Page 2 of Duality

“We’re what happens to naughty boys,” I taunted, dragging the crowbar in my hand against the concrete. The screeching sound vibrated off the alley walls in a menacing taunt. “And as far as who you are…” I lifted the crowbar and pointed it at Cory. “Well, I’m afraid we don’t give a shit about that.”

Cory’s shoulders squared, and that cocky grin crawled back across his face the instant he realized I was a woman. “You’ll give a shit when my father gets ahold of you.”

I wanted to laugh again but kept it in, then looked around dramatically. “Well, I don’t see him anywhere? Do you?”

Cory’s retort died halfway to his lips. A vein jumped at his temple, and he charged at me with a yell. I sidestepped his charge and swung the crowbar, hitting him in the gut. The wheezing gasp he sucked in was music to my ears. He staggered, then crumpled to the ground.

Devin rushed me next, but Danny pushed past me. “Can’t let you have all the fun,” he shot over his shoulder. I rolled my eyes but smiled. Growing up together, we were more like siblings than cousins. If it were up to Danny, he would have locked me in an ivory tower years ago.

Edwin turned to Grace and held up his hands. “Please don’t hurt me.”

“Turn around,” Grace barked. He obeyed, and she shoved him into the wall. His head hit the brick with a rewarding smack.

Tires squealed to a stop behind me, and I dropped into a defensive crouch. Izzy leapt from the vehicle, and I rose. Confident that Angela was taken care of, I turned my attention back to the problems before me.

Cory was still groaning on the ground in front of me, but making no movements to get up. I frowned. I’d been sure he was going to be more of a fight so I could work out some of this tension, but all rich assholes were the same. The second someone bigger and badder came along, they turned into whimpering messes.

Danny laughed, standing over an unconscious Devin. “Don’t pout. I’ll spar with you this weekend if you’re itching for a fight.”

I huffed. “I would rather spar with Grace. At least she won’t take it easy on me.”

“Never,” Grace promised, expertly tying Edwin’s hand behind him. “Now, what did you want to do with these three?”

“I believe Maya had some ideas.” I smirked.

“You bet I do,” Maya said, scrambling down the fire escape.

Fifteen minutes later, Maya was barely holding in their laughter as we posed the men in the alleyway. Danny had been kind enough to retrieve a can of spray paint from the SUV, then wrote “I like to drug and rape women” above their prone forms. All three men were bound, gagged, and completely naked. Rage burned in Cory’s and Devin’s eyes while Edwin just cried. Thedumpster the staff used was in the alley on the other side of the building, and with the overwhelming noise from the club, the three shit-stains would be lucky to be found by morning. By then, the pictures, videos, and other evidence we had collected would be posted on the web, courtesy of Liam’s bot accounts, and their lives would be ruined. We would also be turning the evidence over to the DA, who we had confirmed was a good egg. Since Cory’s father was a prominent judge, the reality was the case might not ever go anywhere. But the evidence we were blasting over the internet? Well, that was forever.

It’s not the justice the women deserved, but it was something. It was more than most, including myself, ever got.

“One of these days, we’ll be able to make them disappear, permanently,” Danny muttered.

I shrugged. I felt the same, but killing them and disposing of their bodies well enough that it couldn’t be traced back to us required resources that the Archers didn’t have. But never say never.

“You need to get going if you want to get a few hours of sleep.” Grace walked up next to me.

I looked down at my watch and groaned. 1:30 a.m. If I was lucky, I was going to get three hours of sleep before I had to get up and get ready for my other life. And I couldn’t afford for my bosses to think anything was amiss. Not when the work I did there directly affected the success and failures of our missions to cut the rot out of our city.

CHAPTER 2

EVELYN

Click, click, click, click.

My heels tapped an even staccato over the white marble lobby floors of Stone Dynamics Security.

“Good morning, Miss Harper,” Roy, the night guard, greeted me.

“Good morning, Roy.” I smiled at the friendly, weathered face. Roy had been a staple at the security desk every morning for the last six years I had worked at SDS.

“Have a good day now,” Roy called as I swiped my badge against the scanner next to the elevator.

Once inside the elevator, I swiped my badge again and pressed the button for the seventeenth floor. Only then did I let the yawn that I had been holding in escape. My eyes burned, and I blinked quickly, trying to force away the wave of exhaustion that had me swaying slightly in my heels. Fuck, burning the candle at both ends was getting old. Maybe my lieutenants were right. Surely, I could give some of the missions over to them. The second I thought that, my stomach clenched, and I shook my head. No. I was the leader of the Archers. I needed to be there and make sure everything went smoothly. This was my mission. It was my responsibility.

The elevator chimed as it opened on the seventeenth floor. I walked the familiar path to my desk, the clack of my heels muted as they sank into the luxurious carpet that decorated the executive floor. I dropped my bag onto my desk, which was positioned right in the middle of the executive suite, then headed through the door behind it to the kitchenette.

Stone Dynamics Security was owned by the Stone brothers, Alexander, Marcus, and Sebastian. The three brothers had quickly built the firm into one of the premier security firms in the city. They worked long hours to get the firm where it was today, and that meant I worked long hours as their top executive assistant. Technically, they had four executive assistants, but I was the lead, which meant everything passed through me. I checked my watch as I flipped on the light to the kitchen. 5:35 a.m. on the dot. I had twenty-five minutes until Alexander arrived. Alexander, the eldest brother, always arrived first at 6 a.m. Marcus, the middle brother, would arrive at 7:30 after his workout, and Sebastian, the youngest, rolled in somewhere between 8:30 and 9.