Chapter 26
AVA
Ava’s heart thudded against her ribs as she read the message glowing on Alex’s screen. She’d had a suspicion that the man they’d just watched being led away in handcuffs was not the final piece of the puzzle, but she hadn’t expected this.
Her stomach tightened into a knot, the weight of more uncertainty pressing down around her as more unknown threats lurked in the shadows.
Chris crossed to them, his features pinched as he stared at the screen. “What is this? Who is The Board?”
“No idea,” Alex answered as he opened another window on his screen and typed frantically in it.
“What are you doing?” Chris asked.
“Trying to track the source of this message.”
Chris narrowed his eyes at the screen. “Who is Raven? Do you know someone named Raven?”
Alex huffed a sigh. “If I knew Raven, I wouldn’t be tracking this, would I?”
With a scoff, he rolled his eyes as he continued typing in a desperate attempt to find information.
The search turned up nothing. He slammed his hands against the desk as he groaned. “Nothing. I can’t find anything.”
“Are you sure you’re the world’s best hacker?” Chris asked. “Because this seems relatively simple.”
Alex glared at him.
Ava set her hand on her hip, pressing a hand against Chris’s chest. Tension remained high, and she needed to give Alex as much support as he needed. “Okay, that’s enough. Obviously, this was sent by someone who wants to conceal their identity.”
“It’s probably nothing. It’s just someone messing around,” Chris answered with a wave of his hand.
Ava’s features pinched as she considered it before she shook her head. “No. No, it’s not nothing.”
“Ava, you have no idea what it means. You can’t say that.”
“I can say it. Simon said he was innocent–”
Chris set his hands on her shoulders. “They all say that, hon. I told you that. He was just trying to get out of what he did. He’s going down for a lot. He’ll probably go away for life.”
Ava crossed her arms. “He didn’t have a tattoo.”
“What?” Chris’s features pinched.
“The man who kidnapped you, the one who attacked me in the warehouse…he had a tattoo of a pawn on his left wrist. Simon didn’t have a tattoo there.”
Chris shrugged. “So, he has a partner.”
“This message seems to suggest he has more than a partner. It suggests there is an entire network of criminals out there. That this entire financial fraud thing is tied to a much larger scheme.”
“We don’t know that.”
“What we do know is that this isn’t solved. I don’t think we got the right person. Or people. I think Simon was a fall guy for a much larger conspiracy.”
Alex cursed under his breath again as he sank his head into his hands. “Another dead end.”
Ava twisted away from Chris, sliding a hand across Alex’s shoulders. “It’s okay. We’ll figure it out.”
“Not before you leave tomorrow,” he said, a tremor in his voice. The grimace on his face mixed with the terror in his eyes.
She couldn’t leave him. Not with this mystery still looming. She’d promised to stand by him, to help him solve this. And she would see it through.
“I’m not leaving tomorrow,” she said as she squeezed his shoulder.
Alex’s features morphed into a grateful half-smile but before he could speak, Chris interjected.
“Wait, what? Ava…we have to go home.”
Ava firmed her jaw as she tried to understand her fiancé’s point of view. “I promised Alex that I would help him solve this. It’s not solved.”
Chris sucked in a breath, his eyes sliding sideways to Alex. “Can we talk privately?”
Alex swallowed hard as he rose. “Uh, I’ll give you some space.”
Ava caught Alex’s arm before he stepped away from the desk, her grip firm. “No, stay. Anything Chris has to say he can say in front of you.”
Chris’s eyes went wide. “Ava, are you serious? I would like to have a private moment to discuss our relationship.”
“Anything you have to say, you can say in front of Alex.”
“Fine. That’s fine. If you want me to say it in front of him, I will.” Chris threw his hands in the air. “I think this is ridiculous. And I don’t like it at all.”
He set his hands on his hips as he paced the floor in front of them. “This isn’t a matter for you and Geek Squad here to be tracking down on your own. This is a matter for the police. It’s time to turn the creepy little messages over and let them handle it.”
“I’m not leaving Alex even if the police are handling this. He is still in danger, and I’m not leaving him. I promised him I’d help him, and I’m going to.”
Chris set his jaw as he came to a stop. “So, that’s it? That’s the end of the conversation?”
“It is for me. But I can understand how this is different for you.”
“I’ll say,” he murmured.
Ava sucked in a deep breath, trying to understand Chris’s consternation. “Look, I understand if you don’t want to stay. After what you’ve been through, I get it. What happened was incredibly terrifying. It may be best if you went home.”
His eyebrows shot up. “It may be best?”
“Hon, I get it. This is dangerous, and you were plunged right into the center of that. If you want to go home to Silver Pine, I get it. Go back to normal life and try to forget about what happened.”
“And what? Leave you here embroiled in whatever this is with him?”
“You’re not leaving me,” she answered. “I’m choosing to stay. I can work from here. We’ll talk every day. It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not fine, Ava! You’re my fiancé. And you’re asking me to leave you here with…him.”
Ava’s features crinkled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Chris set his jaw as he shook his head. “You wanted me to say this in front of him, so here goes. I mean, I’m leaving you behind with a husband who doesn’t want to let you go. With a guy who, I suspect, is using this to keep you here.”
Crossing her arms, Ava clicked her tongue as Alex scoffed.
“That’s not…true,” Alex said.
Ava pressed a hand against his chest, signaling him to stay quiet while she handled it. “He’s right. That’s not true.”
“Isn’t it? How do we know?”
“Because I know Alex. He’s my best friend.”
Chris sucked in a breath as he threw his hands in the air. “Oh, come on. That just proves my point even more.”
“Proves your point? Alex is my best friend proves that he’s using me.” She clicked her tongue, rolling her eyes.
Chris shook his head before he set his hands on her arms. “Ava, you’re a smart woman.
Think. The day you ask him for a divorce, suddenly, his life is falling apart, and he needs you to race out here and help him.
He convinces you to stay with him. He buys you a car.
He puts a ring on your finger. He insists you play wife–”
Alex poked a finger at him. “She is wife.”
“He’s right,” Ava answered. “I am his wife. So, it made sense that if I was going to start pawing through his company records, I introduced myself as his wife.”
“Fine, okay, fine. I’ll give you that one. But still…all those other things are still true. And then just when this looks like it’s going to wrap up–BAM! Another new threat, and poor helpless Alex–”
“Hey, I’m hardly helpless,” Alex interjected.
Chris shot him a glare before he continued. “Poor…nearly helpless Alex needs you to stay around.”
“Correction, I said I’d stay around. He didn’t ask. In fact, he just said he assumed I’d still be leaving tomorrow.”
“Oh, right, yes. I forgot. Because he couldn’t possibly use that to play on your sympathies.”
Ava heaved a sigh. “He doesn’t need to play on my sympathies, Chris. We’re best friends. I’ll always help him. He knows that. He doesn’t have to ask.”
Chris shook his head as he set his hands on his hips again. “Ava, please. I can’t believe you can’t see what’s going on here.”
“What’s going on is someone is attacking StoneCorp and we need to find out who is doing this.”
“I can solve this case in two seconds, Ava.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Really?”
“Yes, really. I can’t believe you can’t.”
She set her jaw. “Well, Sherlock, why don’t you enlighten me?”
“Oh, come on, Ava. It’s your good buddy, your bestie, Alex, who is doing this.”
“What?” Ava choked out as Alex shook his head with a groan.
“Yes, Ava, yes. Alex Stone is doing this to himself. Come on, isn’t he the world’s best tech guy? He could easily set this up.”
“I didn’t steal millions of dollars from my own company over a period of a decade so I’d have a fun project to solve with Ava. That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it?” Chris asked. “Is it really?”
“Yes, of course, it is,” Ava answered. “Why would he be doing this?”
“Oh, Ava, come on. He doesn’t want a divorce.”
“What?” Ava screwed up her face. “That’s ridiculous. Alex, tell him that’s ridiculous.”
Alex shoved his hands into his pockets, raising his shoulders high. “I’m not behind this.”
Chris chewed his lower lip as he shook his head. “Okay, fine. If there’s nothing going on here, fine.”
Ava flung her arms out. “Nothing is going on here.”
“Okay, but if you’re staying, then I am, too.”
Ava crinkled her brow. Was he staying for her or to monitor her? “Why?”
He drew his chin back to his chest. “Are you joking? You’re my fiancé.
I’m not going to leave you out here to deal with all of this.
What am I supposed to say? Oh, no, Ava’s in the Hamptons solving mysteries in her unicorn onesie and fighting some organization called The Board, but we talk every day. ”
“I wouldn’t tell people, Chris,” she said with a shrug.
“I’m not going to leave you here. If you truly believe this isn’t a setup–”
“It’s not,” Alex answered, his voice flat.
“Fine, it’s not a setup. Then, I should stay because you’re both in danger. And I’m not about to walk away from my fiancé and leave her to handle it without me.” He took Ava’s hands in his. “Ava, we’re supposed to be in this together. For better or worse, right?”
She bobbed her head as she squeezed his hands. “Yes, but like I said, I’d understand if, after what happened, this is too much for you.”
“It’s not. I just…” He flicked his gaze to Alex before he refocused on her. “I’m here for you, okay?”
Ava nodded. “Okay, but…there’s one thing we need to discuss before we can move forward.”
He squashed his eyebrows together. “What?”
“I think you owe Alex an apology. He didn’t do this. And that was unfair to say. If we’re going to move forward together…I can’t have you two at each other’s throats.”
Chris pressed his lips together as he shifted his gaze to Alex. “I’m sorry, Alex. Sometimes when it comes to Ava, I see red. She’s very important to me.”
Alex offered him a tight-lipped smile. “I get it. Ava is…important to both of us. But I swear to you that I didn’t do this. On my life, I’m not the one behind this.”
“Okay. Well, then I guess we need to get on solving this so we can all move on with our lives.” Chris arched an eyebrow at Alex. “Which is what you want, too, right?”
“Absolutely,” Alex answered with a nod. “I really want to move on, yes. There’s nothing I want more.”
“Good.” Chris thrust his hand out toward Alex. “To working together so we can move on.”
Alex stared at the man’s hand for a moment before he took it and pumped it up and down.
“Good,” Ava said as she looped an arm around each of them. “Good, I’m glad that’s all settled.”
“Me, too,” Chris said, kissing her cheek. “We just have one problem left.”
“What’s that?” Ava asked.
“Where do we start?”
Ava crossed her arms as she flicked her gaze between the two men. “I have an idea.”
“What is it?” Alex asked.
“The man who kidnapped Chris had a pawn tattooed on his left wrist. And while Simon was being arrested, I noticed that Miranda has a tattoo in the same spot. A bishop. I think it’s time we dive a little deeper into your CFO’s background.
I don’t think Miranda Vale is who she says she is, and it’s time we rip away her mask. ”
Ava raised her chin, sucking in a breath as she let resolve fill her. She cared for Chris, but she owed Alex, too. The road ahead would test them, but she was ready. They’d face the truth. Together.