Chapter 2
AVA
Ava slid a wayward lock of her blonde hair under her hood as she continued down the beach with the others, glancing behind her every few steps to ensure no one was following them.
The last thing she needed right now was a reporter finding out that, not only had she faked her death, but now she was faking even more.
Her mind turned to Julia who had left a few minutes ago dressed as her. Would she be able to stave off any media following them?
She certainly hoped that coupled with Sierra’s handling of the media could snuff out the situation quickly. The last thing they needed right now was more attention on them while they tried to fight their way through the tangled web The Board had woven and take down their key players.
She reached into her pocket, pulling out her cell phone as her other hand found Alex’s.
A quick check of her notifications showed dozens of new reports centering around her unexpected appearance at her own funeral.
From accusations of her using it as a plot to gain fame to more sinister conspiracies involving a desperate attempt by Alex to snuff out her life, the stories never stopped and got wilder with each post.
“Maybe don’t look at those, babe,” Alex said with a shrug.
She clicked off her display and shoved the phone in her pocket. “Right? I hope Sierra can nip this in the bud because these stories they are spinning are becoming outrageous.”
“Hey, the spin they’ll put on things is crazy. That’s how I nearly ended up in jail for a murder that wasn’t even committed,” Grant said from behind them.
“That’s crazy,” Ava answered with a shake of her head. “I mean, at this point, they’re accusing Alex of trying to murder me! Like, why would I show up at my funeral with the husband who murdered me?”
“They’re grasping at straws. Anything to draw you two out and get you to talk to them,” Grant said. “Ignore it.”
“Normally, I would, but I don’t think we need the added scrutiny right now. This fight with The Board isn’t going to go well if we’re sidelined by being stuck in our house,” Ava said with a disgusted sigh.
“That’s exactly what they’re doing it for,” Kyle said.
“Well, yes and no,” Ava said with a shake of her head. “I mean…The Board thought I was dead. So, this should be a shock to them, too.”
“But is it?” Alex asked, his lips tugging into a frown. “I mean…can we actually trust Sebastian?”
“Alex–” she started when he interrupted her.
“I know, I know.” Alex held up a hand. “We need to trust him because he’s saved our lives and blah, blah.”
Ava slid her eyes closed for a moment as a wave of heat passed over her.
“Hey,” Alex said, stopping and tugging at her hand, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
Ava tried to focus on the conversation, but her thoughts kept drifting to the strange sensations in her body. The heatwave that had just passed through her wasn't normal, and neither was the sudden weakness in her legs.
She didn't want to worry Alex, not when there was already so much on his plate, but the gnawing fear that something was wrong kept clawing at the back of her mind. She needed to stay strong, stay focused—but how could she do that when her body was betraying her?
“You didn’t.” She opened her eyes and forced a smile onto her face as she felt her skin turn clammy. “Just…burned up about the whole thing.”
“Don’t let ‘em see you sweat,” Grant said with a squeeze of her shoulders.
Kyle paused, backing up a few steps as he studied her. “You okay, Ava?”
The sensation started to fade, and she nodded. “Yeah. Like I said, just annoyed.”
“When Ava gets annoyed,” Alex said with a chuckle, “Ava gets annoyed. Like full on, fist-curling, eyebrow-arching annoyed.”
She smiled at him as whatever blip had just occurred seemed to slip under his radar. “He’s right.”
Kyle narrowed his eyes at her as they continued down the beach.
The sound of the waves crashing against the shore faded into the background as the eerie silhouette of the abandoned resort loomed closer.
Ava’s heartbeat quickened, her senses on high alert. The once-bustling place was now a ghost town, the remnants of its former glory casting long shadows in the fading light. Every creak of the boardwalk, every rustle of the wind through the broken windows, felt like a whisper of danger.
As they snaked past weathered slides now leading to empty pools filled with decaying leaves, a shiver snaked down Ava’s spine.
They approached the side entrance, and Ava couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched. Her grip tightened on Alex’s hand as they slipped inside, the door slamming shut behind them with a loud bang that echoed through the empty halls.
They found the open side entrance and entered the darkened space, the door slamming ominously shut behind them. Cell phone flashlights sprang to life as they started down the long corridor past the laundry and the kitchen.
“Where do you think they are?” Kyle asked.
“One of the rooms,” Ava answered. “That’s where Sebastian was the last time I found him here.”
“You found him here?” Grant asked. “Why was he here?”
“He came back in here after the FBI shot him,” Ava answered. “I managed to track his phone to this location with Alex’s handy-dandy cell phone tracker.”
“Which you stole, Avs. How could you hack me like that, Sparky?”
“Because you set stupid passwords, Ace,” she answered as they arrived in the lobby.
“This place really isn’t that bad,” Grant said. “Why did it shut down?”
“Owners were into some…questionable business practices,” Alex said. “Why no one else has ever bought it is beyond me. Maybe because it’s too seasonal of a business.”
“Still,” Grant said, screwing up his face, “the summer money alone should be enough. A few updates, this could be a moneymaker.”
“You looking to get into the hospitality business, Dad?” Kyle asked.
“Not before The Board is dismantled, I hope,” Ava said as they mounted the stairs. “We need this as a meeting place for the Scooby Doo gang.”
“Can we rethink that name?” Kyle asked. “Like A-Team is way more appropriate.”
“I like Scooby-Doo,” Alex said, a playful grin on his face as he nudged Ava. “It reminds me of that Halloween party we went to together in sophomore year. I was Shaggy, and you were Daphne.”
“I remember,” Ava said, her eyes twinkling with the memory. “It’s a perfect throwback to that moment.”
Kyle crossed his arms, shaking his head. “Umm, I wasn’t at that moment, so…I vote no on the team name.”
“Yeah, I’m not really fond of it either,” Grant agreed.
“Well, first, you don’t get a vote, Dad, because you’re not a team member. You’re just an accessory. But second, Dad makes a good point in this instance.”
Grant screwed up his face as he stared at Kyle. “You are really weird about this team membership thing.”
“Well, maybe if you hadn’t excluded me from the Harrington team, I wouldn’t be.”
Ava looped an arm around Kyle’s shoulders as they searched the second floor’s guest rooms for Sebastian and Chris. “It’s cool, Doc. You’re definitely a team member of the…A-Team.”
He grinned at her. “That’s awesome. I like that so much better.”
“I love it when a plan comes together,” Ava said with a grin.
She twisted to find Sebastian, his features taut and his arms crossed a few doors down the hall.
“I love it when people show up when they’re supposed to,” Sebastian said.
Her lips tugged into a wince. “Ouch, someone’s crabby today. Mattresses not comfy?”
“I have been hiding out in this run-down, sorry excuse for a hotel with your ex for way too long. You were supposed to be here last night, Ava.”
“Sue me. The stupid press is going insane because I’m not actually dead. Now, we have that mess to clean up.”
“We don’t have time for this,” he answered as he headed back into the room.
The rest of them shuffled in behind him, finding Chris perched on the edge of a bare mattress.
“Umm, well, you should have thought of that before you insisted I go off-the-grid, Shadow. I mean, what do you want me to do? I have Sierra hosting a press conference this afternoon. Let’s hope that helps.”
“Ava,” Chris said as he slowly rose to face her, his features pinching.
“Let’s not do this,” she answered with a shake of her head.
“Yeah, let’s not, Chris Cross,” Alex agreed. “I don’t want to hear some blubbering apology for how you didn’t realize what you were doing because you knew exactly what you were doing and who you were involved with.”
“I didn’t–”
“That’s bull, and you know it. You were there when I was kidnapped. What did you think they were going to do with me? Play checkers and swap fun stories?” Alex huffed out an angry breath as Ava patted him on the chest.
“Can we not do this?” Sebastian asked.
“You ought to talk,” Alex shouted at him. “You were just as bad. Putting the moves on Ava as both you and our aviary ally.”
Sebastian’s jaw tightened as he shifted his gaze to Ava. “You want to control the peanut gallery here?”
“We’ve been over all of this,” Ava said. “None of us like each other.”
“Hey,” Kyle said, wrinkling his nose.
“Okay, Alex, Kyle, and I like each other.”
“Uhh,” Grant said from the door where he watched the hallway.
Ava slid her eyes closed, pressing her lips together with frustration as she shook her head.
“Alex, Kyle, Grant, and I like each other. But none of us like you or Chris, at the moment. We’re all going to have to get over that and work together so we can bring these people down. Now, what’s the plan?”
Sebastian crossed his arms, wincing slightly as he flexed his wounded stomach. “I think we need to start by decrypting those files. And to do that, we need access to The Board encryption software.”
“Which is on one of your Raven machines, right?”
“Correction. We don’t have it,” Sebastian shot back.
“What?” Ava curled her fingers into fists. “How is that the case? You had it.”
“Yep,” he answered. “Had being the keyword.” Sebastian twisted his phone to face her. A video of flames shooting high from a cottage played on the screen. “That was my other safe house that went up in flames two nights ago.”
Ava smacked a palm against her forehead. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Now what?”
Sebastian heaved a sigh. “We need to get this software back. Which means a little field work.”
“And of course, we’ll have to do that,” Alex said with a frown. “Am I right?”
“Well, I sure as heck can’t do it,” Sebastian said as he raised his shirt to reveal the bloody bandage. “I need to make a reappearance as a Bancroft soon anyway. We’ll coordinate the best time and place to get it after I return to the fold. Which leaves us with one more problem.”
“Now what?” Ava asked. “What world-ending doom is The Board raining down on us now?”
Sebastian poked a finger at Chris. “What do we do with him?”
“That’s easy,” Alex said, crossing his arms. “Ship him off to some third-world country where no one will find him.”
“Hey,” Chris shot back. “I may have accidentally been responsible for Ava’s almost-death, but I don’t deserve that.”
“Oh, really?” Alex asked, his eyebrows shooting high. “And what do you think you deserve?”
Chris puffed out his cheeks. “Not that. Look, I can do the field work, okay? I’ll risk my life to make it up to you both.”
Ava’s vision blurred momentarily as another wave of heat washed over her, her pulse racing. She pressed her lips together, willing the sensation to pass.
It did, but not without leaving a lingering sense of dread.
Something was off, something she couldn’t ignore for much longer.
But now wasn’t the time. She had to stay focused—there were too many lives at stake to let her own issues get in the way.
“That’s ridiculous. You don’t have the talent, Chris. ”
“Umm, I can be…stealthy. You know, Ava, this is exactly what got you in trouble before. You underestimate me constantly. The Board certainly thought I was worth it.”
Ava pressed her lips together, her irritation growing as sweat made her tank top stick to her back. “No one is saying you aren’t worth it. Clearly, I think you are since I risked life and limb to save you.”
“But I’m not clever enough to hang around and help out with a situation I helped create.”
“Dude, we only took you because of your ties to Ava, don’t pump your ego,” Sebastian said with a shake of his head.
Ava’s muscles weakened, and she wandered to the bed and plopped onto it. “Let’s not argue about this. Let’s actually come up with a plausible solution for keeping Chris safe from The Board and allowing him to be useful.”
“Ava, are you serious?” Alex shot back. “Oh, here’s an idea. Maybe we should lock him up in a fortress somewhere for his own good.”
“You really want to come at me, Alex, come at me like a man,” Chris shouted back.
“Enough!” Ava screamed, tension building at her temples as she tried to manage the situation.
“I need to get back to my life and dig into some Board stuff if we have any hope of making progress. But I can’t leave him here unprotected.”
“Leave me with a gun,” Chris said.
“Chris, you don’t even know how to use a gun. Let’s be serious.”
“We could send him to Atlanta. Julia’s sister is our head of security. She’d be happy to keep an eye on him,” Grant suggested.
“I’m not going to Atlanta,” Chris said with a shake of his head. “I don’t want to hide out from the situation. I want in. I want to help.”
“You said that before and ended up turning Ava in to The Board, and then you became a full-fledged member.” Alex shook his head, flinging a hand in the air. “No, we can’t let him help.”
“We can’t leave him here either. He’s going to have to come back with us for now until we can figure out a new plan.”
Alex’s jaw dropped open as he stared at Ava. “Are you serious? You want to take him back to the house?”
“Sadly, I am. Look, we don’t have tons of time here. Julia can’t keep driving around for hours. We need to get back and hole up while we figure this out.”
Alex set his hands on his hips, shaking his head. “Unbelievable.”
“Fine,” Chris said with a raise of his eyebrows. “I’ll go back with you so we can sort this out. It’s better than staying here. Oh, can I get my old room back.”
“Sorry, bud, that’s taken. And I outrank you, so…no,” Kyle answered.
Ava let her eyes slide closed again with a sigh. “We’ll sort out the room situation when we get back there. Let’s just get going before this media storm catches us doing something else they can obsess over.”
With frowns from almost everyone, the group agreed to the temporary plan. Ava stayed on the bed for another moment, her eyes fixed on the carpet in front of her. As she rose to leave, she struggled to hide her shaking legs.
Ava forced a smile as she leaned into Alex, but her body betrayed her—her legs felt like jelly, and a cold sweat slicked her skin.
Something was wrong, she knew it deep down, but she couldn’t afford to be weak, not now.
Not with so much at stake. But as they headed out of the resort, she couldn’t shake the feeling that time was running out—not just for them, but for her.