Chapter 20
AVA
Ava drummed her fingers against the desk as she waited for Alex’s program to clear the way for her to download the file. She checked her watch, rolling her eyes.
By the time she finished this and returned home, the Harringtons would have probably already settled in for the night. She had hoped to greet them personally.
Playing hostess while also completing illegal missions wasn’t working out so well for her thus far.
The dead silence on the other end of the line didn’t bode well either. She imagined Alex staring at them as they sat awkwardly.
The password prompt vanished, replaced by a welcoming desktop. “I’m in,” Ava announced.
“Obviously,” Alex answered. “I knew it would work the entire time.”
She noted the fake confidence in his voice, certain the social pressure was already bearing down on him, particularly with an alpha male like Grant Harrington in the room.
“Of course it would, Ace. You’re a genius,” she said as she navigated the file system in search of the filename Raven had requested.
Ava scrolled the through files, her nose wrinkling as she went from filenames starting with M to filenames starting with O.
She leaned closer, peering at the screen as though she’d missed something. Her eyes slid up to double check that she’d sorted alphabetically based on the title.
After two more passes through the list, she started at the top and scanned each file name, a sinking feeling filling her after reviewing each file.
“But there is one problem,” she answered, following up on her previous statement.
“What is it?” Alex asked. “Second firewall? Password protection? What?”
Ava shook her head at all of the problems that could easily be solved with Alex’s help. “The file’s not here.”
Stunned silence met the statement as she smacked a palm against her forehead.
“What?” Alex finally mustered.
“The file Raven wants is not here.” She cursed under her breath as she dug her phone from her pocket. “I’m calling him.”
“Wait, what? You’re calling Raven now?”
“When would you propose I do it, Ace? I’m not leaving here without whatever file he wants.”
A frustrated sigh crackled through her earpiece as she pressed the call icon and let the line ring. She received a message that the number she had dialed was no longer in service.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“What now?” Alex asked.
“Dead end on this number. I’m trying the other one.” The line trilled, and finally someone picked up.
“You shouldn’t be calling me,” Raven said, the voice digitally altered as usual.
“And you shouldn’t be giving me fake file names. Now, what file do you really want off of this server?”
Silence met her request, and she huffed out a sigh, cocking a hip. “Hello? Do you have any clue what you’re doing or are you just making this up as you go? Because I really don’t appreciate being sent on a wild goose chase for a file that doesn’t exist.”
“Whoa, maybe don’t provoke him, babe,” Alex murmured in her other ear.
She rolled her eyes at the suggestion as the conversation continued in her living room. “Raven sort of kidnapped Ava once already,” Alex explained.
“I’m looking,” Raven snapped before he let out a growl. “Just take all of the files.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Next time, get your facts straight before you send me to risk my life.”
“Don’t push me, Ava–” Raven began when she cut off the call and leaned over the workstation again.
“Now, he wants all the files,” she said with a sigh. She selected them all and dragged them to the waiting USB drive, setting the copy function in motion.
“No, wait,” Alex said with a shake of his head.
“What?” she asked, when she realized her error. “Uh-oh.”
“Ava, get out of there.”
“Not without these files,” she said with a shake of her head as a dozen digital alarms sent warnings out to whoever would listen that files were being transferred from the secure server to a USB drive.
“Ava, that program was designed to remove the file protections for that specific file. We have no idea what the others have on them.”
“Too late now,” she answered as she danced from foot to foot, her eyes stuck on the progress bar as it slowly inched forward.
“It’s not. Take the drive and get out.”
Her fight-or-flight instincts kicked into overdrive, making it difficult not to bolt, but she breathed through her panic, attempting to remain calm as she waited for the copy to finish. “I can do it, Ace.”
“Ava…”
She pressed the comm further into her ear. “Just make sure there’s no trace of my face on those security cameras. I only have twenty-five percent to go.”
“Ava, you’ll never make that,” Alex pleaded, his voice strained over the sound of furious keystrokes. Ava pictured the worried furrow of his brow, even from miles away. “I’m showing security already on their way up.”
Ava’s heart hammered as the progress bar inched forward agonizingly slow, each tick echoing in the silent, frosty air of the server room. “Well, stall them.”
“Stall…Ava!” Alex shouted. “What do you expect me to do?”
“Something. Anything. I am not leaving without these files. Julia, are you there?”
“I’m here,” Julia’s voice answered her, sounding panicky.
“Talk some sense into him,” Ava said as the progress bar hit eighty-five percent.
“Ummm, I’m not certain I disagree…”
“Ha,” Alex said. “Thank you, Julia. Julia thinks you should leave. In fact, let’s take a little straw poll vote. Show of hands, who thinks Ava should leave now?”
“Well?” Ava asked, using the conversation as a distraction.
“Four to one, you should leave.”
“Who voted that I shouldn’t?”
“Me,” Sierra’s voice answered.
“I knew I liked you, Sierra. And thank you for your support.” Ava’s trembling fingers hovered over the USB, ready to pull it from the tower the moment the transfer finished.
Alex cursed before her comm crackled to life again. “Avs, I can’t shut down the elevators without risking the power source to your machine. There’s nothing I can do to stop them from getting to you. They’re ten floors away.”
“Let’s hope the final few files transfer quickly.”
“Nine floors. Ava, please get out of there.”
“I’m at ninety-one percent.” Ava chewed her lower lip, her heart hammering as she glanced over her shoulder.
With only one way out of the room, she prepared to have to fight her way out.
“Ava…” Alex’s voice was a low warning.
“Ninety-three,” she answered. “Alex, I’m not leaving without this. I’ll be fine.”
“Five floors.”
They would arrive before the files finished transferring. Sweat beaded on her brow as she debated pulling the drive early. Which files would be corrupted or missing? She couldn’t risk another trip here if she missed the appropriate file.
“Three,” Alex said.
The tension in his voice made it clear how he felt about her decision.
She didn’t answer, her eyes trained on the blue bar inching its way across the screen. Come on, come on, she urged mentally.
“Ava, the elevator’s at your floor.”
It would take them a few minutes to snake through the offices to her location. She just needed a few more seconds. The indicator hit ninety-eight. Her heart rose to her throat.
After another second, a colorful circle swirled as the progress bar announced it was finalizing the files.
Footsteps closed in on her location. Her breath caught in her throat as a green check mark appeared with the word Complete. Ava ripped the USB from the tower and tapped the escape key to log off.
Voices echoed off the walls outside the server room. She glanced through the glass door before she switched off all communication devices, including her cameras and her earpiece, as she pressed herself against the wall behind the door.
Holding her breath, she waited as keys jangled over the sound of her hammering heart.
She squeezed her eyes closed as the door slowly began to open. A second later, she forced them open, heat washing over her as she spotted the business end of a weapon nose into the room.
The man holding it crept in a second later.
She pressed her lips together, firming her muscles as both men stepped into the room and inched forward toward the rows of servers housed inside the space.
As they took a few steps away from the door, allowing it to begin its slow swing shut, she whipped around the door and slid through the narrow opening before it dully shut behind her.
Forcing herself to tiptoe down the hall, she kept her eyes trained on the door in case it opened. She rounded the corner before that happened, breaking into a full run.
She skidded into the office she’d entered from, glad they hadn’t noticed the gaping hole through which she’d gotten in. She reattached her rope and climbed out of the opening, replaced the glass, and scurried back to the roof.
Once there, she finally switched her comms back on. “Alex?”
“Ava! What the hell was that?”
She could hear the upset in his voice. “I’m sorry, I had to go dark. They were literally in the room.”
“Please tell me you aren’t being dragged into an interrogation room as we speak.”
“No, I’m leaving. I’ll be home soon.” Ava finished packing the gear before she shrugged on the backpack. “And yes, I got the files.”
She scrambled across the makeshift ladder she’d used to access the roof earlier from the neighboring building and descended to the street below.
Within minutes, she stared over the city from the helicopter waiting for her at StoneCorp.
After a short drive to their beach house, she pushed through the doors, peeling off her gloves as she strode into the living room.
Alex pounded on his keys, staring at his screen as he raised one hand, his request clear. She slid the USB drive into his hands as she kissed his cheek.
“Good work, Sparky.”
She turned her attention to her guests, giving them a sweet smile. “Hi, everyone. Sorry about that.”
“Ava,” Julia said, her features pinched with disbelief, “I can’t even imagine how frightening that must have been.”