Chapter 25
ALEX
Alex drummed his fingers against his desk as he rocked in his chair, his forehead creased. His eyes fell on his wife, sitting on the couch across the office from him.
A torrent of emotions whirled within him. Pride surged at her behavior from the night before when she’d rescued her fiancé from the clutches of the enemy. But more than that, his heart ached desperately with love for her.
He’d always felt it, but he felt it more than ever right now. They’d reconnected when she’d come back to secure the divorce.
The problem at StoneCorp had bonded them again. But now, it was swiftly coming to an end. In fact, in a matter of hours, this investigation would be wrapped up, and he’d have no more excuses.
Memories of their time spent together, of late-night coding sessions, of gaming challenges, of laughter and closeness, flooded his mind. The thoughts of those moments going to another man twisted a knife in his heart.
He tried to tell himself it would be okay, that things would work out. But his mind continued to concoct scenarios where it didn’t.
He imagined all the fanfare dying down after the police arrived with Ava shuffling toward him with a slight smile. “Well, that’s that. We did it. Now, time for us to sign those divorce papers.”
Chris, already sitting next to her on the couch, would slip his arm around her, his intent clear. Ava belonged to him now.
He shifted in his chair, drawing his shoulders to his ears with a sigh as another version raced through his mind.
“I guess that’s that,” Ava said after they’d carted off the guilty party.
“Actually, Avs, it’s not. I need to talk to you about something.”
Her forehead creased. “What is it?”
He swallowed hard, digging deep to say the words that had lived in his heart for eons. “I…I love you, Ava.”
She stared at him for a minute before she threw her head back in laughter. “Oh, Ace, you’re so funny sometimes.”
“No, I’m serious. I love you. And I want to stay married. I…I’ve loved you for a long time.”
Her chuckling died down, and she stared at him. “I’m sorry, Alex, but I don’t love you. I’m marrying Chris. Look, if this is difficult for you, just send me the papers, okay?”
She patted his arm before she strode to the door, joining Chris who waited there. As they walked out of his life, Chris twisted back to smirk at him. “See you later, Geek Squad.”
The vision made his stomach churn as he frowned over at the couple on the couch. He wanted to cross the room and rip her away from the man right now.
But that would likely make things worse.
He couldn’t let her go, but he had no idea how he’d deal with it. With a sigh, he sank his forehead into his palm.
“Ace?” Ava’s voice called.
He snapped his gaze up.
“You okay?” The concern on her features touched him. Maybe she wouldn’t laugh in his face. Or maybe she would. He didn’t know.
When he didn’t answer right away, she rose from her seat next to Chris and crossed to him, leaning against the desk.
“Yeah,” he said, his voice just above a whisper. “Yeah, just…how long does it take the police to get here.”
Ava grabbed his hand. “It’ll be over soon.”
Chris blew out a sigh. “Gosh, I hope so. I can’t wait for this idiot to pay for what he did.”
Ava slid her eyes sideways to him before she returned her gaze to Alex, offering him a reassuring smile.
He threaded his fingers through hers as he tapped the space bar on his keyboard, waking the monitor.
He stared at the evidence on the screen.
In the files he’d placed on the server, he’d embedded a tracker to not only determine which account accessed but the exact location of the person who’d done it.
He stared at the employee file on the screen. Simon Blackburn.
The man didn’t look like a criminal. But he guessed you couldn’t really tell about people.
“What’s wrong, Ace?” Ava prodded, her voice soft.
“Nothing, just…I’d like this to be over. Sort of.”
“Sort of?” she asked.
He slid his eyes up to hers. He wanted to tell her right now. “Can we–”
The buzzing of his phone interrupted him.
“Hold that thought,” he said as he tapped the button to answer. “Yes?”
“Ms. Collins, Mr. Stone, two detectives here to see you.”
He suddenly didn’t feel ready to deal with the police. Their arrival pushed the doomsday clock one minute closer to midnight.
“Send them in,” Ava said.
With a hard swallow, he let go of his wife’s hand and rose from his seat. Two men in cheap suits strode inside.
“Mr. Stone, Ms. Collins,” the taller one said before his gaze slid to Chris.
“This is my…this is Chris Maxwell, my…brother,” Ava said.
Chris screwed up his face at her words as she smiled at him before shifting her gaze back to the officers. The words surprised him, though he didn’t expect her to introduce him as her fiancé.
“Right, Mr. Maxwell…” The detective crinkled his brow. “Why do you two not have the same last name?”
“We had different fathers.”
“Ah, sorry, hazard of the job.”
“It’s all right,” Ava answered with a smile. “Yeah, Mom was married twice. Anyway, that’s neither here nor there.”
“My wife is right,” Alex said, enjoying using those words.
The detective nodded. “Right, we received all the information you sent. We have an arrest warrant. This looks like a slam-dunk case. In addition to the financial fraud, we’ve also a pretty solid case against Simon for the murder of your other employee, Marianne Wells.”
“Really?” Ava asked. “How so?”
The detective nodded. “We can’t comment on an ongoing investigation, but we do have several things that lead us to believe this is all related.”
Ava’s warm hand wrapped around his, giving him strength as he faced the reality that one of his coworkers was a murderer and had killed another. He’d also likely tried to break into his home, and probably had been the one who kidnapped Chris.
“We’ll need you to come down to the station and make a full statement about this, too, but you can do that at any time.”
Alex nodded as he realized this was all about to wrap up. The thing that had brought Ava back to him was about to disappear.
Two uniformed officers stepped into the office behind the detectives.
The detective nodded at them before he twisted to face Alex. “We’re ready. You may want to wait here. These guys can get mouthy when they get caught.”
Alex shook his head. “No, I…I want to see him. He stole millions from my company.”
“That money may or may not be found.”
“It’s not about the money,” Alex answered. “It’s the principle.”
“All right. Then you can lead the way.”
The officers parted ways for Alex to precede them. He glanced at Ava. She offered him an encouraging nod before she slid her hand into his, squeezing it. “Let’s do this.”
He nodded, bolstered by her support, and skirted the desk, tugging her with him.
Murmurs whispered through the office as they crossed to the finance area with the police in tow.
“His office is the third on the right,” Alex answered as they stepped inside.
Miranda’s eyes widened as they entered, and she leapt from her seat. “Alex?”
He held up a hand, signaling her to remain quiet, his fingers tightening around Ava’s as the detective and uniformed officers strode to Simon’s office.
The man pulled his chin from his palm as they entered, his features twisting into a mask of confusion.
“Simon Blackburn, you are under arrest for multiple counts of financial fraud, evidence tampering, and murder in the first degree.” The detective continued, reading the man’s rights as a uniformed cop motioned for him to stand.
“What?” Simon asked. “No.”
The uniformed officer brandished the handcuffs. “Stand up and put your hands behind your back.”
“No, no. I’m…no. I didn’t do any of this. What is going on?”
“Stand up and put your hands behind your back,” the officer repeated.
“No, no way. I didn’t do this. I didn’t–” He flicked his wild eyes out the door at the others gathered. “Miranda, Mr. Stone, I didn’t do this. I didn’t–”
One of the officers yanked him from his chair as the other wrenched his arms back and slapped the handcuffs on him.
“I’m telling you, man, I didn’t do this.”
Alex slid his arm around Ava’s shoulders, tugging her a little closer as they shoved the man out of his office.
She wrapped her arm around his waist, her eyes narrowing at the raving employee as they led him away.
“I didn’t do this. I didn’t! Mr. Stone, please. I didn’t do this.”
“Tell it to the judge, buddy,” the officer said as they skirted past them and guided him through the throng of people who had gathered for the show.
“Wow,” Miranda said as she closed the distance between them, wrapping her arms around herself. “I can’t believe this. Simon?”
A shiver shook her as she bit into her lower lip. She was likely more shocked than he was. She’d worked with him every day. And he’d robbed them right under her very nose.
“I never saw this coming,” she continued. “Gosh, I feel so…stupid.”
The arch in Ava’s eyebrow suggested that she didn’t believe a word coming from his CFO’s lips. The office had seen enough of a show today, he didn’t need a second one between his wife and Miranda.
“None of us did,” he answered. “Listen, why don’t you give everyone the rest of the day off? I’m sure they aren’t going to be concentrating for the rest of the day, and we don’t need the office gossiping for the rest of the day.”
“Good idea, Alex,” she said with a nod. “Gosh, this must be so hard for you.”
She reached a hand toward him, but Ava stepped between them. “Yes, it is. Could you handle dismissing the employees?”
The woman’s features settled into a stony expression as she stared at Ava. “Sure. Anything else I can do for you?”
“No,” Alex interjected. “Thanks for handling this. Take it easy this afternoon.”
“You too, Alex,” Miranda said, her expression morphing back into one of concern.
Ava twisted on a heel and glanced up at him before she grabbed his hand and led him from the finance office. They made their way through the crowd of employees that remained gathered.
Ava stopped before they entered his office, turning to face him and leaning closer to whisper to him. “Maybe you should say something to them.”
He screwed up his face as he twisted to eye the crowd who stared at him. “What?”
“Tell them that it’s upsetting but you’ll move past it. Something short, but reassuring.”
“Right.” Alex twisted to face his employees, clearing his throat. “Everyone…I know this is upsetting, but we’re taking all the steps to make sure this situation is resolved. For now, while things are unsettled, please take the rest of the day off…with pay…and we’ll begin moving past this tomorrow.”
No one moved for a second, but then a few employees shuffled to their workstations to collect their things and head out. Gradually, the crowd thinned out.
Alex blew out a long breath before he and Ava stepped into the office together.
“Well? Is the idiot gone?”
Ava closed the door behind them, leaning against it. “Simon Blackburn is gone.”
Alex’s eyebrows knitted at her words.
“Good,” Chris said as he collapsed onto the couch. “At least I’ll sleep better tonight.”
“I won’t,” Ava answered, her features pinched as she stared down at her shoes.
“Avs? What is it?”
Her features turned pensive as she stared into mid-space. “He kept saying he was innocent.”
Chris heaved a sigh. “They all do that, hon. It doesn’t mean anything.”
Ava chewed her lower lip as she shook her head.
Alex crossed back to her, catching her gaze. “What’s bothering you?”
“He didn’t have the tattoo,” she answered, focusing on him. “The man at the warehouse last night had a pawn tattooed on his left wrist. Simon Blackburn didn’t.”
“So, you think he had a partner? Maybe he’ll roll on him when they question him,” Alex suggested.
Ava wrapped her arms around her midriff with a shake of her head. “I don’t like this.”
“Maybe you’ll feel better after this is all wrapped up. I’ll give my statement tomorrow. Do you mind staying until that’s over?”
She glanced up at him, her features pinched. “Of course.”
“Well, it’s too late to drive back now, anyway. I’d like to get home at a reasonable hour,” Chris said from across the room.
Alex tried to ignore the statement. His stomach twisted into a knot as he realized Ava would be leaving in the next day or two. Unless he could make her stay.
“Can we get out of here?” Chris asked. “I’m still feeling a little…off from yesterday.”
“Yeah,” Alex said as he crossed back to his computer. “Let me just log–”
His words groan to a halt as he shimmied the mouse.
“Alex? What’s wrong?”
His blood ran cold as he stared at the screen with wide eyes. His knees buckled, and he collapsed into the desk chair. Ava hurried to him, cupping his face in her hands as she studied him before she flicked her gaze to the monitor.
He reread the message as she scanned it.
The game is far from over. The Board’s reach goes deeper than you think. Stop them before it’s too late. - Raven
Ava’s jaw unhinged as her eyes met his, a storm of questions in her gaze. “The Board?”
Alex’s mind raced with possibilities. Had there been more to this all along? He gripped her hand, a mix of dread and hope swirling through him.
The danger was far from over, but then again, so was his relationship. Whoever The Board was, they just may save his marriage. If they didn’t destroy his life.