He thought of the blood on Summer’s face. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine. Why did you freak out like that?”
He didn’t answer. “You should go back home before you get grounded again.”
“Where will you go?”
He rubbed his hands over his eyes. He’d had barely four hours of sleep in two days. “I’m supposed to be staying with my brother, but his house is kind of hectic.”
She frowned. “Holiday visitors?”
He laughed at the very idea. “Yeah. Oh, yeah. Holiday visitors, having a merry fucking Christmas.”
Impatient with his obscure humor, she said, “So why can’t you go to your dad’s? Are you afraid he’s going to hit you?”
He jerked away from her. “Shut up.”
“Fuck you,” she returned. “Do you think I’m stupid? I’ve seen your bruises.”
He stood, ready to leave her there. Then he remembered Lisette and reconsidered. “Come on. I’ll take you home.”
She lifted her stubborn jaw. “I can get home by myself.”
He paled at the thought of her wandering around in the dark last night, looking for him. “You shouldn’t be out at night on your own. It’s dangerous.”
“Why is it dangerous for me, but not you? You can sleep on the beach, but I can’t walk down it by myself? That is total bullshit.”
He couldn’t tell her why he knew she had to be extra-careful. “What’s that?” he asked instead, seeing the blue sweater she’d left lying on the sand.
“It’s your Christmas present, you stupid jerk.” She picked up another box and threw it at him. “Here’s another one.”
He gathered up the stuff and followed her as she stormed down the beach. The first rays of dawn were beginning to peek over the horizon, painting streaks of pink across the sky. “I have a present for you, too.”
She stopped, tucking a flyaway strand of hair behind her ear. “You do?”
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a tiny package wrapped in plain white paper. “Here.”
She opened it carefully.
“It’s nothing new or expensive,” he mumbled. “I just wanted to give you something, to show you…”
She watched his face, waited for him to continue.
Doing it right, he took her hand in his. “I wanted to ask you to be my real girlfriend.”
“All right,” she said with a shy smile. Studying the ring in the early-morning light, she saw that it was antique, silver, and engraved with a swirling design. “Where did you get it?”
He smiled back at her. “Out of a shark’s belly.”
Her jaw dropped. “No!”
“Yes. See if it fits.”
It did.
Gasping, she lurched up in bed, holding a hand to her belly.
A dream, she realized with relief. Just a dream. Her cell phone, the trigger of her nightmare, was ringing. With a shaking hand, she reached out to pick it up from the pile of clothes beside the bed. “Vasquez,” she growled, annoyed with Grant for interrupting what could have been a perfectly good sex dream.
“Brass is at your boyfriend’s right now.”
She kicked the blankets off her legs, stumbling over to look through the already bent vertical blinds. Sure enough, a police cruiser was parked in front of Ben’s house. “Why?”
“Anonymous caller reported a floater. Allegedly, it’s Lisette Bruebaker. Carly Fortune’s best friend.”
Her heart dropped. “No.”
“The body hasn’t been found, but Mrs. Bruebaker confirms that the girl’s been missing. She didn’t file a report, because Lisette isn’t that reliable as far as checking in. Mom figured she was just partying.”
“Nice.”
“Yeah. Guess who she was supposed to be staying with.”
Sonny wrestled her legs into sweatpants, shoved her feet into shoes. “Who?”
“Carly and Ben Fortune.”
Swearing, she hung up the phone and ran out the door. To her relief, the uniform was messing around inside his patrol car, playing with the radio. He wasn’t a detective, she noted. Just some beat cop collecting information.
Ben opened the door, taking in her frazzled appearance with a lazy smile. “Can’t wait to see me again?”
She smiled back at him self-consciously, wishing she’d had time to brush her teeth and fix her hair. “Actually, I was going to ask Carly if she wanted to go for a jog.”
Hearing the magic word (her own name) Carly came up behind Ben and put her hand on his shoulder. “Why is there a police car out front?” she asked, sipping something warm and fragrant from an earthenware mug.
Sonny managed a careless shrug.
“Have you had breakfast?” he asked, studying her bruised lower lip.
She resisted the urge to run her tongue over the split. “Not yet,” she said, glancing at Carly. “Is that coffee?”
“It is,” Carly replied. “Some of us real humans need caffeine in the morning. Do you like banana nut muffins?”
“I love them,” she said. “Did I mention I was going for a jog?”
“Yeah, I’m up for it.” Stretching one arm over her head, Carly gestured for Sonny to follow her back to the kitchen. “Are you going to show me some more of that karate stuff? It was so cool how you held back Dad last night.”
Sonny had polished off a cup of coffee and a muffin before the cop finally made it to the front door. When the doorbell rang, she excused herself, because she really did have to pee, but she also wanted a chance to eavesdrop for a moment upon her return.
After a quick trip to the bathroom, she skulked her way down the hall, surprised to hear that the policeman was inside. This wasn’t a doorstep interview. She stopped, back pressed against the wall, listening as the deputy continued questioning.
“Did Lisette say where she was going, or tell you what her plans were?”
Carly’s response was vague. “I never knew what Lisette was planning to do next. She was kind of unpredictable.”
“Did she have a boyfriend?”
“Sure. The whole senior class.”
“Anyone special?”
“No. She liked to date around. Did something happen to her?”
“Her mom hasn’t seen her for a while. It’s just routine.”
The officer’s statement seemed to put Carly at ease. That was a mistake, from an interviewer’s standpoint. “She’s always like that. When school is in session, she goes to class. On breaks, she’s like, all over the place.”
Sonny heard the sound of the deputy flipping paper on a wire-bound notebook. “You said you last saw her Friday night. Not Saturday morning?”
“No,” Carly answered quickly. “When I woke up, she was already gone.”
“Mr. Fortune?”
