Page 31 of Duality (The Archers #1)

EVELYN

“ M eet our new friends, Trent Kincaid and his team of merry men,” Liam announced, flashing the pictures of each of the men who attacked the SDS offices up on the screen. “Trent has been…reluctantly cooperative the last few hours and has shed some light on Citadel’s movements and reasoning.”

Danny snickered at Liam’s wording. “He took one look at Marcus and Adrian and decided it was in his best interest to cooperate.”

I arched my eyebrows. Adrian and Marcus looked very pleased with themselves. They stood quietly next to each other with their arms folded like unmovable twin mountains.

Sebastian pressed closer behind me, his breath dancing across the back of my neck as he whispered, “They love that kind of stuff.”

I fought not to shiver as I nodded to acknowledge I heard him.

Sebastian had blown past all of my defenses earlier.

What had started as an easy game of twenty questions quickly turned serious because of my own big mouth.

I should have never asked him how he felt about me kissing Alexander.

I could barely look at Alexander without blushing now.

We were in the middle of a crisis, and I let my emotions get the better of me.

But if Sebastian’s words were to be believed, they didn’t care. They wanted me. Me!

I was broken and battered, and these men didn’t care.

I wanted so badly to believe Sebastian’s words were true.

Hell, I was already halfway there. But that little voice inside of me that had kept me alive all these years was questioning everything.

What if they didn’t mean it? What if they got to know me and changed their mind?

They were saying all the right things, but my brain wasn’t ready to hear them. Not yet, at least.

But not never . Hope rose like an unbidden flame, stoked by Alexander’s words last night and Sebastian’s words from only an hour ago.

Adrian caught my eye. Are you okay? he mouthed, his brow furrowed. He was always worrying about me. The worry used to feel stifling, but now it filled me with a weird warmth.

I gave him a slight nod before letting my eyes rest on the man next to him.

Sebastian had said all four of them, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t attracted to all of them.

I had just buried those feelings because they were my bosses, and I was betraying them.

But all four were good men. Some of the best I knew.

So why was I hesitating? It wasn’t because of the unconventional relationship.

I had seen enough unconventional relationships in my work to know they were usually happier and healthier than society’s “norms”.

Maybe it was because of the man currently stonewalling me.

I knew Marcus felt my eyes on him, but he didn’t look my way.

I sighed. I didn’t know what to do with him.

I wouldn’t break the guys apart, of that much, I was sure.

If Marcus couldn’t get on board, then it wouldn’t be happening.

Sebastian placed a hand on my hip, and Marcus’s eyes narrowed in on it. I couldn’t read his face, so I turned back into the conversation going on around me.

“Trent and his team were hired by Citadel to vandalize the SDS offices. They were told to do as much damage as possible to keep SDS distracted by the cleanup.”

“To likely keep the police distracted by the cleanup, too,” Izzy added.

There were bags under her eyes, and I felt bad about the extra sleep I had gotten last night. My people were worn thin. We needed this lead to figure out why Citadel was going after us now and where they were getting their intelligence.

Liam nodded. “Trent and his buddies were to maximize damage. However, as dumb as he looks, Trent did a bit more digging into Citadel before he took the job. He wanted to understand the risks of going up against SDS and the Archers before he accepted the job. According to him, a top executive at Citadel, Ryan Jacobs”—Liam flashed a picture of Ryan Jacobs on the screen; he looked like a Harvard lawyer with blond hair, blue eyes, and a suave, too-big smile—”told him that there was going to be a new player in town that was going to be a bigger threat than SDS and the Archers, and that it was better for Trent and his team to get on the ‘right side of things’ before it was too late. ”

Sebastian frowned. “A bigger threat than us. I’m insulted.” His pouty lips had other feelings stirring inside of me, and I turned away before I could be distracted again. “They never would have fucked with us before.” He glared at Alexander, who rolled his eyes.

“We’re not criminals,” Marcus shot back. “We don’t work like that.”

My lieutenants bristled, and I opened my mouth to say something, but Sebastian cut me off. “Not anymore. But don’t pretend you always shit rose petals.”

Marcus screwed up his face, probably wondering, like I was, where the phrase “shit rose petals” came from.

“Enough,” Alexander said. He glared at his brothers, cutting off the brewing argument. He nodded at Liam to continue, and Liam waited for me to nod before he continued.

“Anyway…” Liam stressed the word. “Ryan was unsurprisingly tight-lipped about this bigger threat, but from what I’ve been able to cobble together from various internal communications, Citadel has a new client that’s coming to town, and they want the path cleared of any ‘competition‘. An internal memo named both SDS and the Archers, although that memo was under the mistaken impression that those organizations were run by the same people.”

“Not that mistaken,” Marcus grumbled.

I placed a hand on Sebastian’s wrist when I felt him bristle next to me. I didn’t need him fighting his brother for my honor. Marcus and I would either figure things out or we wouldn’t, but for now, we had bigger problems than his mistrust of me.

“What else did you find about them?” I asked.

Liam winced. “Unfortunately, that’s it. No one ever uses their name, and there is no company tied to any invoice that I can find so far. I’m cross-checking all company registrations we’ve found from their invoices, but I’ve found nothing so far.”

“So we’re up against an unknown enemy that wants us out of the city,” Grace surmised. “I can’t imagine it’s because they want to throw a party for the city.”

“Probably not any party we want to attend,” Maya said, typing on their laptop.

I scrubbed my hands over my face. So we had an unknown party wanting us out of the city and willing to use an unethical, violent organization to do it. Great.

“Okay…” I breathed out heavily. “We need to figure out who this new client is, but we also can’t ignore the clear and present threat Citadel poses.

Right now, they’re the highest priority threat as they’re the immediate danger.

Once we take care of Citadel, or maybe while we take care of them, we can uncover the identity of their client. ”

Izzy nodded. “Agreed. Citadel is the biggest threat right now. We need to take them down. And fast.”

“How?” Maya asked.

“Whatever it is, it needs to be big and needs to put them out of the picture permanently,” Grace said. “We don’t have the resources for a long, drawn-out fight, especially with this new threat on the field.”

“Agreed,” I said. I bit my lip. This was going to require a complicated and coordinated attack. It was beyond the scope of the Archers alone. I didn’t realize I looked at Alexander until he spoke.

“Whatever you need from SDS resources is yours,” he promised.

Marcus glared at him, but Adrian put a hand on his shoulder.

“That would be helpful,” I said. “Especially because we’re going to need to circle the wagons on our more vulnerable populations. The last thing I want is Citadel going after the people we protect in the city because we pissed them off.”

“So we need to figure out who this new client is, take down Citadel, and protect the city.” Sebastian ticked off each item on his fingers like he was reciting a grocery list.

“Sounds fun.” Adrian grinned. The comment was so unexpected that I couldn’t help the bubble of laughter that escaped my throat, causing the others to laugh with me.

“Let’s get planning,” I said, pulling up a chair at the table. It was time to get to work. “Alexander, any ideas?”

His eyes widened slightly, then he nodded. “I agree. It needs to be a multi-pronged attack. You have contacts in the media, right?” he asked, looking between Maya and me.

Maya nodded. “We do.”

“I think one of the prongs should be public exposure,” he said. “Especially if we can release concrete evidence of Citadel’s misdoings. Not just in the last few weeks, but any evidence you’ve gathered over the years of them covering up crimes for their clients.”

Maya nodded, their fingers already flying across the keys, pulling up any articles we’ve done over the years. “Liam, I’m going to need your help and whatever you’ve found off the servers,” they said.

Liam nodded. “If Sebastian can help me, I can hand off some of that to him while I shore up defenses for our other operations.”

I looked at Sebastian, who nodded and grinned at me. “Happy to help, my darling,” he said, pressing a kiss to my forehead before going with Liam over to the computers against the wall.

I ignored everyone’s curious looks, although I’m sure my cheeks were pink.

Alexander smiled, the expression making him more devastatingly handsome than he usually was. “The best way to dismantle Citadel is to hit them where it hurts.”

I arched my eyebrow in question.

“Their finances,” Marcus said gruffly. “We go after their clients. Either by recruiting them to our firm or by exposing Citadel’s misdeeds.

Most contracts have a good faith clause in them that states if the security firm acts in bad faith, the contract can be broken.

” He wasn’t wrong. And I still had that list of companies that signed with Citadel but also had proposal meetings with us from after the meeting with Geoff Young.

Alexander grinned, an edge of danger to his smile, and I shifted in my seat as my stomach clenched. “And I know the perfect place to kick that plan off.”

Adrian’s brow furrowed, then his eyes widened. “That will be a security nightmare,” he warned.

Alexander smiled devilishly. “Like that’s ever stopped us before.”

“I’m sorry, where?” Izzy asked, just as confused as I was by the way her eyebrows wrinkled.

“The Mayor’s annual benefit gala in two weeks.”

Fuck, I had forgotten about the gala.

I glanced at Grace. That wasn’t the worst plan. It would give us time to get everything together. She nodded, agreeing with our silent conversation.

“All right. Let’s do it.”