Page 22 of Duality (The Archers #1)

SEBASTIAN

S omeone was going to die.

Someone had hurt my Evie.

My sweet Evie, who hid her laughter behind those pretty hazel eyes.

She and Alexander had arrived back from their stakeout shift with a heaviness between them.

She had disappeared into her room, not coming out for dinner.

Alexander’s eyes kept flitting to the doorway as if he was waiting for her.

When she never showed, he caved to our demands and told us what she shared with him.

I knew it wasn’t all the details, he was too vague for that, but even his quick summary had me seeing red.

Marcus practically had to sit on me to prevent me from charging into her room to see for myself she was fine.

The darkness inside of me whispered enticingly, promises of murder and mayhem for whoever had dared to hurt my Evie.

I just needed his name, and he would become a distant memory, but my Evie had been careful.

She hadn’t shared any identifying details.

I could find out, but something inside me hesitated. I wanted to hear it from her.

I sat outside her room all night last night, waiting for her to come out, but she never did.

When the whimpering and crying started, I almost picked the lock, but Alexander caught me and wrestled me away.

He threatened to knock me out if I couldn’t respect her privacy, but he didn’t understand. She needed me.

She needed us.

And we needed her. She fit into our broken pieces, her jagged edges melding with our own.

I just had to get her to see it. Get them to see it.

Adrian was already there, even if he was hesitating.

Whatever details she had shared with Alexander yesterday had tipped him over the edge.

He slumped down next to me and stood a silent vigil at her door all night. Three down, one to go.

Marcus would have to wait, though. It was go time.

The late afternoon sunlight had faded into the cool evening darkness outside the windows as Evie’s lieutenants and the others gathered around the table.

Danny frowned at Evie’s back before glaring at us.

He knew something was wrong, but Evie just shook her head at him.

Now I knew why they were so close, and the possessive beast inside me eased at Danny’s presence next to her.

The air was somber, and it made my skin crawl. I couldn’t take the heaviness anymore, and luckily Evie gave me the perfect opportunity to break the tension when she came out in her B&E outfit.

I wolf-whistled long and low, and her cheeks flushed. Dressed in tight black cargo pants and a black form-fitting long-sleeved shirt, she was dressed like a ninja, or an adorable assassin, as she buckled her shoulder harness over her shirt.

“Damn, Evie.” I crossed the room and took her hand slowly, giving her plenty of time to pull away.

She didn’t, but she still flinched softly when I took her hand.

I wanted to growl at the shadows in her eyes, but she cut off my reaction by squeezing my hand softly.

I twirled her in a circle like she was a princess at a ball and I was her dashing date, showing her off to the unworthy masses.

Fuck it, maybe we could find a mission where she could dress up in a fancy dress.

Although she was no less breathtaking in those tight-fitting cargo pants that cupped her ass in a way that would make a monk weep.

“You look stunning,” I said softly, using my hold on her hand to tug her closer to me.

I wanted to pull her in till she was pressed against my body, but I didn’t want to push her. Instead, I just pulled her close enough that a sheet of paper would barely fit between us. I held in my groan as I felt the heat of her body teasing mine.

“Should we get them a room?” Liam’s stage-whisper ruined the moment we were having, and I shot him a glare over her shoulder.

The spell had been broken, though, and Evie stepped back from me, pink still dusting her cheekbones.

I glared at Liam harder, promising death with my eyes, and he wisely shut up, although there was still a smirk on his face.

Evie’s lieutenants were still mixed in their feelings for us.

Grace and Izzy definitely didn’t trust us yet, but Liam, Maya, and surprisingly, Danny, were softening to our presence as they saw our skills for what they were.

An asset, not a threat. We would never do anything to hurt Evie or the Archers, but I could be patient while I proved that to her. Well, sort of patient.

I stepped up close to Evie as she turned back to Liam.

He grinned at her, holding out four comms in his hand.

She took them and passed one to me. Her breath hitched as our fingers brushed, then spun quickly on her heel as Grace and Adrian entered the room.

She passed out the other comms, and we all put them in.

The others would stay behind at Evie’s house.

For some reason, we weren’t running this mission out of the Archers’ headquarters we had seen the first day.

Instead, her dining room had been turned into a mobile command station with an impressive computer setup.

Liam had assured her that he could run everything from here just as well as HQ, and Evie had been visibly relieved by that news.

I was intrigued. Was everyone in the Archers organization not clued in to the situation with Citadel?

Was this to protect them or keep it a secret from them?

Just how big was the Archers? I mentally added it to the list of mysteries to solve.

“We should get going,” Adrian said, his arms folded across his chest. He spoke to the room, but his eyes were on Evie, meticulously cataloging every inch of her, from the tips of her combat boots to the top of her neatly braided hair.

Evie nodded, her arms folded across her chest, mimicking Alexander’s position. I don’t even know if she realized it, but it was clear they were both used to assuming leadership. “We don’t want to miss the graveyard shift.”

In the course of our stalking—I mean, stakeout—we discovered that Citadel kept a graveyard shift of only three guards from midnight to 5 a.m. at this location.

They were either supremely confident in those three guards’ abilities, or they were arrogant enough to think no one would ever go after a lower value target like this building.

But Citadel was operating on a closed system, so gaining access to one computer was gaining access to all of them.

It was already close to midnight, and it would take us almost an hour of driving to reach Citadel’s building across the city.

“Be safe,” Alexander instructed. “All of you.” He eyed me carefully.

I bounced on my toes, pre-mission giddiness filling me. It had been too long since I had gotten to play in the field, and now I was getting to play with my Evie. This was the best night ever.

“Don’t worry, big bro,” I said, stretching my arms above my head. “It’s going to go perfectly.”

Evie smacked my stomach with the back of her hand. “Don’t jinx it,” she scolded me.

“With you as my lucky charm, how could we be anything but successful?” I grinned at her.

She rolled her eyes at me, but some of the heaviness that weighed on her shoulders slipped away. Perfect. She had too much weighing down on her, and we needed to be at top form for this B&E. Citadel was no joke, even with only three guards.

Adrian gave me a small nod, his face relaxing when Evie did.

He headed towards the door, and we followed him out.

I opened the door to the SUV for Evie, and she ducked under my arm.

Before I could follow her inside, Grace slipped in after her, grinning at me when I scowled.

I wanted to sit next to Evie! I stomped around to the front seat as Adrian settled into the driver’s side.

The drive was quiet. Both Evie and Grace cleaned their guns in the back seat. From their focus, I figured this must be some sort of pre-mission ritual for them. When Adrian slid into the designated alleyway an hour later, their gazes were clear and sharp.

Adrian turned in his seat. “Tell me the plan.”

“We’re going to enter on the east side of the building while the guards are doing their rounds.

After unlocking the door, we’ll hit the IT room first, then proceed to each floor, starting at the top and working our way down.

The goal is to plug the flash drives into at least three additional computers and plant bugs where we can. ”

Evie recited the plan just as clearly as she had the last ten times Adrian had asked that day.

Her frown was tempered by the softness in her eyes.

There was a bond between them, albeit a reluctant one on both sides.

But it’s what made her give in to his compulsion to run through a plan until I wanted to drop dead from boredom.

He was such a stickler for safety and protocol. Boring.

“If you’re done with the neanderthal act,” Grace drawled, “we’re wasting moonlight.”

Adrian ignored Grace, speaking to Evie again. “You have ninety minutes before I come in.”

“We’ll be fine.” Evie offered him a rare smile. “Let’s go.”

Evie, Grace, and I exited the car, pulling our hoods down over our faces.

We fell into formation, Evie in the lead with Grace bringing up the rear, as we stuck to the shadows of the overdone landscaping in front of Citadel’s building.

We paused in some bushes, watching as a guard exited the front door, his eyes scanning the parking lot between the bushes and the building before he barked an “All clear!” into his radio.

Once he disappeared back into the building, Evie tapped her comms, activating them.

“Comms check?”

“Loud and clear, Boss Lady,” Liam’s voice crackled through our ears. “Interrupting the cameras in thirty seconds. Remember, I can only loop them for twelve seconds at a time before their system alerts.”

“Hope you brought your running shoes, pretty boy,” Grace murmured next to me.

“Just call me the Flash,” I murmured back, not letting her sharp words get to me. It was clear as day that she was overprotective of Evie, and I was glad she had people like Grace in her corner. I would win over the prickly ex-military operative. I wasn’t going anywhere.

“Let’s go.”