I headed for the conference room and, on a deep, steadying inhale, walked through the door.
Sunny didn’t flinch. She didn’t blink.
I was met with the same piercing gaze I’d received from behind the mirror. I had no question Sunny had known she was being watched, and by the spite in her eyes, she knew I was the one doing the watching.
I dropped a notebook and pen on the table. Walked past the chair. Stopped at her side.
She tilted her chin to meet my eyes.
Steady. Controlled. But loaded with defiance.
And I still couldn’t figure out why.
She’d been found standing over a body,holdingthe weapon. No shock. No panic. No attempt to explain.
Just silence.
Was it fear? Arrogance?
Or was she just… fearless?
12
JAGG
“Miss Harper I’ve got a lot of questions for you, but first, I’d like to know how you overpowered a man double your size.”
She blinked, the only indication that I’d thrown her off with an unexpected question. My specialty.
“Krav Maga,” she responded, simply. With thatvoice.Deep, sultry. Sinful.
“And where did you learn martial arts?” I forced myself to keep my eyes from sliding down to her cleavage.
“I taught myself,” she said, pulling me out of my pubescent thoughts. I was beginning to understand the lack of traffic tickets.
“Online classes?”
“A few.”
“Well, Miss Harper, I hope those classes offer a full refund because you apparently missed the most important part of Krav Maga. Rule number one is that the best way to win a fight is not to get into a fight, at all. De-escalate the situation and win through avoidance of conflict.”
“Some conflict is unavoidable.”
“That’s correct, but in your case, with me, it was avoidable. I asked you to put down the gun. Instead you tried to flee, causing me to tackle you, where you proceeded to fight me like a rabid raccoon, making me disable and cuff you.”
Her nostrils flared, her wrists twitching against the cuff.
“Why did you try to flee?”
“I had three guns pulled on me in under five minutes, Detective. When I heard the old man call me a murderer…” Her voice trailed off.
“Are you a murderer?”
“No.”
“So you ran because…”
She looked away.
