Chapter Text
The sun dipped low over the villa, dragging long, dark orange shadows across the grass. Inside the stable, the golden hour had surrendered to a dusty violet dusk. Avner finally set aside the leather harness, his fingers stiff and aching from the repetitive work. The tactile struggle with the leather was the only thing that kept the silence of the house from becoming deafening.
He didn't leave immediately. He sat on the edge of the worn workbench, looking down at the heavy parchment Sylvie had left behind. Invité. The word felt heavier than the paper it was etched upon, a promise of safety he wasn't sure he could trust.
When he finally stepped out of the stable, the evening air was cooling rapidly, carrying the sharp scent of dry grass. He saw Louis immediately. He was standing at the base of the stone steps, a lean, elegant silhouette framed against the warm, golden glow of the villa’s windows.
Avner walked toward him, the gravel crunching under his boots, a harsh, solitary sound in the sudden stillness of the valley. He stopped a few feet away, the space between them still haunted by ghosts.
“Did my aunt try to squeeze some gossip out of you?” Louis asked, his voice smooth, though his eyes were searching.
“No,” Avner replied, his voice raspy. “But your sister tried to interrogate me.”
Louis didn't move. His posture was effortless, yet he looked like a man standing on a fault line, waiting for the earth to shift. "Sylvie doesn't 'try' at anything, Avner. She simply is. It’s a trait she inherited from our father, along with a complete lack of boundaries and a talent for finding nerves." He tilted his head slightly. "You aren't in tears, so I assume it went well enough."
"She thinks I’m a liability," Avner said. He watched Louis’s face closely, looking for any trace of the man who had turned his back on the Mossad team five years ago. "Or a trap."
"And what did you tell her?"
"I told her I was a man who was invited here." Avner. "She seemed to agree."
Louis looked at the piece of paper Avner was trying to hide and for a moment, the mask of the professional slipped. He stepped closer, entering Avner’s space. The history of the broken contract hung between them like a physical weight. The reputation Louis had nearly shredded to satisfy his own complicated impulses, and the life he had put at risk. A life, Avner realized, that Louis had actually cared about.
"She said you’ve never waited for anything in your life," Avner said, meeting his gaze. "Is that true, Louis? Even after everything? Even after the accident... after I called you?"
Louis’s expression tightened. The mention of the accident brought the cold reality of the present back into the garden. "It was true. Until I heard your voice on that line… so raw, so desperate. I didn't bring you and Galit here to be prisoners, Avner. I brought you here because... I owe you. Or that is what I want to believe."
“You said you weren't sorry,” Avner reminded him. He looked down at the gravel thinking of his wife, the abrupt end to her life that had left him clutching his daughter and running for the only man who knew how to hide people from the world, even if that man was the one who had once betrayed him.
“And I'm not” Louis replied “Regrets have no place in our field. They are a luxury for people who don't have to make choices”
"I told your sister I needed time," Avner said quietly.
"I know and I can wait… I've already told you that" Louis said. "And Papa is watching. He hasn't forgotten what it did, Avner. He trusts my instincts, but he doesn't trust my heart anymore. He thinks you’re the mistake I’m repeating ... but in a way, he's glad I finally have something worth waiting for. To keep me grounded. A kind of atonement, I suppose.”
"Are you?" Avner asked.
“What?”
“Repeating the same mistake?”
"I’m a man who finally understands the cost of a contract," Louis said, his voice low and steady. He reached out, his hand hovering near Avner’s arm before he let it rest there, a heavy, grounding touch. "I won't let the shadows find you here. Not this time. You can trust me, Avner. At least this once. I will find out what happened to your wife.”
Avner looked at the villa, where his daughter was safe behind stone walls, then back at the man who had once betrayed him and was now his only hope.
"Dinner will be ready soon," Louis said, pulling his hand back but remaining close. "Papa is opening a bottle of something expensive. He’s trying to decide if he’s protecting a guest or harboring a bomb."
"And why am I here, then? If he is not convinced" Avner asked.
Louis looked toward the terrace, his eyes dark with a fierce, jagged resolve. "He’s doing what I ask him to do. For now. That is enough."
Avner tucked the sketch into his pocket and followed the man who had once been his ruin, and was now his refuge.