Page 2 of Secret Redemption

Chapter One

Pandemonium was the only way to describe it. Ava sat quietly next to Zack as he watched the men around the room. Dane was talking to a distraught Drew, who had nearly fainted after he had received a call on his phone. He was running his hands through his hair in agitation, sweat coating his brow.

Ava rose and walked over to Celeste, who was standing with Samson where Zin had walked off and left her. Celeste was sipping her coffee, her hand stroking Samson's head. The beautiful beast was alert and seemed to sense the angst that had suddenly invaded the room. Celeste’s touch soothed him.

“Everything okay?”

Celeste shrugged. “Not sure. One minute we were talking and the next he just took off.”

“Yeah. Liam just had a tantrum and threw his phone. Honestly, it’s crazy. Men are such children sometimes.”

“Speaking of children, when is Riley coming over?”

Ava smiled as she thought of her son. He was the light of her life, and she missed him like mad. She so needed to see him and squidge his chubby cheeks.

“He and my Mom land later today. Dad has gone to the airport to pick them up.”

Ava watched as Drew stormed from the room. Dane went to follow, but Liam held up his hand to stop him. “Let me, dude,” he said and left the room seeming much calmer than he had been a few minutes before.

Ava frowned. “Wonder what’s going on.” She jumped, startled, when Samson suddenly growled at her feet. Celeste looked sharply at the door and knelt next to her dog. Ava watched as Celeste stroked his fur and cooed softly but nothing seemed to calm him.

He started to growl louder then let out a series of barks, and Ava felt her heart race. The door flew open, and Zin stood there with a gun pointed at them. In an instant, every pair of eyes turned to him. The shock made everyone pause for a second. Zin had a gun in one hand that was pointed at Zack while the other arm was around Drew’s neck, a scary looking knife resting on his skin.

Ava took in the pissed off look on Drew’s face and hoped to God he didn’t do anything rash. He was a good kid. He was going to make a damn good operative one day, but it would be a long time before he was in the same league as Zin. She had no idea what was happening and instinctively looked at Zack who looked completely calm. If it hadn’t been for the vein pulsing in his neck, she would never have believed that one of his best and most trusted men was holding a gun on them. What was Zin doing, and why?

She felt her heart jump as Zack slowly moved away so that the gun wasn’t pointed at her. He was acting protective, but she would be a fool to think it was anything other than Zack being the man he was. She wondered if Zack remembered that she had training in hostage situations from the NSA.

Nevertheless, her stupid heart jumped at the thought that he cared enough to do it. God, she was such an idiot.

“The book!” Zin snapped sharply, and his command seemed to be aimed at her. She flinched at the dead tone of his voice and struggled to draw a parallel between the man standing in front of her and the man she had seen at Dane and Lauren’s Christmas party. This man seemed so cold, even his eyes seemed dead, almost as if he was drugged.

Samson growled louder at the threatening tone, and Celeste touched her hand to the animal’s head. The dog moved in closer to his master, placing his massive body in front of hers.

“Zin, what is this about?” Zack asked, and Ava knew he was holding a very tight rein on his temper. This was an incredibly volatile situation, and she knew it wouldn’t take a lot for Zin to snap. His eyes were flitting from Zack to the other men. He might be wired, but he also knew who the biggest threat was.

Zack dropped his hands to his sides in a show of supplication.

“No talking,” Zin clipped. “Everyone on the ground or I will slit his throat.” Zin’s accent had become more pronounced with every word. It fascinated the linguist in Ava.

Zack turned around and motioned for the others to do as Zin had said.

“Okay Zin, nobody needs to get hurt.”

Everyone started to kneel.

“Hands where I can see them,” Zin barked again, as everyone knelt on the ground with their hands up.

All except Celeste.

~~~

Zack had no fucking clue what was happening. If you had asked him ten minutes earlier, he would have said that he trusted Zin with his life. Now, that same man was holding a knife to Drew’s throat, and a gun on his fellow Fortis colleagues and friends.

Whatever the fuck was going on, he needed to get his team out of this without anyone getting hurt. Zin was not getting any-fucking-where near Ava either. The fact that Zin was focused on her scared the ever-loving shit out of Zack and made him feel things that he was not yet ready to face.

He went to his knees, keeping his eyes firmly locked on Zin. He turned to his right to see everyone else was doing the same thing, except for Celeste. What the fuck was she doing? Zack watched with his heart in his mouth as she slowly approached Zin and Drew with Samson by her side.

He was fast losing control of this situation, and he didn’t fucking like it one bit.