Chapter 22
AVA
Ava’s eyelashes fluttered as she opened her eyes, a sense of calm lingering over her as she came out of the hypnosis. She slid her eyes closed again, swallowing hard as the room came into focus.
Tense faces met her gaze when she opened her eyes again. The truth was out–at least that’s what she assumed. How bad was it?
Had she confessed to murder while under? Had she given them the gory details of how she’d ended Miranda Vale’s life in that hotel room?
Despite the weight of what she thought she’d done, her biggest worry was whether it would change how Alex felt about her. They’d come so far, finally admitting their feelings, only to face one problem after another.
And each of them threatened to rip them apart.
She couldn’t blame him if he didn’t want to be married to her after she admitted to murder, but it would break her heart, especially since she had little to no control over her own actions.
Her heart ramped up the minute she’d awoken, the peaceful state quickly vanishing.
She pushed up, propping herself on her elbows. “Well?”
Her gaze slid from face to face as she searched for an answer in their eyes.
“Easy, Ava,” Kyle said as he stared at his watch, his fingers pressed firmly against her wrist. “You just woke up. We want to make sure you’re okay.”
“No, I’m not okay,” she answered with a shake of her head.
“Do you feel like you’re going to pass out again?” Alex asked, his voice shaking as he eased onto the bed and took her hand.
“No,” she said, her voice more questioning than she’d expected. “No, I just want to know what happened. What did I say? And why did you say pass out again? Did I go crazy during the hypnosis?”
“No,” Kyle answered, patting her hand, “you did very well. But I don’t want any incidents. Just take a breath and take a minute to fully come out of this.”
“Why? What did I say? What happened?” Ava’s voice turned more frantic as she tried to piece together the puzzle. “Did I kill her? Did I admit to it?”
“No, Avs, easy,” Alex said, his voice soft as he rubbed her arm. “Just take it easy for a minute.”
“I can’t take it easy when I don’t know what I’ve done. Why did I have her blood all over my hands if I didn’t kill her.”
“Because you tried to save her life,” Alex said, squeezing her hand. “You didn’t kill Miranda, Ava. You went there to save her life.”
Ava’s features pinched as she tried to make sense of the words. “What? No, that can’t be true. I…”
“It is,” he answered, grabbing his cell phone and pulling up the video of her hypnosis.
Ava stared at the image of her on the bed, her eyes closed, her features slack. He pressed the play button, and she murmured responses to Kyle’s questions, finally explaining that she’d seen an email condemning Miranda to death and had acted to try to save her life.
Alex clicked the video to stop it after her explanation. “There you have it. See? You’re not a murderer.”
Ava’s lips parted as she stared at her lap. “I tried to save her? Why did I burn her house down then?”
“That’s completely different. You didn’t hurt anyone when you did that. But you weren’t willing to let her die,” Sebastian said. “You didn’t kill her, just like I said.”
Alex shot him a glare over his shoulder, his annoyance obvious.
“But if I didn’t kill her…”
“Avs, you didn’t kill her.”
“The Board did that,” Sebastian said. “And you tried to save her.”
She puffed out her cheeks as she ran her hand through her hair. “How sure are we that this is true?”
“What do you mean?” Alex questioned, his features twisting with confusion.
Ava shifted her gaze to Kyle. “Could this be a false memory? Could it have been implanted? How sure are we that my unconscious self is telling the truth?”
“There is no reason to believe you weren’t,” he answered.
“But there’s a chance I was, right?” she pushed, her palms turning sweaty.
Kyle shook his head. “I really don’t think so, Ava. You’re in the clear.”
She swallowed hard as Alex rubbed her shoulder. “See? I told you that you didn’t do it.”
With her lips pressed together, she tried to hold back the deluge of relief and anxiety welling inside of her. Even if she hadn’t committed a murder, what was causing her to blackout and go rogue like this?
Alex pressed his lips against her forehead, and she collapsed into him, sliding her arms around his chest as she buried her face.
He stroked her hair. “It’s okay, Avs. It’s over. Everything is okay.”
She pulled back with a deep inhale. “Except it’s not. I didn’t kill her, but at one point, I set her house on fire. What happens the next time I black out?”
“Let’s hope there isn’t a next time,” Kyle said as he stared down at his phone.
“Yeah, I hope there isn’t a next time, too, but we have no idea what’s triggering this or why it’s happening to me. Hope isn’t enough. I don’t want to live through another incident like this.”
Kyle lifted his phone in the air. “You may not have to. I think I have the answer to what’s been causing this.”
Her heart skipped a beat as she stared at him. “Really?”
Alex stiffened next to her. “You found something?”
She threaded her fingers through Alex’s and tightened her grip. How bad would the news be? Was this something that would wind up being fatal? Or did they have a chance to stop this?
“I did. After seeing her behavior along with the paranoia, I started to think this may be chemically induced.”
“But there was nothing my bloodwork that suggested that, right?” Ava asked, her features pinching.
“The initial bloodwork focused on the basis. It wasn’t looking for a poison or chemical that could alter your behavior because up until that point, you hadn’t passed out or behaved any differently.”
“I just had the weakness and hot flashes,” she said with a bob of her head.
“Right,” Kyle answered. “But after you started with the blackouts and the odd behavior, the suppressed emotions, the heightened sense of paranoia, all of that said chemical.”
“What kind of chemical can do this?” Alex asked, sliding an arm around Ava’s shoulders as he pulled her closer.
“Nothing that’s clear for being on the market. But there is a drug still deep in the research phase called Neuroprisol-X.”
“Let me guess, this is part of the PhamaTech line of drugs,” Sebastian said.
Kyle bobbed his head. “Yes, it is.”
“What is Neuroprisol-X?” Ava asked. “And why is PharmaTech relevant?”
“It’s a synthetic chemical that will interact with your brain’s neurochemistry. Specifically, it targets your emotion regulator. It also affects the prefrontal cortex which is responsible for your decision-making and impulse control.”
“PharmaTech is Board owned. So, a high-ranking member could easily get a hold of this,” Sebastian said.
“So…this is a drug that they are testing—" Alex began.
“For behavior control, or lack thereof,” Kyle said with a nod. “Looking at the amount in Ava’s body, I would say they exposed her to it so she wouldn’t be in complete control of her faculties.”
Alex rubbed her back. “How could they have given this to her?”
His eyes shifted to Sebastian.
“Food, drink, touch. I mean, it could be anything. You two have been in close contact with a lot of Board members. There are any number of ways this could have happened.”
Alex stared at Sebastian. “Yeah, I bet.”
“Are you serious?” Sebastian asked. “You can’t actually be blaming me.”
“Seems awfully funny that the first time she blacked out, you were with her,” Alex said as he rose from the bed and poked a finger at the man.
“I didn’t do this. The first time she had symptoms, she wasn’t anywhere near me.”
“That’s not exactly true. The first time I had symptoms was on the way to the resort to meet you and Chris. But they started before I saw you.”
Sebastian threw his arms in the air. “There you have it. See? I didn’t do this.”
“Oh, yeah, right. She’s been in pretty close contact with you for a while now, it could have happened at any time.”
Sebastian’s jaw tightened as he glared at Alex.
“Stop!” Ava said with a shake of her head. “Stop it. He didn’t do it. If he had, he wouldn’t have brought me back here.”
“That’s not—"
“Alex, please,” she said with a rub of her head. “We can’t keep doing this. We have to start trusting each other before this whole thing falls apart.”
Sebastian poked a finger at her. “She’s right. You should listen to her.”
Alex clicked his tongue.
“Please, Ace…let’s just assume this was someone else and be done with it.” She twisted to face Kyle. “Is there anything we can do to stop it?”
“Yes,” Kyle said with a nod. “We can prevent it from happening again, and we may even be able to get your memories back fully. We’ll give you a cocktail of drugs to rebalance your brain’s chemistry and block the Neuroprisol-X from binding to your brain receptors.
We can also give you something to treat you longer term until we’re finished with The Board to make sure this never happens again. ”
Ava’s breath caught in her throat. It was everything she wanted to hear, but part of her still feared what those memories might reveal. She couldn’t shake the gnawing doubt that another blackout was waiting just around the corner.
She bobbed her head, pressing her lips together as hope swelled within her that she could avoid another attack. “When can we start?”
“As soon as we’re home. I’ll get the drugs in order, you can take your first doses the minute we get home and hopefully, that’ll prevent this from happening again.”
Ava heaved a sigh of relief, reaching for Kyle to squeeze his hand. “Thank you.”
“Yeah, thanks, Doc. This is really good news,” Alex said as she rose to join him, wrapping her arms around him.
“No problem.”
“Let’s hope this solves your issue because we have bigger things to worry about now,” Sebastian chimed in.
Ava raised her eyebrows at him, her arms still tight around Alex’s waist.
He pulled a flash drive out of his pocket and held it in the air. “You got the decryption software. It’s time to find out what Miranda was hiding on that drive. It’s time to start dismantling The Board.”
Ava stared at the small electronic device, lifting her chin. “It can’t happen soon enough.”
“I know you want this over. I do, too, but from here on out, we need to proceed with extreme caution,” Sebastian warned, his expression serious. “We’ve all seen what The Board can do, and how they handle people they don’t like.”
Miranda’s death raced through her mind again, and she swallowed hard.
“And we need to trust each other,” he added.
She bobbed her head, craning her neck to glance up at Alex.
He pressed his lips together, his jaw flexing. “All right, fine. I trust you. Let’s just finish this.”
Sebastian stuck his hand out toward Alex. “To finishing this…together.”
Alex paused before grasping Sebastian’s hand, the tension still simmering inside him. “Together,” he muttered.
As they shook on it, Ava reached out to pull Kyle closer. “All of us.”
“All of us,” Sebastian agreed.
Ava narrowed her eyes. “It’s time to fight back.”
This time, Ava wasn’t just reacting to the chaos around her—she was ready to take control. Whatever happened next, she wouldn’t be caught off guard again.