Violet clicked her teeth. “Doesn’t bode well for you when there’s a dead girl in the picture.”
Remy shook his head. “No. By the time we landed, I really didn’t feel like going out for drinks, so I stayed in my room. Meredith stayed in, too, since she was still upset at what an asshole I’d been.”
“Kay, you might’ve been a little rude to her, but she needs to man the hell up. Honestly. It wasn’t even that serious, what you said.”
Remy sighed his defeat. “She was a sweet girl. Young. Sensitive. I hurt her feelings.” Remy shrugged. “She was just reacting honestly. She was just being true to herself.”
Violet took in his words, nodding slowly.
“Anyway, I went to bed, and woke up the next morning to meet the crew at the van. We sat in the van for ten minutes past our scheduled meet time. No Meredith. Not a big deal, people oversleep all the time. So I went to the front desk and asked them to call her room. No answer. I take the elevator up to her room and knock. No answer. I go back down to the desk and insist they open the door. The manager says they can’t do that. I argue with this asshole for another ten minutes before he finally gets the key. We go back up to the room together, we open the door and… well, I’m sure you know the rest.” He jammed his eyes shut. “I can still see all the blood. God, there was blood… everywhere.”
Violet was frowning deeply, nodding her head while simultaneously scribbling on her pad. She knew that Meredith had been poisoned, and the effects had caused her to vomit blood all over the stark white sheets and comforter just before her death. “So you knew she was dead the moment you saw her, right? You must have… with all the blood everywhere.”
“Even with the blood, she…” Remy opened his mouth to speak, and then faltered. “She looked like an angel,” he whispered. “An angel that wouldn’t wake up, no matter how hard I shook her. The hotel manager finally had to tear me away after doing twenty straight minutes of CPR.”
“Had you ever worked a flight with Meredith before?”
“No, never. I’d heard of her, though. The guys in the pilot lounge were always talking about the gorgeous new flight attendant.”
“Who talked about her?”
“Everyone. It would be impossible to zero in on one. She had good word of mouth, I’ll give her that.”
“You can’t name one guy who mentioned her?”
“If I named one I would have to name a hundred.”
“Did she and Jason ever date?”
Remy suddenly appeared impatient, and it was now clear why he was hesitant to give names. “Yes, he mentioned her. They might’ve even dated.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t want his name in this.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know.” Remy squinted at her as she scribbled. “Like I said, he would just be one of many… one of many pilots who were infatuated with Meredith.”
Remy’s loyalty to his friend was causing him to rapidly close off to her, so she made a quick switch. “Why did the police target you, of all people? Why not your first officer? Why not the other flight attendants?”
“The crew was out drinking all night, well passed Meredith’s estimated time of death. That was their alibi, and they vouched for each other. On top of that, several hotel employees told the police they saw ‘El Capitan’ going into her room in the middle of the night. They all testified. Pointed right at me. ‘Yes, he’s the one,’” He mimicked the many Spanish hotel employees that had sworn they’d seen him enter Meredith’s room. “He’s the one. El Capitan.”
“And you didn’t go to her room that night, at all? Even though she was the brand new, gorgeous, innocent flight attendant, who all the pilots loved?”
“Chambers, I went to my room and went straight to bed. I woke up the next morning and she was already gone.” He put his head in his hand with a laugh, shaking his head as he looked back up at her with his mouth in his clenched fists. “You know, I wasn’t even supposed to work that night? I picked up that fucking trip as a favor to another pilot. I didn’t even need the hours. I didn’t need the money. I picked up that fucking trip.”
Violet had never heard him curse so much, and it sent her senses racing but she still perked up as he hit her with a piece of information she hadn’t heard. “Who did you pick up the trip for?”
“Joe Piasta. He’s one of the most senior Captains at Virgin.”
“Did he know Meredith?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know him.”
“Why did he need the shift covered?”
“His kid was in the hospital, and he was desperate, so he emailed every Captain in the company who had the day off. I was the first to respond. I did him the favor, but I’ve never met him.”
“And he was confirmed to be at the hospital with his son the night Meredith died?”
Remy nodded. “Yes. The doctors, the nurses, and his family all vouched. His alibi is airtight.”
Violet scribbled furiously. “Your crew didn’t have your back in court. Why?”
“Why would they? I was the asshole who made Meredith cry. Every trip has a different crew, and none of us had ever flown together. They didn’t know me from Adam. I didn’t know them. Like I said, the city had a dead girl on their hands, and they needed a patsy. The D.A. needed his conviction. The crew needed closure for their own comfort so they can sleep easy on their next layover. Everybody wins.”
“Everybody but you.”
Remy ran his hand down the back of his head. “Yeah, that’s right.”
“Names of the crew members. All of them.”
Remy fired off the names like they were his own. “Carrie Cochran, Amy Anabella, and my first officer was Jake Patterson.”
“Would any of them have reason to set you up? Any reason why they would want to do this? Hurt you?” She bit her lip as she wrote down all of their names, her eyes rising back to his. “Did you have any enemies?”
“Honestly? No.”
“Anyone. Even if it was some kid in sophomore year Chemistry who got caught cheating off your test and you both went down for it,” she said, sprouting off some random scenario. “Anyone.”
Remy gave her the eye. “How do you know Chase Bustos? And it was freshman year Biology, by the way.”
“Be serious.”
“I’m serious, V. I’m a calm, cool guy. I don’t have enemies.”
“That you know of.”
The words sent chills down his spine, because she was absolutely right. Someone was out to get him, had set him up with the goal of tarnishing his name to clear their own. Someone out there was responsible for the fact that he was a wanted man who the police would take dead or alive. At that point Remy almost wished he did have enemies. That would make all of this so much easier to swallow.
“Tell me about all of the people who were in your life five years prior to your arrest. Anyone who so much as learned your name, I want their name, and their story.”
“That’s a lot of people. That’s the whole of San Diego.”
“Then it’s a good thing we’ve got nothing but time.” Violet continued chewing furiously on her bottom lip as her eyes fell to his leg. The blood was beginning to gush through his bandages. “First we should change your dressings, you’re bleeding right through.” She hopped out of the chair and took his arm. “Come on, let’s go to the couch.”
***
After thoroughly cleaning his wound with supplies she’d swiped from Barbara and Jason, Violet was relieved that he was already showing signs of improvement, however subtle.
She looked over at him from where she was pushed against the farthest corner of the couch with her legs tucked under her. He wasn’t much farther, so close in fact that the side of his long, strong thigh brushed against her knee every so often. His eyes fluttered shut from where his head was thrown back on the couch. He’d removed his t-shirt, and the skin that seemed to be constantly pulled taunt across his muscled abs from pure stress relaxed. For a moment
, he was gone. Completely gone. Violet was convinced he was asleep, but his eyes flew back open almost instantly.
“You can relax,” she said, waiting until he turned his head towards her. “Are you afraid to fall asleep because of the nightmare you had back at Barbara’s?”
Remy didn’t respond, but his throat moved as he swallowed.
“Do you have those kind of nightmares often?”
More silence.
She tucked her feet under her butt and hugged her knees. “You’re safe here, Archibald. And you need some real rest.”
“What I need is a plan.”
“You do, but first you need rest. There’s no way you can think straight if you’re constantly on the verge of collapse.” She looked over the couch to the staircase. “I have a pretty nice memory foam mattress in the master bedroom upstairs, king sized. The bed dressings are probably a little musty at this point, having gone unutilized for so long but…”
Remy didn’t give a shit about memory foam or musty dressings, because all he could contemplate was how perfect the word “bed” had sounded coming from her pretty full lips. She’d washed her face of the heavy make-up she’d been wearing, but her lips still had that peach tinge that held him captives. Full and luscious. He frowned, remembering what they’d tasted like, and how many beautiful ways he could put them to use on that musty memory foam mattress upstairs. She pursed them, and he couldn’t help but frown, unable to fight off the image of them suckling gently at the throbbing head of his dick. The thought nearly ended him.
The innocent gleam in her eyes made him wonder how she would feel if she had any inkling of the filthy thoughts running through his head.
“Do you think you have the strength to make it up the stairs?” she asked. “I can help you.”
He didn’t answer, still watching her with serious eyes, before shaking his head.
She pointed to the other end of the couch. “Would you mind passing me the duffle bag?”
He didn’t remove his hooded eyes from hers. With a coy smile, he shook his head, again.
“Ugh, fine.” She leaned over him, across his body, her ass high in the air as she swept up the bag. A soft gasp left her lips when, as she was falling back to her original spot, Remy took her arm, stopping her. They came almost nose-to-nose, their breath coming in time as their eyes danced silently.
The beds of his fingers traveled slowly up her arm, all the way to her collarbones, before following the path that the low dip of her shirt made. The shorts she wore now weren’t much longer than the dazy dukes she’d swiped from Barbara’s, and it had taken everything he had not to touch her all evening. The urge was one he could no longer control. His eyes fell to the cotton shorts that had been torturing him since the moment he’d caught her swaying in them, so short he was sure he could get his dick in without even taking them off.
“If you knew the thoughts running through my head, you’d drop me at the nearest precinct.”
Violet didn’t try to reclaim her arm. “When are you going to get it?” she asked for the millionth time. “Huh? You don’t scare me. I know you’re innocent.”
“No man is innocent. Every man is an animal… when he’s looking at a woman like you. Capable of anything.”
“You can’t climb a flight of stairs, you can’t even hold your head up right now. From a physical standpoint, you’re basically an infant, and you’re trying to convince me you’re capable of anything?” Violet reclaimed her arm, retaking her spot on the couch while reaching into her bag.
“I won’t always be injured, Violet. Like you said, the bullet just grazed me. It won’t take long for me to heal. Then…”
“Then what?”
“Then there’s nothing you could do to stop me. If I decided to take what I wanted.”
“Remy.” Her brown eyes bore into his. “This will never work on me. Let it go.”
He wondered how a woman who had known him for less than a week already knew him so well. Of course he would never hurt her, he wasn’t that kind of man, but she didn’t know that.
She should look at him and see nothing but a hardened criminal, a killer, a fugitive who couldn’t possibly be trusted with the gift of her tight ass in that pathetic scrap of cloth she called shorts. His eyes fell helplessly to her chocolate legs again. They spread apart in his wild mind like butter, exposing a glistening mound that begged for entry.
Violet absently pulled out a handful of notecards, leaning forward on the couch to tap them out on the coffee table, straightening the pile.
“Do you have any idea what you’re doing to me?” He asked, as she bent forward, ass in the air. “Do you have any fucking idea?”
Violet immediately sat back, fingering the cards as she met his eyes. She was sure he was trying to seduce her, hitting her with a look of such intensity she could almost see his eyes growing cloudy with something dark, and probably nasty.
“You know, those earrings really are beautiful.” His eyes went to the square-shaped, stud earrings that she never took off. He took one between his fingers before running them along the edge of her ear. Touching her was still an epic mistake, one he’d clearly yet to learn from, because the moment his fingers touched her ear he immediately wanted them everywhere else. The earrings were nowhere near as beautiful as she was, but Remy couldn’t risk telling her that. “Was Jason right?”
“About what?”
“Does someone like you a lot?”
In much the same way she had with Jason, whom she’d almost forgotten existed, Violet reached up and touched the earring, causing her to cover his hand with hers. Their fingers played together for an almost indiscernible instant before he pulled his away, but not before Violet felt the white hot spark that had flashed to life inside of her. She played one of her diamond earrings between her fingers, and wondered why the man who’d given them to her had yet to make her feel such a spark. She’d prayed for it every time he touched her, every time they kissed, made love, to feel that thing women are supposed to feel with a man who loved them deeply. The truth was that Violet had simply never felt the same way back. Her heart still churned, however, at the thought of her ex-boyfriend, a district attorney, probably sick to death back in Redding. “Yes, someone did like me a lot. My ex-boyfriend, Mark. Though I can’t imagine he likes me very much right now.”
Remy hoped his eyes weren’t awash with the relief that was crashing away inside of him. “Ex?”
She blushed down into her lap. “I left him the night before the trial. The night before you decided you needed a little company on your way out of the courthouse.”
“Why did you leave him?”
Violet sighed deeply. “He proposed to me.” Her heart hurt to say the words. “And I said no.”
Remy’s eyebrows pulled together.
“He bought these earrings when we first started dating, because he knew they were exactly what I pictured my future engagement ring to look like. Silver cushion cut halo. Elegant. Not too big, not too small, not too flashy.”
“Silver cushion cut halo? Sounds like a lot of words that don’t belong together.”
“Or… the only engagement ring that I will ever allow to touch my finger, or my ears.” She touched her earrings, again, and her eyes fell. “I said no to a man who remembered what kind of ring I wanted. I said no to a man who actually listened to me.” She was sure she might fiercely regret turning down Mark’s proposal one day, but that day had yet to come.
“You didn’t love him,” Remy remarked, not looking for confirmation. It was right there, clear as day, in her eyes. She seemed almost as relieved as he was that Mark was no longer in the picture.
“He was a good guy… and turning him down was another item on the never-ending list of choices my father will never forgive me for.”
“But you didn’t love him.”
“I didn’t love him,” she finally confirmed. “I loved how happy being with him made my father, and my father really loved Mark’s position, his status. He e
specially loved that Mark’s wealthy family were willing to make a sizable donation to the run for Governor my father’s been dreaming about his whole life.”
Remy breathed out a cynical laugh. “So dear-old-dad auctioned you off to the highest bidder.”
The softness in Violet’s eyes was quickly chipping away, replaced with something dark.
Remy didn’t like seeing it there. “No wonder you ran off with me,” he whispered.
Her eyes rose back up to his, and just as soon as it was there, the darkness had peeled away. “Is that how you’re remembering it?” She smiled. “Because I remember, pretty vividly, being dragged off, but whatever...” She trailed off with a shrug.
“What does Mark do?”
He seemed extremely fascinated by Mark. “He’s the D.A. that fought to put you away, but his real career is being the dutiable heir to a billion dollar family fortune, just as soon as his evil mother finally bites the dust.”
“Christ. Mark Jantz is your ex?” Remy buried his head in his hands. “I really did take the wrong girl. Is there anyone in your life… who doesn’t have the power to burn me at the stake the second they get their claws into me?”
“Miles, my best friend and cameraman.” Her smile grew. “He would never burn anyone at the stake. He’s very gentle.”
“Great.” He tittered. “Miles.” He remembered Miles from that day in the courthouse, and if that awkward, wide-eyed kid was the only person in Redding that was ready to support his redemption, Remy would be happy to take it. His eyes went to Violet, and his heart warmed at the thought of Miles not being the only one. Violet had already given him the warm gift of absolution, and he realized at that moment how precious that made her to him.
Dead or Alive Page 11
