Chapter Text
“Holy shit, Ava. I’m not letting you drive anymore.” Beatrice smiled as she exited the vehicle beside Ava. Beneath that smile was an undercurrent of worry, clear enough, and it seemed Beatrice was trying just as hard to push her feelings away as Ava was.
“What can I say?” Ava wasn’t one to look a moment of fun in the mouth, regardless of circumstances. “I’ve got the need for speed.”
“You’re going to have the need for speed…ing ticket if you’re not careful.” Beatrice turned towards the unmarked warehouse, their destination, before turning back to Ava. “Ready?” As if to punctuate the question, there was a muffled scream from within.
“As I’ll ever be.” Again, Ava knew she should be more alarmed, but she couldn’t seem to summon the requisite emotions from within. Not for lack of genuine effort, though.
Without further comment, Beatrice led Ava to a side door, with a complex-looking lock. In silence, Ava watched Beatrice press a thumb to the sensor, then enter a ridiculously long code. It was impossible for Ava not to wonder how everyone kept their codes memorised. She didn’t have time to wonder long, though, as the door swung open revealing the dim warehouse within.
This, succinctly, was more in line with what she’d pictured when finding out about her friends’ criminal lifestyle. A dank, dark warehouse in the sketchy shipping district, two men tied to chairs mid-torture, a bank of servers, and several project cars. There were also a few side doors, containing rooms that Ava could only assume their function.
“Glad to see you two made it in one piece.” Lilith greeted them both with a grim smile. Her nose was cut deeply along the bridge, lending her already sharp appearance a little extra edge. “Ava, you certainly seem to be assimilating.” She paused for a moment, and the grin fell from her face. “Where’s Vi-”
“Dead,” interrupted Beatrice. But he died helping us, if that makes you feel any better.
“I… I’m not sure how it makes me feel.” It was a rare moment of candor for Lilith, at least as far as Ava had ever witnessed. “Maybe I’ll have an answer when all this is over. But right now…” She trailed off, looking behind her as Mary threw a punch across the captive man’s face. “Right now we have more pressing concerns.”
“I feel the same.” Beatrice only nodded, cold. “I assume no one’s talked yet?”
“Not yet.” Lilith replied. Behind her, Shannon knelt beside one of the men, and whispered something that Ava wasn’t able to hear. “Cam is in the office, if you’d rather wait there.” Ava had to assume that was said for her benefit.
“I can handle it.” Ava couldn’t help but interject.
“We know.” Beatrice was the first to answer. “We know.” She repeated. “But I do have a few things to discuss with Camila.”
She turned, leaving Ava to make a choice. More desperate than she’d like to prove herself, she stayed in the main room, and sat on the desk next to Lilith’s. It was drafty in the warehouse, and cold, but Ava still felt completely overheated. Part of her felt like a little bit of distance from Beatrice might help that heat. Hopefully. While Ava still felt conflicted about her descent into crime, she didn’t want anyone (least of all Beatrice) to assume that Ava’s actions were that of a lovesick puppy. They weren’t.
“How’d it go?” Lilith’s question interrupted Ava’s thoughts. “I have a feeling I’ll get a more complete answer from you than I will from Beatrice.”
“Probably.” Ava nodded and took a moment to collect her thoughts. “Other than Vincent’s death, everything went more or less according to plan.”
“More or less.” Here, Lilith grinned, despite the darkness in her eyes. There was a dangerous attractiveness in the expression that Ava couldn’t help but appreciate. Definitely something to debrief with Camila about later.
“I shot someone,” admitted Ava. “And Vincent died. And we had to burn the church down… So maybe leaning towards the less in that statement.”
“How many were there?” There was an understanding in Lilith’s voice that Ava hadn’t expected. A new kindness, maybe even an acceptance? Perhaps Ava was just being hopeful.
“Five.” If Ava didn’t understand the gravity of that before, she certainly did now, as Lilith pulled in a sharp breath. It was a lot of men to commit to a mere fraction of the team. “Burning down the church was to hide that our… Leverage was dead.”
“I figured.” Lilith nodded. Ava felt dumb. Of course Lilith would understand without the extra clarification. “If we can get something out of these two,” she gestured to the two men being interrogated by Shannon and Mary, “it’ll be a moot point. Hopefully.”
“You sound less confident than I would have expected.”
“Yeah, well, Adriel seems to have the upper hand on us at every move, which is something we haven’t experienced in a very long time. We all need to be on our toes.”
“Even me?” Ava asked with a semi-joking tone, though Lilith’s reply was darkly serious.
“Especially you. Your inexperience makes you a target, and your closeness to Beatrice compounds that by several magnitudes.”
“Oh. Well… Tell me how you really feel.” It was a weak, weak joke, but Ava couldn’t make herself stay silent. Thankfully, she was saved by Beatrice and Camila’s re-entry into the room.
Without sparing Ava a look, Beatrice walked across the room and joined Mary and Shannon. Camila, meanwhile, stood between Ava and Lilith.
“Do you mind if I take a crack at him?” Beatrice asked Mary in a quiet voice. Mary might be bigger and more physically intimidating, but Ava couldn’t ignore the look in Beatrice’s eyes at that moment. She looked like a predator.
“Go for it.”
Following Mary’s reply, Ava felt that all she could do was watch. She felt rooted in place and immensely conflicted, while simultaneously being wildly obsessed. Time slowed down, the moment felt pivotal in its importance. Ava couldn’t help but feel like this, even after everything else they’d been through, that this was the litmus test.
Slowly, letting the chair drag loudly on the floor, Beatrice pulled a chair up the one of the captive men. She sat down, facing him. From within her jacket, she pulled out her handgun, and rested it on her leg, pointed outwards.
“You’re familiar with this model?” Beatrice waited, pointedly, until the man slowly nodded. “Great. It has 15 rounds.”
Again, there was a pregnant pause. Ava felt herself grow nervous, even though she wasn’t the one on trial here. Beatrice picked up the gun again, expertly ejecting the mag and removing ten of the bullets. She spoke as she reloaded the now half-empty gun.
“And I’m even in a good enough mood to give you a head start… I’m going to ask a few questions. If you tell the truth, I’ll take a bullet out. By the time I’m done asking, I’m going to put this gun to your head. Do we understand each other?”
Beatrice received a nod in reply. She leaned back, going so far as to cross her legs. Ava could see the unease though, despite the look in Beatrice’s eyes. Was it Ava’s presence? Was it something else? They were overdue for a conversation that wasn’t mid-crime.
“Where’s Adriel’s main base of operations?” Neither the man in front of her, nor the other one, spoke. Beatrice waited patiently for what seemed like an eternity, but was realistically less than a minute.
“You know what I hate about interrogating a made man? They think they know the playbook… Like you.” She turned slightly to her right, to the other captured man. “You’re the insurance, right? If we can’t get the him to talk, we’ll turn to you?” Both of them just stared, angry and unmoving beyond the blood that slowly ran down their faces. “Wrong.” With insanely quick movements, Beatrice shot the insurance. Ava flinched despite herself.
“And now you’ve only got four bullets left. See, I did you a favor!” She turned her full attention back to their only living captive.
“Edge of downtown... Shipping warehouse at the dock on the far end of third street… You’d never make it through the gates.”
“That’s an answer. I’ll take it.” Beatrice quickly removed another bullet from her gun. “What’s he trafficking down there?”
He didn’t answer immediately, but he did answer eventually. “Mostly guns.”
“Okay. Half truth. I’ll take it.” She removed another bullet from her handgun. Only two remained.
“Look, he doesn’t tell us that much.” The man spoke quickly, he sounded desperate. Beatrice must have gotten to him, and Ava didn’t blame him. Even she felt rattled, and she was just an observer. “He really doesn’t. Even those of us in the inner circle are kept in the dark - seriously. ”
“What else do you know?” Beatrice looked down at her handgun and sighed, more dramatic than Ava had ever known her to be. “Think carefully, it could save your life.”
“He is… Very intent on removing you five… Six.” His eyes met Ava’s and she couldn’t keep herself from shivering. Was she afraid or was it something else?
“Why?” Beatrice was insistent.
“I don’t know.” The man sighed and turned his gaze back towards the floor. He seemed resigned to death. “I really don’t.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” Beatrice removed the last two bullets from her gun. It seemed she could tell he was speaking the truth. In an odd way, Ava felt she could tell too. Pointed the weapon upwards, she pulled the trigger, letting it click a few times for dramatic effect. “It seems you’re free to go.”
“Really?” He looked up. Only then did Ava notice that Shannon had shifted to an angle slightly behind their prison.
“Really.” Beatrice wore an odd expression here, one that Ava had never seen before. It fell from her face a moment later, as Shannon’s single shot echoed through the cavernous warehouse. Ava felt herself flinch yet again.
While Shannon, Mary, and Lilith quickly began preparing to dispose of the evidence, Beatrice rose, solemn, and wiped the splattered blood off her face. Ava caught her before she’d take more than a few steps from the bodies.
“What was that?! He answered your questions!” Ava pressed a hand to Beatrice’s shoulder, a weak attempt to hold the woman in place. Beatrice made no attempt to move away from Ava - the gesture was unnecessary.
“He was a made man, Ava. One of Adriel’s men. He would have been hunted down and killed if we let him go.” Beatrice sighed. “This was a win, and in some ways, a kindness to him.”
“It doesn’t feel like a win.”
“No.” At the very least, Ava took some comfort in Beatrice’s darkness. She knew Beatrice thought herself a monster, but a monster would have revelled in the cruelty - and caused more. “No, they often don’t.” Beatrice slipped under Ava’s arm and retreated to one of the warehouse’s unlabelled rooms.
Ava moved to follow her, but was intercepted by Camila. “Let her have a few minutes to cool off.” Camila instructed. “I have something for you in the office, anyhow.”
“Yes ma’am.” Ava only nodded, thoughts still mostly on Beatrice. And how could they not be? After a display like that? It was violent and painful, but effectively efficient. Undoubtedly, this was the side of her that Beatrice was worried about Ava seeing. Was she right to be worried? Ava wasn’t sure.
“First, before I give you this…” Camila set a small black flight case on the desk next to her computer. “Are you okay?”
“I… Don’t know.” Ava laughed. “Ask me in a week when I’ve had time to sort through the pile of emotions I’ve been neglecting.”
“Fair enough.” There was concern in Camila’s eyes, but she knew Ava well enough to drop the subject for now. “This is for you.”
Tentatively, Ava opened the latch on the flight case. Within it were two handguns, fitted within a perfectly cut piece of foam. Beside them, a few spare magazines and a silencer.
“Mary said she’ll help teach you to shoot these,” explained Camila. She reached under the desk and produced a holster, setting it beside the case. She then rose, crossing the office and unlocking a cabinet. There was a nervous tension and speed in her movements that Ava couldn’t help but notice.
“These are also for you.” She returned to where Ava was sitting and placed two holstered knives onto the table. “And…” Trailing off, Camila pulled something out of what looked like a specialty printer. “Your new documents.” With a weak smile, Camila laid a fake driver’s license and passport on the table. Both had Ava’s picture, though that was where the accurate information ended. Beside both of those was a thick, black credit card.
“And this isn’t to say you are joining us,” nervously, Camila kept speaking. Ava’s prolonged silence likely did nothing to settle the woman’s emotion. “I don’t want to make that assumption. But for the time being, you are a target and I… We’d like you to have the tools you need to keep yourself safe.”
Still silent, Ava lifted one of the guns from the case. It was weighty, which she liked, though she didn’t know enough about guns to evaluate it beyond that. The serial number was noticeably missing.
“Thank you, Cam.” Ava held the gun a moment longer, before setting it back down. She felt changed, she was changed - it was just the ‘how’ that felt a bit murky right now. “Thank you.” She repeated. “I don’t know what my next move will be, to be honest.”
“I can’t imagine Beatrice is taking this well.” Camila leaned against the desk and the worst of her visible tension seemed to lessen.
“No, not particularly.” Ava couldn’t help but smile though. “She’ll come around. I’m very convincing.”
“I’m sure you are… And while I’d love to dig into this more, we should probably get to work.”