Chapter Ten: The Edge of Darkness

The silence from Victor stretched into its third day, and with each passing hour, the tension in the penthouse grew thicker. Ava sat at the head of the dining table, her hands clutching a steaming mug of coffee, staring at the notes spread out before her. Jake was beside her, leaning back in his chair, his casual posture at odds with the sharpness in his eyes.

“We’re in the dark, and that’s exactly where he wants us,” Jake said, breaking the uneasy quiet.

Rob shook his head, pacing the length of the room. “I hate this. He’s playing with us, waiting for us to slip. It’s like trying to fight a ghost.”

“Except this ghost has money, power, and a serious grudge,” Dana added, scrolling through her laptop. She glanced at Ava. “Are we sure the silence isn’t part of something bigger?”

Ava placed her mug down with a quiet thud. “It’s always something bigger with Victor,” she said. Her voice was steady, but her mind churned with unease. “The question is, how do we force his hand without walking into a trap?”

Jake leaned forward, his arms resting on the table. “We don’t force anything. We keep working, keep digging. If we move too fast, we’ll end up exactly where he wants us.”

Ava met Jake’s gaze. His calm confidence was comforting, even as the pressure of the unknown threatened to unravel her. “Then we stay the course,” she said, turning back to the team. “Focus on the records, the connections. Victor won’t stay quiet forever.”

Later that afternoon, Ava found herself alone in the kitchen with Jake. The others had taken a break, scattering to different corners of the penthouse, leaving the two of them in a rare moment of quiet. Ava leaned against the counter, exhaustion creeping into her bones.

“You’re holding up better than most,” Jake said, his voice soft as he poured himself a glass of water.

Ava let out a short laugh. “That’s a low bar, considering how much coffee I’ve had.”

Jake smirked, his gaze lingering on her. “You’ve got more than caffeine keeping you going. You’ve got that fire.”

Ava raised an eyebrow, but the compliment warmed her in a way she hadn’t expected. “Is that what you call it?”

Jake shrugged, stepping closer. “It’s what I see.”

For a moment, the space between them felt charged, the silence thick with something unspoken. Ava could feel the warmth of his presence, the pull that had been growing stronger with every passing day. She turned back toward the counter, trying to steady herself.

“Do you ever think about leaving?” she asked quietly. “Walking away from all of this?”

Jake’s voice was steady. “Not once. This is who I am, Ava. And if I had the chance to do it all again, I would.”

Ava nodded, but her thoughts were elsewhere. Jake’s certainty was enviable, but it only highlighted the turmoil inside her. She wanted to believe she was fighting for the right reasons, but part of her wondered if she’d become lost in the battle.

Jake stepped closer, his voice dropping. “What about you?”

Ava turned to face him, their eyes meeting. “Sometimes,” she admitted. “Sometimes I wonder if I’m in too deep, if I’ve already lost too much.”

Jake’s gaze softened. “You haven’t lost everything, Ava. You’ve still got a lot left to fight for.”

The words hung between them, heavy and meaningful. Before Ava could respond, Dana’s voice cut through the quiet from the living room. “Ava, you need to see this.”

The team reconvened around Dana’s laptop, where a breaking news alert flashed on the screen. A major cannabis trade show in the city had been abruptly canceled due to health violations, with multiple small businesses reporting that shipments of soil and fertilizer had been contaminated.

“Victor’s dirty products,” Rob said, his voice tight with anger. “He’s sabotaging these businesses, forcing them to rely on his monopoly.”

Sophia scrolled through the article. “It’s more than that. There’s a spike in hospitalizations tied to the contaminated products. If this hits the media, it’s going to explode.”

Ava’s stomach churned. Victor’s silence wasn’t a retreat—it was a smokescreen for something much darker. “We need to get ahead of this,” she said. “If we can expose the connection between Victor and these products, we can stop him from spinning the narrative in his favor.”

Jake nodded. “We’re going to need more than a headline. We need testimony, records—something concrete to tie this back to him.”

Ava’s mind raced. “The dispensaries that were hit—some of them are small enough to still be loyal to the movement. Start there. If we can get someone to go on record, we can push this story out before Victor has a chance to bury it.”

That evening, Ava sat alone in her office, the dim light of her desk lamp casting long shadows across the walls. She stared at the list of dispensaries Dana had compiled, her fingers hovering over the keyboard. The stakes had risen, and the weight of it pressed heavily on her chest.

The knock at the door startled her. Jake stepped inside, his expression unreadable. “You okay?” he asked, closing the door behind him.

Ava let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “No,” she admitted. “But I don’t think it matters.”

Jake stepped closer, his presence grounding her. “It matters to me.”

Ava looked up at him, her exhaustion giving way to something deeper. She wanted to tell him how much his support meant, how much she relied on his steady presence. But the words caught in her throat, replaced by the silence that had come to define their moments alone.

“You’re not alone in this, Ava,” Jake said softly. “You’ve got a team, people who believe in you.”

“And you?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Jake’s gaze held hers, the tension between them building like a storm. “I’m here for you. Always.”

The air between them felt electric, the space too small to contain the pull Ava felt. For a moment, she let herself imagine what it would be like to lean into that connection, to let the walls she’d built around herself crumble. But the weight of her responsibilities held her back.

“I should get back to work,” she said, her voice shaky.

Jake nodded, stepping back. “You know where to find me.”

As he left, Ava turned back to her desk, but her focus was gone. The battle with Victor, the threat of the shadowy group, and the unresolved tension with Jake swirled together in her mind, leaving her feeling more lost than ever.

The next morning, the team regrouped, their resolve hardened by the revelations from the previous day. Ava stood at the head of the table, her voice steady despite the turmoil inside her. “We’ve got one shot at this,” she said. “If we’re going to take Victor down, we have to act now. No hesitation, no second-guessing.”

Her words rallied the team, their determination mirrored in their faces. But as Ava spoke, she couldn’t shake the feeling that the walls were closing in. The silence from Victor had been broken, but the storm that followed felt bigger than anything she could have prepared for.

As the team dispersed to begin their work, Jake lingered, his eyes meeting Ava’s. “We’ll get through this,” he said, his voice filled with quiet conviction.

Ava nodded, but the words felt hollow. The battle ahead was daunting, and for the first time, she wasn’t sure if she had the strength to see it through.