Emerie gave me an appreciative grin. “Clever.”
Owen and I exited the FBI building on the hunt for lunch. We walked in silence through the nearby park, until we spotted our favourite food truck.
“The usual?” the owner of the truck hollered when we approached.
When our order was ready, we went to sit under my favourite willow tree. New growth was showing at its tips after another brutal winter. I touched its trunk in greeting and lowered to the ground with a sigh, resting my back against it. Owen followed suit. One of its hanging branches brushed against my cheek with the breeze, and I smiled up at it.
“Do you really think they’re these Collectors?” I asked Owen, before taking a bite of my wrap. It was the best chicken wrap I had ever tasted.
“Ava. You’ve literally seen their storeroom, remember?”
I blinked.
The underground bunker in the forest. That must have been where they had operated from.Gods, I couldn’t wrap my head around it. The more I got to know these people, the less I felt I knew them. And I’d been naïve enough once to have called them my family.
How stupid I was.
The ever-present ache in my chest had morphed into something else entirely ever since we walked out of the Russian’s club. It was now a cold, burning fury.
“Do you regret letting them go back at the club?” I asked Owen. I sure as hell did. We should’ve stormed in there, guns blazing while they were still there.
Owen shook his head. “No. Gemma saved your life. As much as it pains me to say, I don’t regret repaying the favour. I’ll do it again. But Varon. I do regret not punching him in his smug face when I had the chance. A pen in the neck would’ve felt good too.” He gave me a sly smirk.
That had me thinking. “Did you gather any more intel from Volkov and his men?”
Volkov, it turned out, had more than justtiesto the Russian Mafia. Information we gathered from Grayson when he calledhimpakhan, which meant Volkov was more like a high ranking general in the Bratva.
I hadn’t seen much of Owen since. He’d been busy interrogating them for two days straight.
“Not much on the Apparitions. One of the employees did confess to seeing Grayson there before, but she wasn’t able to give us much else. Volkov and his goonies are silent. But that’s expected from Russian mobsters. If they turn, their families get tortured to death.” Owen shrugged.
I shivered. “That’s brutal.”
“Yeah, but watching them almost kill you, killed off any sympathy I might have towards them.” Owen leaned closer. “I might have told Vlad that the rest of his buddies were under the impression that he’s cooperating with us. He was shaking when I left him,” Owen whispered, satisfied.
I chuckled. “Good.” I moved to lay my head on his shoulder but midway through, I decided against it. I cleared my throat instead.
“And how are you doing? That was pretty fucking traumatic, Ava.”
I swallowed hard, then lifted my hand for Owen to see. “Well, I haven’t stopped shaking since that night,” I admitted on a chuckle. “But Doctor Aspen has helped a lot. Thanks for arranging with her to come see me.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there. In the aftermath. I should have stayed with you.”
“You had stuff to do. Mobsters to break. And I wasn’t alone. I had Rachel… and Doctor Aspen. I’m fine, Owen. You worry too much.” I tried to reassure him.
His shoulders sagged. “It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have let you climb through that window with me. My carelessness almost got you killed.”
I laced my fingers with his. “O, you can’t blame yourself. I gave you no choice, remember? And I’mhere. I’m alive. With nothing more than a little bruise on my cheek. How lucky are we?” I pushed him with my shoulder.
He glared at me, but his mouth quirked up. “Alittlebruise?”
I laughed. “Okay, a medium-sized bruise.”
He gave me another incredulous look, reaching up and poked at it.
I flinched.
“That’s a big-ass bruise, Ava,” Owen said dryly, shaking his head, then continued eating.
