by Lasky, Jesse
After a brief hesitation, she closes her eyes, although it will be a long time before she really trusts anyone again.
“Now think of those who wronged you,” he says. “Think of what they did to you. What they took from you.”
Ava’s lungs become heavy, her pulse racing as adrenaline hits her system. She’s tired of running. Tired of being afraid. Of moving from town to town, wondering how long it will be before the little she’s managed to scrape together will be taken from her again. She sees now that she’s scarred, damaged, afraid to live.
And because of that, she’s not living at all.
She welcomes the anger building in her heart, lets it push out the vulnerability and fear that has resided there since Charlie and Reinhardt stole her legacy.
Finally, she opens her eyes.
“Tell me, Ava Winters,” he says, “what do you really want?”
She doesn’t hesitate. “Revenge.”
He smiles. “Then you’ve got a plane to catch.”
Ava was almost completely under, swimming toward the dark ocean of unconsciousness, when she saw Shay out of the corner of one barely open eye.
The next thing she knew, he grabbed hold of Vic’s collar, hauling him off Ava like he was nothing but a child.
“No,” she protested, trying to find her way back to the peaceful calm. “Leave me alone. Let me go…”
“Bullshit,” Shay said, tossing Vic to the ground and pulling Ava to her feet. “Get up.”
Blackness raced in from all sides as she rose, dizziness threatening to send her back to the ground. She leaned against the Dumpster, calling out a warning as Vic stood behind Shay.
“Behind you!”
Shay turned, ducking under Vic’s jab and rising to deliver a swift blow to the man’s stomach. The hit brought Vic to his knees. Ava watched as Shay nailed him with an elbow to the head, causing him to collapse against the Dumpster. He fell to the ground, out cold.
Shay turned to face her. She glared at him, gingerly touching her neck, which was tender and already swollen.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” she choked from her burning throat.
“You’re welcome,” Shay said through gritted teeth.
“I’m supposed to thank you now?”
“For saving your ass?” he nodded. “Yeah. ‘Thank you’ seems appropriate.”
“I didn’t ask for your help,” she said.
“Yeah, well, I’ll chalk that up to an oversight on your part. Like everything else you guys did today.”
Anger flooded her body, replacing the apathy that had made her complacent just moments before. “What are you talking about?”
“This wasn’t part of the plan,” he said.
“None of this was your plan,” she said. “It was our plan.”
“Dying in an alleyway?” he fumed. “That was your plan?”
She was quiet, his words hitting a nerve as she remembered the strange comfort she’d felt as she slid toward death. The sweet release of knowing she didn’t have to fight anymore. Didn’t have to plot or plan. Didn’t have to be afraid that she would never, ever find herself again.
“What happened to you?” he said softly. “You used to be a fighter.”
She turned away, ashamed at the tears stinging her eyes. “I’m tired.”
She was standing there, her back to Shay as she tried to pull herself together, when police sirens screamed through the night.
And they were coming closer. Coming for her and the others.
“Go,” she told Shay. “This was our fight. We did what had to be done.”
She hadn’t agreed with Jon’s decision to come to Tavern Red, but it didn’t matter. They had faced off with Cain’s men, had done what they could. She could live with it, even if she was one of the casualties.
Shay’s gaze dropped to the blood on her hands, then to Cain’s dead body. Dropping to his knees, he rifled through Cain’s pockets, removing his wallet before turning his attention to the ring on Cain’s finger.
“What are you doing?” Ava asked him.
“It will take them a while to identify him without this stuff,” Shay explained. “Cain isn’t someone who makes a point of having his fingerprints in the criminal database. It will buy us some time.” He glanced back as the sound of sirens got louder, closer. “Listen to me, Ava. It doesn’t have to be this way. It doesn’t have to end like this.”
“What are you talking about?” she said, already resigned to her fate at the hands of the police closing in on them.
“Do you trust me?” he asked her.
She hesitated, remembering those same words coming from his lips back at the shelter.
“Come on, Ava. If there’s anyone you can trust, it should be me.”
She couldn’t argue the statement so she said nothing.
“You didn’t finish your training,” Shay continued, standing and stuffing Cain’s personal effects in his own pocket. “That’s why you made a mistake.”
The sirens got louder, brasher, piercing through the approaching night as a fleet of police cars pulled into the alleyway, blocking them in on both sides.
“You killed the wrong man!” Shay shouted over the cacophony.
She tried to make sense of Shay’s statement, her heart beating wildly as the police cars raced toward them, the outdated Sonoma County sedans piling into the alleyway, leaving no room for escape. They pinned Ava and Shay with their headlights. Ava held up her hands, shielding her eyes from the glare, and the cops leapt from their vehicles, pointing guns and yelling at them to keep their hands up, palms facing outward.
“Let me do the talking,” Shay muttered as the police moved in.
“You should have let me die,” Ava said under her breath.
“Please. You’ve got way too much work left to do.”
Ava held still, her eyes falling to Cain’s body at their feet. This did not look good. Not under any circumstances and definitely not combined with the carnage inside Tavern Red.
“That’s all right, guys!” Shay called out. “I’ve got it under control!”
Ava allowed her eyes to shift to him, afraid to let the rest of her body follow. What the hell was he doing?
“Shay Thomas,” he said, holding up a shimmering brass badge. “LAPD.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
“You’re a cop?!” Ava exclaimed under her breath.
She’d known he wasn’t a bartender. Their history had told her that much. But she had no idea he was on the force.
The look he shot her told her everything she did need to know, which was basically to shut up.
He moved toward the cops, gesturing for them to join him by the back wall of Tavern Red. They conversed in hushed tones while Ava remained with her hands up, still afraid to move for fear of startling the one cop who still had his gun—and his eyes—on her.
Shay seemed like a different person in the company of the other officers. His posture was different, even the way he angled his head when he was talking to them. And their posture changed, too, as they ducked their heads a little, nodding in agreement. Ava had no idea who Shay was, but in less than ten minutes he’d become an authority figure to Sonoma law enforcement.
A couple of minutes later the men backed away, tucking their guns into their holsters as one of them returned to his car, grabbing the radio and requesting an ambulance.
Shay crossed the pavement, making his way back to Ava. “Let’s go.”
“Wait… What?” she said, still standing with her hands up. But Shay was already walking away. “What’s going on?”
He walked back to her. “Do you want to get out of here or not?”
“I want to get out of here,” she said, still confused.
“Then come on. I took care of things. For now.”
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“Let’s just say they might come knocking for an interview in a day or two, but I bought us some time.”
She looked back at the
police, already taping off the area around Cain’s body. “Maybe I should just tell them my side of the story now…”
Shay tightened his grip on her arm. “Your friend that was taken. Do you care for him?”
Ava looked at Shay, unsure what he was getting at.
“Clearly you do or you wouldn’t have run out here to help him.”
“He’s my friend. I…” She tried to figure out how to define her feelings for Jon. “Well, I guess I…”
Shay ignored her stuttering. “If you want to find him, we need to get out of here. The police are going to be all over Tavern Red any minute.”
He led her through the back door. Reena and Jane had wrapped Cruz in a blanket, but Reena still sat on the floor, holding his body and stroking his face. Tears streamed down her cheeks, her pale skin stained from crying.
Seeing them reenter the bar, Jane stood. “What’s happened? I heard police… What’s going on?”
“We need to get out of here,” Shay said, striding into the room. “Now.”
Jane looked around. “What about Jon?”
“They took him,” Ava said, her throat still sore from Vic’s assault on her neck.
“Who?”
“We don’t know yet,” Shay answered. “But the police are in the alley out back. I bought us some time, but I figure we’ve got five minutes, max, before they swarm this place. After that, none of us will get out of here for a long time.”
Reena looked up at them. “Cain?”
“Dead,” Ava said.
“Good.” Reena’s face hardened as she stood. “Now let’s get the rest of those bastards.”
“What would you like to do with Cruz?” he asked gently.
Reena blanched. “You know his name.”
He sighed. “Yes.”
She shook her head. “Who are you?”
“This is Shay Thomas,” Ava explained. “He’s the one who recruited me.”
“But… what are you doing here?” asked Jane.
Shay rubbed a tired hand over his face. “Listen, I’d be happy to have this conversation later, but we really need to get out of here before the police decide they should check Tavern Red for witnesses to Cain’s murder.” He looked around at the unconscious bodies and broken furniture. “I think we can all agree that would be a bad thing.”
Reena turned sad eyes on Cruz’s body. “I know where to take him.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
They headed toward the Pacific, shay driving with Ava in the passenger seat. Jane sat with Reena, still cradling Cruz’s body, in the back. Shay didn’t start talking until they were clear of Tavern Red.
“I’ve been tending bar at Tavern Red for nearly six months,” he explained.
But Ava had already started piecing it together. Shay couldn’t go with her to Rebun Island because he’d been assigned to infiltrate Cain’s organization.
“You said Cain was dead,” Reena said from the back. “What happened?”
Shay explained how they had found Cain, lying in the alley already dead, and Vic’s assault on Ava.
“Then the police came,” explained Ava. “And that’s where Shay has some more explaining to do.”
“Why?” asked Jane.
He sighed. “Look, I was a cop, okay? In Los Angeles.”
Ava studied his face, strong in the light of the dash. “What happened?”
He was silent a minute, following Reena’s directions and getting on the highway.
“People think cops have so much power, but the truth is, they’re about as powerless as you can get. Rules, paperwork, a chain of command that won’t let you take a piss without a signature from your chief…” He shook his head. “I guess you could say I don’t do well with rules. Especially when they mean not getting the bad guys or when half of those bad guys are other police officers. People who swore to protect and to serve.”
“So you went to work for Takeda?” Ava asked.
He chuckled. “That’s the short version.”
She wanted to know the rest of it. Wanted to know how he’d come to know their sensei. But now wasn’t the time. Reena was still grieving, holding her dead lover for the last time as they made their way to the ocean.
Ava realized something. “You were the one who told Takeda about the Starling Gala on May first.”
“I knew a meeting was going down,” Shay confirmed. “I was going to plant a recorder on Cain’s jacket before the party.”
“We screwed it up,” Ava groaned. “Cain wasn’t supposed to die. He was supposed to be our source for information inside the party.”
Shay nodded. “There was going to be an exchange of information at the gala that would help you take down not only Cain, but Reinhardt, Charles Bay… everyone associated with what was done to you and the others.”
“We never should have come here,” Ava said.
“Doesn’t matter now,” Shay said. “We need to clean up the mess and move on.”
“How do we do that?” Reena asked.
Shay reached around his seat belt, pulling a folded-up photograph from his pocket. He passed it to Ava.
“Darren Marcus used to do Cain’s dirty work, back before he grew a conscience and went into hiding. Cain tried to stifle him. Permanently. But Marcus is a professional. Went off the grid. No one’s been able to find him. Until now.”
Ava looked at the photograph, studying the middle-aged man with the widow’s peak and goatee before passing the picture to Reena in the backseat.
“Wells knows where he is but won’t discuss it over the phone,” Shay continued. “The meeting at Starling Vineyards is going to tell us where Marcus is hiding. And once Wells discloses his location, they’ll set the dogs on him.”
“Marcus is the last link to my mother’s murder,” Reena said softly, still looking at the picture. “He’s the one who pulled the trigger.”
“And if Wells kills him, he can’t confess,” Shay confirmed.
“So we need to find him before they do,” Ava concluded.
“If Marcus is killed, we’ll never be able to clear Simon Benton’s name, will we?” Reena asked.
“And nothing will lead back to Reinhardt,” Ava added. “Starling will remain in his filthy hands.”
Their missions were even more entwined than Ava had thought, every wrong committed against them perpetrated by people who made a career out of doing it to others, too. Now, with Cruz dead, Jon missing, and their common enemies revealed, Ava felt more bonded to Reena and Jane than ever.
“What about me?” Jane asked. “What do I have to do with all of this?”
Shay took a deep breath. “Well, back when your—”
“Shay,” Reena said in warning. “Don’t.”
Shay’s surprise was written all over his face. “You haven’t told her?”
Jane leaned forward as Shay pulled off the freeway. “Told me what?”
Everyone in the car grew silent.
“You know what?” Jane said angrily. “I’m sick of this. Sick of being kept in the dark. You expect me to run around, helping you guys out, without any explanation of how I’m connected to everything. Or anything.”
Ava felt a pang of sympathy for her. As horrific as it was knowing what had been taken from her—and who had done it—it seemed even more harrowing to not know what had happened. To not know what you had lost. To not even remember who you were.
“Tell me how you know me, Shay. Please,” Jane pleaded.
Shay only hesitated a moment. “I was there the day Takeda brought you to Rebun Island. And I know who you really are.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
“Don’t do this, Shay,” Reena said.
Jane glared at her, hurt warring with anger. Reena was one of the very few people she counted on. She hadn’t really gotten to know Ava, and Cruz had always been, well… Cruz. But Reena was consistently able to calm her with a laugh or a chat.
Now, just like everyone else, Reena wanted to keep Jane’s past a secret.
“Why are you doing this to me?” Jane asked. “I thought you were my friend.”
“I am your friend,” Reena said gently. “That’s why I’m doing it.”
Something in Reena’s eyes got Jane’s attention. Some kind of secret knowledge that hinted at the truth. All at once, Jane understood.
“There was a file on me, wasn’t there?” she asked softly.
Reena took a deep breath. “There was, okay? But I didn’t read it. I didn’t think it would be right.”
Anger roared through Jane’s head like a freight train. “Don’t you think I deserve to read it? That I deserve to know who I am before I risk my life with the rest of you?”
“Takeda said—”
Jane interrupted her, letting out a bitter laugh. “You’re going to use Takeda’s rules as an excuse? That’s funny coming from someone who was willing to defy him to suit your own needs. Hypocrite, much?”
Reena looked down at Cruz, the streetlights passing intermittently over his still face. “I’m just trying to protect you.”
“That’s not your job. Or your decision.”
Reena turned to her with an expression of regret. “Look, I caught a glimpse of your folder, before I realized it was yours. And yes, I saw Reinhardt’s and Wells’s photos in there. But that’s all I saw before I closed it, I swear.”
“Where is it, Reena?” Jane said from between clenched teeth. “Where’s my file?”
Reena hesitated. “I’m sorry. I left it in Japan.”
Jane turned to the window, her heart sinking. “So everyone gets to know their path to revenge but me.”
“Listen,” Ava said from the front seat, “you need to put this aside for now. It’s not going to help us get the guys who did this to us, who killed Cruz, who took Jon. We need to focus on the mission.”
They grew silent. Ava was right. What was done was done. Jane’s file was in Japan, and as pissed as she was at Reena for leaving it there, there was nothing to be done about it now.
She looked at Shay, giving it one last try. “What about you?”
He shook his head. “I have to trust Takeda on this. He’s more than my boss; he’s my mentor. And he’s yours, too. What’s the point in having a mentor if you don’t trust that he knows what he’s doing?”