Chapter 19
ALEX
His mind spun in a thousand directions as he stared at the demand, a show of good faith.
It was more like an impossible task. As Alex glanced at Ava, his brow furrowed.
The recent revelations about her fiancé gnawed at him, mingling with the persistent ache in his heart.
Each memory of their past–laughter shared under starlit skies, heated debates over cold coffee–now rained by the bitter taste of current truths.
The man had told Miranda–a suspected member of The Board–that their marriage was a sham. Not only did hearing that break his heart all over again, but it also reminded him of his place in Ava’s world–non-existent.
He was nothing to her. Their only association was on paper. Her life was with her fiancé, a man desperately trying to take her away from him. Had Chris acted in Ava’s best interest? Was he right to say Alex hadn’t by wanting to keep her close?
He had no claim to her, no right to ask her to stay, and his request was putting her in serious danger.
“Okay, this is like an impossible request,” Ava said with a shake of her head before she flicked her gaze up to Alex. “Right?”
He raised his eyebrows, trying to focus his mind on that not on his relationship or lack thereof with Ava. “Uhhh…”
“Alex? Are you okay?” Ava’s voice softened, her hand gently touching his arm, a gesture laden with unspoken concern.
He did a double take, finding her concerned face staring back at him. “Uh, yeah. Just…thinking.”
“Yeah, we really need to think. We need…so much. Miranda’s key–which we have no idea where she keeps it–and then we need to convince the bank we’re Miranda.”
Alex studied the message for a second again before he shook his head. “That bank has crazy security. They’ll likely have a picture of her. You don’t look enough like her to pull that off even with a wig.”
“So, what?” Ava asked. “This is…impossible, right? Raven is setting us up.”
Alex collapsed on the bed, flipping open his laptop, his fingers poised above the keyboard as he settled next to Ava. “We need information.”
“No, we need a miracle, Alex. We need two keys, neither of which we can get. And one slip, and it’s not just this task that fails, but it may be us, too.”
Alex tapped on the keys, pulling up information on the bank and using it to comb servers for information that could help them. “We’re going to have to get Miranda’s. I’ll handle the bank key.”
Her eyes went wide. “You’ll handle the bank key? Ace, no offense, but I don’t think you’re going to pass for Miranda either.”
He clacked at the keys, navigating through layers of digital security, chuckling at her words. “Did you forget I’m a tech genius, Sparky?”
“No, I didn’t. But how is that going to help us convince the bank that one of us is Miranda?”
“It’s not,” he answered as he shifted the screen toward her. “I hacked the company that provides the keys. I’ll three-D print one.”
“Alex,” she said, a grin crossing her features that made him swell with pride, “I love you.”
His grin faltered a little as the words spilled from her mouth. If only she meant them in the way he wanted.
She plopped onto the bed next to him. “So, can you grab her key, too?”
“Sadly, no. This bank uses keys with a microchip embedded. I can’t three-D print that. We need her key.”
Ava cursed under her breath as her shoulders slumped. “How are we going to get that?”
Alex continued to clack on the keys. “Even if we get that and I three-D print a key, we need to get into the bank, get to the boxes, open one without authorization, steal the contents, and escape.”
Ava let her forehead fall onto his shoulder. “How are we supposed to pull this off?”
He sat motionless for a moment, a helpless feeling coming over him. As the panic began to swirl, compounding by the second, Ava pulled her head up. “Okay, we can do this. We’re smart and savvy. We just need…to think.”
She bounced off the bed and paced the floor. “Okay, let’s think. Miranda has this safe deposit key somewhere. Maybe on her keychain. Maybe in her house.”
“Maybe on a chain around her neck,” Alex proposed.
“Does she always wear the same necklace?”
“How would I know? I barely know the woman.”
“I don’t know. I thought maybe she coyly pulled it out of her blouse or something to impress you.”
“Ew,” Alex said, screwing up his face. “That would not impress me.”
“Ace, it doesn’t matter if it does or doesn’t, but if it happened, we’d know she had a key around her neck.”
“I don’t know, she never did that.”
Ava heaved a sigh. “Okay, we need to think. How can we figure out where this key is?”
She twisted on a heel and stalked in the opposite direction. “Forget that. Let’s work backwards. We triumphantly escape the bank with the blueprints. What happened just before that?”
“You opened the safe deposit box and get them,” he answered.
“Me? Why am I the one in the bank?”
“Because you’re way better at that stuff, and I need to provide tech support.”
She snapped her fingers, poking a finger at him. “Yes. You create a distraction so I can get to the boxes. Perfect.”
He fluttered his eyelashes at her. “Oh, right. I’ll just…turn on the sprinklers.”
“No, not that,” she said with a wrinkled nose. “I’ll be soaked.”
“Wear a raincoat.”
She offered him an unimpressed stare.
“Fine. I’ll see what I can do with their security system that would provide a distraction.”
“Okay…so, you print a bank key, I go into the bank, you create a distraction, I get the blueprints from the box and escape easily. We take them to the bus station, and we become part of Raven’s inner circle.”
“Great plan, Sparky. Except we still need Miranda’s key.”
She heaved a sigh as she collapsed on the bed next to him. “Maybe you could ask her for it.”
He offered a fake laugh. “Ha. Ha. Ha. Very funny, Avs. Yes, I’m sure she’d give it to me after I just declared my undying love for you and fired her.”
With a sigh, he shook his head. “Why did I fire her?”
“Maybe you could…unfire her?”
“I don’t think she’s going to give me her key, babe. I think she’s a little too smart for that.”
“Okay, so then we’ll steal it from her.”
“If only we knew where she kept it.”
Ava pressed her lips together as she heaved a sigh. “I could…let myself into her place and look around.”
Alex screwed up his face as he glanced at her. “Are you serious? Ava!”
“What?”
“What? If she catches you, she’ll kill you, that’s what. She’s already threatened you and now you want to walk right into the lion’s den.”
“I can go when she’s not there.”
“How are we going to know she’s not there?”
“Because…” Ava hesitated, her features pinching. “She’s at work.”
“I fired her, remember?”
Ava scrunched her nose. “Because…she’s talking to you.”
“What? No!” Alex stared at her, his expression incredulous. “I am not meeting with Miranda. I’ve done that like three times already, and it’s been a bad experience.”
“Well…you’ll have to take one for the team,” Ava said with a shrug.
“What do you propose I talk to her about?”
“I don’t know…tell her…tell her you see her point. And you want to talk about joining The Board.”
“What? No way!” he shouted with a vehement shake of his head. “No. I am not telling Miranda I see her point. No way. I don’t see her point. You’re a nice wife.”
Ava clicked her tongue. “Alex, you don’t need to believe it, you just need her to believe it.”
“But I can’t, Avs. There’s no way I could convince her of that because I don’t believe it myself. I’m a terrible liar.”
“You kind of are. Okay, ummm…” She shrugged and shook her head. “No, it’s the only way. Come on, you’re going to have to practice because you need to do this.”
“I can’t, Avs. And this is a stupid plan.
” He shoved his laptop to the side and leapt up to pace the floor.
“It’s stupid. You’re going to go into her house, sneaking around in search of a tiny key that could be anywhere.
I mean, it could be in her freezer, or in her jewelry box, or hidden in her underwear drawer. ”
“We need that key, Alex. We’re going to have to take a chance.”
“I’m not taking a chance with your life. I don’t need Crossbeam Chris calling me selfish again.”
“He’s one to talk,” Ava said with a shake of her head. “I can’t believe he told Miranda about us. Completely selfish.”
Alex eased onto the bed next to her. “You think so? You don’t think I’m the selfish one?”
She laughed before she turned serious, her eyebrows knitting. “Are you kidding me?”
“No?” His features pinched. “Avs, I feel terrible about everything that’s happened.”
“Why?” She stared at him, confusion in her eyes.
“Because I…you asked for a divorce. And instead, I made you come out here, and then all hell broke loose. And now your life is in danger, and I’m hacking a bank to create a distraction for you to steal plans from my former CFO.”
She shook her head. “You didn’t make me come out here. I came because I wanted to.”
He pressed his lips together, guilt and anxiety roiling inside of him. “Okay, but…you didn’t want to before that. And when you asked for the divorce…”
He found himself unable to finish the statement. Their relationship had slowly died over the years. And he’d done nothing to fix it. Was this all too little, too late?
“I did want it before. We used to spend a lot of time together.”
“And then we didn’t,” he whispered.
“We got busy. We just…had a little blip, that’s all. You’re my best friend, Ace. I want to be here. I don’t think you’re being selfish. This is hardly your doing. It sounds like it’s way bigger than you, to be honest.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to just go back home with Chris to live your life?”
“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “Wait, yes. Oh…No, I don’t want to go home, yes, I’m sure.”
They both laughed at her answer before Alex bobbed his head.
He grinned at her, wanting to reach out and caress her soft skin before he pulled her into a kiss, but he held back. That could make the situation so much worse. “Okay. Okay. Yeah, okay. I just…felt really bad when he said that.”
“Chris’s pride is hurt. He’s saying things just to get to us. Don’t listen to him.”
“Right,” Alex said with a nod. “Okay, we need to think. We need a plan for Miranda that doesn’t involve me meeting with her because I don’t like her.”
“Face it, Alex, that’s the best plan. You need to woo her.”
“I am incapable of wooing. I am not able to woo.”
She giggled at him. “You only need to sort of woo her. It doesn’t matter what you say, really, just keep her out of the house for a little bit so I can look around.”
“This is stupid.” He grabbed his laptop and furiously typed, bringing up an image of a house. “Her house isn’t small. It will take longer than I will to fail miserably at wooing her.”
“You paid her way too much if she can afford a house like that,” Ava said with a shake of her head.
Alex clicked his tongue. “Too late now.”
“Okay, well, wait…let’s think. If these blueprints are important, she probably doesn’t keep it in her cookie jar, right?” Ava snapped her fingers and pointed at his laptop. “Can you search to see if she has like a firebox or a safe?”
“I’ll get right on that, Avs. I’m sure I can dig through year’s worth of purchases.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Are you saying you can’t do it? Is the great Alex Stone saying he is defeated.”
He swiveled the laptop back to him, shaking his head as he flexed his jaw. “Obviously, this is a simple task. I’m just…complaining.”
She sucked in a breath, sliding a hand onto his shoulder as she set her chin on her knuckles to watch him work.
The closeness made his heart race again. He wished he’d told her how he felt at one of the two moments they’d had earlier. Then he could have enjoyed this so much more, maybe even slid an arm around her and stolen a kiss.
As his fingers flew across the keyboard, digging through all of the records he could find on Miranda Vale. The closeness he desired with Ava was just a dream. He shoved it aside, trying hard to concentrate on the task at hand.
A moment later, he grinned. “She has a safe. Delivery coincides right around the time she opened a safe deposit box.”
Ava squeezed his shoulder. “I knew you could do it, Ace.”
“But we have no idea where this safe is.”
“I’ll find it. What does it look like? How big?”
“Small, enough to hold a few things, but nothing huge. Ava, that could be anywhere in the house.”
“I’ll find it, Ace. I just need to figure out how I’ll open it.”
Alex poked a finger in the air. “That I can help you with.”
“Really?” She grinned at him. “Are you going to give me a safecracker?”
“Yes, but…no.” His shoulders slumped as the smile slid from her face.
“Why not?”
“This is a highly complex algorithm due to the safe’s settings. A handheld device is never going to cut if.”
“So, what? I need a laptop, what?”
“No, you’ll need that and a phone or something with an image of her retina.”
“Wait, what?” Ava asked, her voice incredulous. “How are we going to get that?”
“Well…I have a pair of smart glasses that can take an image with a high enough resolution to grab the image we need. But…I’ll need to be relatively close to you to send it fast enough.”
“How close?”
“Uhhhh,” he answered with a wrinkle of his nose. “Like close? Like, if I was in her house…”
“Are you kidding me?” Ava squeezed her eyes closed. “So…you need to go to her house, and I need to sneak in while you’re there.”
“Essentially yes. Which I am fine with. I’d rather be there with you than you there alone.”
Ava heaved a sigh, biting into her lower lip. “Okay, well, then I guess we have a plan. How soon can we be ready?”
Alex’s stomach twisted into a knot. They were about to undertake a high-stakes mission that could cost them their lives. When would they ever be ready?