Page 57

Down at the bottom, a system directory showed hundreds of downloaded source files stamped with digital signatures and access codes. I let out a low whistle.

“This is enough evidence to bury a dozen of those money-hungry, bastard executives,” I commented.

Ava gave a half-laugh. “Yeah. That’s what made Jules and me realize just how deep the water was over our heads.”

At the mention of my sister’s name, my back straightened. “Jules? She knows about this?”

“She was with me when I discovered it,” Ava said. But then her eyes filled with tears. “We came up with the idea to split up. If the security breach was discovered, the digital trail would lead back to me. That’s why Jules and I have been communicating on those shitty burner phones. We couldn’t risk anyone thinking she was complicit. She’d keep an ear to the ground there, and I was just supposed to… disappear.”

The final puzzle pieces fell into place. Jules had begged me to take on Ava as a client, despite the fact that I had a full workload and another project I was supposed to take on at the same time. But she’d been so insistent that I didn’t have a choice. And when I asked the other guys to help me, they did it because of course they would. It was Jules.

My heart twisted in my chest. I swallowed the ball of fear that caught in my throat. “Julia, is she…?”

“She’s fine, Nate,” Ava said, her eyes catching mine in a lock. “I swear. I’ve been checking in on her whenever I get into town and find a signal.”

I exhaled through my nose. These two girls were gonna be the death of me. “Did you go fishing for this? How did you even discover any of this stuff?”

“Jules and I found the encrypted files hidden on a dummy server when we were auditing a project pipeline,” she explained, forcing her voice through a crack.

My eyes widened. “That’s why you had to split. Sticking together whether you stayed or disappeared would’ve been too obvious.”

Ava nodded.

God, how long had she been holding onto this on her own before she started telling any of us? The amount of anxiety alone that she must’ve faced. And then there was Jules, stranded by herself, still working for a company with a virtual noose above her head.

Ava looked down at the laptop one last time before shutting it closed and placing it on the seat beside her. She put her hands in her lap, wringing her fingers. “I just haven’t decided if I’m going to take it to the authorities or not.”

Watching her look so uncharacteristically small and scared made every protective instinct in me flare up. But I knew there was little I could do on my own to fix this. This was a problem I couldn’t muscle my way through. If I were going to make sure that Ava and Jules were safe, we had to play this smart, not brash. But there was still a glaring fact that she was forgetting.

I moved around the sofa and knelt down in front of her, my face and voice calm. “If you wait any longer to file, Ava, they’ll take away your choices altogether. They’ll bury all the evidence you have and then bury you with it.”

Even as I said those words, I could feel my chest turn to ice. Ethan’s hand on her shoulder tightened, and Deacon began to pace back and forth, his head bowed. Ava swallowed back her tears and nodded slowly.

“I… I have no idea what to do, Nate,” she whispered.

The brokenness in her voice was the spark on the tinder between all three of us. I felt the exact moment it started. I looked at Ethan, then craned my head to glance at Deacon, who finally stopped moving. When I looked back at Ava, I took both of her shaking hands in my own and closed my fingers around them, wrapping them tight.

“Whatever you decide to do, Ava, we aren’t running,” I said. Deacon moved closer, and Ethan had both hands on her shoulders now, rubbing them to reassure her. I looked her in the eye and said the words I knew I was never going to take back. “We’re going to protect you. All of us. I swear it. Nothing is going to happen to you.”

*

The next half-hour was spent trying to come up with a workable plan. There was so much we needed to consider about fortifying this place and keeping a rotating lookout system going. We also ended up debating whether or how Ava should go about reporting the fraud. Even though I was contributing, I eventually stepped outside of the little bubble that surrounded the three of them.

Even with a known target on our backs now, the thick heat between them didn’t cool down. Ethan dropped to one knee in front of Ava, placing a possessive hand on her thigh. His thumb brushed a slow circle against her jeans. She didn’t pull away. Instead, she leaned into it, her eyes tracking down to his mouth as he spoke about a watch shift.

And then there was Deacon’s heavy gaze that watched them, and when Ava looked up, she caught his stare. A silent charge passed between them. A look that was hungry and ignored the chaos exploding around us. And yet, Ethan wasn’t bothered. He could see it, and he simply carried on speaking as though nothing was happening right in front of him. Just like Deacon didn’t try to shove Ethan’s hand off her thigh.

They were both fully aware of each other, and I realized with a sinking feeling in my stomach that I was the only one who still felt off about seeing the intimacy between her and the guys. My blood ran hot, and not in a good way. It felt suffocating.

“I’m checking the perimeter,” I announced gruffly, not waiting for an answer. I pushed through the front door and stepped back onto the porch, the freezing mountain air hitting my face. But it did nothing to cool the burning in my chest.

I only had a few seconds of solitude before the door creaked open again behind me. I didn’t even have to turn around to know that Ava was the one who followed me out. The mist clung to her hair as she blocked my view of the lake. I gripped the wooden railing.

“You don’t have to watch them, you know?” she said, her voice steadier now than it had been earlier. “You can try to ignore it because I’m not gonna stop being with them.”

But before I could even process her words beyond the sour taste in my mouth, she stepped into my space and placed her palms on my chest.

“I don’t plan on stringing any of you along, Nate. And I don’t plan on choosing between any of you, either,” she said. I frowned, not sure where she was going with this. But then the corner of her mouth lifted. Her hands slid an inch down my chest, temporarily stalling my breath. She stood on her tiptoes and pressed her mouth against my ear.