Schooled in Revenge (13 page)

“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.”

“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.”

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.”

“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?”

“So what’s the plan?” Reena asked, obviously trying to
change the subject. “How are we going to get a recorder into the meeting between Reinhardt and Wells now that Cain is dead?”

Ava turned around in her seat, meeting Reena’s eyes. “We won’t. We’ll plant you in there instead.”

“What are you talking about?” Reena asked.

“Yeah, Ava,” Shay chimed in. “What
are
you talking about?”

“Marie told me that Reinhardt always hires a girl to be his date at these kinds of parties,” Ava explained. “Reena can be that girl.”

Reena thought about it. “What if he recognizes me?” she asked. “Cain did.”

“Barely,” says Ava. “You’ve been out of the spotlight for a long time. Your mother’s death, your training in Japan… it’s changed you. It’s changed all of us. And not just in appearance, either.”

“She’s right,” Shay said. “And we can set you up with a disguise, too, just to be safe.”

“Fine,” Reena agreed. “Plant me in the room with Reinhardt and Wells.”

“Perfect.” Shay’s expression was a little too self-satisfied.

“Now what are you hiding?” Jane asked, annoyance creeping into her voice.

“Let’s just say Reena isn’t the only thing we’re going to plant in that meeting.”

Jane didn’t bother asking what he meant. What was the point? Shay was disseminating information on a need-to-know basis.

And no one thought Jane needed to know anything.

They pulled into a small, rocky inlet composed of the gritty Pacific coastline and a large, sand-covered jetty. Reena’s gaze came to rest on a battered sign.

WELCOME TO BODEGA BAY
.

Shay parked Marie’s car and turned off the engine. They sat without talking, the ticking of the cooling engine their only company.

Reena looked down, wanting to memorize the strong planes of Cruz’s face, the lips that had kissed her so tenderly. Wanting to tattoo it in her mind like the circle that branded the back of her neck. She touched his hands, cool and dry. The hands that had held hers when she’d been all alone in the world.

Finally, she couldn’t put it off any longer.