Chapter 21
ALEX
Alex tapped on his keyboard, staring at the video feed on his screen with narrowed eyes. He’d hit a brick wall with the encrypted files from the USB drive from Miranda’s safe deposit box for the umpteenth time.
Instead of staring at a message announcing how he’d failed yet again, he switched to a different target.
His fingers danced across the keyboard, using the direction the bothersome builder had turned from his driveway as a starting point.
After hacking the traffic cameras nearby, he followed Chris’s car from his and Ava’s beachside home to a swanky hotel.
Within a few minutes, he’d hacked the hotel’s security and scanned several of the cameras in search of more information about Chris’s plans.
After Chris threatened to ruin him, he felt he had the right.
“What are you up to?” he murmured to the camera.
Ava flitted past him, sunglasses in one hand and Gizmo in the other. “Talking to yourself, Ace?”
“I needed an expert opinion,” he answered.
She offered him an amused glance. “Want to come on a walk with me and Gizmo.”
Alex stared at the screen for another few moments. “No, I’m working on something.”
Ava hesitated at the door before she crossed back to him. He quickly tapped the escape key, sending all of the security video feeds away.
“Did you just get rid of whatever you were doing?” she asked.
He shook his head, a frown on his face.
Ava arched an eyebrow, setting a hand on her hip. “Alex Stone, are you lying to me?”
He grimaced. “Please don’t do the eyebrow thing. It’s scary.”
“What are you doing that is stopping you from going for a walk with your favorite person and your dog?”
“Getting my butt kicked at opening these encrypted files on Miranda’s drive,” he answered with a sigh as he tossed his laptop aside and rose, stretching. “Besides, someone should stay here in case the Harringtons get up and need something.”
“Babe, they’ve been up forever,” Ava answered. “They don’t keep the same hours we do.”
“Oh,” he answered with a crinkle of his brow. “Maybe…we can go for a walk together later.”
“I have the lunch with Vivienne, and then my special meeting with Raven.”
“I was kind of hoping you weren’t going to one or both,” he answered.
Ava stopped his pacing, sliding an arm around his waist. “I’m going to both. And I’ll be fine.”
Alex wrinkled his nose. “Ava…”
“Alex…” she mimicked.
“Please stop doing that. I’m seriously worried about you going to both of these places.”
She stole a kiss from him. “Then come with me.”
“To the lunch thing? And deal with real people?”
“Maybe not the lunch, but…I could take you with me sort of.” Ava dug the comm device from her pocket and held it up.
“Hmm, I like it,” he answered with a grin.
“And I’ll pick you up for the Raven meeting. He’d love to see you.”
Alex strolled back over to his laptop, eyeing the failed decryption attempt again as his mind worked to find a new solution. “Mmm, I’ll bet he would.”
“You can have a nice chat with him about that rose.”
“Only if you promise to use your black belt to keep me safe.”
“Always,” she said with a grin. “Now, are you coming with us for the walk?”
“Uhhh…” Alex flicked his gaze back to the screen. He was failing on all fronts–including the Chris front. He’d stolen Ava from the man once before, but Chris’s constant badgering could change that.
“Alex, what is it that you’re doing on that thing?” Ava crossed to eye his laptop.
“Nothing, just…encryption stuff. And it’s driving me crazy.”
“Aww,” she said with a click of her tongue as she rubbed his shoulders. “You’ll get it. How about if I help you later?”
“Instead of going into the lion’s den.”
“No, in addition,” she answered with a kiss on his cheek before she narrowed her eyes at his display.
With a flick of her wrist, she maximized the windows he’d flicked away with his escape key earlier. “What is this?”
“Oh, just…keeping the old hacking skills sharp.”
“By hacking into a random hotel’s security cameras?”
Alex bobbed his head. “Yep. Just some random place. I don’t even know where it is. I just…you know popped in a super random place and hacked it.”
“You did not,” Ava answered as she shifted her weight, arching an eyebrow again. “What are you looking for?”
Alex puckered his lips. “Nothing.”
This time, both eyebrows went up, and he winced. “Ava…please don’t give me that look because it has the same effect as putting me into a chokehold to demand answers.”
Her eyes bore into his, and he glanced away before he flicked his gaze back, his shoulders slumping. “Fine, fine. It’s Chris’s hotel.”
Her eyes widened, and she glanced back at the screen. “Really? Where is he staying?”
“Uh, why do you need that information?”
“So, I can avoid it, Alex. What else would I need it for?”
“So, you can visit him there when you tell him I’m not worth all this hassle?” Alex stared blankly at the screen.
“I’m not going to do that.” Ava rubbed his shoulder before she glanced down to catch his eyes. “Alex, tell me you know I’m not going to do that.”
He continued to stare at the screen, his emotions roiling inside of him.
She’d been engaged to Chris less than two weeks ago.
Their relationship was still so new. For now, it seemed adventurous with their mission to take down the shadowy organization, but would it stay that way, or would it wear on her?
“Alex…are you serious?”
“You had some reservations about us. And now, I can’t imagine you don’t have more,” he answered as he slammed the laptop shut.
“Alex, I would never walk away from you. Ever. You know that. Or you should.” Ava clicked her tongue, heaving a sigh as she shook her head at him.
He pressed his lips together as he tried to sort through his emotions. He wanted to make her happy, but he was cut off at every turn by some crisis or another.
“Okay, I need to take Gizmo for a walk before I get ready for my lunch. So, if you want to pout, go ahead. We’ll talk later.” She kissed his cheek before she strode out the door.
The click of the door behind her sent his heart plummeting as he slid his eyes closed. “Nice, Alex, perfect.”
He leapt from his seat and paced around the room, running his fingers through his hair. “You don’t want her to leave you, but you push her away at every turn.”
He scrubbed his face, wondering if she’d even come back. “Stop,” he told himself.
Ava would be back. She would risk her life for him.
But he just couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever was going on around them may take Ava from him.
Alex paused, a memory surfacing—him tagging along on one of Ava’s dates, watching her laugh with someone else, feeling a pang of something he couldn't yet name. It had been a constant fear, one that traced back to the very beginning of their friendship. A profound fear of loss of his best friend.
Needing a distraction, he opened his laptop again, glancing at the hotel cameras one more time. His heart skipped a beat as he spotted Chris’s door open. A man he didn’t recognize stepped out, twisting to shake hands with Chris.
With a grin, the annoying architect offered him a wave before the man strode away.
Before he disappeared from the video feeds, Alex grabbed a screen cap of his face.
“Let’s see if we can make any progress on figuring out who you are,” Alex murmured as he fed the screen grab through a facial recognition software designed to search any available source for a match.
He returned to his decryption program, searching the information from the last failure to tweak the program before he set it running again.
He left the program behind and headed away from his laptop in search of Ava. He needed to apologize, to make certain she knew how much he loved her. He couldn’t let her walk away from him when he’d promised to love her for the rest of her life.
Alex descended the stairs, snaking around the railing to head into the living room where he found Grant and Julia just returning from a walk on the beach.
“Hey, Harringtons. How are you enjoying the Hamptons?”
“It’s just lovely here, Alex. What a beautiful stretch of beach,” Julia said with a grin.
“It’s a great spot,” Grant agreed. “I’m just going to change my shoes. I’ll be right back.”
Alex waited for the man to leave them alone before he twisted back to face Julia with a tentative grin.
“Did you see Ava out there?”
“Uh, I didn’t. I’m sorry,” Julia said as Alex slid his eyes closed and shook his head. “Everything okay?”
Alex sank onto the couch with a sigh. “Not really.”
Julia’s features pinched as she eased into an armchair. “Oh, I’m sorry. Uh, if I can help…”
“What made you fall in love with Grant?”
Julia shifted in her seat as she tugged her lips back into a wince. “Uh, wow, that’s not an easy question to answer, but I guess it was a combination of things. You know…his personality, we had a connection, we just…seemed to fit.”
Alex heaved a sigh as he slouched in his seat, letting his head fall back against the cushion.
“Was that the wrong answer?” Julia asked with a laugh.
Alex bobbed his head. “Probably. I really was hoping you’d say it was that one time he took me to Paris, that’s when I knew.”
Julia chuckled at the statement. “I’m sorry. I’m afraid love, at least for me, was a little more complicated than a trip to Paris.”
That wasn’t the answer he hoped to hear. He wanted some sort of magic bullet, something that would make him certain that he and Ava were going to survive past their honeymoon phase.
“Alex, did something happen?” Julia prodded, her voice gentle. “Does it have to do with that guy who showed up here last night?”
Alex puffed out his cheeks. “Crossbeam Chris is just one of the problems, yes.”
“I–I don’t mean to pry but–”
Alex leapt from his seat, pacing the floor in front of the fireplace. “You know Ava and I didn’t get married for love, right? Well, we…what do you remember about when we got married?”
“I didn’t think you did. From what I remembered it was about an inheritance, right?” Julia offered him a questioning glance.
“It was, yes. It was.”
“Okay,” Julia said.
“And then Ava got engaged to Chris, and she asked for a divorce, only I didn’t want a divorce because I…”
Julia slid her head forward, hanging on the last word that stretched between them.
“I love Ava. And I want us to be together.”
“Oh, my goodness, Alex, you have to tell her,” Julia said as she leapt to her feet.
“Well, I mean, no…”
“Yes,” Julia insisted. “Grant and I wasted so much time, so much time, not telling each other the truth. We nearly didn’t make it because of that.”
“I did tell her. I told her.”
Julia’s features twisted into a concerned expression. “Oh. Oh, Alex, does she not…did she…”
“Reject me?” Alex said with a scoff as he continued his ambling back and forth. “No. She just…had some reservations. And I just…I don’t know. This is so new. It’s so new, and I don’t know if we’re going to make it.”
“Well, okay, then, you’ve actually already made it through the tough part.”
Alex gave her an incredulous glance. “Really? Because it seems tougher now.”
“Are you fighting a lot?”
“No,” Alex said with a shake of his head. “I just…it’s hard to believe this is not going to fall apart. Like did she really pick me?”
Julia stepped into his path, her features softening. “Okay, Alex, I think you need to take a deep breath and remember that you and Ava have been together for a really long time. You were best friends in college, and you’re still best friends, and that’s really important.”
“Is it? Because Ava said we’ve stayed friends because we’re not romantically involved. She said she’s a problem, but I don’t believe that. Actually, I think it’s me. I’m the problem.”
“No one is a problem,” Julia answered. “But relationships aren’t perfect. Far from it. You’re going through something stressful right now, and you’re both stressed, especially while you are feeling your way through a new relationship.”
“Really? Did you go through this with Grant?”
Julia chuckled. “Actually, I…when he told me he loved me, I rejected him. So, see, you’ve fared better than Grant did.”
“Was it Luke?”
She shook her head. “No. I had already broken up with Luke.”
Alex winced. “See, that’s the thing that doesn’t make me feel better. Because you and Luke were like this super couple and then suddenly, poof, you weren’t and you were married to Grant, and in love with him.”
“And still unsure of our relationship. Now, I know I’m not Ava. Ava is a completely different person than I am, but that doesn’t mean she’s not still trying to sort through everything that you told her and everything that it means.”
Alex scrubbed his face as he heaved a sigh. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re pretty good at this? Maybe you missed your calling as a shrink?”
She chuckled as she squeezed his arm. “I’ve just had lots of practice. Harrington House can be a crazy place.”
“Yeah, the small taste I got certainly seemed crazy.”
“It’ll work out, Alex. You have to believe in your love.”
He blew out a breath, wanting to believe Julia but still unsure.
“Tell you what. I’ll try to talk to Ava and report back. Nothing intrusive or obvious, but maybe just get a peek into what she’s thinking. Maybe it’ll help you feel better.”
He slid his eyes closed, guilt roiling through him. “I mean, I don’t want to ask you to do that. It feels…sort of like a betrayal.”
“It’s not. I’m not going to betray any confidences, but if she drops any hints on something that could bring you closer, maybe it’ll somehow make its way into your ear.” She gave him a conspiratorial grin.
He offered her a soft smile. “Thanks, Julia. I really appreciate it.”
“Yeah, of course. I’m rooting for you, actually. It’s…sweet how long you’ve been friends and now that you’re giving your relationship a go. I want you to make it. You’re perfect together.”
Heat rose in his cheeks as he glanced down at his shoes. “I hope Ava feels the same way.”
“I’m sure she does.”
Silence stretched between them, broken only by the chiming of Alex’s watch. “Oh, that’s a program I’m running that’s following up on a lead.”
“Go,” Julia said with a nod. “Go check it.”
Alex backed away, hurrying from the room. He hesitated as he stepped through the doorway, turning back. “Hey, Julia. Thanks.”
She smiled at him. “Anytime.”
The discussion between them had given him some hope for the future, and so did the notification on his watch. Maybe they’d finally figure something out.
He took the stairs two by two and raced back to the bedroom, swiveling his laptop to face him as he checked the progress of his programs.
The decryption program continued to hum along, but the facial recognition program had found a hit on the man who had met with the arrogant architect.
Alex’s breath hitched as he stared at the name on his screen. “No. It can’t be.”