“Good. Here’s what’s going to happen now. You’re notgoing to say awordabout this to anyone. Not a word. You got that? Not a single one.”
He nodded, eyes wide.
I continued, “You’re going to go home, stay home, stay out of this for a while. Tell Colson you’re still following me, whatever you need to do to appease him, but stay low until I find the Black Bandit. You got that?”
“We can pin it on him.” Darby’s eyes flared with excitement. “On Kenzo Rees, the Bandit. We can pin it on him. He shot Seagrave, then Griggs… while trying to get to Sunny, perhaps? It makes sense. It fits. We can pin it on him.”
“We can’t pin it on him until we find him, can we?”
He nodded, color beginning to return to his cheeks. “Okay. Yes.”
“Now, get home. Mouth shut. Man up.”
“Yes, sir.”
I turned to head back to the Jeep when?—
“Jagg?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
“Thank me when it’s over.”
Something in my gut told me the end was coming soon, but only if I wasn’t too blind to see it. I climbed into my Jeep, ordered Max in the back, and watched Darby—the mystery third person from Sunny’s attack—reverse down the road.
My stomach rolled.
I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it. The man who killed Julian Griggs was not only right under my nose, but washelpingon the case.
Why hadn’t I seen it?Why hadn’t I put that piece of the puzzle together? The kid had blood on his pants, for crying out loud, and I missed that. I didn’t evenconsider the very obvious fact that Darby fit perfectly into the timeframe and location to be the mystery third person.
I didn’t miss stuff like this. My entire career—my reputation—was built on noticing the smallest clues that everyone else overlooked. It’s what made me good at my job.
I was one mistake away from being told to turn in my badge. My life. The only thing I knew. Why, all of a sudden, wasn’t that my primary focus? My primary concern? Why wasn’t I doing everything in my power to keep my job, instead of sabotaging it?
There was only one explanation for my sudden insanity.
Sunny Harper. The beguiling fallen angel as enchanting and hypnotizing as a siren, sending men to their knees with a single sparkle of those green eyes.
She’d said herself that she wasn’t good for me.
She was right.
She was blinding me.
How many details had I missed since laying eyes on the enchantress?
The thought made me want to slam my fist through the windshield.
I was embarrassed.
Iwasslipping. Colson was right.
I was slipping.
And I knew why.
