Chapter 15
ALEX
Alex’s heart hammered so hard that the rushing blood in his ears drowned out the frantic beeping of his heart monitor. What had happened to Ava while she’d been in the waiting room?
How could she have just disappeared? It didn’t make sense. She wouldn’t just leave him.
There had to be something they weren’t telling him…but what?
Had she suffered from another one of her attacks? Was she also lying in a hospital bed?
His features tugged into a worried frown as he balled the sheet covering him into a tight knot in his fist.
“Okay, easy, Mav,” Kyle said with a pat on Alex’s shoulder. “You do not need to have a heart attack on top of everything else, okay?”
Alex screwed up his face, glancing at Kyle as though he had lost his mind. “Are you serious? Ava is gone. I’m worried sick. But you’re right…”
He grabbed the tabs stuck all over his chest, ripping them away from his skin and sending his heart monitor spiraling into a flatline that screamed for attention from the medical staff.
“Whoa, stop that. Put those back on,” Kyle said, racing around the bed and reattaching them as fast as Alex could pull them off.
As Alex tore off the heart monitor tabs, a wave of dizziness hit him, but he gritted his teeth against it.
The idea of lying in a hospital bed, helpless, while Ava was out there, possibly in danger, was unbearable.
He couldn’t just sit there. The guilt gnawed at him—guilt for letting her out of his sight, for trusting the wrong people, for not being able to protect her.
“Mav, stop,” Kyle said, his voice a stern warning.
Alex shook his head, fighting with the man to free himself. “No, I won’t. I need to find Ava.”
“You need to stay in that bed until we know you’re okay. The last thing we need is you running around with a head injury on a frantic search for Ava.”
“Well, that’s too bad,” Alex answered. “Because that’s exactly what’s about to happen. Where could she be? Have you called her phone?”
Kyle bobbed his head. “Yeah. We tried that. We looked for her. But…”
“Kyle’s car is gone. She must have taken it.”
Alex huffed out a breath as he let his head hit the flat pillow behind him. “Are you kidding me? You mean she’s not even just lost in the hospital somewhere, but that she left?”
“Looks that way.”
Alex heaved a sigh. “How could you let her do that? Why did you give her your keys, Doc?”
“I didn’t. I left them with–”
“Oh, no,” Alex groaned. “You left them with Shadow. Sebastian took her, didn’t he?”
“We have no idea what happened,” Grant answered. “She went out to check on him…”
“She was really frustrated and upset about what had happened. I thought she wanted some air.” Kyle offered Alex a frown.
“When she didn’t come back, I went check, found the car and both of them gone.”
“Great,” Alex said with a shake of his head. “He took her. I knew we couldn’t trust this guy. Sebastian Bancroft took Ava. This was probably all part of his plan. He probably set up the entire thing with Miranda.”
A curse escaped under his breath as he curled his fingers into fists. “Get me a laptop.”
Kyle eyed Alex. “What are you going to do?”
“Play Candy Crush. What do you think? I’m going to hack the security cameras and find your car.”
“Oh, okay, uh–” Kyle began.
Grant waved his cell phone in the air. “I’ll call Julia. She can run one over. Any laptop in particular?”
“What’s laying around,” Alex answered.
Grant nodded as he pressed the phone to his ear and stepped into the hall.
“Sorry,” Kyle said. “I didn’t want to leave because Ava basically told me not to leave until I talked to your doctor.”
Alex slid his eyes closed. “Well, that’ll take forever in the emergency room. And those are precious seconds that we’re losing trying to find Ava.”
“Sorry, Mav. I really just thought she was going to get some air. Believe me…I have been over and over what she said just before she left. No indication of her leaving. In fact, she said she’d be right back.” Kyle shook his head as he paced back and forth next to Alex’s hospital bed.
“That’s what makes me think this has Sebastian Bancroft’s name written all over it. He took her. I don’t care what anybody says. He took her.”
Alex’s nostrils flared as his nose burned and tears stung his eyes.
They’d just rescued the man from the supposed clutches of a Board coup, and now he’d betrayed them.
He never should have come to the hospital.
He never should have let her out of his sight.
He knew they were after her. The Board had already tried to kill her once.
And Sebastian had tried to claim her for himself multiple times.
Alex’s insides churned as Grant stepped back in the room. “She’s on her way.”
“Thanks,” Alex said, shifting on the uncomfortable mattress as he waited for word on any front.
Before Julia could arrive, a doctor strolled into the room. “Mr. Stone,” he said, his voice expectant.
“That’s me. Am I all good? Can I go?”
“Uh, well you’re a little banged up. You’ve got some bruised ribs, for example. But no internal bleeding. That’s the good news.”
“What’s the bad?” Kyle asked.
“A concussion and given the nature of your other injuries, I’d like to keep you overnight for observation.”
“What?!” Alex exclaimed before he shook his head. “No. Not cool. I want to go home.”
“Well, unfortunately, Mr. Stone, it’s my job as a doctor to do what’s best for my patients, and that is keeping you here.”
Alex flung off the covers over his lap. “No. Doc’s a doctor. He can watch me.”
The doctor flicked his eyebrows up as Kyle held up a hand. “Dr. Kyle Carter. I’m with St. Mary’s in New Orleans but I’m on a leave right now. I’d be happy to monitor him.”
“Well, that’s not a great idea, Dr. Carter. As you well know, any developing symptoms need to be assessed and treated immediately. It can make all the difference.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that, however, he was conscious the entire time, so I think the risk here is minimal.”
“Minimal is not none,” the doctor argued.
“I don’t care,” Alex said. “Get my discharge papers and let me out of here.”
The doctor heaved a sigh, his features tugging into a frown. “Mr. Stone–”
“Am I a prisoner here?”
“No,” the doctor answered.
“Then get my paperwork and get me out of here.” Alex shook his head.
“Fine. But I will note that this is not recommended,” the doctor said before he spun on a heel and left the room.
Alex groaned as he let his head hit the pillow again. “This is so frustrating.”
“Julia should be here soon,” Grant said. “Even if it takes them a while to get your discharge papers together, maybe you can find a lead in that time.”
“And if we do, we’re leaving. Paperwork or not. I am not letting Ava stay wherever she is for a moment longer.”
Kyle nodded. “Right.”
A second later, Julia dashed into the room, a bright red laptop in hand as she puffed for breath. “Here’s the laptop. Alex, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he said as he grabbed it and whipped it open, his fingers pounding the keys as he started several programs.
“Okay, here we go,” he murmured as he fought his way through the hospital security system to access their cameras.
Grant, Julia, and Kyle leaned closer while he ran the footage back until the car sat in the spot. He stopped the feed and let it play, watching Ava sidle up to Sebastian and talk for a few minutes.
Suddenly, she leaned against the car before she went limp in Sebastian’s arms.
“What’s happening to her?” Julia asked, squinting at the screen.
“Ava’s been having some sort of attacks lately,” Kyle answered. “We don’t know what’s causing them.”
Alex’s heart hammered in his chest as Sebastian put her in the backseat of the car. He gnawed on his lower lip, his stomach twisting into a tight knot as he waited to see the man pull away with her.
But he never left her side.
A moment later, Ava popped out of the backseat. Her features were taut as she spoke before opening the passenger door and pulling a gun from the glove box. She loaded it and crossed to the driver side.
Sebastian climbed in with her before she peeled out of the parking lot.
“What the hell?” Alex whispered. “Where is she going?”
“So, he didn’t take her,” Kyle answered. “It looks like she took him.”
“Yeah, and with a gun. What’s she thinking?” Alex asked, his voice edged with disbelief.
“Can you track her through the traffic cams?” Julia questioned.
Alex nodded just as a nurse entered with his paperwork. He slammed the laptop shut before she spotted the familiar parking lot and listened to the instructions which included limiting his screen time.
He struggled not to roll his eyes at her, having every intention of spending as much time as needed to find Ava.
“All right, if everything’s clear,” she said, “you can get dressed and head out when you’re ready.”
“Thanks. Crystal clear. Got it.”
She glanced down at the laptop again with an arch of her eyebrow. “Uh-huh.”
This time, Alex did roll his eyes before he handed the laptop off to Julia and threw back the covers again. “Get me my clothes.”
Kyle handed him the patient belongings bag, and he slid on his jeans before he doffed the hospital gown and grabbed his shirt.
As he tugged it over his head, Ava raced into the room, her voice breathless and her features tight. “Ace?”
“Ava?!” he exclaimed as she raced over to him, throwing her arms around his waist.
He groaned, pain shooting through his ribs. “Ava, where were you? We were worried sick?”
“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice breaking a little. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“He has a concussion, but we convinced them to let him go. He needs monitored, though,” Kyle answered. “And apparently so do you.”
“I’m sorry,” she answered. “I can explain. Sort of. Let’s just get home.”
Alex grabbed his hoodie, slipping it on before he wrapped an arm around Ava and led her from the room. He spent the entire ride home clutching her hand as though she would disappear right out from under him.
When they pushed into the house, with Sebastian in tow as well, he was ready to explode. “Okay, please tell us what happened.”
“Yeah, sorry for scaring everyone. I had another one of those episodes. Only this time, I passed out.”
“What episodes?” Grant asked.
“Yeah,” Sierra echoed as she strolled in from the living room. “I need to know these things in case they affect my media strategy.”
Ava sucked in a deep breath. “I have been having episodes where I have a headache, wobbly legs, hot and sweaty. This time I passed out for a few seconds.”
“But that’s not all,” Sebastian answered. “When she woke up, she was like a completely different person.”
“What?” Alex asked, his stomach clenching. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, she was acting strange. Robotic, aggressive. Not the usual, laid-back Ava.”
Kyle screwed up his face. “She seems normal now.”
“Yeah, she passed out again, when she woke up, she was normal.”
“And I couldn’t remember a thing I’d done between the two blackouts,” Ava said with a sigh.
When Ava described her symptoms, Alex’s heart clenched. The fact that she couldn’t remember what happened during these episodes made his blood run cold. What if it wasn’t just stress? What if it was something much worse, something they couldn’t fix?
Alex shook his head. “So, she woke up acting like a different person, and you thought the best thing to do was to get into a car with her and let her drive away?”
Sebastian stretched his arms out to his sides. “Are you kidding me? She had a gun. And she’d just passed out. I think the best thing I could have done was get into the car with her before she hurt herself.”
“All right, let’s stop arguing and try to get to the bottom of this,” Julia said with a shake of her head. “We need to figure out what’s going on here for Ava’s sake.”
Ava slid her eyes closed, nodding at Julia. “We do because that’s not all of it.”
“Not all of it?” Alex rubbed Ava’s shoulder. “Avs, what else?”
She let her head fall into her hands. When she lifted it, she pressed her lips together, her jaw tight. “We probably should brace ourselves for some retaliation. I…I burned down Miranda’s house.”
The room fell into a stunned silence as Ava admitted to burning down Miranda’s house.
Alex’s mind went blank for a moment, the implications too overwhelming to process.
Julia’s mouth hung open in shock, and Kyle’s face paled.
Even Grant, who was usually unflappable, looked taken aback.
This wasn’t the Ava they knew—the Ava who was always level-headed, who always thought things through. Something was very wrong.
Alex’s jaw dropped open as he stared at his wife. The Ava he knew was tough but not burn-down-your-house tough. What had happened to her when she passed out? And would it happen again?