from the jerks? Let them win?”
“Yes.”
She slammed her fists on her hips. “Is that what you would tell your son or your daughter? To tuck tail and run no matter what the situation?”
I opened my mouth to respond but no words came out.
I pictured the junior high autistic boy getting beat up by the governor’s son.
On his back, but still fighting. I respected him.
Truth was, standing up for yourself and others was something I built my life on.
I never backed down. Not once. Even when I was the tall, skinny kid being bullied in junior high, I fought back.
And had plenty of broken bones to show it.
Sunny was the same damn way. She didn’t back down either. Against all odds, despite her past, despite getting the shit kicked out of her at the park.
I respected the hell out of her for it.
“Exactly,” she said, reading my thoughts. “I’m done here. Do you mind if I turn my back and walk away from you now, Detective Jagger?” The sarcasm seethed from her lips.
She turned on her heel and stomped to her truck.
I followed Sunny home that night. Without her knowledge, of course. Someone had to watch out for her. I’d waited until she was safe inside her cabin to reverse down the road and begin tackling the evening’s to-do list.
One, figure out which of the bar rats had keyed Sunny’s truck.
And two, figure out why the hell Officer Darby was following me.