Page 39 of Duality (The Archers #1)

ALEXANDER

I tugged against my shirt collar. The normally comforting material felt tight around my throat.

I had worn a tux several times before, but tonight, the fabric felt restrictive, like the suit had tightened in its sleep, even though it was tailored to perfection.

Tonight had to go smoothly. The stakes were too high for it to not.

The plan was solid. Ironclad, as Sebastian had called it.

But I had run too many ops to think that just because the plan was solid, something couldn’t go wrong.

But still, it was a good plan. I mentally ran through all the parts again in my head as we waited for Evelyn.

SDS was working security for the event. Three of our top teams were strategically placed inside and outside the venue.

The downtown convention center location made it a bit harder to cover all the entrances and exits, but with Liam’s help, we had secured the remaining blind spots with cameras.

He was going to stay at HQ with a few of the Archers’ “techies” to monitor the cameras.

The Ghosts were still helping to secure the safe houses.

We weren’t sure if Citadel would use the gala as a distraction, and Evelyn wanted her people to have extra protection.

Danny and Grace were attending as guests with fake identities, set up courtesy of Liam.

Maya was attending with their father, Detective Patel, who had been briefed, along with the mayor, about the full extent of Citadel’s dirty laundry.

Detective Patel would wait for the mayor to present the award to Citadel’s leadership team and then would arrest them as they came off the stage.

The mayor, Patrick Winslow, was an old college buddy of mine.

When we came up with this plan last week, I reached out to him and showed him all the evidence we had collected.

He was a solid guy and was rightly horrified at what I had shown him.

He offered whatever help he could to take down Citadel quickly and quietly.

He’d reached out to Citadel and told them they would be receiving an award tonight and that all of their leadership should attend.

Their leadership team, Ryan Jacobs, Marshall Beckett, and Julian Slater—or the “Unholy Trinity”, as Liam dubbed them—didn’t work in the same building, and we were worried that if there was a raid on their offices and they weren’t there, they would disappear into the wind.

Or it might become a shootout, based on how willing Citadel had been to use violence.

Doing it this way would hopefully minimize any collateral damage and ensure that Citadel came quietly.

We weren’t sure who in Citadel’s leadership team was involved.

Evelyn suspected they all were, but I wasn’t as sure.

Citadel’s leadership was fractured, unlike SDS.

The men who had started it didn’t have strong bonds between them, so it’s possible one or two of the three-person team had gone rogue.

We knew for sure that Ryan Jacobs was involved, because of what the SDS attackers said, but we weren’t certain about the other two.

Regardless, it was all going to go down tonight.

Detective Patel would arrest them after they accepted their fake award.

Maya and Liam were ready to drive Citadel’s public image into the mud with news of their arrest and the charges.

Citadel would have no chance to control the narrative, as we would be putting out the information first. Their more fair-weather clients, who had only hired them because they undercut our prices, would flee first. Their more unsavory clients would likely stay on for a while, but when the investigation heated up, they would also cut ties and run to avoid their secrets coming out.

Grace had voted that we just take out Citadel’s leadership, and there was a small part of me that agreed with her, but we had to do this the right way.

I knew the Archers didn’t have a lot of faith in the system, but this was too big to be swept under the rug.

We had to do it right, and the public exposure would help ensure that the judicial system would prosecute Citadel to the fullest extent.

From the back of the house, a door clicked open, and I straightened.

We had planned for every contingency, but things could still go wrong.

And the scenario that haunted me the most was if the woman walking down the hall in our direction got hurt, or worse.

In just a short time, she had captured my attention and my heart, as cheesy as it sounded.

Yes, we had known her for years, but this last month had shown us that there were more layers to Evelyn than we had ever known, and I wanted to peel back every one.

This last week, when she had let me hold her at night were some of the greatest nights of my life, and all we did was sleep.

I was falling hard and fast for her, and I just hoped she felt the same about all of us.

Evelyn stepped into the room, and the atmosphere shifted.

It was like she had stepped out of a painting of an old warrior queen.

The gown she wore clung to her like it had been crafted specifically for her.

The black velvet bodice accentuated her figure, the deep V-neckline managing to balance elegance with something… far more dangerous.

The fabric was layered with a shimmering overlay, sparkling in blues and greens, over the black velvet, catching the light as she walked farther into the room.

The fabric seemed alive, like the night sky had wrapped itself around her.

The high slit offered a flash of smooth skin of her leg, and I bit back a groan.

She glanced at me, catching my gaze, and there it was again—that electric pull that had been growing stronger with every moment we spent together.

The whispered conversations late at night when I held her as she fell asleep and the small glimpses behind the mask she offered me contributed to this ache in my chest that tugged me forward.

She wasn’t just stunning. She was devastating.

And she had no idea the effect she was having on me. On us. Or maybe she did.

Her eyes danced over all of us, and I didn’t miss the spots of color that bloomed on her cheekbones. Her breath caught in her throat, and she nibbled on her lip briefly before releasing it. My shoulders relaxed slightly. She was just as affected by us as we were by her.

Fabric rustled and throats cleared as the spell she cast over my brothers broke.

Marcus had finally gotten his head out of his ass, and he looked at her like she’d hung the moon and the stars.

He didn’t move to greet her, though, and the shy way she peeked at him under her lashes told me that the two of them were still dancing around each other despite the heartfelt conversation I stumbled on in the kitchen last night.

“Damn, Evie,” Sebastian whistled. “You’re always stunning, but damn.”

Adrian smiled. “You look gorgeous.”

Evelyn blushed and looked down at her dress, her hands smoothing out nonexistent wrinkles. “It’s not too much? I wanted to go with a less…flashy option, but Izzy and Grace insisted this was the one.”

“You could be wearing a paper bag, and you would outshine anyone in the room.” Sebastian took her hand and twirled her.

We all groaned when we saw the back of the dress, or the lack thereof. The fabric swooped down in a loose fold, settling just above her perfect ass.

“Stunning,” Marcus murmured, and a small smirk played on Evelyn’s lips.

“Are we ready to go?” Adrian offered her his arm, and I bit down the swell of jealousy.

She was supposed to be my date. But as she took his arm and swept out the door ahead of us, I was glad she didn’t see my reaction and the tightening of my pants. Sebastian made no move to hide his reaction, visibly adjusting himself and tugging at his tie.

“Come on, lover boy.” Marcus shoved Sebastian at the door. “You’ll have plenty of time to ogle her later. Focus on the mission first.”

Sebastian danced out of his reach. “I can multitask!” he insisted.

Sebastian slid into the back seat after Evelyn, and I walked around to slide in on her other side. Adrian drove, while Marcus took the passenger seat, his body angled so he could keep one eye on the road and the other eye on Evelyn.

She twisted the fabric of her dress in between her fingers nervously as Adrian guided us into the city. Her eyes had a faraway look in them that I recognized as her thinking look. She was no doubt obsessing over all the details of tonight.

“It’s going to be okay,” I leaned down to whisper in her ear. She shuddered softly as my breath danced across her bare skin. “It’s a solid plan.”

She didn’t answer me, but she nodded, her expression easing slightly, and I felt a warmth in my gut.

She had trusted me to help her, and I wasn’t going to let her down.

I knew she was nervous about involving the mayor and the police.

The Archers and especially Evelyn had seen how deep the corruption ran in the city, but the mayor was a good guy and a friend.

Citadel was too large of an organization to make disappear by ourselves.

No, going through the proper channels was the right call on this one. But it still made her nervous.

Knowing there weren’t any words I could say to ease her mind, I took one of her hands in mine and held it gently.

Sebastian was pressed in close to her on her other side and had a hand on her knee.

As we got closer to the convention center where the gala was being held, she grew stiffer and stiffer.

We’d arranged to arrive fashionably late, along with many other attendees.

We had just under an hour until the awards ceremony where we would make our move.

As we waited in the line of cars, I tapped my comms.

“Comms check.”