Page 4 of Duality (The Archers #1)

Geoff Young started talking about the two new properties he had just purchased and the construction that was finishing up.

One was going to be an upscale cocktail bar, and the other was going to be a dance club.

My fingers flew across the keyboard as I made notes on the type of system each club was likely to need, recording the square footage of each club, the number of rooms, and the expected clientele.

These notes would help Sebastian design the perfect system, but they would also help in a different way if we were to ever run into trouble with the clubs.

Blueprints were easy to acquire, but the details of the security systems were harder.

This information would save my organization countless hours of research.

“Are there any specific scenarios you want to guard against?” Marcus asked.

“Employee theft for sure,” one of the men with Geoff noted.

“I’m sure you heard about that nasty business with the Opal?” Geoff asked.

Alexander shrugged. “Only what we heard in the news.”

“Some of our staff was caught dealing drugs in the club. Before we could handle it, that nuisance ‘vigilante’ organization interfered and blasted it over the news.”

I barely hid my smile. A nuisance vigilante organization? That’s not how I would describe it, but watching Geoff’s face turn several shades of red was worth it.

“Nuisance vigilante organization?” Marcus raised an eyebrow.

Geoff waved his hand. “I think they call themselves the Archers. A bunch of thugs, really, sticking their noses where they have no business being. Using illegal means to ‘expose’ the good people of this city. It’s like that bullshit cancel culture.”

I blinked. That was a load of bullshit. Okay, maybe our methods weren’t always on the up and up, but the ‘good people of this city?’ Give me a break. And dealing drugs? He conveniently left out the part where they were drugging and raping women.

“I’ve heard a few things about them,” Alexander said. He had? We weren’t necessarily a hidden organization, but we tried our best to stay out of the spotlight. We worked in the shadows, helping the people the justice system failed. “They call themselves the Robin Hood of the city.”

I was going to kill Danny. That stupid nickname had stuck and led to our name, the Archers. All because my little cousin gave an anonymous quote to a city newspaper reporter years ago.

“They’re little more than thugs and miscreants.” Geoff sneered. “I’m not the only one who’s had problems with them.”

Alexander and Marcus shared a loaded glance. What were they thinking? How much did they know about the types of people and companies my organization went after?

I resolutely ignored Adrian sitting at the far end of the table. I didn’t need Marcus or Alexander to catch us looking at each other.

“Let’s get back to the security system,” Sebastian redirected the group’s attention. He was smiling, but his light blue eyes were sharp and flinty.

Did Sebastian know more about the Archers than he let on?

People often overlooked his happy-go-lucky demeanor, but he was every bit as smart as his brothers.

I made a mental note to tell Liam to bolster our system against outside attacks.

Liam was one of my lieutenants and our resident hacker.

He was in charge of keeping our information safe, and if Sebastian’s curiosity was piqued at all, he would need to know about it to shore up our defenses.

The rest of the meeting passed quickly as they dove into the technical details.

Watching the brothers work was always a treat.

They each brought different strengths to the meeting.

Even Adrian contributed, with a detailed overview of how our people worked and what we could offer Geoff.

When the conversation finally paused, I interlaced my fingers and bent them backwards, wincing at the stretch.

“Okay, we can put all this together for you and send the contract over by the end of the day,” Marcus said, making some final notes on his laptop.

Geoff and his associates exchanged a look.

“Actually, we have one more meeting with another firm to collect their proposal before we make our decision,” Geoff said, standing and buttoning his suit jacket.

The brothers stood as well. “That’s fine,” Alexander said, extending his hand to shake. “May I ask who you’re meeting with?”

“Citadel Security Group. I believe you know them.”

Alexander’s face was a polite mask. “Yes, we’ve met them on a few occasions.”

Citadel was another security firm in the area.

Where SDS offered security and protection services, Citadel tended more towards protection and cover-ups, so their clients could do whatever they wanted without consequences.

They were known for their dirty work if you had the money to hire them.

The Archers had more than a few run-ins with that particular firm, and I made a mental note to tell my lieutenants about this meeting as soon as possible.

If Geoff Young was willing to hire Citadel, he might have been more involved in the drug ring than we thought.

The men stayed silent until Geoff and his associates left the room.

“Fucking Citadel,” Marcus growled when the elevator doors closed behind the group. “If they are even having a meeting with those clowns, I don’t know if we want them as clients.”

“They have a right to get a second proposal,” Alexander reminded him, his face tight. “We can’t stop them.”

“We know Citadel is just going to undercut our prices to get their business,” Sebastian said, a frown on his usually happy face. That or Citadel was going to charge them more to make the problems go away. Permanently.

I would have to let Izzy know so she could increase the security on the four victims from Geoff Young’s club. We would have to keep them safe as the court case proceeded.

“Then it’s not our problem, anyway,” Alexander said. “Let’s draw up the proposal and send it over. Then we’ll have done our part.”

My eyes widened as an idea hit me.

“What if I pulled together a list of people who, over the last year, had proposal meetings with both us and Citadel? We could reach out to those who went with Citadel and see if they wanted to switch to SDS?” This would allow me to gather information about all the companies that hired Citadel under the guise of research for the Archers, and it would potentially bring in more revenue for SDS.

Alexander frowned, drumming his fingers on the table. “I don’t see why not. We could frame it as just a check-in, so we don’t piss off Citadel.”

Sebastian beamed at me. “Great idea.”

I ducked my head to hide the warm flush that filled my cheeks.

“I’ll get on it.” The brothers stood to leave, and I closed my laptop. “I’ll email the notes out in a few minutes,” I murmured to Alexander as he held the door open for me.

“Thank you, Miss Harper.”

I sat at my desk and quickly copied and pasted the notes in an email to the brothers and Adrian.

I edited some of the shorthand I used and clicked send.

Then I opened the secure messaging app that Liam, one of my lieutenants and the Archers’ best hacker, insisted on installing on everyone’s phone.

I typed out a short message describing the meeting and instructing Liam to look into Geoff’s business dealings a bit deeper and to shore up our defenses in case Sebastian decided to poke around.

We could discuss everything in more detail at our own meeting in a few days.

I sent another note to Izzy asking her to double check security on the victims from Opal’s.

The last thing those women needed was to be traumatized further.

This type of meeting was exactly why my job at SDS was so critical.

Most of the work the Archers did outside of the occasional mission was research.

My grandma had always said that an ounce of prevention was worth a pound of cure, so we constantly gathered information until we needed it.

And I had a feeling we hadn’t heard the last from Geoff Young’s businesses.