Raven tilted his head. “This is why I prefer to meet alone.”
Ava raised the flash drive. “You don’t get to make all the decisions. We’re a team. Here’s the drive.”
He stepped closer to her. “Bring it to me.”
She sucked in a breath as Alex slid in front of her. “No. This isn’t some kind of sick game of power. You can’t just demand she bring it to you. If you want it, come and get it.”
“With pleasure,” he said, tightening his gloves as he flexed his fists.
Ava tugged Alex back, shoving him behind her. “Don’t touch him.”
“Give me the drive.”
She held it out, but as Raven reached for it, she pulled it back. “Two things first.”
Raven heaved a sigh. “What are your demands?”
“First, I want you to decrypt it here, in front of us.”
Alex lifted his chin at her request. She’d read his mind. She didn’t trust Raven either. He could feed them an entirely fake set of files, and they’d never know.”
“I can’t. I don’t have the tools.”
“Then you don’t get it. This was a waste of time.” She pocketed the drive and stepped back.
“I’ll decrypt it–”
“No, we want to be there when you do it. I’m not taking your word for whatever was on this drive,” Alex said, wagging a finger at him.
“Fine. I’ll do it in front of Ava. Only Ava.”
Alex narrowed his eyes. “Wait, why?”
“Because I’m only taking one of you.”
“Whoa,” Alex said as Kyle stepped forward, too, each of them shielding her. “She’s not going anywhere.”
“You know the drill, Ava. If you’re going to command central, I have rules. So, what’s it going to be?” Raven’s robotic voice sent a shiver down Alex’s spine as he glanced back at Ava.
“Avs, don’t do this.”
Ava flicked her gaze back and forth between Kyle and Alex before she stepped forward, her wrists out. “Deal.”
“Ava, no!” Alex said as Raven tugged a restraint from his pocket and slipped it around her wrists, tightening it.
“How can we trust that you won’t change out the drive?” Kyle asked.
Alex’s heart hammered against his ribs. “That drive is password-protected with a special blend of my own encryption. Breakable, yes, but not in the amount of time it would take for Ava to wake up. You’ll need the password from Ava to get to those files. But I still don’t agree with this.”
“I’ll be back soon, babe,” Ava said, nodding at Raven.
He rubbed the rose’s petals against her cheek before he lifted a canister from his pocket, spraying it in her face.
Alex watched in horror as Ava fell unconscious into Raven’s arms. “See you soon,” Raven said.
His features formed fists, his eyes clouding with tears as the man carried Ava away from him.
“We should follow him,” Kyle whispered.
