Chapter Twenty-One
Avery
The dry-cleaning shop was empty except for Ellis, who was behind the counter. How he managed that disappearing act, I didn’t know. Hopefully, the family wasn’t tied up in the back somewhere.
I had less than an hour before Devin was going to pick me up for our flight to Miami. In between working with Greta, I’d managed to put together several proposals surrounding child care services and medical that I wanted to show him on the plane. I thought if I could tackle two big ones before my assignment was terminated, I’d at least feel somewhat better about my life’s choices.
“What have you found out about Agent Archer?” Ellis turned away from me and pretended to be checking hanging clothes as the automated pole circulated around.
“Nothing you’ll want to hear.” I turned to look out the window behind me.
“Tell me.” Ellis glanced over his shoulder at me.
“I checked his calendar and he wasn’t in the country at the time of Agent Archer’s death.” I rested my fingers on the counter and leaned in. “In fact, all of his brothers and his mother were with him in Quebec for an uncle’s wedding.”
“His calendar entries could have been faked.” Ellis turned back to the rotating ring of clothes.
“Absolutely, which was why I checked all of his scanned credit card statements that were turned into accounting. He was making charges in Quebec, along with his family. I know you want to put him at the scene of the crime, but he wasn’t there. I’m not sure why you thought he was at Oyster Cove when this murder was committed.”
He ignored me and went on.
“Seldom do these men do the dirty work themselves,” Ellis snapped, and an unpleasant sensation sat in the bottom of my stomach.
“I’d imagine that to be the case.” I nodded, thinking back to the times I’d known of their problem-solving techniques, and I’d say it was about fifty-fifty. “But what makes you so certain the Volkovs are involved?”
Ellis straightened his spine and spun around slowly. “Am I sensing apprehension?”
“About what?”
“It seems like you tend to give the Volkovs the benefit of the doubt more often than not.” Ellis’ gaze moved over my shoulder, and I turned around to see a woman who looked vaguely familiar standing on the sidewalk. “Has getting involved with Devin made you compromise your work?”
A flush of anger rolled over me.
“The way things were explained to me by both you and Davis, my job is to collect facts. My role isn’t to decide whether anyone is innocent or guilty. I’m telling you that neither Devin nor his brothers actually pulled the trigger on Agent Archer.” I glanced at the clock on the wall. I had forty-five minutes until Devin showed up at my place. “You tell me what information to get and I’ll get it. What you do with it is up to you.”
Ellis drew in a deep breath and went back to the clothes, pushing the button to make it spin again. I think he liked playing pretend more than I did.
“You’re headed to Miami. One of their top men lives there. He specializes in doing their dirty work while simultaneously making things clean. He’s supposed to be retired, but we haven’t seen any evidence of that. His name is George.”
“You want me to find out if he was near Oyster Cove?”
“Sure do.” He hung a bundle of clothes wrapped in plastic on the rack at the end of the counter.
“Davis wants me off the case. Whatever you had me give her didn’t satisfy her.” I assumed Ellis already knew that, but I thought I’d throw it out there just in case. “If I’m ripped off the case too early, I won’t be able to go back to the department, and as we all know, that would be the least of my issues.”
The sickness in the pit of my stomach only grew. What if Ellis or Davis had nothing to do with Jenn or Agent Archer’s murder, and Ellis was right? Maybe Devin was responsible for the other two women. I pushed the sickening feeling aside. He wouldn’t do that. All the Volkovs seem far too sympathetic to women.
Unless they got in their way.
“I know that, and I’ll handle it.” My eyes snapped back to Ellis as he glowered at me. “The move to the new apartment couldn’t have come at a better time for you. It’ll get her off your back and make you more available to me. You’re going in deep, Hill.” My gaze moved to his, and I wondered if he knew about the agent that the Volkovs took care of. I knew better than to ask, but his reaction would tell me all I needed to know.
“Why are you feeding Davis false information?” I asked instead.
“She can’t be trusted. You saw that.” I thought back to the photo, and while it did look incriminating, I couldn’t be positive of what I saw. I couldn’t be positive of anything in my world at the moment.
My mind flashed to Devin, and I hated that it felt like he was the one I could trust, even though the logical side of my brain knew better.
“That’ll be thirty-seven dollars and ten cents.” His brows shot up as I dug in my wallet for a credit card he never ran through before sliding the clothes to me.
“But these aren’t—”
“Satisfactory for Miami?” His brow arched as I took the hangers with the dresses.
“You think of everything,” I mumbled under my breath.
“We try.” Ellis’ stare was cold as he whipped his hands back and the woman from outside walked over to the door. Her eyes connected with mine through the glass.
“Also, there’s a delivery that Devin’s picking up while he’s in Miami. If you can tell me what it is or get shots of it for me, I guarantee your time in law enforcement will be greatly rewarded. I’ll see to it myself.” Ellis faked a smile and I nodded, feeling uneasy about his last request. It was his delivery, off-handed and casual, not carrying the weight it really deserved.
“Fine.” I glanced at the clock and saw I had thirty minutes to get back to my apartment. It wasn’t until I was halfway there that I realized who it was that had walked into the store after I’d left. With her blonde hair now turned brown, it was almost impossible to recognize her.
Which meant Ashley worked with Ellis. So Jenn probably did too. A shiver climbed up my spine. I thought back to my conversation with Jenn. There were vague warnings laced throughout our conversation. Nothing concrete. She wasn’t trying to hide anything from Ashley or Jackie, and then she ended up dead.
As I turned down the block to my street, my heart felt heavy with uncertainty. I didn’t understand why I’d been picked for this assignment when there were so many factors at play and all of them seemed to be conflicting. I wanted to reach out to my superior, but I knew that would get me off the case immediately, if not canned completely.
After all, my superiors hadn’t done anything technically wrong. I was in the middle of two competing agencies with competing agendas. That was it. I couldn’t start imagining scenarios that put them at the scene of anyone’s crime beyond what I knew.
By the time I got inside, I wanted to crawl under the covers and pretend none of this was going on. I knew the Volkovs had a violent history. There was a clear pattern that I couldn’t ignore. Yet, it seemed as if every other agency had done so over the years, so why now the sudden interest?
I let out a frustrated groan, unwrapped the plastic from my new clothes, and stuffed the dresses into the open suitcase where I’d put in a few other items before I’d left for work this morning.
Life was never simple, and I suppose I wouldn’t want it to be, but the complexities of this particular situation had consequences that could be deadly.
What was Ashley doing at the drycleaners?
I sat on the bed and debated whether I trusted Ellis more than I trusted Davis. The more I thought about my choices, the more it became apparent that I could do nothing but move forward. When the Volkovs seemed like the more trustworthy bunch, it was a bad sign.
A slight smile had touched my lips merely thinking about Devin, and I shook it off immediately. No matter what I fooled myself into believing around him,
he’d do the same to me as anyone else if I got in his way.
But the same could be said for Ellis. The Volkovs had reason to believe that Jenn was murdered by the same guy who’d threatened me, and I highly doubted they would put themselves in jeopardy on incorrect information, which led me back to Ellis.
Davis might be caught up in something with the Volkovs, but she wasn’t a killer. I couldn’t be sure about Ellis.
Shit. I couldn’t be sure about Davis.
My phone buzzed, and I glanced at the camera, clenching my jaw. I hated being watched more than I ever realized. I glanced at my phone and my stomach fluttered, which only annoyed me more.
I didn’t even have time to get to the door before Devin was knocking and I was praying I could just make it through this trip.
I opened the door and he immediately brought me in, softly kissing my cheek before taking a step back.
“You’re still in your work clothes?” His brow arched and he glanced at my suitcase.
“Yeah. I had to stop at the drycleaners on the way home.” He moved past me, swiping another kiss on my cheek and making my desire to be around him even worse.
“You packed a swimsuit, right?” He asked, glancing over his shoulder.
“I don’t actually think I have one.” I panicked. I didn’t think it was that kind of trip. Although, I wasn’t exactly sure what kind of trip it was, but regardless, I had no swimsuit.
“We can pick one up if you need one.” He didn’t bother rolling the suitcase and just carried it over. “I thought you might like to lie by the pool or something while I took care of some stuff. It would be more fun, or at least I think it would be.”
Devin bent down, setting the suitcase on the floor, and brought his lips to mine, drilling every emotion I’d been trying to forget deeper. Feeling the tenderness of his kisses, and the way he swept his fingers through my hair—all of it made my life spin into a world I just didn’t understand. He slowly pulled away.
“So, am I sticking to my end of the deal?” His mouth turned up on the corners and my chest tightened.
He was so damn sexy, and sleeping with him didn’t make all those emotions go away. In fact, it made being near him worse.
Much worse.
Because all I could think about was his lips all over me.
“Deal?” I asked.
“You know. Not giving you the cold shoulder and all that after we made love. . .” He tilted his head.
I smiled and touched the back of my hand to the scruff lining his jaw. “Yeah. You’re sticking to your end of the deal.”
His smile widened. “Good.”
I grabbed a leather portfolio and stuffed it in my purse.
“What’s that?” he asked, picking the suitcase back up.
“I’ve been working on some proposals that I wanted to show you and your brothers for the new property.”
“But you’re still working full-time with Greta.” He shut the door behind us.
“Oh, I know. I’ve just been working on them at home.” Which was completely true. It kept me from going crazy endlessly speculating about things I had no control over. “It kept me from camping out at your doorstep for a repeat session.”
The elevator door shut and Devin gasped at the same time. I slid him a sideways glance just as the elevator stopped at the floor below mine and an older couple stepped on.
“I wish you had.” He slid his empty hand in mine, and my entire body hummed with the possibility of being with him again.
The elevators spilled us into the tiny lobby, and we made our way to the waiting car while I pretended that I wasn’t falling for him.
Because that would be the worst possible thing that could happen.
Viktor was waiting for us and took my suitcase from Devin and pushed it into the trunk while I climbed into the backseat. I glanced out the window and inhaled sharply.
Ashley was watching us from across the street.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Devin
Seeing the excitement in Avery’s gaze made the risk worth it. If we were going to continue to pretend we were who we said we were, then I’d happily play along if it meant spending more time with her.
Because I knew there would come a time when this was all over.
“Avery, where are you going?” I asked as she flipped around in the narrow aisle and gave me a puzzled look. “Your seat is right here.”
I pointed at the row of seats she’d already passed and her jaw dropped open.
“First class?” she whispered as if we needed to keep this seat assignment a secret. “Doesn’t that seem excessive?”
“No. It seems comfortable.” I picked up the pillow, bottled water, and chocolate bar on my seat and slid into the aisle seat. She’d just have to crawl over me to get into the window seat—by design.
“I should have known.” She apologetically slid by the passengers trying to make their way onto the plane.
“Better hurry it up or you’ll make a lot of people mad,” I called to her as she let a few more people by. “Don’t want the entire load of passengers thinking only a bunch of jerks buy first class seats.”
“They wouldn’t be mistaken.” She shot me an evil glare, which delighted me beyond all logic, before she quickly shot toward our row when the aisle had finally cleared just enough.
“Are you going to get up?” she whispered, smiling.
“Nope.” I stretched out my legs in front of me and she groaned.
“Figures.” She flung her purse on the floor in front of her seat and straddled me on her way to the window seat. “You should feel ashamed of yourself, treating your receptionist like this.”
A man sitting diagonally from me sneered in my direction, and I held in laughter.
If he only knew.
She grunted a few more times as she picked up her care package before plopping into her seat and giving an exasperated sigh.
As the line of people going to the economy class slowed, she bent over. “I feel extremely guilty. I even get a chocolate bar and bottled water.”
A flight attendant moved through the slowing crowd to hand us each a warm towel, and Avery chuckled.
“And then this?” She laughed harder.
“I’m sure if the guilt is overwhelming, you’ll be able to find someone back there to trade with.”
She rolled her eyes and flashed a coy grin. “I adapt very easily to my surroundings.”
“I’ve kind of figured that.”
Avery flashed me an odd look but didn’t let my words bother her too much as she grabbed her portfolio and pulled down the mini-table where she spread out.
“I think we can get a lot of work done,” she informed me.
I slid my hand along her thigh and leaned over her seat. “I was kind of thinking we’d leave work in New York for this trip.” Her gaze fell to my mouth before she caught herself. “I’m sure there are a lot of firsts we could cover at thirty-seven thou—”
“Don’t even think about it.”
“I’ve got an extra belt,” I whispered, and she giggled, throwing her head back.
I drew in a breath, not realizing how shaky it sounded until she cocked her head. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Sorry. I just don’t realize what all you do to me until it’s too late.”
“That makes two of us.” She relaxed in her seat and tucked one leg under the other while one of the flight attendants offered us drinks.
We both ordered a glass of wine and the flight attendant disappeared.
“I haven’t been completely honest with you.” I pulled Avery’s hand in mine.
“Yeah?” Her brows shot up.
“I don’t have much on the agenda beyond lying by the pool, making love to you, and maybe checking email once in a while.”
“So I will need a swimsuit.”
I shrugged. “Not if I can help it.”
“Yeah, right. This ass isn’t seeing the light of Miami sunshine.”
I laughed, an
d the flight attendant handed us our drinks. “I only have one quick thing to do, and then the time is all ours.”
“So why is it that you wanted me to come down here?”
“It was mostly an excuse to spend time away with you.”
The door shut, and the flight attendants began their safety lectures as our plane pushed away from the terminal. Avery kept her gaze focused in front of her, taking in all the instructions while I restrained myself from kissing her.
This was going to be an extremely difficult flight.
When they’d finally finished, we were about to taxi down the runway and I felt Avery’s grip tighten.
“Are you afraid of flying?”
“Hardly.” She gave me a sideways glance. “Okay, maybe I am, but that’s only because I really don’t have a reason to fly much.”
“I’m not judging.”
She turned to face me. “About that. Why don’t you?”
“Why would I judge you, or anyone, for that matter?” I took a sip of wine.
“Most people do.”
“I’ve told you before, Avery. I’m not most people. Life is too short.”
As the plane began its takeoff, I felt Avery’s damp palm squeeze my fingers harder than I thought possible.
“But I will say you’re stronger than you look.” I grinned, and she laughed, easing her grip only slightly.
The second it felt like the plane had evened out, her entire body relaxed. All the tension in her expression drifted away, and I couldn’t help but think about the other night. How amazing she felt. How connected I felt.
She let out a sigh of relief. “I can breathe again.”
“That’s always a good thing.”
She nodded and turned in her leather seat. “Whatever all the reasons may or may not be for bringing me down here, I want to thank you. Ever since I met you and your family, my life has gotten better.” Her gaze fell to the pocket of magazines in front of me. “A lot better, and I never expected that to happen.”
“I wish I could take the credit, but—”
Her gaze shot to mine. “I give you all the credit.”
Devin: A Romantic Suspense (V Mafia Series Book 2) Page 20