Page 37 of Duality

“Are you sure?” Liam questioned.

“Do it,” Sebastian instructed. I heard the soft click in my ear, then the comms went silent.

“Talk to me, Evie,” Sebastian whispered. “What can I do?”

I trembled against him as I squeezed my eyes shut. “You can get me out of this closet.”

He huffed softly. “I would if I could. But I’m not leaving you alone.” He squeezed me tighter, and some of the panic eased. “You’re not alone,” he murmured. “You’ll never be alone again.”

Tears burned against my eyelids. How I wanted to believe his words. But they were meaningless platitudes only meant tosoothe me so I wouldn’t blow the mission. They didn’t mean anything. They couldn’t mean anything.

Sebastian’s hands slipped from the back of my head, and his thumb brushed my cheekbone. “What can I do?” he asked as my shaking got worse.

“Distract me,” I murmured, my breathing shaky. Fuck, what a time to fall apart.

“Gladly,” Sebastian murmured.

I expected him to keep talking. I did not expect his lips on mine.

His lips were warm and sure as he took advantage of my shock. I was torn between wanting to push him away and pull him closer. He decided for me when he tugged me closer. The press of his warm body against mine had me gasping, and he slipped his tongue in my mouth to tangle with mine. My entire world narrowed down to the feel of him against me, his lips against mine, the heat of his chest under my palms.

It felt like hours passed by as I lost myself in the taste of him. Our comms crackled to life with a small click.

“All clear. But I would get moving now.”

I shook my head, breaking away from Sebastian and trying to clear my brain of the pleasurable cobwebs that had filled it.

“Did you get the computer cloned?” I asked softly, feeling Sebastian’s eyes on me like a heated caress as I stepped out of the closet, putting some needed distance between our bodies.

“I finished while you two were in the closet,” Liam said, something snarky about to come out of his mouth when Sebastian cut him off.

“Good. Give us a clear path out of here.” Sebastian’s eyes were hard in the low light as he stared at me. There was heat in his eyes but also something else, something I couldn’t identify yet. Did he regret the kiss? He’d probably only kissed me to prevent me from freaking out, right?

Except when we exited the office and met up with Grace, he captured my hand with his, and he didn’t let go until we were back in the car with Adrian. The mission had been successful. The data we were collecting from Citadel’s servers would be invaluable. But instead of thinking about that, my head was filled with how good it felt to be pressed against him.

These guys keep uncovering little pieces of me, but what would happen when they realize that all my edges are sharp?

CHAPTER 18

EVELYN

Ijolted as movement out of the corner of my eye startled me. Adrian placed a glass of water by my elbow, and his eyebrow arched. I was jumpier than usual, probably due to the lack of sleep over the last few days. I was used to running on minimal sleep, but the two to three hours a night I was getting was no longer cutting it, and my nerves were shot.

“Fifteen more minutes until dinner’s ready,” Alexander said, standing in the doorway of the kitchen. He wiped his hands on the towel he was holding, and I blinked at him, momentarily distracted by the tight white t-shirt he was wearing. I was still getting used to seeing him without a suit on.

My eyes burned, and the words were blurring on the paper in front of me, but I couldn’t stop yet. The last few days had been information overload as we sorted through everything we’d downloaded from the Citadel servers. Liam had a program running for keywords and identifying the people and companies listed on the invoices, but I insisted on doing things manually as well. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Liam’s program to catch the obvious things, but we didn’t really know what we were looking for. The mountain of paperwork in front of me wasn’t gettingany smaller, and I couldn’t stop now. We had to find the needle in the haystack that would help us identify the source of the leak. I couldn’t keep my people or the guys safe unless I could plug up the leak Citadel had found.

“I’m not done yet,” I replied to Alexander.

He exchanged a look with Adrian that had my hackles rising. I got that they were used to being in charge, but this was my domain. We were on my turf.

After the weekend, Alexander had alerted a few members of SDS’s management about the real reason behind their disappearance. He hadn’t told them details, just that they were safe and close by and working to figure out what Citadel was up to. He had some SDS resources working on tracking down the leads we had found in the paperwork, but the brothers were hesitant to bring them in fully. Marcus had brought up the concern of Citadel having had planted a spy in their ranks. He hadn’t looked at me while he said it, but I knew it was a concern of theirs. I couldn’t blame them, but it didn’t make having them in my space any easier. We needed to get this wrapped up quickly so things could go back to normal. Well, whatever our new normal was going to look like.

“You need to eat,” Adrian said. “You skipped lunch.”

Like a traitor, my stomach chose that moment to growl loudly. I shot him a glare. Adrian’s lips quirked, but he wisely chose not to say anything. I huffed. Fine, a half-hour break couldn’t hurt. I could get more coffee.

However, when I entered the kitchen, my coffee maker was nowhere to be found. I glared at Adrian, who didn’t seem fazed.