Chapter 26
AVA
Ava shifted her weight as the sea breeze tossed her blonde hair wildly around her. The chill in the air mirrored the icy dread that had settled in her heart since Alex’s kidnapping.
Alex snaked an arm around her waist, pulling her closer. “Do we always have to meet the bad guys at the creepy abandoned resort?”
She patted his chest as she offered him a tight-lipped smile. “Sorry, babe. It’s a good spot for nefarious.”
He shivered as another icy burst of wind shot past them. “I really could have done without a Raven meeting so soon after my daring escape.”
“Umm, I think it was more like your daring rescue,” she pointed out. “And I’ll remind you…Doc, my backup spouse, said he’d go in your stead.”
Alex clicked his tongue. “No. And also, I’m going to have a serious conversation with him about this whole back-up spouse thing.”
“Cut him some slack. He took excellent care of me while you were otherwise engaged with Miranda.”
“Umm, babe, I was literally in a cell, not playing tiddly-winks with her.”
“Did she not even offer a game of tiddly-winks?” she asked, sliding her arms around his waist.
“Not even a mention of it. Really disappointing.”
“She was a bad host,” Ava said with a grin.
“Ugh,” Alex groaned as he shifted around, tugging his hood up.
“Too soon for jokes, babe?” she asked.
He grimaced. “It’s never too soon for jokes, but… Avs, this is getting really serious.”
“Tell me about it. I literally just stormed a fortress with a guy who uses a code name and wears a mask so we can’t identify him. Feels serious.”
“When is it going to end?” he asked.
“When we end it,” she answered, giving him a squeeze.
She’d come too close to losing Alex, and she had no desire to go through that again. Nor the next issue The Board threw at them. “Where’s Raven?”
“Seriously. Bro wants to meet, then is late. I mean, come on.”
“Well, he did just storm a building with us and shoot Miranda.”
“Ugh, Sparky, we should have gotten him something.”
She snapped her fingers. “He would have enjoyed the fruit basket we didn’t get Sebastian, I bet.”
“Mmm, yes. I’ll make sure I send him one right away. Or maybe the fruit basket and chocolates. I mean, it was Miranda, after all.”
“Good point, Ace. He deserves the best.”
Movement behind them caught their attention. Ava peered around Alex, her pulse quickening until she caught sight of Raven’s familiar, masked form.
“Still rocking the mask, huh?”
“Ava,” he said, his voice robotic as he thrust a rose forward, his posture stiff and guarded.
“And still doing this.” Alex grimaced as he wiggled a finger at the rose as Ava accepted it. “I’m deducting the chocolates from your reward balance.”
Raven’s shoulders tensed. “Must you bring him?”
Alex scoffed. “Are you kidding me? I’m her husband.”
“A fact I rue daily,” Raven muttered, closing a palm around his gloved fist.
Alex clicked his tongue. “There goes your fruit basket, pal. Now, you get no gifts.”
Ava shrugged as Raven spread his hands to the side, questioning. “We were going to get you a nice gift for shooting Miranda, but looks like it’s been revoked. Seriously, though, we just stormed a Board stronghold together, and you still won’t show us your face?”
“Things are…complicated, Ava. There is too much at stake.”
“So much at stake, we have to blindly trust you?” Alex shot back.
“Have I not proven myself?”
“Well–” Alex began when Raven flicked a hand in the air to cut him off.
“I’m asking Ava.”
“Of course, you are.”
She crossed her arms, staring at him. “I guess you have.”
“Ava!” Alex cried. “Come on.”
“Well, he did get us into the building, and he shot Miranda before she could shoot you. So…I feel sort of grateful.”
“You two are far too cavalier about things,” Raven scolded. “The Board is a serious threat.”
“No kidding,” Alex retorted. “I learned that firsthand when they kidnapped me.”
“Retaliation will follow this,” Raven warned. “We must be ready.”
“No kidding. We have to be more than ready,” Ava answered. “I don’t want this to happen again. We need to get a little more aggressive.”
“Patience, Ava.”
“No,” she said, her features turning incredulous. “I refuse to have patience when these people kidnapped Alex. I could have lost him.”
“Yeah,” Alex said. “It’s an experience I don’t want to repeat. And also, no more making friends with Sebastian Bancroft. The guy is more trouble than I want Ava around.”
“Besides, I don’t think he’ll want to see me anymore given my answer after our last meeting.” She twisted to face Alex. “Although, we do owe him the chocolates for his slip-up in not knocking me out on the way to the facility.”
“I’ll set a reminder on my phone to send them, Sparky,” Alex said with a nod.
“Sebastian Bancroft will not be a problem moving forward. We must infiltrate deeper into The Board.”
“Did you shoot him, too?” Alex raised his crossed fingers.
Raven heaved a sigh.
“How do you expect us to do that when we’ve burned more than one bridge at this point?”
“With the files I’ve had you gather. We can piece together information–”
“Aren’t they heavily encrypted?” Alex asked.
“It’s an encryption I can break.”
Next to her, Alex stiffened, his features pinching. “You can break it? Really? Because I’ve been trying since we got those files and nada. Color me surprised that you’re trying to claim tech hero status.”
“You were not to keep those files.” Raven’s gloved fingers curled into fists.
“Wouldn’t you have been a tad disappointed in us if we didn’t keep those files?” Ava asked.
“Never mind,” Raven answered. “As I said–”
“Wait,” Ava said, her brows pinching as she recalled information they’d held back, “Alex and I need a private moment.”
Raven shook his head.
“We won’t be long,” Ava said as she grabbed Alex’s hoodie and dragged him a few steps away.
“What’s up, Sparky?”
She flicked her gaze to Raven before focusing on Alex. “We have files from Miranda that could help.”
“But we don’t know what they say.”
“But he might.”
Alex cocked his head, his expression tense. “Avs, that’s a big gamble.”
“So is not giving them to him. He’s proven himself…more than once. He rescued me for the police raid–”
“Rescue is a stretch. He kidnapped you and took you to some cabin in the woods.”
“But he brought me back. And when you were being held by The Board, he came through. Made sure we got you back. I think we can trust him.”
“Babe, if we can’t–”
“If we can’t, then we gave him information that they may already know we have. I nabbed that flash drive a while ago. Miranda could have totally found out and reported it missing.”
Alex heaved a sigh as he kicked sand around with his foot. “I’m going with your gut on this because I don’t like it.”
“No, wait, don’t go with my gut. My gut has been wrong for like twenty years, Ace.”
“Don’t say that, Sparky. Your gut wasn’t wrong, it just…didn’t know I was in love with you. And also, you’re usually right about things. Especially people-y things.”
“So, we agree on this, right? Totally?”
Alex nodded. “Yeah, we agree. Let’s give him Miranda’s flash drive.”
She slid her hand into his and crossed back to Raven. “So, the thing is, we may have some other information–”
“What information?” he interrupted.
Ava offered him a sheepish glance. “I may have nabbed a flash drive from Miranda Vale’s safe deposit box when you sent me for those plans.”
“You did what?” Raven asked, his robotic voice sharp in tone.
“I mean, it was right there. Almost asking me to take it,” she said with a shrug. “But it’s also heavily encrypted. But it may help.”
Raven heaved a sigh. “How could you hold this back?”
“Just going to throw this out there, and see how you feel about it: because you’re a creepy dude in a mask using a fake name, and we didn’t know if we could trust you?” Alex suggested.
Ava jabbed a finger at her husband. “What he said.”
Raven shook his head, a sigh escaping him. “Give me the drive.”
“Well, one, I don’t have it on me, and two, there are a few demands.”
He jabbed a finger at her. “You are in no position to make demands.”
“Neither are you,” she answered. “You clearly need us, or you wouldn’t have asked for our help. If we don’t give you the drive, oh well for you. Game over.”
“What do you want?”
“We want to step up the efforts to dismantle The Board. Full partnership,” she said as she crossed her arms. “No more running errands for you. We want in on the big stuff.”
“Is that all?” Raven asked.
She shared a glance with Alex who nodded. “We also want Doc to be a permanent part of the team.”
Raven’s robotic voice turned shrill. “Dr. Kyle Carter is a liability, a wild card.”
“And a dear friend who is my wife’s back-up spouse,” Alex said. “So…we’d like him included.”
“No,” Ava answered with a shake of her head. “We wouldn’t like it. We insist upon it. He’s proven himself, too.”
Silence stretched between them for a few moments before Ava arched an eyebrow.
“Uh-oh, she’s getting mad. You may want to make up your mind.”
The leather of his gloves creaked as Raven curled his fingers into fists again. “Fine.”
Ava offered him a surprised grin. “Oh, that was easier than I thought.”
“Really thought we’d have to argue harder than that, yeah,” Alex agreed.
“Get me that flash drive immediately,” he answered.
“Why don’t you stop by the house?” Alex offered. “We can have a drink to celebrate our new arrangement, and you can actually ditch that mask.”
“We’ll meet here tomorrow night. Have the drive. And don’t do anything stupid.” He wagged a finger at them before he strode past them, disappearing around the corner of the building.
“We love you, too!” Alex called.
Ava’s forehead creased as she stared after the mysterious man. “What is with the secrecy?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he’s afraid we’ll sell him out to The Board if things get tough.”
“Maybe,” she said with a deep breath. “Oh, well, at least maybe now, we’ll get more information and maybe achieve something other than running from these people or reacting.”
“We can hope. Also, Doc’s going to be thrilled.”
Ava grinned at him as she nodded. “Yep. Let’s go tell him the good news.”
“After you, my lady,” Alex said with a playful bow.
Ava planted a kiss on his lips before she slid her hand into his, and they strolled past the building to the parking lot.
Ava slowed as they turned the corner, her car coming into sight, her heart hammering. Two people milled around her vehicle, a man and a woman, both in trench coats.
“Who is that?” Alex asked, his features pinching.
“I don’t know,” Ava said, “but stay behind me.”
“I really need to learn some ninja moves so I don’t have to always let my wife protect me.”
“It’s fine, babe. It’s our thing. You’re the tech genius, I’m the ninja.”
He kissed her cheek as they crept forward. Ava kept her keys in her hand, her house key poking between her first two fingers to be used as a makeshift weapon if needed.
As they approached, the smaller figure smacked their partner in the arm, drawing his attention. She reached into her pocket, flashing a set of credentials. “Ava Collins, I’m Agent Ruth Sanderson and this is my partner, Agent Tom Sullivan. We’re with the Department of Homeland Security.”
“DHS?” Alex said, his features twisting with confusion.
“We have reason to believe you've been in close contact with multiple members of an organization known as The Board—a highly dangerous group with connections to several notorious terrorists.”
“Where did you get this information?” Ava asked.
“That’s not important. What matters is that we need to talk about this further. Simply put, we need to know what you know.”
“You need me to fill you in on The Board?” Ava shot back.
Agent Sanderson nodded. “We need all the information you have to take these bastards down.”
Ava’s stomach twisted into a tight knot. Had they finally found the break they needed to get rid of The Board?