Interrogating the Bride

Caylee frowned. She wanted to tell him again that it was really none of his business, but she also needed a ride home. The last thing she wanted to do was call any of her family members and confess her stupidity to them.

“I met Jason about a month ago at the jewelry store I own, Rings and Things. It’s in the Oakridge Mall. Ever been there?” It was a stupid question. He didn’t look like a man who spent much time in a mall. “Anyway, he seemed charming and bright and when he asked me out, I didn’t see any reason not to go. So we’d been seeing each other for the last month, and then he suggested this trip to Fortuna. He told me his family had a place here and that I’d have my own suite of rooms.”

She realized she was rambling. She always chattered too much when she was nervous and it suddenly struck her that she had no idea what kind of man Micah Stone was, had no idea if she’d escaped from one psycho into the arms of another.

“Go on,” he said curtly.

He didn’t look like a psycho. But then Jason hadn’t looked like one either, and that man was positively certifiable. She sighed, realizing she really didn’t have any other choice but to trust the man in the pilot’s seat.

“Anyway, we got there and things were okay, even though I started noticing things about him that bugged me. By the next day I realized he wasn’t anyone I wanted to be with, but I figured I’d finish the trip and once we got back to Kansas City I wouldn’t date him anymore. Then tonight he brought me this dress and insisted that I try it on. Then he started talking about how we’d be married as soon as possible and he’d never let me leave his side. That was when I knew I had to get out of there.”

She paused a minute, remembering the glint of madness that had shone from Jason’s eyes. She’d never been so afraid in her life.

“Anyway, when I went into the bathroom to change out of this dress, I snuck out the window and ran,” she continued. “I hid in the plane because I overheard Jason telling his pilot to fly back to Kansas City first thing in the morning and pick up some personal items Jason wanted from his house. I figured I could hide out and be back home before Jason realized I was gone from Fortuna.”

She waited for him to say something, to say anything but he remained silent. He probably thought she was all kinds of a fool to go on a weeklong holiday with a man she didn’t know well.

“So, are you going to give me a ride home when we get to town or are you going to force me to call one of my relatives and let them know how utterly stupid I’ve been?” she finally asked.

“I’ll drive you home,” he said and those were the last words he spoke to her for the duration of the flight.

Caylee spent the time staring out at the night sky and wondering how she’d been such a bad judge of character. Jason had seemed so nice, so normal during the six dates they’d had before going to Fortuna.

Of course, she’d been out of the dating game for years before she’d met him. Since taking the helm of the jewelry business five years ago, she’d been focused solely on the shop with no time for socializing.

She glanced back at Micah. God, the man was a hunk. Jason had been handsome in a boyish, charming kind of way, but there was nothing boyish about Micah Stone.

The dark clothes he wore only enhanced an aura of hardness, of danger. He looked like a man who could handle anything life threw at him. But just because she liked the way he looked didn’t mean she’d like him as a man. In fact, she’d only been in his presence a couple of hours, had only exchanged a few sentences with him, but already she had a feeling that she didn’t like him.

But at the moment she needed him. Once he got her safely to her apartment, then she could put him and this entire fiasco behind her.

A sense of relief filled her as the plane descended quickly and she looked down and saw the lights playing on the Missouri River. She assumed he was landing at the downtown airport rather than Kansas City International Airport, which was to the north of the city. The downtown airport with its shorter runways and close proximity to the river better suited small planes for landing and taking off.

They had just touched down and taxied into a hangar when she heard the distinctive ring of a cell phone. Micah cut the plane engine, reached into his pocket and pulled out the phone.

“Yeah. Just landed and hit the hangar,” he said into the phone. He listened for a minute, then cast a narrowed glance toward Caylee. “I picked up a passenger along the way. I’ll explain later.”

He listened some more, and even though she wouldn’t have thought it possible, his features tightened, appeared to grow more lean and dangerous as he stared at her.

“Yes, I understand. Okay. See you in half an hour.” He hung up the phone, his gaze still intent on Caylee. “Jason Worthington was found stabbed to death in his family home on Fortuna Island an hour ago. The police are looking for you for questioning.” Micah’s pale eyes narrowed to slits. “You want to tell me what really happened there tonight or should I just drive you directly to the nearest police station?”

Chapter Two

Micah had to hand it to her, she was either the best actress he’d ever seen or she was genuinely stunned by his words. Her green eyes stared into his as if seeking a punch line to a very bad joke.

“Jason is dead? Murdered?” Her voice was little more than a faint whisper as her face turned as white as the wedding gown she wore. “But that’s impossible. He was fine when I left the house.”

“That was my partner Luke on the phone. The details coming out of Fortuna are sketchy at the moment, but he thinks it’s a good idea if I go underground for a couple of days until we see how this thing shakes down.” She stared at him as if he were speaking a foreign language. “Did you kill him?”

His question obviously cut through the fog that had momentarily gripped her. She straightened her back and lifted her chin, her eyes burning overly bright. “I certainly did not.” She released a small gasp and shook her head so vehemently her long, dark hair flew around her face. “I just wanted to get away from him. I just wanted to go home. I certainly didn’t want him dead.”

He unbuckled his seat belt. “We need to get out of here. Luke left his car for me. I’m supposed to meet him and Troy at a safe house our company owns.”

He opened the plane door but she grabbed him by the arm, her face still a sickly pallor. “But, what about me? What am I supposed to do?”

Micah had no idea if she was guilty as sin or as innocent as she appeared, but he definitely knew the worst place they could be at the moment was in the plane that had disappeared from Jason Worthington’s place on the night he’d been murdered.

“I’m going to meet my partners,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned you have two choices,” he said, a bit reluctantly. “You can either come with me or I can drop you at your apartment where I imagine you’ll be visited by some of the men in blue within the hour.”

She frowned, the gesture tugging her dark, perfectly formed eyebrows closer together on her forehead. “I look really guilty,” she said more to herself than to him. “I snuck out of a window and ran. Whoever killed him probably did it while I was hiding in the plane, which means I have no alibi.” She caught her full bottom lip in her teeth. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Make up your mind quickly because we need to get out of here,” he said tersely.

“Maybe I should come with you until we know more about what happened.”

He could tell it was a decision she didn’t feel comfortable with, but it obviously beat an arrest for murder. “Then let’s do it,” he replied.

He left the plane and waited impatiently for her to climb down from the passenger side, the wedding gown hampering her movements. The gown fit her small-framed body perfectly, hugging her slender waist and accentuating the thrust of her breasts against the lacy material. She would have made a beautiful bride.

He had no idea if she was guilty or not. Her story had been far-fetched, but her shock when he’d told her Jason was dead had looked very real.

When she had her feet on the ground they left the hangar and he closed the door and secured the lock before turning to look toward the nearby parking area. His car was there, but he headed toward Luke’s sleek sports car, which was parked next to it.

Luke had warned him that it was possible the police would be looking for him, too, and that it might be dangerous for him to be in his own car. How on earth had a simple operation gone so wrong?

As he slid behind the steering wheel, Caylee got into the passenger seat, the gown threatening to engulf her in the narrow seat. Beneath the floor mat he found the keys, just where Luke had said they would be.

He started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot. Caylee was silent until they were on the highway heading north of the downtown district.

“My apartment is in this direction. I live in the Rockport Apartments. It’s a nice place, has a great pool and clubhouse, although I almost never use them because I spend such long hours at the store,” she said.

Terrific, not only were things seriously messed up at the moment, he was now trapped in a car with a chatterbox. He cast her a quick glance. She stared out the front window, her pretty features strained as her hands folded and unfolded in her lap.

He could smell the scent of her, a pleasant, slightly exotic fragrance. He hadn’t noticed it in the plane but he noticed it now. He gripped the steering wheel more firmly, realizing his hot date with Heidi was probably off.

“This trip with Jason was the first vacation I’ve taken in five years,” she continued. “I can’t believe he’s dead. Maybe your partner is wrong. Maybe this is all just a terrible mistake.” There was more than a little bit of hope in her voice.

“We’ll know soon enough,” he replied, wishing she’d be quiet for just a minute so he could think. He had a bad feeling in his gut. What should have been a simple mission had suddenly become much more complicated. If Jason Worthington was really dead, then he and Caylee Warren were definitely in trouble.

“Why does your company have a safe house?” she asked.

“Because we occasionally need one.” There was no reason for her to know that there were times when Recovery Inc. worked for the government and needed a place to stash a witness or a person in trouble.

He hoped that within the next hour or two she’d go back to her life and he’d go back to his. He had a workout scheduled at the gym in the morning and he wouldn’t mind keeping his date with Heidi.

But there was no question that he wasn’t feeling good about this whole mess. A lump of uneasiness sat heavy in the pit of his stomach.

He knew without doubt that she was in trouble, but he had a feeling he was deep in the muck as well. He knew there had been surveillance cameras on the ferry and even though he’d tried to stay away from them, he couldn’t be sure how successful he’d been.