Oklahoma Sunshine

by Maggie Shayne

  “Have you actually been tamed, Jack Kellogg?”

  “Never. I'm just keeping it legal. It’s what my girls want, and hell, I was ready to retire anyway. You want the first shower?”

  Aha, he didn't want to talk about his former career, or its end. Alleged end. “Yeah,” she said, cutting him a break since he was helping her.

  “Good. And then we'll eat and get some sleep. We skip this joint at three a.m.”

  She nodded. “You’re very good at deception.”

  “Thank you for the compliment."

  "It wasn't a–"

  There was a tap on the door, and Jack said, "There’s the kid now. And within the hour I gave him. You might as well wait for fresh clothes.”

  Eve leaned in the bathroom doorway and watched him greet the employee, compliment him on his speed, and sign away what must’ve been a generous tip, the way the kid’s eyes lit up.

  “Thank you, sir. Anything else you need, you call downstairs and ask for Ronny.”

  “I’ll do that. How long is your shift Ronny?”

  “I’m pulling a double. I’ll be here 'til six a.m.”

  “That’s great. I’ll have something for you later. Listen, now we need to be real clear on this. Did anyone ask about these errands, what you were getting or who you were getting it for?”

  “No sir. Only Eric—the Concierge—knows, and he’s the most tight-lipped guy you ever saw.”

  “Good. And how about you? Are you tight lipped?”

  “You can trust me, sir.”

  “I’ll double that tip if you get me a rental car, and have it here before three a.m. I want you to slip it into the hotel garage so casually that nobody gives it a second look.”

  He nodded. “I can do that. People arrive in the middle of the night all the time.”

  “That’s perfect, Ronny.”

  “You guys…like, under cover or something?”

  “Or something. Not a word, or no giant tip.”

  “Yessir!”

  Jack took the bags, including a pair of garment bags, and tossed them onto the bed. There was only one, but the small sofa folded out. Jimmy left, whistling as he pulled the door closed behind him.

  “He’s gonna talk,” Eve said.

  “Not ’til after he gets that tip, though. Human nature. If I’d paid up front, he’d already be texting his girlfriend about it.” He unzipped the garment bags, taking a little red dress out of hers.

  “You better have had him buy the jeans I asked for.” She went to the bed, dug through the bags, found the one with her requested undergarments, jeans, tank top, and green cargo jacket. She picked up the socks and a pair of little black boots with silver buckles. “Damn, the boy can pick footwear. These are cute.”

  “And on a deadline, no less."

  She took her stuff and went into the bathroom. When she took off her clothes, she wrapped them in the store bags and tied them in knots. Nothing from her car was going with them. Braxton Hayes must have planted a tracker somewhere. It was probably on the car itself, but it could be anywhere, tucked away in the lining of a bag or the pocket of a jacket or in anything else they'd brought with them.

  So, they'd leave it all behind.

  “Let’s head down to Jason’s from here,” she called through the closed door. “I don’t like that Sunny’s so far away. Anything could happen.”

  “Fine by me. Long as we can order room service in the meantime.”

  Chapter 14

  “So after you helped them convict your father, you went into witness protection?”

  She was lying across Jason's chest. He'd driven every worry and fear from her mind for a little while, but now they were all clamoring at the doorways of her mind. “Yeah.”

  “And you became Sunny Cantrell.”

  “Eve said I should think about the woman I wanted to be. She said most people don’t get a chance to start over. I thought about the woman I imagined my mother was. I didn’t know much about her—I was only three when she died. My memories of her are thin and hazy, but there was that photo. I took it when I left for college. She was wearing that pale blue dress, and a little white cardigan with pearl buttons. And her hair was blond as summer sunshine. And I remembered how she used to call me Mary Sunlight. That’s my clearest memory of her, really. She’s holding me and twirling in circles outside and singing ‘Pretty Mary Sunlight, she’s all right with me’.” She sang a few lines, the way she remembered them.

  “I told Eve the next day that I wanted to keep Sunlight as a part of my name to remind me of my mother. My father hated that name, always blamed it on her, said she filled in the name on her own in the hospital after she had me. Never consulted him, he said. He hated that my middle name was Sunlight. I loved it because my mother gave it to me. I wanted to be a baker like she was, too. I’d heard Dad say she could bake the angels right off the clouds."

  "So can you," he said, stroking her hair.

  "I don’t know how Eve made it happen, but she did. I became Sunny Cantrell, and I had a job working at the Big Falls Bakery for Miss Sarah Jane Olson.”

  “That’s kind of a beautiful story,” he said.

  “It didn't feel like it to me. I felt like such a fraud. I thought everyone who walked into the bakery knew for sure I wasn’t who I was pretending to be. And then I just realized one day I wasn’t pretending anymore."

  "You just let her out, that's all. She was always inside you."

  She thought about that, about how hard she'd tried to be a good little girl, to please her father, to take care of the family the way she imagined her mom would've done. Had she been Sunny then?

  "And then," he prompted.

  "Aren't you sleepy?"

  "I am. Are you?"

  "Getting there."

  "So talk 'til you're sleepy."

  She breathed deep. "One day Miss Sarah told me she wanted to retire and sell the bakery, and that she thought I could make a go of it. She offered it to me, owner-financed at a monthly payment she knew I’d be able to afford. And then, when she passed away last year, she left me the title free and clear.”

  “How can you think about leaving all that behind?"

  She had declared her life worth fighting to keep in front of him. But she wasn't sure if she had the courage to see that through. Facing her brother instead of running from him? People died last time she'd tried to stand against her family.

  Sunny kept drifting off, then coming awake with a start. Every time she slept, she relived the parts of her story that Jason still didn't know.

  Every time she closed her eyes, her brother’s men were holding her down while Braxton tattooed the hate symbol on her head. He was rough, pushing hard, drilling the ink deep and dragging the needle so fast it pulled and tore the already raw skin. It hurt. It bled. She was terrified.

  “We’re gonna kill you, sis. I just want you to know that while the rest of this goes down. You need to be punished. You need to suffer for what you did. And the whole time you’re suffering, I want you to know it only ends when I say it ends, and when I do, you die. But that’s gonna be a long time from now.”

  One of the guys came into her sight. He had jumper cables. They ran back to the car and were attached to its battery terminals. He tapped the toothed clamps together and they shots sparks.

  “Our father murdered innocent people, Braxton.”

  “Nobody’s innocent.” He looked up suddenly, like he’d heard something. “Watch her." He went to the small door in the back of the place, looking out each window he passed on the way. Then he opened the back door and ducked through it, and closed it behind him just as the front door exploded inward.

  Eve leaped through like some kind of super hero, guns blazing. She didn’t say freeze, she didn’t say anything. She shot both of Brax’s lackeys and led Mary out of that garage while they lay writhing on the floor, begging for their lives. Police and an ambulance came fast, but Brax got away. Mary Sunlight Hayes vanished from the face of the earth that night.
>
  And Sunny Cantrell was born before the next morning.

  But Mary hadn’t died. She was awake and clawing her way out of the basement where she'd been locked up all these years. Sunny felt her anger; she felt her outrage. How dare her father kill Dave? How dare her brother blame her for her father's death. How dare he drive her out of a life she loved?

  They couldn’t both live on this planet, Mary said. She’d been saying it for a long, long time now, but Sunny hadn’t been listening. She hadn’t needed to listen. She’d had a perfect life, and Braxton hadn’t found her. She’d been going through her days as if that would always be the case.

  But Mary had known the whole time. She’d always known. One of them had to die.

  The doorbell rang, echoing Big Ben's chime sequence through the house. Sunny sat up fast, flung back the covers.

  "It's fine, I've got this," Jason said, and he had his pants on and headed downstairs while she was still wrestling into her pink pajamas. She stepped into the slippers on her way past them and went into the hall and down the curving staircase to the foyer. Jason was standing near the door, talking into a panel on the wall. “I’m opening the gate,” he said.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Eve and Jack are out front. They shook whoever was following them and came to join us here.”

  “Oh. Good.”

  “Really?”

  She shrugged. “Why not?”

  “I don’t know. I’d hoped for a little more time alone with you, to be honest. At least breakfast.” He smiled and kissed her head, then opened the front door.

  Eve came in first, Jack right behind her with a hot pink cat carrier Sunny had never seen before. “Aw, Griz. There you are. I missed you!” Sunny opened the carrier and pulled her cat into her arms, despite Griselda’s growling protests.

  “We’re fine, thanks. And you?” Eve said, while looking around and nodding. “Damn, this is like a resort. How long do we get to stay?”

  “What happened to my cat's old carrier?”

  “We ditched it,” Jack said.

  Eve nodded. “And the car, and our clothes, and our phones, and everything else we brought from Big Falls. They were tracking us.”

  “But we outsmarted ‘em." Jack said with a wink. "Got a hotel, left everything there, and sneaked off in a rental car wearing brand new duds. So what’s to eat around here?”

  “Griz is asking the same thing, I think.” Sunny was trying to keep Griselda from twisting free, but it was a losing battle.

  “You can put her down,” Jason said. “Griz has been here before, she knows her way around.”

  “I’ll show her again, just in case.” Sunny carried the cat out of the room, through the kitchen to the small utility bathroom no one used. The washer and dryer lived there, along with a big deep sink and racks of cleaning products. The spotless, covered, self-scooping litter box was in the corner. There was an elaborate cat tower in front of the room's only window. Griz ran to it as soon as Sunny put her down. She sniffed delicately before hopping her way to the middle platform where she could bat a dangling catnip bird while lying down.

  She was happy. For the moment.

  There was an array of kitty dishes on a top shelf, and in the cabinet above it, a year’s supply of canned cat food in various flavors.

  She found a can and a pair of stainless-steel bowls, which she promptly filled.

  Griz dove off the tower and dug in like she was starving. Poor cat. Sunny scratched her head, but she growled. She did not like being touched while she was eating. “Fine, be solitary. Come find me when you’re done.” Griz glanced up at her, licking her lips, and saying Go avay. I vant to be alone, with her eyes. The standoffish feline had probably had enough of humans for one day.

  She headed out of the laundry room, and followed voices down the hall toward the kitchen.

  “Braxton is more sophisticated than he was last time I had to deal with him,” Eve was saying. “A GPS isn’t anything I’d have credited him with having the brain power to think of. Much less planting one where I couldn’t find it."

  "You couldn't use like...a sweeping device?" Jason asked.

  "Sure, if I had one in my back pocket."

  Jack said, “We should’ve let him catch up, and given the local law a heads-up.”

  Eve looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “And then what?”

  “We induce him to commit a crime,” Jack said. “Like, I don’t know assaulting a McIntyre? Or maybe a federal agent?”

  Eve tilted her head to one side. “I notice you’re not suggesting we let him pound on your pretty face, Jack.”

  “Well, no. Assaulting an ex-con isn’t gonna carry any weight.”

  Sunny said, “I know you guys are all wound up, but I’d really like to get a few more hours of sleep before sunrise.”

  “Yeah, us too,” Eve said.

  Jason said, “Me three. When you guys finish your snack, go upstairs, turn right, and pick any rooms that are unlocked.”

  “His mother keeps them all stocked with new toothbrushes and bath stuff for guests,” Sunny said. “It’s like coming to a hotel, only better. You should check out the pool if you’re here long enough.”

  Jack clapped his hands. “Oh, hell yeah. But where are the butlers and maids and ass wipers?”

  Jason rolled his eyes and left with Sunny. He stopped outside his bedroom door. “Is it wrong that I’m nervous letting Jack roam around my mom’s place unsupervised?”

  “It would be wrong not to,” she said. “But he’s a con man, not a thief. And Eve is keeping a good eye on him. An awfully close eye on him, actually." She frowned, wondering what that was about.

  “Mom’s good silver comes up missing, she’ll shoot me.” He smiled at her. “We’re gonna figure this out. Things’ll look better in the morning.”

  “I bet they will.”

  They stood there awkwardly for a moment. Then he blurted, “I hired Riley Everett to investigate your background."

  She was so stunned she couldn't answer right away. It took her a beat. “You had me investigated by my best friend’s sister-in-law?”

  “Ex-sister-in-law. And yes, I did. So, I knew about your father. Just the headlines though. I didn’t know you were the reason he was convicted, or that the man he killed was your first love. And I’m real sorry, Sunny. Sorry it happened, and sorry I didn't just wait for you to tell me yourself. I thought you were in danger. I thought I could help."

  "Well, I was. And you have. And I suppose hiring Riley was better than hiring your sister Melusine."

  "Step-sister, and you're right. Mel wouldn't have been as objective."

  "I love that about your family."

  "They're your family, too." He shrugged one shoulder. "You know, if you want 'em. Anyway, I'm gonna take a shower. If you still want to stay with me tonight–"

  "I do."

  "You're not mad?"

  She shook her head. "How big a hypocrite would I have to be, to be mad?" She stood on tiptoe, kissed him softly. "Take your shower. I'm gonna go downstairs, see if I can coax Griz to come up here with us. I've missed her."

  "I've missed her, too, but don't tell her." He sent her a wink and went into the bedroom, straight through the bathroom, dropping trou on the way. He looked over his shoulder at her in all his bare-assed glory, winked, and then he closed the bathroom door.

  She was smiling as she walked back to the stairway. She was actually feeling hopeful. Maybe her life as Sunny Cantrell really wasn't over. Then again, not everyone in Big Falls was going to be as understanding as Jason was. Even if she could escape her brother's wrath once and for all, the community might never accept her again. They were upright people.

  She thought about how everyone secretly mistrusted Jack Kellogg, because he'd done time. And conned the town out of millions once. But Kiley got it back for them. She didn't want to be looked at the way Jack was. She couldn't run a business if people thought she was a racist like her father and her brother.
/>   She wandered through the ground floor, calling "Hey, Griz. Where are you kitty?"

  A soft meow floated from the back of the house, so she headed that way. Griz sat at the big glass patio doors, swiping her paw over the glass. Beyond them a curving flagstone patio stretched out all the way to the pool.

  "Ah, honey, I'm afraid you'll get lost if I let you out." She went to the glass doors and picked up her cat. She heard laughter, noticed the pool lights were on and Jack and Eve were splashing around in the water.

  Seeing Eve so relaxed made Sunny realize she'd been relaxing too. Braxton didn't know where Jason's mother lived. He'd have no reason to come here, and no way to follow them. Not with the precautions Jack and Eve had taken. She stroked her cat, holding her in one arm.

  "We're really safe, aren't we, Griz?"

  Griz brought a hind leg forward and started digging at her collar. "Whoa, whoa, hey, easy now." She stopped her from scratching herself, then frowned at the spot she'd been digging, which was missing a little bit of fur. "Oh my poor kitty! You dug your hair out. What is going on with your collar?" She took hold of the pretty collar with its fake diamond studs, found the buckle, and undid it. Griselda twisted out of her arms and jumped to the floor. She shook her head rapidly, happy to have the thing off, Sunny surmised. She turned the collar over to see what was irritating her, and spotted it right away. It was a little round electronic button.

  A loud crash came from out front, then a roaring motor, and before she could even react, the nose of a full-sized SUV smashed right through the patio doors. Glass exploded and she scrambled backward raising her arms over her face, tripping and falling on her ass.

  Two guys got out, grabbed her wrists and dragged her through the broken glass. They shoved her into the front seat. Eve was shouting and racing toward them as the vehicle lurched backward, then surged around the house to the front.

  "How's the rich boy's fancy-ass security doing now, Mary Sunlight?"

  It was the same guy. It was the same guy who'd held her down while her brother tattooed her head. There'd been Landry Mason and Major. Eve should've shot to kill back then, rather than leaving them wounded on the floor of that abandoned garage where they'd taken her. They were already bounding over the smashed-in gate and onto the road. Jason came racing out the front door, barefoot and shirtless, but it was too late.