“No,” he answered, screwing the cap back on the bottle and tossing it on the table.
“Reason?”
He twisted to face her, his features taut. “Because your husband is sort of an idiot.”
“That’s kind of harsh.”
“Yeah, well, if the shoe fits,” he answered, returning his gaze to the window above the sink.
She pressed her lips together, wondering how she could try to get information from him while also calming his clearly frayed nerves.
“Maybe you should let me handle Alex,” Ava suggested with a casual shrug.
His jaw tensed. “You can’t call Alex again. He could be with anyone right now.”
She heaved a sigh. “Well, clearly you need help with something because you’re a wreck.”
“Oh, am I, Ava?” He spun back to face her. “Am I a wreck? Maybe it’s because things aren’t going at all the way they should. We were doing so well with The Board, but then you had to go and open your mouth to DHS.”
Ava’s lips parted, her jaw dropping open. “Oh, no. No, no. You’re not going to blame this on me. You didn’t exactly inspire confidence in either of the two forms I had contact with. You kidnapped Alex–”
“I didn’t kidnap Alex, and I did everything I could to make sure you found him.” His voice raised, his features tightening.
“Fine, you did. That’s true. But we weren’t doingthatwell with The Board. We were barely eking out any information whatsoever, and it seems like they were on to you.”
“Yeah, the loss of my safe houses has been a blow.”
“Houses? Plural? How many were compromised?”
He let his gaze fall to the floor as he shook his head. “I don’t know, but I’m not taking a chance. On top of that, the flash drive was compromised when we wiped the drive during the attack, so I don’t even have the files you gave me or the ability to decrypt them.”
“If you’d contact Alex–”
“If he’d answer a text.” Sebastian shouted back.
“What did you send to him?”
Sebastian grabbed his water and strode from the kitchen to the living room, taking another swig from the bottle. “We need to talk. I can help you. Meet me at the old resort at sunset. Raven.”
Ava glanced outside. “You’re going to be late.”
“He never answered to confirm. His phone is still at his house. He’s not coming.”
“Well, you sent the world’s dumbest text, Sebastian.”
“I couldn’t send anything else. I’m not telling him over text about you. Anyone could read it.”
Ava rolled her eyes at him. “You know, I’d really expect you to be better with this espionage stuff.”
He stretched his arms out to the side, his expression annoyed. “Well, I’m sorry I’m failing you, Ava.”
She rubbed the bridge of her nose before she shook her head. “All right, look, I can solve more than one of your problems if you’ll let me.”
His shot his eyebrows up. “Really? Okay, how?”
“I need a laptop–”
“Nope,” he said with a shake of his head.
