Chapter 15
ALEX
Alex’s heart hammered against his ribs as he read the message twice more before he shifted his laptop off his lap and leapt to his feet. Running a shaky hand through his hair, he paced back and forth.
The threat didn’t bode well with him.
He’d just wanted to cuddle up with Ava like old times and watch the movie. Amazingly, they’d found one with a fake marriage where, of course, the couple fell in love. Would that happen for them?
He hoped so…as long as they both lived through this.
Ava paused the movie, tossing the remote onto the duvet as she shot him a concerned glance. “Alex, sit down.”
She patted the bed next to her.
He glanced sideways, the room’s dim light casting long shadows that seemed to dance mockingly around him. He shook his head, biting his thumbnail as he spun on his heel and ambled in the opposite direction, his movements restless, almost echoing the stormy tumult he felt within.
“Alex,” Ava said, her tone sharpening with concern. “Please, sit down with me.”
He hesitated, and she added softly, “I know you’re scared. I am too. But we’re stronger together, remember?” Her eyes held his, a silent plea echoing in the quiet of the room.
“Ava…” He sucked in a shaky breath as he twisted to face her. Memories of his mother’s tragic death flashing through his mind, the helplessness he’d felt then mirroring his current dread. Ava had stood by his side, his rock through that ordeal, but now…she was the vulnerable one.
His heart clenched as he spotted Ava propped up against a few pillows, a stark reminder of how much he had to lose. The Board’s shadow loomed large, a menacing echo of his past failures.
He wanted to protect her, to make sure nothing else happened to her. It was his fault she had nearly died. Guilt swept through him, turning his breathing ragged.
She scrambled from underneath the covers, shimmying closer to him. “Hey…take a breath, Ace.”
“I can’t,” he hissed, his voice breathy and his chest constricted.
Chris was right. He continued to put her in danger. How could he claim to love her and continue to throw her into the path of danger over and over.
“Sit down,” she said, this time her voice unequivocal.
But he didn’t want to give in. He didn’t want to sit down and let her talk him into how she was fine. He wanted to stand strong and keep her safe.
“Ava…” His features pinched.
“Alex Stone, sit down before I make you sit down.”
He pouted at her. “You don’t have to be mean about it.”
“I do. You won’t listen, and you’re barely breathing.”
He twisted to collapse on the edge of the bed, letting his head fall into his hands. The mattress shifted behind him and gentle hands massaged his shoulders.
“Ava, don’t,” he answered, leaping up and stalked toward the windows overlooking the roiling ocean, disturbed by the storm blowing up the coast.
It seemed like a metaphor for his life, as the storm of The Board threatened to ruin everything, leaving his insides churning like the angry sea.
It wasn’t only The Board that had done this. So many things remained unresolved.
Every time he tried to tell Ava the truth, something stopped him. Was it the universe telling him to keep his big mouth shut?
Every time she touched him, he worried the words would burst from his lips, but when he tried to say them, he went mute.
On top of protecting her, he wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her and hold her close. He couldn’t do any of this.
Nothing was working out. Nothing was going his way. But what had he expected when he’d tried to steal a woman from someone else. He was a home wrecker.
He clapped his hands on top of his head as the tension boiled over.
She sat back on her heels with a frown, her eyes following him back and forth as he paced. After a moment, she heaved a sigh and climbed off the bed to stop him.
“You’re supposed to stay in bed,” he murmured.
“And you’re not supposed to be this upset. Ace, we’ll figure this out.”
“How, Ava? Every time we get a clue, it’s just random nonsense about how terrible this will all turn out. You’ve been targeted, Simon’s dead.” His eyes went wider as panic started to set in again. What if they’d succeeded in eliminating Ava from this equation, too?
“Hey,” Ava said, her voice softening as she tugged at his arms, trying to lower them to his sides. “Alex, take a deep breath. We’re in this together. Okay?”
“Not if they hurt you more than they already have, Avs,” he squeaked out.
She grabbed his hands in hers, squeezing them before she slid them around her waist. “Hey, I’m like a cat. I’ll be okay.”
He wanted to believe her cute little joke, every part of his being wanted to cling to it, but he couldn’t. The situation was all too real. He’d sat by her bedside for hours, worried sick she’d never wake up despite what the doctors said.
She cupped his face in her hands, tugging his face toward her. He flicked his gaze away, though, too afraid to look her in her eyes.
“Alex, look at me.”
“Ava, this is…scaring me. I don’t want anything to happen to you.” His voice broke, barely above a whisper as he wrapped his fingers around hers.
“I don’t want anything to happen to either of us. Which is why we are going to stick together, okay?”
He bobbed his head, worry still twisting him into knots.
“Hey, I’m serious. No more slinking off to meet Miranda alone.”
“No more going to deal with things by yourself, either, Avs,” he said. “I don’t care what color belt you have.”
She offered him a coy grin. “Deal. We stick together to solve this.”
“I don’t want Chris to kill me if something happens to you.”
“Alex, I trust you.”
“But, Ava, I can’t protect you. I can’t figure this out.”
“We can. Together, Ace. We will figure this out, but we need to get a little smarter, and a little more aggressive, I think.”
His features pinched as worry continued to roil inside of him.
“Come sit down. Let’s watch a little more of the movie.”
“We don’t have time to watch that movie now! Ava, this is serious.”
She grabbed his hand and dragged him back toward the bed. “Alex, we are not going to solve anything when you are this tense.”
She crawled on top of the mattress and plopped down, patting the bed next to her. “Come on.”
“No,” he said, his voice shaky but firm.
“Alex…” Her eyebrow arched at him as she shot him that bossy look that always worked with him in the past.
“Don’t do that bossy thing, Ava. This is serious.”
She settled her arms across her chest. “I’m doing the bossy thing. Sit down.”
He grimaced at her as he climbed into the bed next to her and settled back in the pillows. He tugged his laptop closer, but she shoved it way. “No. We need to take a minute to relax.”
With the remote pointed at the television, she pressed the play button, allowing the movie to resume.
With a frown, he slouched down, his mind still racing. Maybe he could track Raven using the breach. If he could, would that help them at all? He needed more information on The Board.
Ava slipped her hand inside his, leaning closer to him as she drew the covers over her. On-screen, the fake couple enjoyed a warm, close moment, leaving both of them reeling as they tried to deny their growing feelings.
Why weren’t things with Ava as easy as in the movies? They’d kissed, but there was no magical moment where they both suddenly realized their feelings and would rush toward each other, throwing their arms around one another before they kissed and gushed about how much they loved each other.
Next to him, Ava slouched down further, nestling closer to him as a montage of fake married life played before the next scene began.
On-screen, something minor happened, leading the couple into an argument. Alex tensed as the fake couple argued, shouting nasty things at each other before someone went too far. The woman drew her chin back to her chest, her eyes teary before she calmly brushed away a tear and bobbed her head.
“Who am I trying to kid? We’re not real. Somewhere I lost track of that, but don’t worry, I remember now.”
“No, wait,” the man said, but she pushed past him, her features stony.
“No, there’s nothing to wait for. We’re not a real couple. I’ll call the attorney in the morning. We should handle this divorce.”
He swallowed hard at the words, imagining Ava saying the same. His heart broke as he stared at the screen with a deep frown.
“You okay?” Ava asked.
He twisted to find her staring at him. After a deep breath, he cleared his throat. “Yeah, just…stupid. That fight was stupid. Why do they always do that?”
“Because it’s more satisfying at the end if they’ve had a third-act breakup, Ace. Everyone knows that.” She gave him a cheeky grin.
“Well, I didn’t like it. If they really love each other, why are they fighting?”
“Because they really love each other.”
He didn’t like it. He imagined their third act break-up and how heart-wrenching it would be. Would they get their happily ever after like movie couples or would they just break up?
On-screen, the couple continued through their breakup, sitting across from each other at the divorce attorney’s office. One tiny note from one counselor about splitting their assets cleanly, sent a tear rolling down the woman’s cheek.
“Wait,” the man said.
Ava leaned across Alex, tugging a tissue from the box on the nightstand as a matching tear rolled down her own cheek.
On-screen the male main character rambled on and on about how he loved everything about his fake wife, from the way she salted her fries, to the goofy way she danced, to how she insisted on squirting whipped cream into her Coke.
Tears streamed freely down the woman’s cheek before she raced to him, throwing her arms around his neck and planting a kiss on him.
“Uh, are we proceeding?” one of the attorneys asked.
The man waved him away as they continued to kiss.
Ava sniffled, wiping at her nose and tear that had fallen. He glanced down at her, wishing he could pull her closer and kiss the top of her head. Why had he wasted all of this time?
She blew her nose and shifted away from him before he could do anything. “Do you feel better?”
“Huh?” he asked.
“Do you feel better?”
“Do you?”
She bobbed her head as she slid her hair behind her ears.
“You’re crying. How are you feeling better?”
“Because they are happy tears. I’m so happy for them. They were so cute together.”
Alex wondered if she’d be happy for them if he finally managed to say the words to her.
“So, do you feel better?”
“Uh…I’m still worried, but…I’m determined to track down what I can.”
She shifted, pulling her feet under her as she faced him. “Maybe we don’t need to track anything down.”
Alex scrunched his features as he tried to process the statement. “I don’t think The Board is going to willingly give us information.”
“No, but…it seems like Raven is trying to help.”
“Yeah, but I can’t track anything down. So, we’re at their mercy for getting clues.”
“What if we’re not.”
“Avs, I’m going to try to track Raven again through this breach but…so far…I haven’t found a thing.”
She shook her head as he pulled his laptop onto his lap. With a slap of her hand on the top, she stopped him from opening it. “What if we leave a message for Raven somewhere?”
“Like… take out an ad?”
Ava shrugged. “Something like that. I mean, not literally that, but…Raven has been leaving you messages through your work messaging system, and now this file breach. If they want to help like they say, maybe they’re waiting for you to reach out.”
Alex chewed his lower lip, processing the idea. “Okay, suppose we could do this, what would we say?”
“Maybe something like…got your message, need more details…we need a way to communicate. It’s simple, non-aggressive, but lets them know you’re interested and taking them seriously.”
Alex’s features pinched. “Taking them seriously?”
“Yes. Look, we haven’t done a lot about what happened to their knowledge. Maybe they used the data breach to test us. See if we’re going to play on their team.”
He shifted on the mattress, his eyebrows pinching together. “That could work. I just…have to figure out how to do it.”
“Maybe put a file on your server. Embed the message inside it. It seems like Raven is monitoring StoneCorp.”
Alex arched an eyebrow as he tugged open his laptop, his fingers flying across the keyboard. A second later, he grinned, twisting the display to show Ava a picture of a raven mid-flight. “Too on the nose?”
“It’s perfect.”
He turned the laptop back toward him, his fingers poised above the keyboard.
“I’ll use an old-school stenography technique to embed the message within the image, making it virtually undetectable unless you know what you’re looking for.
” His voice, tinged with the thrill of the challenge as he coded, betrayed his hope and excitement with the solution.
She settled next to him, her chin resting on his shoulder as she watched him work.
He shifted a little, pleased that they had both a direction and a connection right now. “I hope I’m impressing you with my skills.”
“Your skills always impress me, Ace.” She squeezed his shoulder as she grinned at him.
His chest swelled with pride. Maybe he could win her over. “And there we go. The message is out there.”
He closed the lid of his laptop.
“And now, we wait,” she said as she settled against him, her head on his shoulder.
He laid his head on hers, his eyes sliding closed as he relaxed against her. They made a great team. He had to make sure she stayed with him.
And he would. He made a silent vow to himself not to lose her.
For a brief moment, a peaceful silence enveloped them, a rare pause in the storm of their current lives. Ava’s steady breathing and the distant sound of the ocean outside providing a soothing backdrop.
Just as Alex began to relax, the sudden chiming of his phone shattered the tranquility, slicing through the quiet like a warning bell. His heart leaped into his throat as he snatched it from the bed.
Was this Raven? Would this finally give them the answers they needed?