Chapter 24
AVA
The ease of her earlier conversation with Alex gave way to more stilted interactions with Chris as Ava followed him across the living room.
Her mind whirled with what had just happened–from the interaction with Raven to the car chase, she craved quiet time with Alex to sort through it and to settle her nerves.
Instead, every one of them tensed with agitation as Chris’s words rang in her mind. “We need to talk.”
She’d tried to put him off for when she felt more settled, more secure, less frazzled, but he’d insisted.
With a forlorn glance over her shoulder at Alex, she hovered in the doorway leading to the pool, the past rushing in like the tide.
There had been laughter once, easy smiles exchanged over meals, meaningful conversations that stretched into the night.
Those memories now seemed like relics from another lifetime, each one a reminder of how much had shifted beneath the surface of their seemingly stable life.
Alex settled on the couch with his laptop and the flash drive she found. For a moment, she considered telling Chris this needed to wait, but her timing didn’t seem to matter.
Her features pinched as she forced herself into the bright sunshine.
“Let’s take a walk.” He glanced down at her feet. “Good thing you’re wearing shoes.”
The dig didn’t go unnoticed. “I know. You’d never carry me.”
“Oh, Ava, stop being so argumentative.”
“I’m not arguing,” she said with a shrug. “I’m just stating a fact.”
He stopped short as they reached the boardwalk leading to the sand, thumbing back toward the house. “Do you want to go get the Geek Squad to carry you? I thought you hated that kind of stuff. You’re a strong, independent woman.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Strong, independent women still don’t mind being spoiled once in a while.”
“By being ridiculous and refusing to wear shoes so they can walk on their own?”
Ava rolled her eyes as she stepped onto the boards. “Come on, let’s go down to the beach so you can complain about the wind and the surf and the smell and whatever else you hate about the sea.”
Chris clicked his tongue as he stomped across the boards toward the beach. “Wow, someone’s in a mood after spending all that time with her bestie.”
“I’m not in a mood,” Ava said as she kicked her shoes off and grabbed them before she slid her feet into the soft, warm sand.
The cool sea breeze reminded her of the picnic they’d had on the shores of the lake early in their relationship.
Chris had surprised her with flowers, wine, and chocolates for after their meal.
It had been a simpler time, a moment of joy before the complexities of life and the dangerous world she now navigated.
Each step on the sand was a stark reminder of how far apart they had drifted.
“Could have fooled me. Things getting too real with Game Boy?”
She crossed her arms, her shoes dangling from her fingers. “Did you insist we talk right now so you could insult Alex?”
“No,” he said with a sigh, “I want to know what’s going on.”
“Oh, do you? Would you like to take notes so you can get it all correct when you feed it back to Miranda?”
Chris shot her an annoyed glance, his features pinched. “I’m not going to apologize for trying to protect you, Ava. And that was the only way I knew how.”
Ava raised her eyebrows, her mind spinning. Every step on the uneven sand sent another question ricocheting through her brain. Had she really changed that much, or had parts of herself remerged–parts that Chris never understood and wouldn’t accept?
Chris wanted his version of Ava, the one who fit neatly into the life he had planned. But that Ava was as transient as the footprints they left behind on the beach. “The only way you knew how…The only way you knew how to protect me was to sell me out to someone who wants me dead.”
Chris sucked in a breath, his jaw clenching. “She only wants you dead because you keep clinging to Alex Stone like he’s a lifeline. Why, I don’t know?”
“He’s my–”
Chris ran his hand through his hair, a gesture Ava recognized as a sign of stress.
“Best friend, yeah, I know. He’s your bestie.
And your bestest friend in the whole wide world has decided that the best thing for you to do is solve crimes and nearly get yourself killed.
He doesn’t seem to care that your life is in danger.
Just as long as you keep hanging around with him for those Mario Kart sessions. ”
Ava’s nostrils flared. “None of that is true. He needs help with this.”
“I had the impression when I spoke with Miranda that he doesn’t need help. In fact, it seemed to me that he had quite an offer on the table that would clear up all of this trouble.”
Ava’s mind regressed to the conversation between Miranda and Alex. She had made him an offer, and he’d stayed loyal to her. “So, Alex should just join some shady organization because it’s a good offer? Good to know that you’d sell out to the highest bidder.”
“Oh, come on, Ava,” Chris shot back, heat in his voice, “that’s hardly what I’m saying. Look, I’m just saying that Miranda seemed to think her employer didn’t want to hurt him at all. They just wanted to work on some projects together.”
“An organization that’s willing to kill me if he doesn’t ditch me. That’s the organization that you think Alex should work with.”
Chris heaved a sigh. “You wouldn’t be in any danger as long as you come home with me.”
"You keep talking about protection, Chris," Ava said, her voice steady despite the churn of her heart. "But whose vision of safety are we living for? Yours, where everything is sanitized and predictable, or mine, where I actually get to make my own choices, even if they scare you?"
Chris stopped, turning to face her with the lowering sun painting his features in stark relief. "It's not about control, Ava. It's about sanity. It's about not having to worry every time the phone rings that it's someone calling to say you're in the hospital—or worse."
“And you want me to leave Alex alone to fight them.”
Chris kicked a seashell across the sand, sending it careening toward the water. “Right, he needs you here to rob banks.”
“I didn’t rob a bank.”
“Then what the hell were you doing this morning, Ava? Because it sure looked like you were robbing a bank on his screen. Oh, before he reset their security protocols. I assume using some illegal methods.”
“We were doing what we had to do.”
“What you had to do? Are you serious? You had to go into a bank, illegally shut down its security, then rob it?”
“I didn’t rob the bank,” she said through clenched teeth. “Sometimes you can’t play it safe, Chris. Life isn’t safe and neat. Not anymore. Not with what’s at stake.”
Chris scoffed, his gaze avoiding hers as he watched a seagull swoop down near the water. “And what’s at stake, Ava? Anything real? Or is it just your thrill-seeking adventures with Alex?”
“That’s not what this is at all.”
The wind picked up, the salty air tangling Ava’s hair and whipping it across her face. The sun, lowering in the sky, cast long shadows on the beach, mirroring her darkening thoughts. Each crashing wave seemed to echo her frustration, the relentless surf mirroring her turbulent emotions.
Chris stopped walking, twisting to face her. “I want answers, Ava.”
“And I’m not giving them to you, Chris. You can’t be trusted.”
He drew his chin back to his chest, his eyes widening. “Seriously? I can’t be trusted?”
“Chris, what part of you went to the enemy and sold me and Alex out do you not get?”
He threw an arm out to the side, his features darkening with anger. “I didn’t sell you out, Ava.”
She cocked a hip, stomping a foot on the sand. “What would you call it, then?”
“I’d call it trying to make the best of a bad situation. I mean, look at this from my perspective, Ava. Come on.”
She pressed her lips together, chewing the inside of her cheek.
“First, I find out my fiancé was already married–no, wait, still is married. After an entire relationship of lies–”
“That’s not true. It wasn’t an entire relationship of lies.”
“Oh no? What would you call it? Since you’re so interested in putting a name to everything. What would you call it when the entire time we were dating you were married?” He shot his eyebrows up as he emphasized the last word. “Because I have a few words. Lies. Betrayal.”
Ava sucked in a breath, her fingers curling into fists as her annoyance grew.
“But let’s say I understand that. You were a marriage of convenience for a long time. You didn’t think about it on the day-to-day. I get it. Or at least I think I did. And then…then you come to the Hamptons to ‘get a divorce.’”
Ava cocked her head as he waved his fingers in the air.
“Yeah, I put that in air quotes because I think it’s as bogus as those stupid rom-coms you apparently love where everything’s all tied up in a neat bow after they’ve known each other for two days.”
Chris whipped around, throwing an arm in the air as he paced the beach. “And then you start lying more. You don’t tell me who he is, or how long you’ve been married, or that you’re staying at his house…cuddling up together under a blanket in front of the fire.”
“Okay, that goes too far. We were not cuddling up together.”
“Oh, come on, Ava,” Chris spat, his voice as sharp as his features. “You two are constantly pawing at each other.”
“That’s ridiculous. You’ve got this all wrong.”
“Really? All the little shoulder rubs. ‘You amaze me, Ace.’ ‘You look so good, Sparky.’ Do you not even realize that you two flirt continuously?”
She creased her forehead, her eyebrow pinching. “What? No. We don’t…it’s just…it’s just friendly teasing, that’s all.”
Chris shot a glance at the surf as it pounded the sand with a shake of his head. “Right. Okay, let’s say I believe all of that. Suddenly, you’re plunged into this bizarre…game–”
“This isn’t a game, Chris.”