Chapter 21
ALEX
Aloud banging yanked Alex from the tangled depths of his dreams. His first coherent thought was a spike of worry–was Ava in trouble? His heart pounded against his ribs as he wondered if he should race to the closet to retrieve his gun.
Had someone broken into the house?
He gasped as he whipped around to face the door, his eyes wide as he searched the shadows that seemed to pulsate with unseen threats.
The digital glow of the clock told him it was too early for any reasonable person to be awake. He stumbled to his feet, his mind racing as he tried to shake off the remnants of sleep.
Another bang sounded, insistent. He realized it was at his door, and he doubted a murderer would knock.
He wondered if it was Chris. His heart thudded harder, wondering if the man was coming to confront him.
He crossed to the door and pulled it open, peering into the darkness of the hall. “Ava?”
“Hey,” she said, her features pinching. “Sorry to wake you.”
“No,” he said with a shake of his head as he opened the door more fully. “No, it’s fine. Are you okay? Is anything wrong?”
He searched the hall, expecting to see Chris a few steps away.
“Yes,” she answered, her voice quivering as she hovered in the doorway, the usual sparkle in her eyes dim, betraying the turmoil churning beneath her calm exterior.
His heart skipped a beat. Was she regretting her choice to stand by him? Did she prefer to leave with Chris rather than stay?
“Uh, come in,” he said as he stood aside. “Or…do you want to go downstairs? Or outside? Or…I don’t know.”
His mind barreled faster than he could process, words spilling from his lips before he could vet them, desperate to set her at ease and make sure she stayed.
She brushed past him, her hands wrapping around each other in a nervous dance as she paced the floor.
“Avs, what’s wrong?”
Her behavior, a stark contrast to the usually confident demeanor, betrayed how deep her emotions ran. “I…I don’t know where to start.”
He placed his hands on her shoulders, stopping her pacing. “Okay, easy. Let’s sit down, okay?”
She bobbed her head, her breathing shaky.
He guided her to one of his armchairs and eased her into it before he flicked on a light, squinting against it.
“Ugh,” she groaned.
“Sorry,” he answered before he took her hands in his. “Avs, what’s wrong?”
She blew out a breath. “Chris showing up like that…I’m sorry. It threw everything into chaos.”
He stared down at his hands around hers, understanding exactly what she meant. His mind had been nothing but turmoil since the man had shown up on his doorstep.
His desperate plan to win back his wife from another man had been thrown into disarray.
“If you want him to go…I should have…I should have asked you first and not put you on the spot like that.”
“No,” he said with a shake of his head, hating the way it came out. He wanted the man to leave, but he didn’t want Ava to, and he feared she would if he pushed things.
“But it’s not fair,” she said, her voice trembling. “And I’m sorry.”
“Ava,” he said as he slid to his knees to be closer to her, “it’s okay. You didn’t put me on the spot. I’m fine with it.”
“Really? Because I feel like Chris has just really complicated things. I came here to help you and now…”
“And you still are. You don’t need to feel bad about this. This is…” His features twisted as he tried to find the words. “You shouldn’t feel like you had no right to ask him to stay.”
“I don’t have that right,” she said, her features pinching. “It’s your house.”
“But it’s…” He caught himself before he said something she wouldn’t understand. “I want it to feel like your house too.”
Her shoulders slumped as a soft smile curled her lips. She cupped his cheek in her hand. “Thank you. I’m sorry for barging in here, especially so late. I just…needed to talk to you.”
The words gave him hope. She’d needed to see him. Although, maybe she’d come from Chris’s. His mind swam with possibilities as he sought a path forward.
“You can wake me up anytime, Ava. I’m always here for you.”
Her smile broadened. “Thanks. I couldn’t lie there alone anymore. I needed to talk to someone. Someone who understands, and who uncomplicates things.”
The words brought a wide grin to his face. Those words spoke volumes above just their simple meanings. She’d been alone. She sought him out.
He could do this. He could win her back.
With his fingers tightened around her hands as he tapped them together. “What do you say we unwind with a few video games? You still owe me that game night.”
She shifted closer to him. “I’d love to, but…what if I fall asleep again?”
“Then you fall asleep, and you still owe me.”
The tension in her shoulders released as she let out a small laugh. “Well, then I’ll take you up on your offer because it sounds perfect right about now. I could really use the distraction and there’s no one else I’d rather beat at Mario Kart.”
“As if you could,” he said with a chuckle as he rose and tugged her to stand. He pulled her harder than he expected, and she stumbled forward, landing against his chest.
She took it in stride, leaning even closer to whisper, “Watch me.”
“Oooh, you’re giving me chills, Avs,” he said with a grin as they made their way downstairs for the gaming session.
Following several rounds, laughs, and the easing of nerves, they fell asleep next to each other on the couch.
When bright sunlight streamed through the windows, Alex’s eyes fluttered open to slits.
He sucked in a breath, glancing sideways to find Ava’s head on his shoulder.
He slid a lock of hair from her face before he carefully propped her up with a pillow and left the couch behind in search of coffee and information.
With his laptop in hand, he shuffled into the kitchen, hovering at the door as he spotted Chris staring at the coffee pot.
“Need coffee?” Alex asked.
“Yes,” the man answered curtly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude, but I knocked at Ava’s door, and she didn’t answer.”
Alex dumped his laptop on the counter before he crossed to the coffee bar, tugged open a cabinet, and pulled out the gourmet coffee. “She’s asleep on the couch.”
Chris didn’t answer outside of a raise of his eyebrows.
Alex dumped several scoops of the aromatic grounds into the machine and started it. “We fell asleep after a gaming session.”
“Gaming session?” Chris finally muttered as the coffee started to pour into the pot.
“Yeah.” Alex pulled three mugs from the cupboard and tugged the pot from the base to pour the first of the coffee into one and hand it to Chris.
“Oh, thanks,” the man answered as Alex poured his own and crossed to sit at the counter, tugging his laptop open.
“There’s cream in the fridge.”
Alex clacked on his keyboard in search of information as he let his steaming coffee cool to drinkable levels. Chris poured the creamer into his, stirring it before he took a sip and stared at the rolling ocean outside the window.
A second later, he glanced down at the third mug. “Who is Sparky?”
“Ava,” Alex answered amidst keystrokes.
Chris frowned at the mug as Ava wandered into the kitchen, covering a yawn as she strode straight for the coffee pot.
“Good morning,” Ava answered as she poured her coffee. “How’d you sleep?”
“Good morning, hon,” Chris said as he stepped closer to kiss her cheek. “I slept pretty well surprisingly. Must have been all that driving.”
“I’ll bet,” she answered before she sipped from her mug.
He cleared his throat. “Sparky, huh?”
She nodded as she finished her sip. “My nickname.”
“Mm-hmm,” he said with a bob of his head as she crossed to Alex.
“Any updates on the murder?”
“I’m checking now,” he answered as she leaned closer to him, her arm resting on his shoulder. “Mmm, looks like they have the preliminary time of death on Saturday which would make sense for why they cleared us easily.”
“Prints on the gun?” Ava asked.
“I don’t think they’re going to release that information to the public, hon.”
Alex kept his eyes glued to the screen, a slight shake of his head. “We’re not reading the newspaper, buddy.”
“O-Okay,” Chris answered, his eyebrows furrowing. “How are you getting information then? Friend on the force or…”
“You could say that,” Alex answered.
Chris, his face still masked with confusion, skirted the counter to peer at the computer screen. “Are you…Are you somehow in the police files?”
“Seems like you know the answer to that,” Alex murmured.
“How did you do that?”
Alex scoffed. “Are you seriously asking me that?”
“Well, I just…you’d think hacking into the police files would be…extremely difficult.”
Alex chuckled as he scrolled down the report with Ava leaning closer to read it. “It’s child’s play. Ava hacked into it yesterday, and by her own admission, she’s rusty.”
Chris’s eyebrows shot up as his jaw opened. “Ava did?”
Alex offered her a sideways glance with a proud grin. “Sparky’s still got it.”
“Ava, what were you thinking?” The man’s voice seemed filled with judgment.
Ava shrugged. “That we needed to know if the police suspected murder. It was masked as a suicide.”
“I cannot believe you did that.” Chris clicked his tongue at her.
“Like you’re a paragon of virtue, Mr. Unpaid Parking Ticket,” Alex shot back.
Chris’s forehead creased. “What?”
Ava lifted her gaze to him with a shrug. “You have an unpaid parking ticket from a few years back.”
“Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack, bro,” Alex answered before he tapped his screen. “Gun doesn’t appear to have prints.”
Ava cursed under her breath. “So, that’s a dead-end.”
She slumped onto the stool next to Alex. “Hey, what was your idea?”
“What?” Alex slammed the lid of his laptop shut.
“You said you had an idea last night about how to flush out the thief, then you never told me.”
“You never lived up to your end of the bargain. You were supposed to beat three levels straight before I told you.”
“Are you serious?” she asked. “It wasn’t enough for me to cream you in Mario Kart?”