Chapter 24
AVA
Her breath caught in her throat as she stopped the car short of the other, peering at the darkened house. She threw the shifter into park, her heart hammering against her ribs as she vetted the situation.
Had Sebastian called someone here? Was there a problem?
She wondered if his mother had brought someone here to check Kyle’s work.
Still, a sneaking suspicion that something was off snaked down her spine. She grabbed the weapon she’d taken earlier from the safe and readied it, loading a bullet into the chamber.
A dark cloud blotted out the moon as she slipped from the car, easing the door closed so she wouldn’t draw any attention to her presence.
She crept forward, taking shallow, soft breaths as she reached the porch. With a wince, she inched up to the front door, finding it standing open.
Another piece of evidence that led her to believe something was wrong. She swallowed hard, sneaking through the door into the darkened apartment.
Muffled voices drew her attention to the floor above.
She hurried across the floor to the stairs as noiselessly as possible. With a glance up, she mounted the first stair, quietly ascending to the top.
Despite her wildly beating hard, she kept her weapon steady and pointed in front of her, readied for an attack.
With her eyes trained on Sebastian’s door, she continued forward until she could peer into the room.
Based on the way Vivienne clutched Sebastian’s hand and her tear-streaked face, the man looming over them wasn’t a friend. With the close-cropped hair, and tattoo on the back of his neck, she assumed the government car wasn’t actually associated with a real agency.
“Fine,” he said with a shake of his head and a chuckle. “No one cares anymore regardless of your rank. Time for you to exit The Board.”
Ava’s heart rose into her throat as the man freed a pistol from a holster and loaded a bullet into the chamber. He pointed it forward. “Only question is…do I make you watch Mommy die, or do I kill you first?”
“Neither,” Ava answered as she squeezed the trigger of her own weapon, hitting the man in the arm.
He managed to hang on to his weapon as blood exploded from his shoulder.
“Ava!” Sebastian shouted as he attempted to lunge forward, stopped by the wound in his gut.
She ducked instinctively as a wild bullet struck the door jamb above her head.
With the precision of an expert marksman, she didn’t hesitate to lift her weapon and fire again, this time blowing the gun out of his hand before she hurried forward to kick it away.
Vivienne snatched it from the floor, pointing it with shaky hands at the man.
“Mom, wait,” Sebastian said, reaching for her arm.
Ava readied the weapon again, pointing it at the man’s leg. “What’s going on here?”
“He’s trying to kill us,” Vivienne shouted, her voice shaky.
“That’s not true,” the man said with a shake of his head. “I’m a federal agent. I’m here to arrest these two. They are the part of a criminal organization that is responsible for a number of disruptive terrorist activities.”
“No, Ava, don’t listen to him,” Sebastian said with a vehement shake of his head and a wince as the wound in his gut pulled. “He’s here to kill us. He’s Board.”
Ava flicked her gaze to Sebastian before she returned it to the man in front of her. “I don’t know what they told you, but I have the badge to prove it.”
He reached a trembling hand toward his pocket, but she shook her head. “Uh-uh,” she said with a shake of the weapon. “I want to see your wrist.”
He raised his eyebrows, pulling up his right sleeve, his features questioning.
“The other one,” she said, her voice sharp as her features twisted.
The man swallowed hard, hesitating for a moment before he lunged toward his boot. She fired two shots, killing him instantly before she lunged forward to tug up his left sleeve, finding the knight tattooed there.
Ava slumped to the floor with a heavy sigh before she eyed Vivienne, becoming acutely aware of the gun still pointed at her.
She raised her hands, her eyes going to Sebastian.
“Mom, put the gun down. Ava’s on our side.”
Vivienne’s features pinched before she cried out, doubling over as she collapsed into the chair next to the bed.
Sebastian wrapped his arm around her as she sobbed. “It’s okay, Mom. We’re okay.”
Ava scrambled to her feet, glancing back at the man’s body behind her. “We need a plan.”
“We have to move,” Sebastian said. “They’re on to us here.”
“How?” Ava questioned.
Sebastian shook his head. “I don’t know. This cabin isn’t even tied to the Bancrofts.”
Ava leaned over the body, searching his pockets. “So, you’re standing in The Board is okay.”
“As far as I know,” he groaned, his eyes squeezing closed as he pushed himself up to sit. “But it won’t stay that way if I don’t get back into the swing of things.”
“You can barely move. We need to pull back to another spot and wait this out. Did he tell anyone he found you?”
“To my knowledge, no.”
Ava pulled his phone from his pocket, toggling it on. “Locked. I need to hack this. We need to know who his contact is and what they know.”
Her mind buzzed as she reached for her phone to call Alex, but then Sebastian stood.
“We need to get out of here first. We have no idea if anyone else is coming.”
Ava raised her eyes to him. “You’re right. We’ll deal with this later. We should take the body and the car.”
“I can–”
“Barely walk,” she said. “Get in the car with your mother. I’ll drag this guy to his car and take that. We need a place to go, though.”
“My family has a house in Cold Springs Harbor,” Vivienne said. “We can go there.”
“I’ll follow you,” Ava said with a nod as she grabbed hold of the man’s hands and tugged him backward.
“Ava, you can’t do that on your own,” Sebastian said as he hobbled closer, sucking in a sharp breath as he moved.
“Watch me,” she groaned.
“Ava–”
“Back off, Shadow. If you open that wound, we’re delayed all the more getting Doc up here. Now, hobble down to the car and get into the passenger seat.”
“She’s right, Sebastian,” Vivienne said. “We can’t afford for you to open that wound.”
Sebastian shook his head, his fingers curling into fists. “I hate being this vulnerable, and I can’t do a damn thing about it.”
Ava waddled her way backward, dragging the man with her. “Cry me a river.”
“We should dump that body somewhere,” Sebastian said as he inched behind her, careful to keep his movements slow.
“Got any ideas?”
“There’s a quarry about an hour from Cold Springs.”
“I hate to do it, but we have no choice,” Ava said as she worked her way down the stairs, her muscles aching and sweat beading on her brow.
As she reached the bottom of the stairs, Vivienne lifted the man’s feet, struggling to toddle along with Ava.
“This man tried to kill me and my son. I will do anything to protect Sebastian.”
Ava nodded, accepting the help. “I understand. I feel the same way about Alex. And I’ll do anything to protect him from The Board’s attacks on him.”
“Then let’s do what needs to be done,” Vivienne said as they carried the body into the cool night air.
Sebastian used the man’s keys to open the trunk. The two women struggled but managed to push the body into it.
With a heaving chest, Vivienne dabbed at sweat on her forehead. “Follow me. I’ll lead you to the quarry before we take shelter at the house.”
“Ava,” Sebastian said as she headed for the driver side of the government car. “No calls until we’re safe, okay?”
She bobbed her head. “I’ll call Alex when we’re settled.”
She slid behind the wheel and fired the engine. With her still-shaking hands, she gripped the wheel.
Behind her, Vivienne already turned the car around. She threw the shifter into reverse and turned around to follow her.
The drive wore on her from the time they hit the paved road. She flicked her eyes to the trunk constantly, reminded of the body in the back
She hadn’t wanted to kill the man, but it had been her life or his. The small gun she’d found in his boot would have been enough to kill her when shot by an expert like him.
The moment replayed over and over again as they traveled to the new destination. As the moonlight hit her hands on the wheel, she gasped, spotting the blood on them.
Her features pinched as she licked her fingers and tried to scrub it off. Most of her hand came clean, but a few traces of the red stain remained.
She shook her head, sickened by the latest turn of events. Her fingers found her phone, her breathing shaky as she removed it.
She wanted to call Alex, to tell him what happened, but with a shake of her head, she dumped it into the cup holder. She couldn’t call anyone until she knew more. She wouldn’t panic him until she had more information to settle his nerves.
He had a job to do, too, and she wouldn’t interrupt his work.
They needed a victory on that front to try to clear some of the battlefield.
Her eyes focused on the taillights front of her, determined to focus. “You’ve got this, Ava. Just calm down.”
The car pulled off the road, heading down a gravel and dirt path.
The dense forest gradually gave way to a barren landscape as they neared the quarry, the trees thinning out until nothing but rocky outcroppings surrounded them.
The early morning light cast long shadows across the ground, making the place feel even more desolate.
Ava followed them in her own vehicle.
Vivienne led her to the locked gates of an abandoned stone quarry. She hurried from the vehicle as light began to crest on the horizon. The single shot of the gun blew the lock away and she pushed the gates open before she returned to her vehicle and drove inside.
She led Ava deeper into the abandoned property before she eased to a stop. Ava climbed from the car into the early morning light.
Sebastian rolled down his window. “It would be better to ditch the car entirely. We don’t want it traced back to us.”
“You’re right. We’ll push it into the quarry.” Ava hurried back to the car, wiped down the wheel of her prints, and positioned it at the edge of the steep hole in the ground before she climbed from within. “Parking brake is off. We should be able to push this into the quarry.”
Vivienne nodded as they positioned themselves behind the vehicle. They began to push, getting stuck on a rock under one of the back tires.
Ava cursed as they slipped, and she landed on the ground in the dusty dirt. With a curse, she pushed up to sit, her eyes catching on a red light on the car’s undercarriage.
She froze, her lips parting as Vivienne scrambled to her feet, brushing herself off. “Ava? Are you hurt?”
“No,” Ava answered as she reached forward, her head cocking. “But there’s a tracker on this car. Someone has been tracking our every move.”
Her heart skipped a beat as she reached for the small device, her mind racing. How long had they been tracked? Did someone already know they were here? The realization sent a jolt of fear through her. If they were being tracked, it was only a matter of time before more enemies showed up.