Page 6 of Duality (The Archers #1)

EVELYN

M y fingers flew across the keyboard. Alexander and Sebastian were meeting with the Research and Development department on a new closed-circuit system. The meeting had been going on for two hours. My eyes felt gritty, and my fingers ached, but I didn’t stop typing.

My watch buzzed again as a message came through.

The courier lost the package.

My heart dropped, and a cold sweat broke out across my forehead. We only used that phrase in case of a true emergency. I knew it didn’t have anything to do with my identity being compromised or a flame emoji would have followed, but whatever it was, it was bad if Danny was calling and texting.

I bit my lip. I needed an excuse to get out of here and now. I looked around the room. Sebastian’s narrowed blue eyes met mine.

Are you okay? he mouthed, and I shook my head.

His forehead creased, but he dipped his head once in acknowledgement.

Alexander was in the middle of asking a question when I eased my laptop closed.

He narrowed his eyes, but I mouthed I’m sorry .

It was probably better that they didn’t have time to ask questions.

I wasn’t sure I could provide a sufficient answer for them, anyway.

I slipped out of the room as quietly as I could and walked to my desk as I answered the phone.

“Tell me what’s happening?” I demanded as soon as Danny picked up.

“Fuck!” Danny’s voice was harried and tense. “I can’t tell you. Not over the phone. Get to HQ now!”

He hung up, and I cursed as I grabbed my bag and keys.

I ignored the eyes I could feel on me from the conference room as I hurried towards the elevator.

Fuck, it was really bad if Danny wouldn’t tell me over the phone.

What had happened? Was it a raid? Was it one of the other lieutenants?

Had something happened? Had we been attacked?

“Evelyn!” a voice called as I hurried out of the elevator. Adrian was standing with the security guard manning the desk. When he saw my disheveled state, he quickly strode towards me. “What’s wrong?” he asked quietly.

There was no answer I could give him that would satisfy his curiosity. “I have a personal emergency. I need to go.”

I tried to brush past him, but he grabbed my arm. “I can drive you.”

I shook my head. “No. You can’t.” I walked a few steps and turned around. “Don’t follow me, Adrian.”

Maybe it was my use of his first name, but he clenched his fists and nodded once. I was still going to have to be careful driving to HQ from here, but hopefully, he kept his word.

I slid into my older sedan and started her up. Easing out of the parking space, I forced myself to not gun it out of the parking lot. I couldn’t risk drawing more attention to myself than I already had.

Once the SDS building was out of sight, I hit the accelerator and started towards HQ. My phone had been silent since Danny’s call, and with every mile I covered, the dread built inside of me. What was happening? What couldn’t they tell me over the phone?

I parked three blocks away from HQ in a convenience store parking lot that the Archers owned. Keeping my head on a swivel, I made sure no one followed me into the alleyway.

Inside HQ, the bustle came to a stop when I entered the room. Grace, Maya, and Liam were in front of his computer screens, phones to their ears. Danny and Izzy were poring over something on the table. Everyone froze when I entered, their expressions grim.

“What happened?” My voice was sharp, sharper than I had ever used on any of them, but something was wrong.

“Evelyn.” Danny’s soft use of my full name pissed me off. I was his boss, damn it, not the little girl he grew up with.

“Tell me.”

Izzy let out a breath. “We lost Kingston. Eric and Brittany are dead.”

My knees went out, and I staggered to a chair.

Eric was the Archer we assigned to watch Kingston, one of our safe houses.

Brittany was the woman who had come to us after she had been raped by the three rich pricks we dealt with a few weeks ago.

We had been keeping her safe until the press and attention around our op had died down.

She should have been safe. They should have been safe.

“How? When?” My voice sounded hoarse even to my own ears.

“This afternoon,” Izzy said grimly. “Citadel hit the safe house. They…” She hesitated, but relented when I shot her a glare. I needed to know all the details. “They executed them. One shot to the back of their heads. But we know it was Citadel. Liam traced the SUV back to them from an ATM camera.”

Fucking hell. I closed my eyes as their faces flashed in my mind. Eric was newly married. His husband would be devastated. Brittany was young and brave. She had come to us, demanding we make the men who raped her pay. She’d had her entire life ahead of her.

“I’ve tracked a payment from the nightclub owner to Citadel,” Liam said somberly, no hint of sass in his tone. “They used a shell company, but I traced it.”

“Motherfucker!” I exploded, standing up and pacing behind the chair. “How did they know where our safe house was? Where she was?”

Grace stepped forward. “We don’t know. We’re on the phone with everyone who knew, trying to figure out who they talked to.”

“No phones,” I snapped. “Tell them to get their asses to Main; and so help them if I figure out one of them is a mole.”

Danny stepped forward, likely to calm me down, but I didn’t want calm.

“Liam, find every keystroke Brittany and Eric logged over the last few weeks. Figure out how Citadel found out!”

“You got it, boss,” Liam said, none of his usual levity in his tone. Maya slid into a seat next to him and started typing.

“Grace, Danny, get me answers.” I leveled a look at Grace. I wanted this leak found. I also didn’t care if they needed to use force to get it. We didn’t use force often, but it never hurt to remind people we carried a big fucking stick when we needed to. She nodded and tilted her head at Danny.

“What do you need from me?” Izzy asked. I shut my eyes briefly before opening them.

“I need to talk to Eric’s husband, Clayton, and break the news.”

Izzy nodded, her face grim. As a detective for many years, she was familiar with making the next-of-kin notifications. “I have their address. He should be home by now.”

The ride to Eric and Clayton’s house was silent.

I was a mixture of grief and rage. This wasn’t the first time I had failed someone the Archers helped.

The first person I had failed was Riley Monroe, a domestic violence survivor who’d reached out to The Archers for help to escape her abusive husband, a prominent real estate developer.

Riley had been smart and resourceful, collecting evidence against her husband for years before she reached out to us for help.

Her husband had lots of connections, but we had carefully crafted a plan to get her out when she made her weekly spa trip.

But something went wrong, and Riley never showed up.

Two days later, she had been found dead in her home.

The coroner ruled it a suicide, but I knew better.

Her husband had found out she was trying to leave and had killed her for it.

I had promised Riley we would get her out, and I had failed.

The worst part was that her husband still walked around like a grieving widower, and the best we could do was spread rumors that he had killed her.

No, this wasn’t the first time I had lost someone, but I never got used to it. This was the first time Citadel had executed a hit, though. They were getting bold. Too bold. There would be time for retribution later. First, I had to have one of the most difficult conversations of my life.

Eric and Clayton had actually met doing Archers work.

Clayton was a nurse at the city hospital and had patched Eric and me up when a mission had gone sideways.

When we brought a girl in for medical attention a few months later, Clayton had confronted us about being gang members.

By the time we were done explaining, we had a loyal contact at the hospital, and Eric had Clayton’s number.

They’d gotten married last year, and I had officiated the wedding.

God, this was going to break Clayton’s heart.

“This isn’t your fault,” Izzy said, breaking the silence as we turned down their street.

“It’s my organization. It’s always my fault.” I laughed bleakly. The argument was a familiar one. “I promised her she would be safe. Eric should have been safe.”

Izzy didn’t say anything until we parked in Eric and Clayton’s driveway behind Clayton’s car.

What was there to say? I hadn’t realized that her employer hired Citadel.

I should have had Liam check to make sure.

I should have known Citadel would have cleaned up the nightclub owner’s mess.

They’d cleaned up other ‘messes’. In the past, I thought that meant paying them off and making evidence disappear.

But that was na?ve, and unfortunately, two of mine had to die before I could see what was right in front of me.

“We’ll get them,” Izzy promised.

I nodded and swallowed hard as we knocked on the door. Clayton answered. His eyes went wide when he saw us standing there. He shook his head, tears already streaming down his face.

“No…” he wailed as he crumbled.

“Let us know if he needs anything, okay?” I told Clayton’s sister, Emmy. “Izzy will be in touch to help with funeral arrangements. He doesn’t have to worry about a thing.”

Emmy nodded, tears still leaking from the corner of her eyes. Clayton’s big family had embraced Eric whole-heartedly. “I will.”

I squeezed her arm one more time before turning back to the car. I was halfway down the front walkway when she called my name.

“Promise me you’ll get the ones who did this.”

I froze and turned slowly back around. I wasn’t sure how much Emmy knew about the Archers and Eric’s involvement, but her eyes were fierce, and they pierced through me.