by Lasky, Jesse
“Avenge?” Cruz shakes his head. “What are you talking about?”
Reena stands up. There’s only one way to make Cruz understand. Only one way to make him see.
She walks calmly over to the bedside table, smashing her fist into the lamp on its surface. Shards of ceramic fly through the air before falling to the dilapidated carpet at their feet.
Cruz stands, a look of shock on his face. “What the fuck was that?”
Reena picks up a piece of the demolished lamp. “He’ll show us everything we need to know,” she says, launching the ceramic shard like an arrow at a dingy clock hanging on the wall.
It hits the target square in the center. Bull’s-eye.
Cruz stares at her like he’s never seen her before. “Everything we need to know for what?”
Reena meets his eyes. “Revenge.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The group had been silent, each of them trying to process everything they’d learned from their files, when Reena finally looked up at Ava.
“I see the connection between Wells, Cain, Reinhardt, and the rest of us, but what do they have to do with you? How are you connected to all this?”
“The man who took my family’s land was my husband,” Ava said. “Well, I thought he was my husband. But he didn’t do it alone.”
Reena raised her eyebrows. “Reinhardt?”
“The one and only,” Ava confirmed.
“He got someone to marry you to take your land?” Jon asked.
Ava was surprised to find that she was no longer embarrassed by the admission. No longer angry at her naïveté. No longer angry at all. The fury that had consumed her had been replaced by something cold and calculating. A beast that demanded not vengeance, but justice, just as Takeda said.
“There’s not much room for expansion in Napa,” Ava explained. “The existing vineyards are old and family-run. There’s no way they would sell, especially not to someone like Reinhardt who was all about profit, who didn’t understand the real value of the land and the responsibility of that legacy. My parents had died, my grandmother…” She shrugged. “I was alone. And Charlie, Reinhardt’s lackey, was very, very good.”
Cruz nodded his understanding. “Those kinds of people are all the same. They have no respect for anything.”
“Exactly,” Ava said. “And Reinhardt didn’t just ruin me and my legacy. From what I hear, he’s introducing his brand of intimidation and coercion to the other vintners in an attempt to increase his stake.” She called up a fresh round of determination. “I let him in. It’s my job to set things straight.”
“Well, I guess now we know why Takeda’s been training us together,” Cruz said.
Jon throws his file onto the desk. “I’m done with Takeda’s training. I’m going after Cain and everyone who works for him.”
“You can’t do that,” Ava protested. “Not yet. ‘Death by a thousand cuts,’ remember? We have to be smart.”
Reena walked over to Ava. “If we can expose these sons of bitches, they will all go down. Including your former boy-toy. I thought you wanted vengeance.”
“I do. I just think we should talk to Takeda before we do anything rash.”
“He’ll only try to stop us,” Jon said.
“Which is exactly why we should give him a chance to explain. To advise,” Ava said. “He’s taught us so much already. We have to trust that he knows what he’s doing.”
Jon looked at her. “Seems to me that trusting people is what got you here in the first place.”
“You don’t need to remind me of that,” she snapped. “Not a day goes by that I don’t remember.”
He held her eyes, a different kind of spark running between them as she fumed.
Finally, he sighed, walking over to her. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. But we don’t have much time before May first and I think we should do something.” He surprised her by putting his hands on either side of her face. He looked deeply into her eyes. “You deserve to breathe easy, Ava. We all do.”
“Agreed,” Cruz said.
Ava folded her arms across her chest. She was outnumbered. If they were determined to go, what could she do but go with them? It seemed they were in it together now.
Reena’s expression softened. “Listen, I get where you’re coming from. We all want to do the right thing here. The best thing. But we’ve lost so much, Ava. It’s time to do something about it.”
“Not without me you won’t.”
They turned to see Jane standing in the doorway, already dressed in black.
“How long have you been there?” Cruz asked.
“Long enough to know that if what you said is true, I’m connected to your mission, too. Which means one of the men you’ve been talking about is responsible for what happened to me.”
“We can’t be sure of that,” Ava protested. She stood up and gazed at the large antique mirror hanging above the desk. “For all we know there’s another player we haven’t been introduced to yet.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Jane said, stepping farther into the room. “I’ve been in the dark too long. This is the closest I’ve come to figuring out who did this to me.” Her eyes turned steely. “If you guys are leaving, I’m coming, too.”
Reena put a gentle hand on Jane’s arm. “I know where you’re coming from, we all do, but you don’t even have your memory back. If what Takeda said is true, you could be traumatized by confronting your past before you’re ready.”
“Takeda?” It was the first time Ava had ever seen humor in Jane’s eyes. “You’re ready to leave right now. To dismiss everything he’s done for you, everything he’s taught you. But I’m supposed to stay and mind him like a good little girl.” She shook her head. “I think I’ll take my chances. Besides, if I don’t remember who I am and what happened to me before you get your revenge, I’ll never have a chance to get mine.”
“She has a point,” Jon said.
Cruz piped in. “And you never know. Maybe the real world is just what she needs. It might jog her memory or something.”
Jane brushed the blond hair from her face. “Did I have a folder?”
Ava shook her head. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “I should have expected it.”
Jon rubbed his hands together. “Let’s talk plans.”
Cruz walked to the window, staring out into the darkness. “I think our first problem is pretty obvious.”
“Getting off the island,” Ava said.
Cruz nodded. “We need to get over a rather large body of water to return to the States. How do we plan to do that?”
Reena leaned her head on his shoulder, reminding Ava that they hadn’t slept since the night before. There were very few clocks in the tera. They were encouraged to attend training sessions by following external cues—the position of the sun in the sky, the tide, the schedule of the tera staff. Still, Ava knew it had to be close to morning.
“I heard Takeda talking to one of his men about a plane,” Jane said. “He mentioned a hangar on the other side of the cliff. From the conversation, I’m guessing it’s a propeller plane.”
Ava did a double take. “How do you know that?”
Jane shrugged. “The same way I know I can fly it.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“What do you mean you can fly it?” Jon asked.
Jane’s eyes clouded over as she tried to explain. “I… just know. The same way I knew how big the plane was from the way Takeda talked about the amount of fuel it needed.”
“No offense,” said Cruz, “but you don’t remember your own name. Now you know how to fly a plane?” He shook his head. “Not sure that’s a bet I’d take.”
Reena glanced apologetically at Jane. “I kind of agree with Cruz. It seems like a long shot.”
“The roll, pitch, and yaw are the most important things. The roll is the up-and-down motion of the wings, while the pitch makes a plane descend or climb. That’s what the elevators are for,�
� Jane rattled off. Ava couldn’t keep from staring as Jane continued. “Lowering them causes the craft’s nose to drop, sending it into a descent. Raising them will compel the airplane to climb. The yaw is the turning of the plane, which is controlled by the rudder.”
“I… what are you…?” Reena started, unable to get the rest of the words out.
“The rudder doesn’t work alone,” Jane continued. “It needs ailerons to make it turn. They raise and lower the wings.”
The room fell silent, everyone staring at Jane in disbelief.
“You’re quite the onion, aren’t you?” Cruz finally said.
Jon nodded. “I’m good with her flying us out.”
“Okay, then,” Reena sighed, turning to Ava. “What about you, Winters? Are you in?”
She took in their faces, angry and driven, so reflective of her own betrayal. They were people of action. People who got things done. She, on the other hand, spent all her time thinking, weighing pros and cons from every angle until nothing got accomplished at all. Is that what she wanted? To sit around and train for revenge? To talk about it? To dream about it when she had an opportunity to actually do something about it?
She looked at the folders, holding their collective pasts. Her pain and loss had been reduced to nothing but words and pictures in Takeda’s files. It was up to her to make sure they were remembered. Up to her to make sure the people who did it could never do it again.
Making up her mind, she spoke a single word.
No, not a word. A declaration.
“Fukushuu.”
Cruz blanched. “What the hell is fukushuu?”
Jane nodded her understanding.
Ava looked at the others, meeting their eyes. “It means revenge.”
“I’m sorry, Ms. Winters. I don’t know what more to say,” the bespectacled accountant says.
Tears stream down Ava’s face as she sits in the Victorian-style office, the ornate décor contradicting the mundane tasks that occur within the accounting firm’s off-white walls. She tries to explain that Charlie only had the power of attorney to sign their overseas land contract, not to sell Starling Vineyards.
But that’s exactly what he did.
And, the accountant explains, the power of attorney allowed him to do it. Her naïveté allowed him to do it.
She tries to stop her hands from trembling but she’s in a state of such absolute horror and disbelief that she feels outside of herself. Like she’s watching it all happen to someone else.
“Are you all right, Ms. Winters?” the accountant asks. “Would you like me to call someone for you?”
The mention of her last name reminds her of something. “It was supposed to be Bay.”
“I’m sorry?” The accountant’s expansive forehead furrows.
“I was going to change my name to Bay this week,” she explains.
“Well, at least we managed to prevent that fiasco.”
Ava looks up at him. “What do you mean?”
He shifts uncomfortably in his padded chair. “Considering that he’s not your husband, I mean.”
Something cold slithers into Ava’s heart. “What are you talking about?”
The man’s face creases with regret. “I’m sorry. I thought you knew. A marriage license was never filed with the state in the names of Ava Winters and Charles Bay.”
Ava stands on shaky legs, her head buzzing. Charlie was in charge of mailing the marriage papers. He told her it had been done. And now she understood. He told her whatever she wanted to hear. Whatever would convince her that their love was real.
“We had a wedding,” she said weakly. “An officiant stood there and married us. His name was… Moore. Reverend Vance Moore.”
“After our initial phone call, our office did some investigating. I’m sorry to say that Vance Moore was never ordained.” His gaze softens. “But something tells me Mr. Bay already knew that.”
Ava collapses in the chair, dropping her head in her hands. She doesn’t cry. That would require emotion, feeling. And right now, there’s nothing. Just numbness and a vast emptiness opening up inside her, bleak and dangerous.
The accountant comes around his desk, bending in front of her. “Is there anything I can do for you?”
She shakes her head, looking into his rheumy blue eyes. “I just don’t understand. Charlie already had Starling Vineyards when he was with me. Why would he do this?”
He clears his throat. “I can only assume it was for profit, given that the estate was recently sold.”
It’s like a knife to the heart. Somehow it wasn’t as bad thinking Charlie just wanted it. That maybe he wanted to walk the rows of grapes alone or sit on the terrace sampling the new Pinot.
But he didn’t care about it at all.
She thinks of her grandmother, a wave of sorrow and regret nearly pulling her under. Sylvie would never have let this happen. Never did let it happen, despite all the offers thrown her way.
Ava sits up straighter, thoughts of her grandmother bringing her to something else.
“Tell me who purchased it,” she demands, looking at the accountant.
He walks back to the desk and picks up a file, handing it to her. “A man by the name of William Reinhardt.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The horizon was tinged pink when Ava exited her washitsu, scurrying along the perimeter of the shooting range. She moved confidently across the cold, hard ground. Now that she’d made the decision to join the others, there was no room for indecision. They had agreed to leave separately to avoid detection, meeting on the beach where they would make their way to the other side of the cliff.
All they could do was hope the plane was really there.
She had just rounded the corner of the training room when a voice broke through the faint light of dawn.
“Going somewhere?”
Ava turned toward the training room, seeing only shadows.
“Who’s there?”
Emily Thorne stepped into the morning mist, draped in a white robe and holding an épée, one of the swords they used for fencing.
“I could use a dueling partner,” Emily offered, twirling her épée in her hand. “I’d say I’d go easy on you, but that’s never been my style.”
“Thanks for the offer, but I’m actually heading out.”
Emily nodded coolly. “Must be important. Don’t let me keep you.”
Ava shrugged. “See you around.”
“That’s going to be hard to do if you leave here,” Emily said.
Ava stopped in her tracks.
“I have to say that I think it’s a bad idea, Ava.”
“You can’t change my mind,” Ava said stubbornly.
“I’m not trying to,” Emily explained, “but it’s a mistake to abandon this place before your training is done. Before you’re ready.”
Ava walked back to where Emily was standing; she didn’t want to draw attention to herself by talking too loudly.
“We have a lead on the people who forced us down this path. And all of our missions are connected. We’re going after our enemies as a team.”
Emily hesitated. “I get that you’re angry. I do. But being here will provide the guidance and discipline necessary to truly enact revenge.”
Ava shook her head. She didn’t want to hear it. She’d already agonized over the decision. Now that it was made, she didn’t need Emily making her second-guess herself.
Emily met her eyes. “Ava. Trust me.”
“I’ve trusted enough people,” Ava hissed. “It’s time to trust myself.”
Emily seemed to consider Ava’s words. “I think you know, deep down, that being here is what’s best for you right now. It was for me.”
“You don’t get it,” Ava said. “Do you know what it’s like to trust someone and have him completely destroy your life?”
Emily nodded. “My father did. He trusted everyone. And because of that, both of our lives were ruined.”
Ava shouldn’t have been su
rprised by the confession. Why else would Emily be here if not for revenge? Isn’t that why they were all here?
“I’m sorry,” Ava said. “Your father… where is he now?”
Emily’s eyes were unreadable as she shook her head. “It’s been nearly twenty years, and thanks to Takeda, the people responsible for tearing down my father are finally beginning to get what they deserve. To do it right, to truly get your revenge, you have to do something even harder than figuring out how to trust again.”
“What?” Ava asked.
“Have patience.”
Ava thought about it, the logic of Emily’s argument warring with the emotion that had mobilized her back in the meditation room. Everything Emily said made sense, but it didn’t change anything. Ava had been the victim for too long. She wasn’t waiting any longer.
“I appreciate your advice, Emily. Really, I do. But right now what we need—what I need—is action.”
She turned and left, hurrying away from Emily before she could say anything else to try to change Ava’s mind. Her past had been demolished, her legacy stolen.
The only thing left was revenge.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Ava looked out the window, rubbing the broken piece of Acala’s flame as the plane descended over Napa Valley’s green knolls. The Hamptons might be the playground for the East Coast’s rich, but Napa was the go-to refuge for California’s most affluent. Celebrities, tech company billionaires, hotel socialites. They all came to Napa—both for the wine and a social calendar that put them front and center among the oldest West Coast money.
Ava cut a glance at Jane, seemingly at home in the cockpit of the propeller plane they’d appropriated from Takeda’s hangar. The ride had been long, but surprisingly smooth. Jane had been right. She obviously knew what she was doing, even if she didn’t know how she’d come into the knowledge.
Reena and Cruz looked out their windows, eyes fixated on the verdant landscape below, the grape fields overflowing with this year’s crop.
Ava looked at Jon, finally awake after sleeping through most of the journey across the Pacific. He, too, turned his eyes downward, silent as the plane made its way closer to the ground. He glanced over at her, as he had felt her gaze. Their eyes locked, and for a moment, Ava wondered how long she would be able to deny her growing feelings for him.
