Oklahoma Sunshine

by Maggie Shayne

  “It’s not silly. These blades are worth a fortune all by themselves. My God, look at them all.” She shook her head, moving through the shop. "Is this all of them?"

  “Not all, no. I give a lot away. I have ten in the truck right now, packed up to travel. I'm donating them to a charity auction."

  "Of course you are."

  She ran her hand over the handle of his favorite Katana, the one with the dragon’s head. Then she took a deep breath, and turned to face him again. She’d walked several steps away, and around to the rear of the room. The mechanical hammer stood between them, but she met his eyes around it, and asked quite sincerely, “Why are you sharing this with me now?”

  He shrugged. “Because I want you to share your true self with me. And because I had no right to ask that when I hadn’t done the same. But I'm aware you've been lying to me, Sunny. I saw the photo, the one behind your mother's. The one of your family, and your baby brother–"

  "Don't.”

  "This conversation has to happen. Do you know I was formally questioned by the police?"

  "By your brother-in-law, you mean."

  "Bernie Jennings thinks I pushed you. He thinks I pushed you, Sunny, and his wife Betty Lou is the biggest gossip in town. And you're here playing whatever you're playing instead of telling the truth about what happened."

  "I'm sorry!" She covered her face with her hands, in shame or remorse or self-defense. He was damned if he knew which. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

  He stopped talking. She looked like she might break if he kept talking. "Just tell me why. That's all I want, just tell me why."

  She lowered her hands slowly, took a long time wiping the tears away. "When I can, I will." Then she looked to his right, desperate, he thought, for a different subject. “What’s that curved one there?” She nodded at the workbench, where an unfinished project lay.

  It took a long beat to answer. He thought about refusing to let her change the subject, but her tears were real. He knew by looking at her that she was at the ragged edge of her endurance. She hadn't looked this bad since that Christmas a few years back, when her friend Angie's husband was killed in action.

  “Mongolian throwing sword,” he said. He picked it up, balanced it on two upturned fingers. “I need to do a little more grinding on it."

  "Oh. Do you actually know how to throw it?"

  "Yeah. I do Kendo. It's a martial art thing with swords, and..." He let his words trail off. "Please say something, Sunny. Tell me something, for everything we've been to each other, just tell me something.”

  "Jason, I–"

  The outside door crashed open and a man stood there pointing a gun at them. Jason’s reflexes kicked in; he turned and threw the knife. It cartwheeled beautifully, and then its blade embedded itself deep in the guy’s chest. The gun went off as the shooter went down. Jason looked to see if Sunny was okay, but she wasn’t there.

  Chapter 9

  Sunny had never seen anything like it. Jason flexed his hand, the one balancing the blade, and it jumped up a little, then he snatched it from the air and moved like a dancer, one foot forward, his body twisting, his arm pivoting at the shoulder, then elbow. The blade whirled and hit its mark. The intruder's gun went off as he fell down.

  She saw it all in slowed-down time, as she ducked behind a big machine, wrapping her arms around her knees and burying her face there. Her whole body was shaking. She knew that guy. He was Braxton’s best friend, Landry Mason. My God, Brax had found her.

  Eve sprang through the same doorway, jumping the fallen man with a gun in her hands. She looking around, and then down at him before she holstered her weapon. “Where’s Sunny?”

  At the sound of Eve's voice, Sunny rose from her crouch. She was shaking so bad she could hardly walk, but she made it into Jason’s arms and they closed around her like they always did.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, holding her, rocking her. Like he cared. Like she hadn't ruined everything with him.

  She nodded against his chest. Her cheek pressed there, and she was facing Eve, who mouthed GO NOW.

  Sunny sniffled. “Call Chief Jimmy,” she said. “I’m okay.”

  “My phone’s inside.”

  “I’m okay. Go on, you have to let him know. Get him out here. It was self-defense. I saw it. I'll back you up." She wasn't going to, though. She was going to leave again. God, she hated herself, felt like garbage for not insisting to Jimmy that he hadn't pushed her. But it was only until he was safe–only until she got herself and her sibling far away from him, so he would be safe. Then she'd tell everyone the truth, somehow. She'd find a way.

  "We'll all go in." Jason took her arm gently and tugged her inside, like he didn't trust her out of his sight. It wasn't that. He was protecting her. He'd get killed protecting her. Griz pounced on her shin as soon as she stepped inside. She'd been neglected and she was not happy about it.

  Sunny picked her up, hugged her and kissed her fur. Then she walked up to Jason, stood on tiptoe, and kissed him hard. "I have to go and you have to let me."

  He shook his head, but didn't reach for her as she turned around, grabbed Eve's hand and ran.

  She held Griz in one arm as she jumped over the body of Landry Mason, her brother's best friend, and broke into a run. If Landry was here, then so was Brax. He was like a wolf with a pack of simpering dogs. He never went anywhere without his “boys.”

  And Jason had just killed one of them.

  “Brax will kill him," Sunny said, not breaking stride.

  “I think your guy can handle himself. What’s with the medieval armory anyway?”

  “He made them. I never even knew.”

  Sunny felt as if there were gun sites on her back as they raced through the brush beside Jason’s house into a tree lot, and out the other side to the road, and Eve’s car.

  “My purse and my phone are still in my car!” Sunny cried, having only just realized it.

  “We’d have had to toss those anyway.” Eve opened the passenger door and shoved Sunny in, cat and all, then slammed it on her and shot around to her own side.

  Griz clawed free of Sunny's arms and dove into the back seat. She let the cat go as they sped away, leaving a trail of dust behind them like a comet’s tail.

  A trail of dust—and her life. And every link she’d had to it. And Jason. Jason, just when things had turned…bigger. Deeper. Better.

  Jason ran outside, cell phone in hand.

  “Hey, Jason,” his sort of brother-in-law said, sounding cheerful. “How’s—”

  “I just killed a man, Jimmy. Out at my place. Get out here fast.” He was at the doorway, looking to see which way they'd gone. “Sunny?” And then more urgently. “Sunny!”

  A car spit gravel, its engine growling from someplace nearby. Then he heard something else. A groan.

  “Jason? What’s going on?” Jimmy asked. “Is Sunny all right?”

  “Sunny took off,” Jason said, bending down near the intruder’s body. “She left her car. Must’ve gone with Eve.” He laid his hand on the guy’s chest, to the left of the blade. “Also, the intruder ain’t dead. But he’s got a Mongolian throwing sword in his chest.”

  “A Mongolian what?”

  “I gotta put the phone down and try to stop the bleeding.” He did, and then took off his outer shirt, wadded it up and pressed it around the spot where the blade was stuck into the intruder’s chest. Bright red blood bubbled all around the honed steel. He'd have far rather been chasing after Sunny, but he couldn't just let the guy bleed out on his floor.

  “Hey, asshat. Wake up.” He had unruly hair in no particular style, and lots of ink. Jason had nothing against tattoos. They were art. Well, they were supposed to be art. His were mostly trash.

  “Come on, I have questions. Unless you want me to just let you die." He was feeling kind of relieved that he hadn’t killed the guy, and he was going to do whatever he could to keep him alive, but the gunman didn’t have to know that.

  He opened h
is eyes. They slanted downward, then widened. “Who the hell does that?”

  “Me, when someone kicks in my door and points a gun at me.”

  “Not at you. Her. Mary.”

  “Who the hell’s Mary?” But he already knew the thug was talking about Sunny.

  “Her car’s in your driveway.” He sucked air through his teeth. “Her cat was in your... Get that thing outta my chest.”

  “I’m no MD, but I’m afraid that might kill you.”

  “I can’t feel my legs.”

  “I’m sorry for you. Maybe rethink your life choices. If you live, I mean."

  He winced in pain. Jason said, “Help’s on the way. Listen. Hear the sirens?”

  “No.”

  “I do. They’ll be here in a minute. Maybe less. What do you have against her? Mary?”

  He whispered too softly for Jason to hear, so Jason leaned closer, and the guy said, almost full voice, “None of your fucking business.”

  Jimmy’s SUV skidded to a stop on the lawn and he came running, knelt beside the fallen man, and just gaped, first at the blade and then at Jason, and then at the workshop behind Jason. Yeah, too many surprises all at once, Jason figured. He shook himself, spotted the gun four feet away, and quickly went to grab it with a plastic bag. The ambulance came barreling in right behind him, and then medics were shoving Jason aside to take over. There were more cops arriving, lighting up the night like a laser show, and a chopper landed out back. His brothers’ pickups were only seconds behind the rest.

  Yeah, small town. Tight family. There were no secrets here. He’d managed to keep a small one, and it looked like Sunny had kept a great big giant sized one, a dangerous one.

  Jimmy said, “I need to hear it from the beginning.”

  “Yeah," Jason said. “I figured you would.”

  Eve drove like a maniac, took the highway going west, and then skidded into the parking area of an out-of-business motel. The pavement was cracked and busted, even heaving in some spots, and there was only one other car. She pulled right up beside it, braked to a sharp stop, and popped her trunk.

  “Grab everything from this car and throw it into that one," she ordered. "Go! Fast, in case anyone followed.”

  Sunny grabbed Griz from the back seat, already regretting that his carrier was still in her own car at Jason’s place. She held Griselda carefully and ran to the other car. There was a cat carrier in its back seat. For a second she just blinked.

  Eve came running behind her with a backpack and two suitcases. “Will you get the lead out?”

  “There’s a cat carrier.”

  “There are some generic essentials, too. I like to be prepared.” Eve slammed the trunk and grabbed her shoulders. “We have to go. Get in the car.”

  Sunny got into the back seat, so she could put Griz in the carrier. The irritated cat didn’t like it, but went in without a fight. Eve had run back to the other car again, and Sunny got out to help.

  “Get the stuff from the console!" Eve told her. "Hurry!”

  Nodding, Sunny leaned in, opened the console between the bucket seats. The only thing inside was a silver handgun in a brown leather holster. She grabbed the gun, backed out, closed the car door, ran to the second car and got into the passenger side. This car had a console, too, so she dropped the gun into it. Eve dove behind the wheel and they were on the highway again before a single other vehicle had passed.

  Then Eve adjusted the rearview mirror, and watched it while she tapped a button on her keyring. Behind them, Eve's gorgeous little car exploded like something out of an action movie, and Sunny thought her heart was going to pop right out of her chest it startled her so much.

  “Holy God, Eve!”

  “Distraction,” she said. “Too many people are looking for us. We leave the car just sitting there, it’s an easy bet we switched vehicles. This way, they don’t know anything for sure.

  “But Jason might think–”

  “You’ve gotta let that go, Sunny.”

  “I will not let it go. Jason is in danger because of me. Suspected of hurting me, and maybe murder now, too because the only witnesses are running for their lives. And now you want me to let him think I burned alive in that car?"

  “He's perfectly safe. By now he’s surrounded by cops and relatives and cops who are also relatives.”

  “Who don’t know what they’re dealing with. I want him protected, and I want you to do it now, or I swear to God I’ll jump out of this car, Eve. You know I'll do it."

  Eve sighed and tapped a button on the car’s in-dash system. Her phone was already connected to it. She wasn’t kidding about being prepared. Her call went out. A man answered. “Santorini.”

  “It’s DuVall.”

  “We’re secure, go ahead.”

  “Jason McIntyre of Big Falls just killed Landry Mason in self-defense. He’ll need protection.”

  “Mason’s still alive,” the guy on the other end said. Sunny’s heart tripped over itself as the stranger she presumed was an FBI contact went on. “They airlifted him to a trauma unit. And we’ve got a guy on McIntyre. We might bring in the local PD–”

  “I wouldn’t. The chief is McIntyre’s brother in law, and it’s a tight family. They don’t keep things quiet in Big Falls.”

  “All right. You safe?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Need help?”

  “Not yet.” She tapped the cutoff. “That’s Roberto Santorini, my boss. He's always Uncle Bob on every cell phone I have. If you get into trouble and I’m out of commission, that’s who to call.”

  She shifted in her seat. “I can’t let Jason worry I’m dead in that car, Eve. Not Kiley or Angie, either. Not even for a little while. It’s too cruel. I won’t do it.”

  Eve sighed. “I’ll take it under advisement.”

  “You’ll take it under–no. I’ll get out and walk back to Big Falls.”

  “They won’t find the car for eighteen to twenty-four hours. We have time for me to mull on this. So let me mull, Sunny. Or maybe I should start calling you Jill?”

  “Huh?”

  “You’re Jillian Mueller, a kindergarten teacher from Ohio. All your papers are being sent to a PO Box in New Mexico. Credit cards, driver’s license, social, fresh new birth certificate, teaching credentials, the whole nine. And a thumb drive with your new backstory.”

  Sunny let her head drop back against the seat. “God, I don’t want to do this again.”

  “You’d rather let your brother kill you?”

  “Why do those have to be the only two choices? Stay and risk my life and Jason's life, or run and leave it all behind?”

  “Because they are.” Eve had these round, expressive eyes that didn’t match the hardass behind them. “They are, Sunny. They’re the only two choices. You run or you die. Braxton is a crazy son of a bitch, but he’s served his time. He’s out. And he’s smart enough to send his mongrels to do his dirty work for him. We’ve got nothing on him.”

  Sunny closed her eyes and let the tears fall. She’d lost everything. Again.

  Eve was quiet for a moment. She had the good sense to let her grieve in private, and Sunny appreciated it. She was grieving. She was grieving the death of Sunny Cantrell, and Sunny’s Place, the little bakery with the pink and white striped awning that stood out from all the other awnings on all the other businesses on Main Street. Almost like she was trying to tell them, right from the start, I’m not one of you. I’m only pretending to be. But underneath, this is all a lie. I’m a lie.

  “It was nice, the life you made. You should be proud of that,” Eve said after a while. “That bakery, and the friendships. And him.”

  She sniffled, saying nothing.

  “You never knew he was a swordsmith, huh?”

  “He never told me. Not until today. And the way he moved, the way he threw that blade, that was something, too. Some kind of martial arts thing.”

  “And you never knew he was into that, either?”

  She shook her hea
d.

  “Huh.”

  Sunny twisted in her seat to look at Eve. They’d become friends, back in the old days. Eve had saved her life. And given her a new one. And now she was doing it again.

  Sunny loved Eve DuVall. She was smart, tough, ripped, and kind. And she was honest right to her core. “What does that mean?”

  “What does what mean?”

  “That huh. It meant something, I can tell.”

  Eve shrugged. “Just…you’re pretty busted up over leaving a guy you really never knew.”

  “He never really knew me, either.”

  “He knew Sunny Cantrell, and that’s who you were in Big Falls. You created this happy, bright, successful woman everybody loved. And you know, that’s part of who you are, way down deep. It has to be, she came from you.”

  "Maybe," she said. "She's me if my past never happened. She's me on vacation from me. And now I have to create someone else. Someone new.”

  “You could be a redhead this time. That’s a plus.”

  Sunny closed her eyes. “I hate this. I hate it.”

  “I hate it for you,” Eve said, and she meant it.

  Jason’s little house was crowded with family within an hour. Jimmy had finished with his questions, but told him to keep the workshop locked and not set foot inside until he gave him the okay. He was pretty sure Jimmy believed him. But that wouldn't matter much if the evidence said otherwise. He had no eye witnesses, except the victim, if he pulled through. But that guy wasn't gonna tell the truth.

  Kiley was there, hanging close to him, trying to pry information out of him in the most gentle, subtle, transparent ways. Angie stayed nearby, too, mothering him a little bit. Angie’s kid sister was watching all the kids, including her own toddler. Besides the two of them, most of the people crowded into his little house were family. His father was pacing and looking worried, and stepmom Vidalia was trying to comfort and reassure everyone. Mouse and Tabitha had just arrived, and like everyone else, were asking questions he couldn’t answer.