Page 36 of Duality

Sebastian’s mouth opened, like he was going to say something, but I gently shoved him back to the computer before tapping on my comms again. “Okay, Liam, back to mission comms.”

“We’re not done talking about this—” Marcus promised before he was cut off.

“Oops,” Liam said, and I could hear the grin in his voice.

I rolled my eyes but didn’t respond, mentally thanking him for always having my back. Instead, I moved to the office door as Sebastian finished behind me. Grace raised an eyebrow at me from across the room. I nodded once, I was okay even if grief rattled sharply around in my chest. I felt more than heard Sebastian coming up behind me. His movements were silent, but the warm heat of his body pressed into my back.

“All done with the first computer,” Sebastian said softly.

“I’ve got it up and running,” Liam confirmed. “Moving on to computers two and three.”

From our stakeout over the last few days, we’d identified three people who were likely to have more access than most into Citadel’s systems. Two of the three were supervisors, while one was in HR. Hopefully, with access to those three computers, we could start sorting through the information Citadel had access to and figure out where our leak came from.

Retracing our footsteps, we crept down a flight of stairs to the second floor. “Guard Two has re-entered the building and should be headed to the break room,” Liam said softly as we paused in the stairway. I pushed the door open, the soft click echoing in the hallway. This floor was a mirror of the third floor, except the HR supervisor’s office was in the back.

“I’m going to place some bugs in the break room,” Grace murmured.

Sometimes the best intelligence was gathered from overheard conversations where people thought they were safe. And everyone always congregated in the break rooms and bitched about work, so there was a chance we could get something valuable from those bugs.

I nodded. “Liam, walk me through what Sebastian is doing. We need to split up and move faster.” It wouldn’t be long before the guards would do their rounds again.

“Got it, Boss Lady.”

I slipped into the office next to the stairwell. This office was for the director of operations at this building. It was much larger than the office upstairs, complete with a bathroom and a small closet that I cleared before sitting behind the computer desk. Liam walked me through plugging in the drive, and I leaned back in the chair as the code started running.

“All good in here?” Sebastian poked his head in. I nodded.

“Are you done already?”

He nodded. “Easy peasy.”

“Well, you just jinxed it,” Liam drawled. “The guards just left the control room and are making their rounds early.”

Fuck.

I glared at Sebastian, who held up his hands. “Sorry, sorry.”

I motioned him inside quickly and hit the lights. “Grace?”

“I’m in the breakroom. I’m good.”

“You’re in a cabinet, aren’t you?” I smirked. It wasn’t the first time we’d had to take cover. Grace could fold her lithe frame into the smallest of places, including cabinets.

“Fuck off.”

I powered down the computer and made sure the screen was dark.

“Hurry,” Liam hissed. “They’re about to come out of the stairwell.”

Sebastian yanked me into the closet just as we heard the door to the stairwell open. The closet was small and cramped, and I tried not to panic as my face pressed against a coat that smelled like mothballs and mold. Gentle hands turned me around until I was pressed against Sebastian’s chest. I wasn’t sure that was much of an improvement, but at least Sebastian smelled better, like bergamot and chocolate.

Even with his arms around me, the small, tight space had my breath quickening as I fought to control my body’s panic response. Small dark spaces had never bothered me growing up. But after the…incident, I hated the feeling of being trapped.

“Shhhh, I got you.” Sebastian’s words were barely more than a whisper in my ear, then he cupped the back of my head. His fingers moved in a gentle massage, the sensations distracting me from my panic.

“Hang tight,” Liam said softly in our ears. “They should be gone in a few minutes. Maybe five.”

Five minutes? I wasn’t sure I was going to make it that long. Panic rose inside me again, and my breath quickened. Sebatian’s fingers tightened on the back of my neck. “Liam, shut off our comms until the coast is clear.”