Stone’s Throw to Love (Hearts and High Stakes #7)

Chapter 1

ALEX

Alex’s fingers drummed against his desk as he waited for the decryption software to do its work on the files Ava had lifted from Miranda Vale’s safe deposit box. The simple retrieval all those months ago seemed so innocent compared to what they’d dealt with in the past few weeks.

Memories of providing tech support as Ava used creative methods to gain access to their then enemy’s treasure trove of Board-related items floated through his mind.

It had been before he’d told her how he felt, before they’d given their marriage a real chance, before they’d nearly lost each other multiple times.

Now, every moment they spent apart was bittersweet, especially after the blackouts that had made her act so unlike herself.

When he thought back to those first few days they’d spent together when she’d returned to the Hamptons, he couldn’t help but think about how far they’d come.

In just a few short weeks, their innocence had been stripped away, and they had been pushed to limits no one should have to endure.

But they’d faced them all. Together. And now they had a real chance to get somewhere with dismantling The Board.

He licked his lips, glancing over his shoulder as the software continued to churn through the material he’d given it to decrypt. He’d expected Ava to have been finished with Kyle by now. Was there some problem?

After developing a treatment plan, Kyle had wanted to take some baseline vitals, perform more bloodwork, and administer an initial round of medication to stop Ava from experiencing anymore of the terrifying and behavior-altering blackouts.

Alex leaned back in his chair, the spring creaking as he puffed out his cheeks, wondering if he should track Ava down.

Tiny paws clacked across the hardwood floor a second later. Alex twisted to find Gizmo trotting into the room.

He smiled down at the tiny chihuahua before he scooped him up. “Hey, buddy,” he said as he scratched the dog’s head and chuckled at the words on the back of the tiny hoodie he wore announcing him as the world’s cutest pup.

“Where’s Ava?” he asked the dog.

Gizmo offered him a lick to his cheek at the mention of Ava’s name before he let out a yip.

“I know. I miss her, too. She hasn’t been spending enough time with either of us, has she?” Alex asked.

He scratched the dog’s ears. “Well, as soon as we beat the bad guys, I promise, we’re locking ourselves in this house and doing a weeklong gaming session. How’s that sound?”

The dog offered him another yip.

“I like that plan, too, Giz. I’m getting really tired of all of this intrigue. I just want to have a nice quiet life with you and Ava.”

“Oh, you’re back,” Chris’s sharp voice said from the doorway. “Good. We’re running low on coffee.’

Alex struggled to hold his temper in check, sliding his eyes closed as he centered himself before he spun to face Ava’s former fiancé.

“Yep,” he answered. “Did you tell the butler? I don’t order coffee.”

“I did, but I don’t think he listens to me,” Chris answered. “Did you get what you went there for?”

“We did,” Alex said with a nod. “Yeah. Thanks for checking up on that.”

“And I assume Miranda is gone?”

Alex licked his lips as he let his gaze fall to the floor. With a deep sigh, he shook his head. “Yep. Uh, there’s been some news on that front.”

“News?” Chris raised his eyebrows, prodding Alex to continue.

Alex nodded, wincing as he averted his gaze. “Miranda’s dead.”

Chris’s expression went blank as he stared at Alex, then ran a hand over his face. “Oh, wow.”

“Yeah,” Alex said, his jaw flexing. “Apparently, The Board didn’t exactly like her decision to leave. Ava found her in a hotel room in Monaco. She had been stabbed.”

Chris rubbed the back of his neck. “Things are getting serious.”

Alex twisted back toward his laptop. “Things have been serious. Things were serious when you decided to defect to the other side like this was some kind of game.”

Chris shuffled forward to stare out the large windows at the ocean roiling below. Gizmo bared his teeth at Chris, letting out a tiny growl. “How many times am I going to have to apologize for that?”

“There’s no apology for it,” Alex answered as footsteps entered the room.

“What are you doing to my dog, Chris?” Ava asked playfully as she sidled next to Alex and lifted Gizmo into her arms.

Chris grimaced at the tiny animal. “That’s not a dog, Ava, it’s a rodent. And I didn’t do anything to him. He just doesn’t like me.”

“That makes two–” Ava clapped a hand over Alex’s mouth before he could finish the statement.

“Did Alex give you the bad news?” she asked.

“There’s bad news? Now what? Are you worse? Did The Board do something else?”

“I’m not worse,” Ava said with a shake of her head. “I hope I’m better. Kyle figured out what’s causing this, and we’re working to counteract it.”

Chris studied her for a moment, his fingers stretching toward her before he tugged them back. Alex’s chest tightened, his jaw clenching. He knew he shouldn’t let it get to him, but the fear gnawed at him. He bit the inside of his cheek, trying to stop himself from saying something he shouldn’t.

Every moment that Chris spent in this house was difficult for him–a constant worry that for some reason, Ava would suddenly fall back in love with her former fiancé.

What if everything they had was just a side effect of the Neuroprisol-X? What if the real Ava—the one who wasn’t being chemically manipulated—didn’t love him at all?

It was ridiculous, and he hated thinking that of Ava, but she’d just been chemically altered by some experimental drug, so crazier things had happened.

He shook the thought away, but it lingered, festering. He couldn’t lose her. Not to Chris. Not to anyone. He wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her closer, but the doubt still gnawed at him.

Alex’s muscles tightened as his leg hopped up and down.

“Is it, uh…is it good news or bad news with what’s causing this?” Chris asked.

Alex swallowed the bile creeping up in his throat from the concern clear in Chris’s voice.

“Good news,” Ava answered, seemingly undisturbed or unaware. “It was some sort of experimental drug from a Board-run pharmaceutical company. Apparently, that was the cause of these blackouts and the strange behavior.”

“Blackouts?” Chris asked. “I thought you were getting hot flashes and stuff.”

“Those turned into blackouts which turned into me acting bizarrely while having no memory of what I was doing.”

Chris’s lips parted as he stared at her. “What did you do?”

“Never mind,” Alex said, wishing the program would spit out some results so they could change the subject.

“I burned Miranda’s house down. And then, I thought I killed her. Turns out, someone else did that, and I tried to save her life. But she didn’t make it. I’m sorry, Chris.”

Chris shoved his hands in his pockets, his gaze flicking out the window again. “Yeah, thanks, umm, it’s not really a big loss to me. But I mean, I do feel bad that she’s dead. I’m surprised you tried to save her life after everything she’s done to you.”

“I didn’t want her dead either,” Ava answered as she stroked Gizmo’s soft fur. “I just wanted her to leave us alone.”

“Miranda couldn’t do that,” Chris said with a shake of his head. “But on the upside, I guess at least this takes some of the pressure off of you. Now, you only have one enemy to face.”

Ava bobbed her head as Kyle strode through the door, rolling up his sleeves. “Hey, how you feeling?”

“The same way I was feeling when I left you five minutes ago, Doc.”

“Yeah, well, you just got pumped full of drugs, and side effects can appear very quickly.” Kyle reached to her wrist to take her pulse.

“No side effects so far,” she answered. “And I hope no side effects ever and no blackouts.”

“Yeah, I think we should monitor you closely, just in case,” Kyle said.

Alex snaked an arm around Ava’s waist as she licked her lips. He recognized the tension building on her beautiful features.

“Do you think I’ll have another blackout?”

“I don’t know,” Kyle answered, “but with any luck, no. They were intermittent before. If we can get these drugs working in your system, we can block them.”

Ava flashed him her crossed fingers as Alex rubbed her back. “It’ll be okay, Avs.”

“Well, there’s certainly enough of us here to keep an eye on you,” Chris said, crossing his arms as he glanced at her.

The statement made Alex’s skin crawl. The last thing he wanted or needed was Chris Maxwell looking out for Ava, rekindling something while her emotions were a chemically induced mess.

“I really think we can handle it,” Alex retorted.

“You can’t be with her every second of the day,” Chris shot back.

“I can–”

“Okay, okay,” Ava said with a shake of her head. “Let’s not argue about it, okay? I’m just glad to have people here who care and support me.”

The words struck Alex like a physical slap. Before he could follow up on them, though, his other arch nemesis strolled into the room.

Sebastian tugged on a t-shirt over his rock-hard abs as he approached them, his skin still glistening from the shower. “Anything?”

Alex stared him, unimpressed. “Dude, next time finish getting dressed before you race to my office please.”

“Yeah, totally,” Kyle said with a frown. “No one needs to see your abs. We all know you have them.”

“Honestly, going to go with Alex and Kyle on this one,” Chris said with a bob of his head. “So…three against one. Ava’s vote doesn’t count.”

Sebastian let his gaze slide between them. “Are you guys serious? Why are we even talking about this right now? There is work to be done.”

“We’re talking about it because you came in here shirtless like it was of vital importance that you be in here that you couldn’t even take the time to put a shirt on. And all know it’s because you want to show off your muscles. It’s pretty obvious.”

Sebastian rubbed his forehead. “Okay, fine, I will make sure my shirt is fully on in the future. Everyone okay with that?”

The men in the room nodded as Ava shook her head. “You guys are unbelievable,” she murmured.

“Well, he didn’t have to rush down here. The program isn’t even finished yet,” Alex said with a frustrated sigh. “This stupid program is the slowest thing on the planet. Who designed it?”

“I don’t know,” Sebastian said. “And at least we’re going to get some answers from it, even if they take a while.”

He crossed his arms, the sleeves of his t-shirt straining against his biceps. Alex wrinkled his nose, returning his gaze to the screen to await any results.

He pulled Ava a little closer to him, feeling like wolves surrounded him, just waiting for their chance to pounce on Ava and steal her. She let her hand fall onto his shoulder, her fingers finding a lock of his shaggy hair to toy with.

He couldn’t stop a smile from curling his lips at the contact.

After a few breaths of tense waiting, a success message popped onto the screen. His heart leapt into his throat as he clicked to open the file.

At the top of the freshly decrypted file, the blazing red logo for PharmaTech shined. Alex leaned closer to read the information that followed, detailing the pharmaceutical giant’s underground experiments with behavioral drugs including Neuroprisol-X, the drug that caused Ava’s blackouts.

Illegal trials where chemicals were added to drinking water, food supplies, and even vaccines were detailed in cold, clinical reports. The scope of the experiments was staggering—entire towns had been unwitting test subjects.

Alex’s stomach lurched as he scrolled further, a cold sweat breaking out on the back of his neck.

They weren’t just targeting individuals—they were trying to control entire populations.

Neuroprisol-X wasn’t just a prototype; it was being refined, tweaked, tested on thousands without their knowledge.

“These tests…” Alex whispered. “They’ve been going on for years. Food, water, medicine—people are being drugged without knowing it. Ava, they could have given you this chemical at any point.” He turned to look at Ava, fear flashing in his eyes. “How do we fight this kind of power?”