Chapter 12
AVA
Ava’s heart rose into her throat as Miranda made the request for Chris to kill Sebastian. She swallowed hard, her knees wobbling a little. “We need to get in there.”
“Avs, I’m not into their security system—you’d be going in blind.”
“Yeah, but we don’t have a choice. He can’t do this, and she’s going to kill him if he doesn’t,” Ava said, pulling a mask over her hair and face.
“We’re moving on this now. Keep working on that system, Ace.”
“Avs…” His breathless voice and worried face told her everything about the statement that remained unfinished between them.
Ava’s hands trembled slightly as she gripped her weapon, her mind racing with worst-case scenarios. What if this was the last time she’d see Alex? What if they all didn’t make it out? She couldn’t let those thoughts take over, not now, but they gnawed at the edges of her resolve.
She lifted her mask and pressed her lips against his. “We’ve got this, Alex. Just get into that security system and help us get them out.”
“I’m on it,” he answered with a nod, returning his focus to his screen as his fingers flew across it.
In her earpiece, Chris stalled. “All right. I will, but first, I’d like to have my fun with him.”
“Let’s ride,” Kyle said as he whipped open the back door for Ava before slipping behind the wheel.
Ava climbed inside, pulling her weapon from her waistband and checking the clip.
“Let’s ride?” Grant asked as he climbed into the passenger seat and Kyle fired the engine. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah, Dad, I’m serious,” Kyle said, whipping the car around to face the road.
“But it sounds stupid. Like people don’t actually say that,” Grant said as Kyle shot forward.
“People say it,” Kyle argued.
Miranda answered Chris, her voice tense. “I didn’t bring you here to play, I brought you here to show your loyalty.”
“And I will,” Chris shot back, “but I need to get some frustration out, and as a senior member here, I would like to do that.”
Ava glanced out the window at the passing scenery as the tires climbed onto the pavement. “Could have been worse. He could have said ‘mount up.’”
Grant frowned at them, shaking his head. “I’m just saying maybe we should be a little less…Scooby Doo and a little more…Lethal Weapon or something.”
“Still not cool with Scooby Doo either, but ‘let’s ride’ feels like an A-Team thing.”
Ava heaved a sigh. “Yeah, okay. We’ll do A-Team. That’s fine.”
“Yes,” Kyle hissed with a fist pump. “Nice. The A-Team is about to break into this compound and rescue two people.”
Miranda heaved a sigh in Ava’s earpiece. “Fine.”
“Alone, please,” Chris said. “You can be here when I pull the trigger.”
Ava wrinkled her nose. “Wait. The A-Team didn’t have any girls.”
“It was the eighties,” Grant answered. “Nothing had girls.”
“Losers,” Alex said in their earpieces. “Everything is better with girls.”
“Where are we at with security, Ace?” Ava asked, grabbing the handle above her head as Kyle turned off the road onto the gravel driveway leading to the sprawling building.
Her heart thudded harder against her ribs as she spotted the building in the distance, a few lights illuminating its shadowy form.
In her earpiece, Chris’s panicked voice announced his coup. “I’m alone with him. But this metal ankle cuff is going to be a problem.”
“We’re almost there, Chris. How bad is he?”
“Not great, but I think he can walk,” Chris answered.
Alex interrupted any further conversation. “I’ve almost got it. This thing’s a bear.”
“Yeah, well, when you’re betraying your own, you need to keep that a big secret,” Ava said.
“No kidding,” Alex answered. “If I can manage it, I’ll make a recording in case we need it.”
“Good thinking, Ace. We may want to use that in the future. For now, though, get into that security system. We’re about to head in.”
“Should I park near the door?” Kyle asked, slowing the car as they went through the gates. “Or stay back from it?”
“Park near it. They likely have cameras or sensors that just told them we’re in here. We need a quick getaway,” Ava answered.
“I’m in,” Alex announced. “Aaaaand you are no longer on the cameras. They’ll think a leaf blew past their sensors.”
Ava smiled to herself. “Good work, babe. You’re the best.”
Kyle brought the car to a screeching halt near the door leading inside, and they all climbed out. An icy breeze raced past her, only hitting a few spots of her skin than weren’t covered by the mask.
A shiver snaked down her spine as she crossed to the door, gun at the ready. “E-lock at the entrance. Tell me you’ve got this, Ace.”
“Working on it,” he answered.
She wrapped her fingers around the handle, waiting for the lock to disengage. Her heart hammered hard against her ribs, and she worried she’d have another attack. So far, her muscles hadn’t weakened, and there was no tension in her temples.
Could she make it through this without an episode?
She gnawed on her lower lip until the light on the lock turned green, and its click echoed against the metal door. She twisted the handle and tugged it open. “Let’s go. Ace, do you have eyes on us?”
“I do. You’re clear in the halls leading up to Chris and Shadow. Move fast, though.”
Ava’s eyes landed on the dark lens of a camera aimed at the hall they stood in. “You’ve got us covered, right?”
“Yep. They’re seeing an empty hall. I’m seeing my beautiful wife and her A-Team friends on a rescue mission.”
“Perfect,” she answered, moving down the hall as quickly and quietly as she could before she peered around the corner. “We’re clear.”
They continued down the next hall, rounding the bend to Sebastian’s cell.
“Chris, we’re outside, let us in,” Ava whispered.
A second later, the door opened, and Chris waved them inside. “I can’t get that off of him or out of the floor.”
“Ava,” Sebastian said as he rose. “Shoot it off. We have to get out of here now.”
She bobbed her head as she raised the weapon.
“Whoa, whoa, wait. They’re going to hear the gunshot,” Chris said.
“He’s right,” Ava answered with a nod. “You three should go. We’ll come behind you.”
Kyle peered out the door before he cut his gaze back to Ava, his features pinched. “What? No. Ava, no, we’re not leaving you.”
“Go! Now!” she said, her voice firm. “Once I fire this gun, it’s going to be way harder to get out of here.”
“She’s right,” Chris said.
“Dude, seriously if you want to be a coward, the car’s unlocked,” Kyle answered with a shrug. “I’m not leaving Ava.”
“Me either,” Grant said.
Chris rolled his eyes before he sighed. “At least I have a gun now, I guess.”
“Actually,” Sebastian said as he reached for it, yanking it from Chris’s hands. “You don’t.”
“Seriously? Why will no one ever give me a gun?” Chris said with a fling of his arms in the air.
“No one trusts you, bro,” Kyle answered as Ava lined up her shot.
Her stomach rolled as she pulled the trigger, hoping this didn’t go badly. The bullet smashed through the chain with a loud bang and a blaze of light.
“You got it,” Kyle said with a grin. “Now, let’s go.”
“Uh, Avs, that gunshot just alerted them. They’re on their way.”
“How many?” she asked as she crossed to the door.
“Uh…” Alex hesitated as Ava peered out the door into the hall. “Two with Miranda. Coming from your left.”
“Perfect. Let’s move before they get here.”
Sebastian groaned as he hobbled closer to Ava.
“You good?”
“Yeah,” he answered with a wince.
“You sure? Because I can’t have you collapsing halfway down the hall,” she said, a wince contorting her features.
“I’m sure, Ava. Let’s go.”
She bobbed her head, her heart thudding hard against her ribs as she darted into the hall.
Chris rushed past her, hurrying toward the next hall. “Sorry, but you know she’s going to shoot me first.”
Kyle and Grant brought up the rear, carefully eyeing the hall behind them as Chris turned the corner.
“Avs, two others coming straight for you from the other direction,” Alex reported.
“Great,” Ava growled as Chris froze, spinning back to hide around the corner.
“Not good,” he said with a shake of his head. “Two guys with guns coming right for us.”
“Wait,” Ava whispered. “Go talk to them. Flash your wrist, get us out of here.”
“Are you insane? Miranda hasn’t given me the all-clear yet. I could get killed,” Chris shot back.
“Fine,” Ava answered Miranda and two guards rounded the corner at the other end of the hall. She cursed under her breath as she spotted them.
Miranda shouted at them, and Ava’s stomach twisted into a tight knot as the guards ran toward them.
“We need to go,” Ava said as she fired a quick round at running guards before she hurried around the corner.
A flail of gunfire drove her back. Ava crouched low as bullets ricocheted off the walls, her heart pounding in her ears. She could feel the vibration of the impact through the soles of her boots as she returned fire, the muzzle flash briefly illuminating the fear on Chris’s face."
“Okay, that way is out,” she said.
“But that’s the way out,” Chris said.
“We need to find another way. Tell me you’ve got us on this, Ace,” Ava said.
“Uhhh, go straight instead of turning,” he answered. “I’m trying to clear you a path through locked doors.”
“You’re the best, babe,” she answered as she fired a shot around the corner before she darted past the opening. The others followed behind her, narrowly missing being hit by the flail of bullets that slammed into the wall behind them.
Ava continued toward a set of locked double doors ahead. She grabbed the handle and pulled on them, but they didn’t budge. “Ace, we need the double doors opened.”
“I’m trying, Avs.”
“Try faster,” she answered as she spotted two men skid around the corner as the others approached, weapons drawn. She raised her gun, squeezing off two rounds while Kyle and Grant also fired.
“Open,” Alex said.
Chris twisted the handle, tugging the door open and slipping through it. Sebastian grabbed Ava by the arm and dragged her through the door.
“Doc, Grant, let’s go.”
The men fired two more rounds each before they ran for the door, pulling it closed behind them.
“Alex, we’re all past the door, lock it.”
“Locked,” he reported. “Problem is… they may be able to shoot that lock, so you’d better get out of there.”
“Shadow, do you know the way out?” she asked as they hurried down the hall away from the door to another hallway.
“I don’t, but we need a plan and fast.” The sound of the door banging open behind them reached their ears.
“Ace? Which way?”
“Right,” he answered as a bullet whizzed by them.
Ava cursed under her breath, whipping around to fire again before they took off down the hall on their right.
“Unlocking the door in front of you now,” Alex said. “One more hall, and you’ll be out.”
Ava ran toward it sandwiched by the men with Chris and Sebastian in front of her and Kyle and Grant behind.
Chris reached the door first, whipping it open and holding it as Sebastian raced through, followed by Ava.
Kyle and Grant followed, and Chris slipped inside last, pulling it shut.
“Lock it, Ace.”
“Done, though again–”
“I know, I know,” she said, her voice breathless she raced for the hall leading to the entrance. “They can shoot it off.”
They reached the corner, skidding around it and hurrying to the double doors leading outside. Before they reached it, the lights went off, plunging them into darkness before red lights glowed to life.
The red emergency lights cast long, eerie shadows that danced on the walls as they ran. Every step echoed ominously in the silence, amplifying the sense of entrapment. The air felt thick with tension, as if the walls themselves were closing in on them.
Ava slowed, glancing overhead. “What just happened?”
“Somebody hit the emergency security shut down,” Alex said. The sound of frantic typing filled her ear.
“What does that mean?” she asked, panic rising within her.
“It means…I’m locked out. Everything is locked. Including the doors leading outside. They can’t be unlocked, they can’t be overridden. Not until a key is inserted into the security system’s hub. It means…you’re stuck.”
Ava’s heart plummeted at the words as she twisted to stare down the red-bathed hall. They were stuck inside a Board facility, on the run, and severely outnumbered. Would they make it out of this alive?
Failure wasn’t an option. If they didn’t get out, it wouldn’t just mean their deaths. It would mean The Board would win. All their plans, all their sacrifices, would be for nothing. Ava couldn’t let that happen—not to her, not to Alex, not to anyone.