Alex slid his eyes closed, his fingers tightening on her hand. “Ava…you could have been hurt, or worse.”
“He cut my zip ties at that point.”
“You’re not invincible,” Alex said, his voice barely above a whisper.
Ava sighed as she shook her head. “No, I’m not. And this has to stop. After we were attacked, he put me in the back of a van and was moving me to a new location when we got into a massive argument.”
“An argument?” Kyle asked. “About what?”
“Loyalty. He actually questioned how The Board found his safe house and accused you of giving him up.”
Alex’s features pinched. “Me?”
“Yep. He said you told Miranda about him when you were being held hostage either to get better treatment or because you’re jealous of him.”
“I didn’t,” Alex said, his eyes wide. “I didn’t say anything about Raven.”
“I believe you. I told him you didn’t. He insisted you did and since my allegiance was to you, he questioned my loyalty.” She rolled her eyes.
“So, what then? He brought you home? What was on the drive?” Kyle asked.
“He kept the drive, never decrypted it. After I woke up, I was sick. By the time I recovered, we were being attacked. Then we got into the argument.”
“But he took you somewhere else, right?” Kyle asked. “By the way, I should do an exam. Whatever he gave us hit us pretty hard, too.”
“Yeah, well I’ve got a double dose. During our argument, he stopped the van, pulled me out, and we continued to fightabout loyalty until he said our relationship may need to come to an end and sprayed me. Then I woke up here.”
Kyle skirted around Alex, pressing two fingers to her throat. “Your pulse is good. You having any dizziness or nausea?”
“This time around, no. Just a little grogginess.”
Alex leapt from his seat, his fingers curling into fists as he paced. “This has to stop.”
“I agree,” Ava said. “This little arrangement with Raven is too unpredictable, and we don’t have enough information to go after The Board alone.”
“So, what are you going to do?” Kyle asked.
Ava raised her gaze to him as he stood next to her before she flicked her eyes to Alex. “I think we should take the DHS offer.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, a tremor of fear in his voice.
Ava nodded. “Yes. Alex, we can’t do this alone. And Raven is…unpredictable.”
Alex eased onto the bed, taking her hands in his. “Okay.”
He slid his gaze to Kyle. “You in on this, Doc?”
“Oh…I get a vote?”
“Of course, you get a vote, Doc,” Ava said. “You’re part of this.”
“Oh, okay, ummm…” He rubbed his chin pacing the floor. “On one hand, DHS is kind of scary. But on the other, the masked maniac is really scary. And on yet another hand, The Board is super scary. Okay, yeah, I’m good. We go with DHS.”
Ava squeezed Alex’s hand as she reached for Kyle’s. He held his other hand out toward Alex.
“Ew, dude, no,” Alex said.
“Sorry, I thought…I thought it was like a…circle of trust thing happening. My bad.”
