Chapter 18
AVA
Ava set the burner phone down on the table next to her after ending the call with Alex and Kyle. With any luck, they’d soon find some trace of Sebastian. Without his ties to The Board, they would be hard pressed to make any progress against them.
They’d already tried it and ended up chasing their tails.
After The Board’s latest move, they needed to bring this to a quick close. She wasn’t about to end up almost-dead again.
Ava grabbed the laptop again, navigating to a news website, browsing through articles on the recent DHS activity with the new suspect.
“Where are you, Shadow?” she murmured as she watched raw helicopter footage of the Beach Comber resort where the “suspect” had been spotted.
She froze the video in a few spots, searching for anywhere he could be hiding, but she didn’t find anything.
With a heavy sigh, she slammed the lid shut and grabbed the phone again, sending Alex a text. Anything yet?
The screen dimmed as she waited for the response, her fingers drumming against the side of the device until it chimed. Babe, we’re not even home yet.
She huffed out a sigh. Doc drives slower than you, I swear.
A second later, the phone rang again. The sound of Alex’s laughter filled the quiet cabin. “Doc says he so does not drive as slow as me.”
“That’s a lie, Ava. You take it back,” Kyle said.
She chuckled. “It feels like it’s been forever. But I’m stuck here in some kind of weird time warp. I swear that clock hasn’t moved.”
“We’re approaching the old homestead now,” Alex reported. “Hey, take a spin past the old resort. See if Shadow’s car is there.”
“Shadow?” Kyle repeated. “Oh no.”
Ava’s stomach dropped at his words. “What? What is it?”
“He got a nickname? Only the cool people get a nickname, and now I feel like I’ve been demoted.”
“Aww, Doc, you’re still our best friend. Shadow’s definitely second to you,” Ava told him.
“She’s right, Doc,” Alex confirmed. “If Ava needs a replacement husband, I’d pick you over him any day.”
“Aw, thanks, Mav. I appreciate that.”
“Will you two stop hating on Shadow and find him, please?” Ava asked.
“Sorry, we’re just really excited,” Kyle answered. “Or I am. I assume Mav is over the moon that you’re alive. I mean, seriously, Ava, we dodged a major bullet. You were gone…in a really irreparable way.”
“But I’m not,” she answered. “So, with that known, we need to find Shadow and kick some Board butt.”
“Approaching the Beach Comber now,” Alex reported before he cursed under his breath.
Her stomach clenched at the sound. “What’s wrong?”
“His van is still here,” Alex said. “Which means we can’t track that anywhere.”
Ava straightened, her muscles going tense. “Is he in it?”
“Ummm,” Alex murmured.
“Alex…are you checking?” She groaned. “Does this thing have a video chat?”
“Don’t turn that on. We can’t take a chance of anyone seeing you. We’re just…”
“Just what?” Ava’s heart thudded hard against her ribs as she waited, her frustration building.
Alex heaved a sigh. “We’re, uh, we’re playing Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who has to check the van.”
Ava clicked her tongue. “Are you two serious?”
“Yes, Avs,” Alex said, his voice tense. “Shadow is scary. And if he’s wounded and cornered, he may be even more scary.”
She shook her head. “Just go check. Both of you go.”
The sound of doors opening met her ears. She drummed her fingers against the arm of the chair as she waited to hear what they’d found.
“Approaching the front and peering in,” Alex said. “Nothing in here.”
“Nothing from the driver side either,” Kyle added.
“That leaves the back.”
Kyle blew out a long breath. “The one with the big door that we can’t see through.”
“Right, that one. Okay, we’re going to check in there. Doc’s going to open the door…”
“No,” Kyle hissed. “No way, Mav. This feels like a lead male operation.”
“What? That doesn’t even make sense,” Alex countered. “Lead male operation?””
“Yeah,” Kyle answered. “Like when the movie comes out, it would be Alex Stone who opens the door and does the big reveal, not Doc. Doc is just here for emotional support. He’s the witty sidekick, the bumbling, yet endearing second.”
“Or,” Alex countered, “because Alex is the lead male, Doc opens the door, that way if there’s like a bomb or something in there or Shadow has a gun, Alex lives to fight another day while Doc recuperates in the hospital with jello.”
“First, Doc hates jello, and second, there’s a bomb, you think?” Kyle’s voice lowered to just above a whisper.
Ava slammed a fist against the arm of the chair. “Will one of you just open the door already?”
“Together?” Alex asked.
“Count of three,” Kyle said.
“Okay, one, two, wait,” Alex interrupted his own count. “Are we pulling it open on three or the count after three?”
“Uhh, one, two, three, pull. We pull on pull,” Kyle suggested.
“Okay.” Alex huffed out a shaky breath before he counted to three.
The sound of a van door sliding open reverberated through her speaker as she held her breath, waiting for information.
“Nothing. Empty,” Alex reported.
Ava heaved a sigh, her head hanging down. “Figures. All right, we’ll go home and see if you can dig up any information.”
“I don’t know from where, Avs,” Alex said as the sound of his car door slamming shut punctuated his statement.
“Me either. Maybe…maybe he’ll reach out to you, text you. Keep an eye on your phone.”
“I will,” he answered. “I want you to text every hour on the hour. I’m not even kidding. I want to know you’re safe and alive. Your supposed death is still way too close.”
She smiled softly at her phone. “I promise I will.”
“You miss one, and I’m going to be on my way up there to check on you, okay?”
“Got it,” she answered. “Now, you’d better go before someone finds out.”
“Yep. Avs…I love you.”
Her grin broadened. “I love you too, Ace.”
“Ava, I’m really glad you’re alive,” Kyle said.
“Me too, Doc. Me too. Take care of Alex. I’m counting on you.”
“You got it,” he answered before they said their goodbyes.
Silence penetrated the air as she ended the conversation, settling back into the armchair with a sigh. “Where are you, Sebastian?”
Her fingers traced the outline of the laptop still on her lap. It was a useless piece of junk if she couldn’t use it to trace Sebastian, and she had no idea in which direction to search. He could be anywhere.
She heaved a sigh as she rubbed her forehead. “Think, Ava. Think. Alex went missing and you found him.”
Her head thudded against the wing of the chair as she realized she’d done that with Sebastian’s help.
The clock on the mantel ticked the time away, a painful reminder that precious minutes were slipping away from her, minutes that could make the difference between saving Sebastian and finding him dead.
She rose from her seat, pacing the floor. As she twisted on her heel, a ringing phone split the silence, its sound startling and jarring.
Her eyes fell to her burner phone, but it remained dark.
“Landline,” she murmured as she rushed to follow the sound of the ringing phone.
She spotted it across the room, tucked behind a large vase and raced to answer it. “Hello?”
Only dead air answered her. She pulled it away from her ear, trying to determine if the call had dropped. It remained active, and she pressed it to her ear again. “Hello?”
Her brow furrowed as a raspy noise sounded on the other end of the line.
She ended the call, her heart pounding hard against her ribs as she wondered if the call had been from The Board.
What if they were probing to find her location, and she’d just given it away.
She shook her head, her trembling hands still holding the landline. She glanced at it again, toggling on the display to pull up the caller ID.
Her heart skipped a beat as she spotted the number on the screen. She raced to the laptop, ripping it open and toggling into Alex’s system to find his cell phone location tracer.
She tapped the phone number into the search bar and set it tracing. “Come on, come on.”
A colorful wheel spun around before a map appeared, filling in with details. Ava’s heart skipped a beat as she saw it at the Beach Comber.
She grabbed her burner phone and sent Alex a text. Hey, Ace, can you call me?
Drumming her fingers on the laptop, she waited for an answer. It didn’t come fast enough for her taste. She snapped a picture of the location, just in case, before she shoved the phone into her pocket and grabbed the keys to Alex’s SUV.
Seconds later, she was out the door and heading to the vehicle under the moonlight. Climbing behind the wheel, she fired the engine and whipped the car around in the gravel driveway, pushing it toward the road as fast as she could.
She hit the pavement and increased her speed, careful to stay only slightly over the speed limit so she wasn’t pulled over. The last thing she needed was a cop pulling her over and realizing who she was.
Her palms were slick against the steering wheel as her mind vetted options. Had Sebastian reached out or was this a trap, designed to draw her in and make sure she stayed dead this time?
She should have searched the cabin for a weapon.
But she didn’t have time for that.
She urged a little more speed from the vehicle, pulling her hood up over her head as she neared the Hamptons.
She navigated through backroads toward the Beach Comber resort, spotting Sebastian’s van sitting in the lot.
She pulled in next to it, double-checking it despite the news she’d received earlier. She found it empty.
Her eyes fell onto the dark building between her and the beach. Had he circled around and found a way inside the old resort?
She crossed to it, keeping to the shadows as she moved and grabbed hold of the door handles to the main entrance. The doors didn’t budge.
With a low curse, she circled around, checking a few other doors until one swung open.
She slipped inside, toggling on her cell phone’s flashlight.
Sweeping it around the hallway, she let it fall onto the tile floor leading to the laundry. Droplets of blood stained it.
With her heart in her throat, she followed them until she hit a carpeted area leading to old meeting rooms.
Chairs remained stacked in some of the rooms, an eerie reminder of how quickly things could change. She swept her beam around each room, searching for anyone.
“Come on, Shadow, where are you?”
She searched the floor for more blood spots, but with the dark pattern, it was almost impossible to see anything.
The carpet turned back to marble tile as she hit the main lobby. More blood spatters led to a stairwell. She followed the spots to the second floor, exiting into a hallway of hotel rooms.
She crept down the hall, the moonlight shining through from some open doors as an eerie sense of silence pervaded the space.
As she inched past one open door, her heart skipped a beat. A body was sprawled on the floor near the two beds in the room.
Ava raced inside, turning the dark-clad body over to find an unconscious Sebastian.
“Sebastian?” Her voice wavered, panic threatening to overtake her as she patted his cheeks, willing him to wake up.
The flashlight's beam shook as she ran it down his body, catching on a dark, spreading stain on his hoodie.
Heart pounding, she lifted the fabric, revealing a bullet wound in his abdomen.
The sight made her stomach lurch, a cold dread settling over her.
The phone chimed, snapping her back to the present. She quickly checked the screen, seeing Alex's message: Calling now.
As the phone rang, she swiped to answer, her voice strained with urgency. “Alex… get Doc to the Beach Comber, right now. Sebastian’s been shot. He’s losing a lot of blood.”
She pressed her hand to the wound, desperate to stanch the flow as his blood seeped through her fingers.
Panic bubbled up, but she shoved it down.
This was no time for fear. As she looked at Sebastian’s ashen face, a single thought echoed in her mind: If we lose him, we lose everything.
The gravity of the situation pressed on her, knowing that without him, their chances against The Board dwindled to nothing.