Ava had definitely put the guy on edge and reminded him just how much he wanted to get out of prison.
Milo made the third hostage climb to his feet and held him loosely from behind. The warden slid off the counter and crawled out of sight. Good. Finally. They seemed to have forgotten about her, or cared more about their own skins.
Dominic muted Ava’s mic. “HRT agents are set to enter the kitchen as soon as the hostage-takers move down the corridor towards the exercise yard.”
Frank was unlocking the first dead bolt when Milo thrust the kitchen knife into his back, sliding the blade up under the man’s ribs.
Ava’s mouth dropped open in shock.
“Fuck,” Dominic said in her ear.
She knew HRT was scrambling to get into that room as soon as physically possible, but would it be fast enough to stop Milo killing everyone?
“That was for knocking me out, asshole.” Milo turned toward Gino who was now scrambling away from the serial killer, holding the knife to the cook’s throat.
Blood dripped from the end of Milo’s blade, and he laughed as he advanced on the other hostage-taker.
“What makes you think I care about him?” Milo flicked the point of the knife towards the cook.
Gino thrust the hostage aside and screamed up at the ceiling, apparently reconsidering his demands for release. “Get me the hell out of here. This guy is a psycho!”
“Not so brave now, are you, Gino?” Milo laughed and tracked the mobster who kept backing away until he hit a wall.
“Where the hell is HRT?” Dominic asked, resting his arm on the desk so close to Ava’s it was like he was hugging her from behind.
Ava swallowed hard and then decided to try something. At this stage they had nothing to lose. “This is not how revenge works, Milo.” She spoke in Greek. “This man has done harm to my family. I get to decide the price he pays.”
Milo paused in his pursuit of the mobster and stared directly at the camera. The man had known all along they were watching. “What about my revenge? What about the warden’s?”
Gino seemed to sense an opportunity or a weakness in Milo and dashed toward the woman hiding behind the big metal island. Milo stuck out his foot and Gino crashed to the floor, lucky not to impale himself on his own blade. The older man’s face was bright red against the shock of white hair. He no longer looked like a gangster, instead he looked like a fat, bitter, frightened, old man.
“He killed my father. He ruined my life.” Ava insisted holding onto the mic tightly with one hand.
“Then I’ll say this is for you,” Milo declared like he was giving Ava a present.
“What the hell is going on?” Dominic asked, muting the mic.
Ava had forgotten the rest of them couldn’t understand the conversation. “The ancient Greeks were big on revenge,” she explained.
“Shit, isn’t that what he’s been studying? Use English—we all need to understand the conversation.” Dominic turned the mic back on.
“Milo.” Ava switched to English. “Everything that has happened so far is not your fault. We saw that you weren’t part of this plan, that you involved yourself so you could save the hostages.”
“To protect the warden,” Dominic whispered against her ear staring intently at the monitor. “There’s a connection there.”
“To protect the warden,” Ava repeated. Sweat ran down Ava’s temple although she felt icy cold. “The warden isn’t going to want you to murder Gino in cold blood. She’ll want him punished in accordance to the law.”
The woman stood up behind the counter. Naked, arms crossed over her chest but shoulders back, voice strong. HRT was almost there.
“She’s right, Milo. I could never have survived this ordeal if it wasn’t for you helping me. Thank you for that. Let Gino rot in prison. Put the knife down before they come in here with guns blazing and shoot you for being armed.”
On screen Milo and the warden both glanced toward the cafeteria where sounds of the assault team could be heard.
“Put the weapon down,” Dominic urged directly into the mic. “We don’t want to hurt you after you’ve helped resolve this crisis.”
Milo looked sadly at Gino. Then he tossed the knife on the counter and raised his hands high into the air. He took a step back and executed a brutal kick that hit Gino in the face. Ava sucked in a startled breath at the ferocity of the attack. Then Milo stepped away with a smile that sent shivers through Ava just as the HRT guys blew the doors and rushed inside.
Ava met Dominic’s stare and flinched at the turbulent emotion in his gaze.
“We need to talk,” he said.
Ava grimaced. It was her turn to have her ass kicked.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Did you know about this?” Charlotte demanded angrily as she pushed to his side.
Dominic turned off the microphone and recording instruments. Anger coiled inside him like razor wire. If he said no, Ava wouldn’t be suspended, she’d be gone. Kicked out of the Bureau permanently. And she was a damn good agent—one he’d just had sex with.
Complications were multiplying like rabbits and the fact he felt compromised by what they’d done, both by the need to protect her and the need to protect his own reputation and his job, made him so fucking furious that his skin felt like it might char at the edges if he released even an iota of his rage.
“Of course, I knew.” He looked Charlotte in the eyes and lied.
Ava was a Black Swan. An unknown unknown that changed everything completely.
It was so Ava he should have known. Milo’s protective loyalty to the warden was another. Who knew serial killers felt loyalty?
Charlotte threw up her hands when he refused to say anything more and turned away to organize her stuff. He and Ava stared at one another.
She understood exactly how angry he was. Her expression turned from contrition to resilience to resentment with each breath she took, her mood conveyed by the increasingly belligerent angle of her chin.
Typical Ava.