“I have no doubt you will, Detective. Good day.”
44
JAGG
Max whimpered in the back seat as my Jeep bottomed out in a pothole. I gripped the wheel tighter, barreling down the dirt road, a thick cloud of dust spinning up behind me, dissolving into an evening air that was as still as a rock. The sun hung low over the mountain peaks, a burning orange ball teetering on the edge of dusk.
The full moon was rising.
The Moon Magic Festival was tonight, and if the last twenty-four hours had taught me anything, it was that the stars were aligning for something big.Something bad.
My pulse hadn’t slowed since I’d leftDeja Brew,and in fact, had only gotten faster as I’d tried to dance around the red tape to get a warrant for Briana Morgan’s files. I’d left a voicemail with the judge, who’d called the chief, who then called my boss and had me stonewalled, engaging in a pissing match about who should submit the warrant. McCord was trying to delay it, to spite me.
He wanted me off the case. He wanted me out of a job.
Well, he had another thing coming.
I went to the judge’s house myself. His wife answered the door in a silk robe, told me he’d get back to me“as soon as possible”—then slammed it in my face with a tight-lipped warning never to bring work to her doorstep again.
The Max Jagger popularity tour was alive and well.
By the time I got pulled over for doing seventy in a forty-five on my way out of town, I knew I needed to cool off before I lost my badge—or worse, my temper.
To topall thatoff, I hadn’t taken a pain pill all day. Every time my hand slid to my pocket, I’d look at Max and think of Sunny and her subtle way of suggesting I was addicted.
My back was knots, new pains in my hips that I hadn’t felt before.
The woman was in my head. In my bloodstream.
My Jeep seemed to drive itself in one direction.
Not Frank’s Bar.
Not the gym, or my apartment.
Not to my brother’s.
To the bungalow where Sunny Harper was waiting for me.
I didn’t think, just drove. Just a few minutes with Sunny, a reprieve from my terrible afternoon, then I’d take Max back to my brother’s and then head back into town and sit in the Chief’s office until he pushed through the warrant.
The meeting with Briana Morgan hadn’t been a total bust. I learned that the Black Bandit had something to lose. Something that made him cut a deal.
A weakness—and I was good at exploiting weaknesses.
Two things bugged me, though. One, why didn’t she just come out and confirm that Kenzo Rees was the Black Bandit? Why so protective of him? Two, most importantly, what was she hiding?
Why?
I made a mental note to spend the evening looking into Miss Morgan, her social media, public records, where she went to school; anything to find a link that could lead to the Black Bandit, which could lead me to Kenzo Rees.
I needed to find the bastard.
I needed food.
I needed a shower.
I needed a freaking pain pill.
