His head snapped toward Violet when the sound of the boat roaring to life vibrated at his feet. She’d started the engine. “This is your second chance, Chambers. You can leave me now, and never look back.”
“No way. If I leave you now there’d be nothing left to stop that mall cop from shooting you dead if he finds you alone.”
“He’s a kid, he wouldn’t shoot me.”
She knew Remy was right, but she’d die before she ever let him know that. She met his eyes and, without another word, put her hand on the joystick of the boat. Her eyes shot up to him when Remy covered her hand with his own, stepping up next to her.
The move felt warm and protective. She smiled. “I know how to handle a speedboat, you know. Probably better than you, if your skills from earlier are any indication. Besides, you need to stay off that leg.”
Remy gently nudged her out of the way. “I’m not going to let them think you’re involved in this. If anyone sees you move this boat out of here, they could get you for aiding and abetting.”
“Not if you have a gun pointed at me while I do it. Then I’m just your terrified hostage.” Violet suddenly bent down and unzipped the duffle bag, shuffling through it before pulling out the gun that she’d tucked away during Remy’s shower. She held it out to him, watching as he took it gingerly, and let it fall lifelessly to his side. Her eyes searched his, and she flailed her arms. “Point it at me.”
“Why are you so crazy?”
“Point the gun at me. If anyone happens to see us, which I highly doubt, it’ll make it more believable.” She watched as he trained the gun on her with more hesitance than he ever had. When had he become shy about pointing that thing at her? He wasn’t even really pointing it at her, but at an area of the boat that was off to her right. She eventually forced him to lift it so it was pointing at her head, instead of the side of the boat. “Get it up here, pal. There you go. Right between the eyes. We’re going for believability here.”
“You’re so fucking crazy,” he mumbled, shooting the empty field another hopeful look out of the corner of his eye. Empty. His luck had run out. Violet Chambers would continue to be his unwelcome ally. At least for the moment.
Remy kept the gun high as directed, just as Violet steered the boat away from the dock. He kept the gun on her even as they zoomed out of sight.
***
“We have to lose this boat,” Violet said, some time later, from the controls. She looked back to Remy, who’d become ten times paler than he’d been before. With the starry sky as his backdrop, his skin looked just as white as the boat that carried them. She’d delegated him to map duty in his weakened state, but even the thin scrap of paper was beginning to flap out of control, dangerously close to flying right out of his feeble hands. The meds were either wearing off, or kicking in. She couldn’t tell which. Violet slowed the boat just long enough to take the map from his hand, tucking it into her back pocket. “And you’re not going to make it much farther. Barbara will be out for hours, but the cops are going to find that man in the water any minute, if they haven’t already. We’ve made some good ground, but we’re going to have to change our mode of transportation. Otherwise we’re just sitting ducks. I see a road just across the grass. I’m pulling over.”
She brought the boat to an awkward stop in a muddy corner of the marsh, and Violet hurried across the boat to Remy, whose head was beginning to bob slightly. She took his arm, and threw it over her shoulder, groaning as she pulled him to his feet.
He was getting weaker by the second, and in turn, giving her more and more of his weight to bear.
They began to move across the wet, muddy ground and she was thankful she’d chosen to wear combat boots as they stumbled toward the broken road in the distance. She’d yet to see or hear a car moving down the road, and worry seized her. Maybe they’d stopped too soon.
“You’re huge,” she complained, stumbling under his weight.
“That’s what she said,” Remy mumbled, trying to smile. He couldn’t.
“You’re on the verge of death and you’re throwing out predictable puns like that? Remy, it’s not worth your life. Just shut your mouth.”
Remy did as he was told, mostly because his head was beginning to spin. He was thankful that the road wasn’t far from the muddy waters, and allowed himself to fall to his knees when they made it. Uncontrollably, his body fell into a thick smattering of tall grass, shielding him from sight.
“That’s perfect,” Violet said, sighing in relief when she caught sight of the headlights of what had to be the only car for miles on this road. It was a beat down white pick-up truck, and it was headed straight for them. “Just stay tucked away in that brush, and let me handle this.” She waved wildly as the white truck slowed, but didn’t stop. “I have this all under control.”
“Which one of us are you trying to convince?” His voice called out from the brush.
“Shut up.” She smiled sweetly as the truck pulled over next to her. A woman rolled down the passenger side window from the driver’s seat. Violet took in the woman’s bright blue eyes and boring brown hair, which had been hacked into a soccer mom cut from hell.
“Hello there.” Violet waved.
“Is everything okay?” the woman asked.
Violet thought about that question, then smacked her lips. “Actually… no.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
“Yes,” Violet beamed, thankfully. “You can get out of the car.”
The woman was stunned, then amused. Her laugh lit up her face. “Excuse me?”
Violet held her hands together in a prayer position. “I’m really sorry about this, but I really do need you to g--”
“Get out of the damn car.”
The sound of that awful gun cocking over her shoulder prompted Violet to groan in fury, turning to Remy. He’d come up behind her, bent over at the hip, still looking on the verge of death. Somehow he’d found the strength, however, to aim that weapon right into the woman’s car window.
“I told you to stay down. I got this,” Violet whispered, not even noticing that the, now terrified, driver had already opened the door. She climbed out of the car with her arms held high.
“Shut up. Get in.” Remy limped around to the front of the car, using the hood as a crutch. The headlights illuminated the bloody stain on his bandages with horrifying clarity.
“Get in? Just like that?” Violet watched him with a smirk. “You’re not going to try to get rid of me?”
“No energy,” Remy grumbled, once he’d made it to the driver’s side. He looked at the woman, still pointing the gun at her. “Phone,” he said.
Without question, the woman dipped a hand into her tattered jeans pocket and produced her cell phone, handing it over. “Are you just going to leave me out here? It’s the middle of the night. This road can go deserted for hours at a time…” Her eyes searched his face as she spoke and, soon, she seemed to have completely forgotten what she was saying. A smile of disbelief hit her face. “Wait a second. Aren’t you… Remington Archibald?”
Remy raised an eyebrow. Without answering, he climbed into the driver’s seat of the truck and didn’t even wait for Violet to get both of her legs in before he sped off down the road.
“You’re lucky you’re cute,” Violet said to him minutes after they’d sped away, kicking up huge clouds of dust as they went.
Remy thought about ignoring her, but his curiosity got the better of him. “Where did that come from?”
“You’re a man who’s just been convicted of murder. A man who’s kidnapped a poor, innocent, unsuspecting news reporter against her will.”
He raised another eyebrow.
“You’ve stolen a police helicopter, crashed it into the sea, boat jacked the poor bastard who saved you from an icy death in the water, set off a gun in some old ladies house and, yet, nobody is afraid of you.” Violet laughed from her gut. “It’s because you’re cute. You’re this blonde haired, blue eyed, ruggedly handsome guy who
has dimples when he smiles. Instead of fearing you, these crazy white women are building shrines for you! That woman whose truck we just jacked? She looked like she was ready to violate your cock right there in the middle of the dirt road.”
Remy had wondered if he’d imagined the flirtatious vibe that woman had been giving him back there. It’d been so long since a woman had so much as looked at him, he’d almost forgotten how to tell. Hearing Violet confirm that the woman was, in fact, flirting with him, made him smile softly. It disappeared in an instant.
“Is that why you won’t get the hell out of my life?” he asked. “Because you think I’m cute?”
“No.” Violet answered with bite in her tone. “It’s because I know that you’re innocent.”
Remy didn’t look at her.
He didn’t want her to see the tears burning his eyes.
***
Thanks to Remy’s penchant for direction, they were able to find their remote location on the map—nearly 300 miles outside of Redding, about 100 outside Suede Falls. The sun rose slowly as they made a boring, backwoods drive towards the city limits of Santa Cruz, but black clouds loomed low, stealing each and every ray, sending sprinkles of rain down with the promise of heavy storms later on.
Violet still didn’t know if it was the meds, or pure adrenaline, that was keeping Remy alive, but this boring drive was about to be the death of her.
“Is it really necessary for us to be tucked away on these back roads? I’m bored to death. And I happen to know for a fact that there’s a road on a narrow, coastal cliff right on the other side of those trees. It’ll look stunning next to the rainclouds.”
Remy knew the road on that cliff, as well. He’d taken it many times during the annual road trip to Fisherman’s Wharf that he took with Jason and other friends. His stomach churned with longing. “Can’t risk being on any major highways.”
“But everyone thinks we’re dead.”
“We can’t count on that forever.”
Without a word, Violet switched on the radio, having no doubt they were on every station. She pursed her lips at Remy when the first station that popped up was one discussing their situation.
--confirmed by Redding authorities that the fuselage was found hundreds of miles into the Pacific…
Still watching his face, the slow tightening of his jaw, and his complete refusal to meet her eyes, Violet changed the station.
--manhunt has not been called off, but authorities have confirmed that fatalities are likely.
She clicked to the next station.
--Coast Guard has come up empty handed in their search for Chambers and Archibald.
She clicked to the next.
--Chambers family say they are not giving up hope.
At the mention of her family, Violet immediately clicked the radio back off. When tears hit her eyes, she rapidly blinked them away, finding herself staring at the silenced radio in shock. Her friends. Her family. In her effort to prove a point to Remy she’d also blasted her own hair back. She’d been so wrapped up in the whirlwind she’d gotten herself into that she hadn’t even taken a moment to think about how selfish she was being, how worried her family must have been.
Looking at her for the first time since she’d turned on the radio, Remy watched the change in her, and was thankful for whatever DJ had brought up her family. Maybe that would be the catalyst in getting rid of her for good.
He tightened his hands on the wheel. “The only way I’m getting on a main road is if you want me to drop you off on one. You’ll be found faster that way.”
Violet snapped her head towards him, not missing the way he was trying to manipulate her. Her family was her biggest trigger, that was no secret, but she wasn’t going to allow him to take advantage of that weakness. She had a goal to think about. A career. “When are you going to get it? I’m not going anywhere, Archibald.”
His jaw tightened further, and he looked back to the road. “That soccer mom we stole this truck from has probably already called the cops.”
“We took her phone and tossed it. I doubt she’s even been found. She told us herself that hours could go by without a vehicle in sight on that road.”
“Someone is going to find her eventually, Chambers. They’ve already found Barbara.”
“Who not only has a shrine to you in her basement, but is probably still passed out. I told you, it’ll be hours before she comes to. Besides, I doubt she’d blow the whistle on you. If anything she’ll convince the police that this was all my idea, and that’s only if she sells us out, at all, which I doubt she will.”
Remy swallowed thickly. Why wasn’t Violet hearing him? “With the E.L.T I left him, they’ve surely found that man from the boat. And it’s only a matter of time before someone finds that woman on the side of the road. They won’t think we’re dead for long.”
“Yes, and by the time they realize we’re alive, we’ll be hundreds of miles away. Hell, we’re already hundreds of miles away. They won’t have any idea where to even begin looking for us.”
“If they want to find us, they will.”
Violet couldn’t argue with that. Thankfully, they’d managed to gain a sizeable head start that would be difficult to track, but like everything else in their situation, time was of the essence.
Even so, she quickly lost track of time as they drove. From behind the map, she made many requests for quick pit stops, all of which Remy turned down flat.
Growing hungry, tired and cranky, Violet had gone silent, much to Remy’s glee. The silence stretched on for quite a while before he laughed softly to himself.
Violet studied him from the corner of her eye. “What?”
“I just…” He laughed softly, again, clamping his nose between his fingers before clutching the wheel of the car. “I can’t believe that old lady almost shot us. That gun looked like it weighed more than she did.”
“Not so much fun, looking down the barrel of a loaded weapon, is it?” When he didn’t respond, she rolled her eyes. “The woman was a hell of an actress.”
“Someone please hand her an Oscar.” He laughed his agreement.
“She really had me convinced that she was some lonely old woman—all to lure you into her house. God only knows what she would’ve done to you if I hadn’t been there. It’s a wonder no one visits her. She’s insane.” Violet stopped talking when it occurred to her that she and Barbara really weren’t all that different.
Remy gripped the steering wheel in dismay, and tried to speak the gentle words that teetered on the edge of his tongue. Gentle words for Violet. For some reason he couldn’t speak them out loud. He wanted to, but couldn’t. Slowly, so slowly, his eyes began to flutter closed. They flew back open. No! He had to focus on getting them where they needed to be.
“Pull over,” Violet called.
He sat tall and threw her a look. “We can’t pull over, Chambers. We can’t pull over, we can’t stop at Target, we can’t stop for Hot Cheetos. What aren’t you understanding about me being a fugitive of the law?”
“You almost just fell asleep at the wheel. Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? God only knows what’s in those meds we stole from Barb. You’ve been half awake for this entire drive and I’ll be damned if you drive us off the road because you can’t keep your eyes open. Now stop the damn car.”
Remy finally pulled the car off to the side of the road, for no other reason than to get her to shut the hell up.
Violet slid across the long seat of the truck, and met Remy in the middle, climbing on top of his lap to get to the other side. For a moment, she was sure she felt something hard and fast against the back of her jean shorts and, as she tossed him a look over her shoulder, catching his eyes, his heavily lidded baby blues gave her all the confirmation she needed. Those meds may have been making him drowsy, but there were certain parts of his anatomy that clearly hadn’t been so strongly affected.
Blushing, she slid off his lap and into the driver’s seat, waiting for him to
collapse against the passenger side window before she started the truck and raced off.
“You better start being more careful about where you’re putting that gorgeous ass of yours,” he whispered. “You’re going to climb all over the wrong man someday.”
Violet listened to his slurred words, throwing him a look, catching his lidded eyes. “Pretty sure I already have.”
“Seriously, V…”
She smirked at ‘V’. He was definitely high on those pain pills. Remington Archibald didn’t use nicknames, or terms of endearment, especially not with her.
“V…” He licked his full lips. “You really are… so beautiful,” he whispered. His words began to blend together, each one running on top of the next before he could finish saying them. “So soft… and sensual… just beautiful…”
Violet clenched the steering wheel. “Thank god we swapped places, and apparently not a moment too soon.”
“I would do the most…. nastiest things to you. In the bed. If you let me,” he garbled.
“You are so completely delirious. You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“I haven’t touched a woman in a long time, V. Once my bum leg isn’t so bum anymore, god only knows what I’ll be capable of.”
“You’re threatening me? Trying to scare me? All while on the verge of complete collapse?” She had to laugh. “I see what you’re trying to do, and I admire your tenacity, but I’m not afraid of you, and I never will be.”
“Trust no man,” Remy slurred, giving her a shake of his head that quickly transformed into a bob of his head. He couldn’t even hold his head up. “So beautiful…” His words dragged to a stop as his chin slowly collapsed into his chest.
“That’s right, pass out.” Violet chortled softly, taking in the sight of his sleeping face. Her smile was gone as soon as it was there when she realized the poor guy probably hadn’t had a proper night’s sleep in at least seven months. He needed rest.
And she needed to figure out how she was going to prove to the country that Remington Archibald was an innocent man.
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