He settled back onto the cushion, his eyebrows knitting. “What is it?”
“I wanted to say something else…about us.”
“O-okay.” He swallowed hard, his eyes clouding with worry.
She smiled at him, rubbing his cheek with her thumb. “It’s nothing bad.”
“Are you sure? Because after everything I just said, and then you said, kind of felt…like this is something not good.”
She couldn’t stop a giggle from escaping her. “It’s notnotgood. The thing is…when you first told me that you loved me, I wasn’t sure about this because I was terrified of losing you.”
He rubbed her arm gently. “Ava, that’s never going to happen.”
She bit into her lower lip. “I know. I know that now. I know that no matter what, we’re always going to be there for each other. I know that you love me unconditionally, and I want you to know I feel the same way. I hate that you’ve been worried about our relationship.”
“Avs,” he said as he squeezed her hands, “I’ll always worry because you are so far out of my league–”
“Uh-uh,” she said with a shake of her head as she leaned closer to steal a kiss. “I am firmly in your league and only your league.”
“Aww, babe,” he said with a soft grin, “that’s sweet.”
“Just like you. And I can’t wait to take down The Board and spend the rest of our lives together.”
“Me too,” he answered as he leaned closer for another kiss.
She pressed a finger against his lips. “But before we can do that, we need to look at these emails and find some dirt on the PharmaTech execs.”
“Ugh,” Alex groaned. “You’re right. But then again, you’re always right.”
Ava grinned at him as she patted his shoulder. “Aw, babe, and that’s why we’ll always stay together. Because you–”
“Are the perfect husband?” He shot her an amused grin.
“Actually, I was going to say you know I’m always right, but sure, we can go with your version.” She kissed his cheek before she peered at his screen. “What do we have?”
Alex’s eyebrows pinched as he scanned the emails. “Not sure yet. The first two aren’t really incriminating.”
He scrolled through the third before he finally shook his head and clicked to another one. “Nothing yet. Damn it.”
“Easy, Ace. We’ll find it.”
“Will we?” His voice turned incredulous as he shifted toanother email. “Because so far, there’s nothing. And I’m pretty sure these people scrubbed anything incriminating.”
“Not before you got it, babe. You grabbed all of this before they knew we were coming.” She rubbed his shoulders. “There must be something.”
He blew out a shaky breath as he moved on to the tenth email. “I don’t–”
Alex’s fingers paused mid-keystroke, his eyes narrowing at the screen. he leaned in, his breath hitching. “Wait, here…here!”
His voice carried a sense of urgency.
Ava’s heart leapt into her throat as she shifted closer her eyes scanning the words on the screen. “Alex…”
He nodded, his eyes blazing with a mixture of triumph and fury. “This is a PharmaTech exec giving a direct order to quote unleash Reaper in the HF location for an initial assessment of efficacy of the spread and mortality rate.”
“HF,” Ava repeated. “That’s Hemlock Falls. It has to be.”
“Yeah, and this isveryclear. Like exceptionally clear that they did this on purpose.”
