Chapter 19
ALEX
Alex shifted on the cushion as his wife uttered a word he hadn’t been prepared for. Murder? When had his investigation taken such a gruesome turn?
He slouched down, his strawberry shake suddenly seeming far less appealing than it had a second ago.
“Ace?” Ava’s soft voice probed as she cupped his cheek in her hand.
“Yeah, I’m all good,” he answered, staring ahead.
She sucked in a breath as she pressed closer to him. “You’re not.”
He gulped, setting the milkshake aside as he shook his head. “No, I’m not.”
He twisted to face her, his eyes wide. “Ava, we just stepped into a murder scene.”
She shook her head. “I know. I really hope the police figure this out.”
A weight pressed down on his chest, a mix of fear and guilt. It wasn’t just the murder, but the fear of Ava being pulled deeper into danger because of him. His stomach twisted into a knot. “If she was murdered…”
“Someone’s covering their tracks. And they’re willing to kill to do it. That break-in we nearly had could have turned deadly. We need to be really careful.”
“Maybe we should get the gun out of the safe,” Alex said, his voice barely above a whisper.
She sucked in a breath as she patted his thigh. “Sure. We’ll keep it handy.”
The warmth of her palm through his pants grounded him, making him a little calmer in the face of the realization.
“Hey,” Ava said, her voice reassuring, “we’ll be okay. I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise. We’ll figure this out.”
“We’re keeping that alarm on all the time.” He grabbed his tablet and tapped around until the security system turned on. “And we’re sticking together.”
“Okay,” she said, her arm wrapped around him, caressing his hair.
“I don’t want anything to happen to you,” he said, trying to force strength in his voice. He’d gotten her involved in this investigation, and it was turning more and more dangerous by the second.
“Me either,” she said with a giggle and a grin.
He leaned closer to her, wrapping an arm around her. “I’m serious, Sparky. When I asked you to come out here…”
“You thought it was something simple, and it’s turning into anything but. I know. I get it. But I don’t blame you for any of this. We had no idea what we were getting into.”
“Do you want to leave?” he asked.
“No,” she answered. “I’m going to help you. I promised to help you.”
“Yeah, I can let you off the hook for that promise if you’d like. You had no idea when you made it–”
“I’m in it for the long haul, Ace. I’m here whether you like it or not. I’m not leaving you. Not until we sort this out.”
He sighed as a weak smile spread across his features, and he pressed his forehead against hers. “Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me. I’ll always be there for you. Whenever you need me.”
He resisted the urge to clap back with a comment about Chris taking her way from him. He wanted to enjoy this moment of closeness. They sought strength in each other’s arms after the surprising turn of events.
And he sought more than that. He craved her closeness, even if it was only just an illusion.
He pulled her into a tight hug. As they broke apart, their faces hovered inches apart. His thumb rubbed her cheek, and for a second, he entertained the idea of leaning closer to kiss her. Maybe now was the time to make his feelings known.
Before their lips could meet, dozens of chimes sounded from her phone, startling them both.
She sucked in a breath, leaning back and pressing a hand to her chest. “Oh, wow, that scared me.”
“Me too,” he said with a laugh. “Your phone is insistent.”
“It’s probably all the stuff that didn’t come through when it was off.” She let go of him, leaning across him to grab her device from the charger.
With a shake in her hand, she shifted to lean against him as she checked her messages.
He swallowed hard, peeking over her shoulder to eye the screen. “Anything good?”
“Oh, wow. There are like a dozen messages from Chris.”
Alex wrinkled his nose at the admission, wondering what the next ones said after the text declaring his love for her. He wondered if maybe after not hearing from her Chris would have sent her a new text, breaking off their engagement.
He hated himself for hoping that, but he really wanted the man out of the picture.
At least so far, out of sight, out of mind, seemed to be working. Ava didn’t mention him a lot unless he called and their reliving of old times along with the creation of new memories seemed to be working to set her at ease.
“I hope one of them is an apology,” he ventured, trying to eke out some information.
“Ah, not really. He says he doesn’t like the way we left things, he loves me, and we’ll get through it.”
The words burned him. She scrolled through more messages. “Looks like he tried to call a few times. Then he texted again saying to call him when I could. Then, he says he’s getting worried about me, and he really wants to talk and square things away.”
“And?” Alex prodded.
“That’s it. No more messages. But there are a few voicemails.”
“Speakerphone?” he asked.
She hit him playfully on the chest as she pressed the phone to her ear. Chris’s voice droned on, and he leaned closer, trying to hear what the man was saying.
“Stop creeping, Ace,” she said with a chuckle.
“I’m just curious.”
“He’s basically saying the same thing. He doesn’t like the way we left things. He thinks we need to talk and to call him when I can. When he called again, he said he really wanted to talk. He understood if I was upset, but we needed to talk and work this out.”
“Mmm, well, too bad Chris Cross, we were busy walking into a murder scene.”
“Let me just give him a call…” She clicked her tongue. “Ugh, I’m nearly dead again.”
She fired off a text message that read Sorry, my phone is nearly dead. I’ll call as soon as it’s charged, before she stuck it back on the charger and settled back into her seat next to him. “We need a plan.”
“I have one,” Alex answered as he polished off the rest of his milkshake.
She shot her eyebrows up. “Really? Do tell.”
He set the styrofoam cup on the side table. “Well, I figure…after we check that all the doors are locked, we change into jammies, and we hunker down with an entire load of classic video games, snacks, the whole nine for the rest of the night.”
“Ohhh, is that your plan?”
“Uh-huh,” he answered. “What do you think?”
“Did you ditch the beach walk tonight because we just witnessed a murder?”
“Yeah, but…if you want to go, I trust you to protect me.”
She giggled as she finished her milkshake and frowned at the empty container. “Mm, that was good. Uh, okay, that sounds like a decent plan, but we also need to figure out how we’re going to handle our next steps with your investigation.”
“Carefully,” Alex answered.
“That’s not the answer I was looking for.”
“Ava, someone just got killed over this. I think maybe we need to let the police handle it.”
“You mean Officer I’m More Interested In Your Wife Being Pretty? He can’t solve a crime.”
“No, but…they’ll give it to a detective.”
“Not if they think it’s a suicide. Someone did this to her.”
His lips formed a frown again. “I know. And I feel terrible. She’s dead because we were investigating.”
“We don’t know that.”
Alex leapt from his seat, pacing the floor in front of the fireplace. “Oh, so someone just killed her and made her write a note about tampering with my financials randomly?”
“No, obviously it’s related. But we don’t know that it’s because we’re investigating. What if this was a team of people who did this and there was in-fighting.”
He ran his hand through his hair as he twisted on a heel. “And what if she was just innocent and someone set her up, and now used her to cover their tracks.”
“Well, they did a terrible job. Hopefully, the police will figure it out. It’s not difficult.”
“Says the incredibly smart Ava Collins.” He covered his face with his hands as he continued his trek across the room.
His heart skipped a beat when fingers wrapped around his hands and pulled them from his face. “Ace, I know you feel responsible, but you weren’t.”
He sucked in a breath as he bit his lower lip. She was right. He did feel responsible. What if he’d been more present at the office? What if he’d taken more of an interest in the day-to-day instead of just the tech advancements?
“Stop doing that,” she said.
“I’m not doing anything,” he answered.
“Running what-ifs through your mind. Alex, you didn’t do this. You’re not responsible. This isn’t your fault.”
He flicked his gaze sideways. Sometimes, she could read him like a book. He hoped she couldn’t read the desperation that reached the depths of his soul over their relationship. That last thing he wanted was a rejection before he’d even made his play.
He wrapped his hand around hers, pulling it close to his chest. “Thanks. I just…that image of her is burned into my brain, and…”
He couldn’t go further. The truth was while he was upset over his employee’s unnecessary death, his mind had immediately replaced her with Ava when they’d realized it had been murder. The vision of a dead Ava taunted him, terrifying him.
“Hey,” she whispered as she took a step closer, cupping his cheek again, “it’ll be okay. You need to stop thinking about it.”
“Easy for you to say. You looked at those pictures while you were eating like they weren’t of a murder.”
“I get it. They were awful. It helps to try to look at it clinically, but…”
“But?” he prompted.
“It’ll also help to spend a quiet night doing something else. And there is no way I’m going to be able to sleep with that burned into my brain either.”
He pulled her closer into a hug. “I hate that we saw this.”
“But we need to figure it out. We need to look into who could have done this. We need more clues.”
She tilted her head back as she stared up at him.
“I could…hack into the police reports and see if there are any updates.”
“I’m so happy you’re a genius. Let’s see if they’ve concluded this is a murder yet, and what they’re doing about it.”