Dead or Alive (16 page)

“I don’t, damn it!”

He chortled.

“But I admit it does have a ring to it.”

Remy laughed genuinely, his entire face lighting up.

“What was your girlfriend’s name?”

“I didn’t have girlfriends.  I had… acquaintances.  Conquests.”

“Understandings,” she offered.

“Precisely.”

“Ugh.”

His face grew surprised.  “What was that?”

Her nose curled up.  “I never pictured you as one of those.”

“One of those?”

“Yeah, one of those guys.”

“I assume you mean the kind of guy who has the balls to be honest with a woman about the fact that he only wants casual sex?  The kind who isn’t willing to enter into a relationship built on false circumstances, just to get her to spread her legs?  The kind who doesn’t build a woman up with lies only to leave her alone and heartbroken the next morning?  That kind of guy?”

Violet had to give it to him. “Well, when you put it like that…”

“I wasn’t looking for a serious relationship, and I was honest with the women I saw about that.”  He trailed off, just watching her.

“Why didn’t you want a serious relationship?”

“I had one in high school.  It followed me to the military.  It ended badly.  I’m not willing to put myself through that again, and I’m certainly not willing to mislead the woman I’m sleeping with into believing I am.  Every once in a while they’ll mislead themselves, and remind me why I never wanted a relationship in the first place.”

Violet was now glaring at him.  “Did she cheat on you?”

Something it Remy’s eyes shifted.

She didn’t press him.  “And you’re 29 now…”

The unease vanished, and he was smiling at her once more.  “I’m 29.”

“Same as me,” she beamed, still amazed at his age. “You look so much younger.”

“I’ve heard that.”

“That’s your cue to tell me that I look way younger, too.”

Remy cast her a look, then tilted his head to the side while squinting his eyes shrewdly.

“I hate you,” she grumbled, hearing his soft laughs as she twirled her plate. “So Virgin hired you when you were… 23?”

“Yes.”

“And you haven’t had a girlfriend since you were… 22?”

“Are you sure you’re not interviewing me?”

“Seems like a long time to not be in a serious relationship.”

“Not what I’m looking for.”

“Clearly.”  She rolled her eyes.  “Just seems like seven months behind bars would be more than enough to make a man come to his senses.”

“Now I’ve lost my senses?”

“Maybe you never had them.”

“You seem irritated with me.”

“I’m always irritated with you, Remy.”

“The feeling is very mutual.”

That damn smile was still on his face, and it was beginning to make her squirm.

She actually did just that in her seat, squirmed.  She realized it was because her panties were wet.  Before she could look at him for another moment, allow him another second of power over her body, she gathered up their plates and headed to the sink, holding her breath when she felt his hands on her waist from behind almost instantly.  His breath was warm on her ear.

“I enjoy you, Violet. I enjoy being around you, and I would love it if we could enjoy each other, as woman and man.  But I’m never looking for more than that.”

The dishes and sponge shook in her hands as he swept her hair off of her shoulder and began kissing down her neck.

“Who said I was looking for more than that?” she asked.

“Are you?”

Her neck was home to some of her weakest nerve endings, spots that sent moisture racing straight to her center, he was hitting all the right ones.   Without answering, she dropped the dishes and sponge, clutching the sink in a death grip.

“I haven’t stopped thinking about you for one fucking second.  It’s torture… lying beside you, aroused beyond belief, and not being able to do a damn thing about it. ”

Her chest heaved.

He buried his head into her neck, again, sucking softly at the skin there.  “What about you, huh?”  He tongued the patch of skin on the back of her neck that’d had her panting a moment earlier, sucking the slightly salty skin between his lips as he felt her panting increase from where he was holding her tight stomach. His hands traveled under her shirt and to her naked breast, palming them appreciatively. “When’s the last time some lucky guy bent you over, and gave you what you needed?”

“I told you.  I don’t… need… anything… man can’t give me… that I can’t give myself.”  She realized she was rambling, and he must have realized it, too, because he slid one hand passed her pajama shorts, her panties, and found her clit with ease, flicking it so softly that beautiful firecrackers exploded behind her eyelids.  Her body came to life from head to toe, begging for more.

“You don’t need this, V?”  His breath continued to come hot and heavy on her ear, suckling it between his lips in time with his fingers as they worked her sweet, slippery nub, twisting her nipple under the busy hand that was still hidden under her shirt.

“No,” she gasped hardly even believing the words herself.

“What about this?” he slipped two fingers inside, holding her body to his with his free hand when her hips and knees both buckled.  Inside her wet channel his fingers brushed against the soft walnut that he knew was guaranteed to make her scream, while his thumb found her clit once more.  “Maybe I should stop, V, since you don’t need this.”

“Oh… god… don’t….” Her chest heaved.  “Don’t stop, Remy.”

“I’ll never stop, baby.” He held her body fast to his as she screamed her release, gritting his own teeth when the walls of her pussy tugged at his fingers, unable to comprehend what kind of heaven it would be if his dick was there in their place.

It took Violet quite a while to come down, and her body ran through several after-shocks and glorious spasms from where she was bent over the sink.  She could vaguely feel his lips as he kissed up and down her shoulder, as if he were coming down from his own high.

She touched the back of his head as her eyes fluttered open. Her vision focused slowly.

Just in time to see another pair of eyes.  A pair of eyes watching her from outside the kitchen window.

9

A blood chilling scream leapt from Violet’s lips, and she launched her body away from the counter, sending she and Remy stumbling backwards into the kitchen table.

As his own eyes widened from the shock of being pulled out of their revere, Remy’s eyes followed Violet’s finger as she pointed to the window, and he caught sight of a mess of black curls just before they disappeared out of sight.

They weren’t alone.

Remy launched out of the kitchen, and Violet was right on his heels.

“Hey!” Having one more good leg than him, it didn’t take Violet long to out run—or out-limp—Remy.  As she was rocketing down the porch steps after the little boy who she’d just seen in the window, Remy had barely made it out the door.

Violet raced after the boy, taking in his blue jeans, tattered grey sweatshirt, and the back of his curly black head.  He was a fast runner, but Violet hadn’t done four years of track in high school for nothing, and within minutes she was grabbing hold of the hood on the young boys sweatshirt, pulling it back until he lost his footing and fell into the grass.

“What the hell was that you little pervert?  You think it’s cool to spy on people?”  Violet suddenly looked around her.  This house was secluded, there wasn’t another for at least two miles, both ways.  “What the hell are you doing at my house?”

“I’m sorry, I just come here to smoke weed sometimes. I swear. Nobody’s ever usually here,” the boy said, holding his hands up to cover his face.  “I’ll go, I’ll go!”

“Do you know who I am?” she asked.

With wide eyes, the boy shook his head.

“Do you know who that man was?”

He shook his head, again.

“Good.  I’ll make you a deal.  This is my house, and I’ll be gone in a week. I’ll let you keep coming here to smoke your weed, and I won’t tell anyone, so long as you don’t tell anyone that you saw us here today.”

He sputtered.

Violet nodded softly.  “We got a deal?”

He took several deep breaths, exhausted from running his ass off.  “Deal.”

“You didn’t see anyone here, right?”

He shook his head no.

“Good. Keep it that way, you hear?”

A frantic nod.

“Go on.” She pushed him softly, watching as he broke into a run, again, his long skinny legs leading him to disappear from sight in moments.  Violet waited until he was completely out of sight, her body turned halfway towards the house as she watched him move.  Just as she was about to turn and make her way back, her eyes zeroed in on a spark of silver gleaming up at her from the grassy dirt at her feet.

With a frown, she swept up the object, fighting a smile when she realized it was a cell phone.  It must have fallen out of the little pervert’s pocket when he’d tumbled to the ground.

Violet instantly flipped it open.  Surprisingly, he didn’t have the phone locked. After a bit of tinkering around Violet concluded it was one of the cheap pay-by-minute phone you got at the department store. It had seven and a half minutes left.

She almost yelped in glee.

Instantly, she dialed the one and only number she knew by heart.  Her hand shook as she brought the ringing phone to her ear.

“This is Miles.”

Violet couldn’t help it.  Tears came to her eyes.  The sound of his voice was one she hadn’t even realized she’d been missing in the weeks she’d been gone.  She’d been so consumed with Remy that the people in her life who were surely falling apart with worry had been delegated to mere afterthoughts. There simply wasn’t enough of her, emotionally, to worry about Remy and her loved ones at the same time.  It had to be one or the other.

For now.

That didn’t stop her from becoming overcome with emotion at the sound of Miles’ voice.  She hadn’t known before all of the madness happened, but Miles was her best friend.  He was also the only person at the station who she knew didn’t have caller ID at his desk.  She used to make fun of him for his insistence on living in the dark ages, but she was now thanking the high heavens for it.

“Miles!” She almost leapt right out of her skin.  “It’s Violet!” She recognized that she was screaming, and calmed herself down.  She was just so damn excited.

She heard the chair he must have been sitting in creak against the linoleum floors on the other end of the line. “Violet! Shit.”

She could hear him rustling around, probably tearing apart the studio to get to the door, to go warn others that he had her on the phone.

“Miles, I need you to listen to me, I don’t have a lot of time.  Remington Archibald is innocent, and I need you to look into the crewmembers who were working his trip at Virgin the day Meredith was murdered.”

A long silence came from Miles’ end.

“Miles? Hello?”

“Violet…” Another long silence.  “Remington Archibald is not innocent. He put a gun to your head.  He dragged you out of the courtroom with a gun to your head.  You’re asking me to help him?  Is this a fucking joke? Where are you?  I’m sending someone to help you right now.”

“No,” she screamed.  “It’s not a joke
,
Miles, and you can’t tell anyone that I’m trying to help Remy.  Do you want me to go to prison for harboring a fugitive?”

“Violet, I want you to come home.  We’re all worried out of our fucking minds.  We thought you were
dead.”

“I know.  And I’m sorry.  I promise I’ll explain everything later, but right now I need you to gather information that I don’t have access to right now.  You’re always the one telling me to trust my instincts, right? Well, I’m asking you to do that for me now.  Trust me, please, and find all the information you can on flight attendants Carrie Cochran, Amy Anabella, and first officer Jake Patterson.  Do you have a pen?  Did you get all that?” She repeated the names one more time, just in case, praying that Miles was writing this down.  By the silence still coming from his end of the line, it seemed he was.  “Those were the last people, besides Remy, who saw Meredith alive.  I also need the names of any hotel employee who was working at The Hilton in Redding that night.  Front desk agents, waitresses, housekeeping, I want every single name of any person who was on the premises that night.”

The silence continued on Miles’ end.  Violet could almost see him shaking his head.

Her eyes narrowed wildly.  “And, Miles? This is a burner phone.  It’s not mine.  I got it off some kid. So don’t bother trying to trace it.”

Miles took a deep, dramatic breath to exemplify how not okay with all of this he actually was.  “Fine, V, fine.  Just… are you
absolutely sure
you’re okay?”

“I’m fine.  I’m almost out of minutes. I’ll call you back in a few days.  Please try to have something for me.  I’m hanging up now--”

“I--”

Click.

***

Pushing her way through the front door of the house, Violet tucked the phone into her pocket.  “Remy?” she called out, finding the living room and kitchen completely empty.  Gingerly, she climbed the steps to the top floor and pushed open the door to her room, and her mouth dropped at the sight of her bedroom in complete disarray.  Drawers pulled open, clothes strewn about, bed turned inside out.  Her things were everywhere.  In the distance, she could hear rustling in her bathroom, and jetted to the door just in time to find Remy tearing apart her cupboard.

“Remy, what the hell are you doing?”  Her wide eyes flew all over the bathroom, then her bedroom.  “My room is absolutely destroyed!”

“Where are the keys?” Remy grumbled, not bothering to stop in his search, his eyes squinting with steadfast determination.  When she didn’t answer, he finally stopped moving, allowing his blue eyes to meet hers.  “Keys,” he said.

Violet immediately crossed her arms over her chest, shutting herself off from whatever insane place he’d spiraled into in the short time she’d been gone.  “I’m not telling you where the keys are.  All you’ll do is take them and try to do something stupid. Like leave this house with a bum leg, and attempt to figure all of this out on your own.  When are you going to get it through your head that you need me, Remy?”

Fury reddened his jaws.  “I don’t need you.”

“You need me!” She heard herself crying out the words, and couldn’t shake the nagging voice in the back of her mind reminding her that Remy didn’t just need her.  She needed him.

“Violet…” Remy’s voice remained calm, but his eyes grew more rife with impatience with every second that passed.  “Some kid knows that we’re here.  It’s only a matter of time before he tells someone.  I can’t stay.”

“Exactly.” She sighed. “He was just some kid.  Scared the shit out of me, too, but… he didn’t recognize us.”

“Oh no?  And how do you know that?”

“I asked him, and he said he didn’t.”

“Not good enough. Where are the keys to the truck?  Tell me.”

“And if I told you, where would you go?  What would you do?  You still have a good week until that leg is in even remotely working condition.  There’s no point in us risking going out in public when your leg is still such a big hindrance. The kid could barely put two full sentences together, I doubt he watches the news.  Please relax.  No one is going to find us Remy.”

“Violet, there is
no us
.” His voice finally rose.

She tried to stop the destruction the words did as they tore through her, but it was no use.  She’d allowed herself to get in too deep, and there was no way to stop the damage his words immediately did.  By the grace of god she managed to bite back tears, and as their eyes searched each other’s for a long, quiet moment, fighting, pushing, Violet turned away from him.  She quietly made her way into the room.  She didn’t tell Remy to follow her, because she knew that he would.

Leading the way through her tattered bedroom, she pulled open the door of the closet, which he’d yet to get his hands on during his raid of her bedroom.  While looking over her shoulder at him, she produced a small brown leather jacket, and shoved her hand in the pocket.

The immediate jingle of keys filled the air, and Violet pulled them out.  She held them in front of Remy and shook them to life in between them.  “Here they are, Remy.”

He stared at the keys in her hands with a mix of desire and pain.  She shook them again, and the action caused the arm of her oversized t-shirt to fall off her shoulder.  So dangerously low that he could see the beginnings of the supple peak of her heaving breast. Her shoulder was exposed, glistening and utterly likable.  All of her was.  He’d dreamed of what she tasted like, every inch of her, and struggled with the reality that it was a dream he would never realize if he walked out right then.  He jammed his eyes shut.

“If you really believe you can do this all without me, here they are.”  She held the keys out to him for a moment longer, and when he didn’t take them, she clutched them in a fist at her side.

A moan escaped her lips when he suddenly closed the space between them and covered her lips with his.  His mind immediately told him no, and he vocalized the internal battle with a gentle moan as he sucked her bottom lip into his mouth.  Entranced, he took her parted lips, took control, and yanked an arm around her waist with eagerness.

She immediately pulled back with a gasp, craning her body away from him even as he pulled it tightly against his.  Cupping his jaws in her hands, she let her eyes search his.

“Tell me,” she demanded, her lips a whisper from his.  He leaned into her, his own mouth parted and hungry for more, but she pulled back.  From where he was holding her waist tight to his, she could feel his erection pushing hard against her stomach, and she pulled out every inch of will she had to fight her desire.  “Say it, Remy.”

His eyes went from bright blue to a bluish black, reminding her of the inky ocean that they’d leapt into together not even two weeks before.  He couldn’t even swim to the surface on his own back then, now he was holding her to him with the strength he’d been fighting so hard for, but had been so unable to display.  Even if he was stronger physically, his surrender was clear in his eyes, as honest and as sure as the black waters that had almost claimed them.

Licking his lips, his voice shook as he spoke.  “I need you, V.  I need you more than I’ll ever need anything else, again.”

She was the one to close the space between them this time, lunging at him and wrapping her arms around his neck, taking his lips in a passionate kiss.  He accepted her with a moan.  They parted their lips in time, as if trying to eat each other alive.  Bending slightly at the knee, Remy locked his arms around her waist, taking her feet off the floor as he stood tall.  Her legs went around his waist naturally, without thought, and his bad knee instantly protested, sending them falling to a heap on the floor, never breaking their kiss.  He landed between her splayed legs and thrust into her unconsciously, so hungry for everything she had that he barely felt the soft sting of pain that instantly raced up his leg.

Feeling his hardness against her, she took her lips from his with a smack, and caught his eyes.  “I need you, too, Remy.  So much.  I need this so bad.”

Her hands felt like fire on his chest, and he took her wrist in his hand, bringing her fingers to the bulge in his sweats. “There.” He pushed into her hand. “Please, V. Touch me there.”