Criminal Affinity [18+]

Chapter 26

My dear, you're not so innocent
You're fooling Heaven's gates
So you won't have to change
You're no saint, you're no savior

-
Saints - Echos

x

The black dress makes Ava look like she can kill. That's the best Ava can conjure up as she observes her expertly kohled eyes, blood-red lips and ruby-tinted cheeks. Two slices of fabric crisscross on her chest, leaving her lightly muscled midriff and belly button exposed. She looks womanly, sinful and dangerous.

She looks like everything she wants to feel today, needs to feel today.

But even the outfit cannot change the stone in her belly. It's worsened by the little flicker in one of the lights in the washroom.

Over the years, Ava has marked down her discomfort at blinking lights as a bad omen. She can't shake the feeling of dread. She simply hates flashing, strobing lights.

By the time she makes it down the stairs, thankfully all eyes are fixed on a projector screen and Lorenzo is briefing the unfamiliar group on the recent events. She spots the back of William's perfectly groomed head, his curls open today.

She's irked immediately.

"Hello, everyone." Ava speaks in a voice she reserves for a crowd. No point in hiding or acting meek here. They all know who she is. No better way to make herself feel more comfortable than nose-diving into a conversation in her black sexy dress.

"Ah," Ren clasps his hands together. Ava almost misses the bead of sweat on his forehead. She can't help but worry about him. "Everyone, this is Ava. Ava, this is our little board of the most trustworthy members."

They regard her with a plethora of surprising emotions. Some are staring at her with a smile, some with poorly masked desire. No sneering, hateful glances. Gian and Alec are nowhere to be seen. Others study her face and stride as she makes her way to a couple empty chairs opposite to William's.

Just so he can get a good look at her.

"Nice to finally meet you." A regal-looking lady raises her champagne flute, tilting her head. Her glossy curls are arranged down one shoulder, her dark skin a lovely contrast against the red dress she's wearing. Many of them nod, and it eases the ball of tension in Ava's chest. "You look absolutely gorgeous."

"You too." Ava flashes one of her graceful smiles, curved on one side. In a quick swipe, Ava notices that William's piercing gaze is fixed on her, elbows braced on his knees and face shrouded by his curls. He looks beautiful in a way death can be described as peaceful.

Not like her pussy knows he's an asshole. She glances at the projection on the wall.

"What are you guys talking about?" She's definitely not distracting herself. Why would she?

"We were coming up with a way to get Malika out of there as safely as possible." Ren tells her, voice loud enough for the audience. "Aleskander and Gian are already there for surveillance. Another one of us will be joining them in a while so it's more...full-rounded."

Ava releases a breath, anxiety creeping up on her again. "That's good."

"But as soon as she is gone, they will know and we will lose Sirena." William speaks. Ava spitefully makes it a point to not look at him. "And we can't risk that."

"The longer you have men out there, the higher the risk is of being found out." Ava says. "The man we're talking about is no joke. He was able to infiltrate Pandora with a secret identity for almost a year. He had perfectly clean records and was a trained FBI agent before he joined us. I looked through them myself."

She mutters the last line mostly to herself. It was the first time she had a distraction from Julian and she wanted to see if it can go anywhere with It takes everything inside Ava to talk about Neil Leo.

"This is the man Ava is talking about." A flash in the corner of her eyes informs her that he's now on screen. She keeps her eyes down. "It's a shitty still. Are any of you familiar with this man?" Silence. It makes Ava feel worse. Of all the people, he decides to fuck with her. Why her? The still changes. They have her laptop hooked up to the projector for tonight. Ava doesn't know if that counts as treason. She doesn't care.

"If we can somehow take Malika out without notice, we can have guards in her place posing to be her and wait for them." The blonde woman says, her accent pleasantly curving around her words.

"That would be a great idea, but they never come together. So far each visit has been Sirena or Leo alone. We can't risk Leo coming alone." Ava mutters.

"Even if this guy is tough, how many men can he take?" Ren asks.

He was able to take down one of the highest trained weapons of Pandora like it was golfing on a Sunday morning.

"That's not the point. If we capture him, it will alert whoever is behind this and we lose all intel on Sirena." William catches onto her point.

"That is if there even is a higher upper. This could all be his work to get back at me." Ava says.

"Did you do something to elicit revenge?" William asks, voice wary. He's actually suspicious of her?

Ava scoffs, but her blood is boiling. "I did nothing to him. This is a game to him. He knows no bounds, has no morals. He will stop at nothing."

"Nothing we can't set straight." William says.

"Your arrogance won't help here. This man is extremely dangerous." Ava snaps at him, unable to help herself.

"And your fear is inhibiting you from seeing past that. We will be the ones handling him." His voice is cold, calculative.

Ava rises to her feet. "Fear. Fear? You have no idea what that man–"

A ding cuts her off. Ava freezes and looks at the screen.

"It's an incoming message." Ren hesitates, looking at Ava. "A video."

She marches forward to her laptop. She's been online for hours now. "Play it."

It could be Pandora. It could be her friends. A thrill shoots through her. Have they finally found her? Are they coming to get her?

Ren hesitates again, and Ava bites at him. "Play it!"

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Or whoever the fuck is watching. Special hello to you Pandora fuckers." Neil Leo's face is glaringly close to a camera. "And you, future Avalon Steele."

Ava backs away so quickly all the blood surges to her brain, fear roaring along. The white wall washes in the light of the projector. It's a ripple of color before—

"No."