Page 39 of Duality

I wasn’t naïve; I knew the likelihood of betrayal in any organization was high. Although with the Archers’ mission, most people felt a stronger sense of loyalty to our organization. We helped people when they were at their most vulnerable and had no one to turn to. I wasn’t saying that it was impossible for someone to betray us because they were angry at us; we had definitely failed before. But the more likely scenario, which I had discussed with Izzy, was we had been betrayed for money. So there had to be a clue in the hundreds of invoices Citadel issued or paid in their systems. I just had to find it.

Although the lasagna was delicious, I barely tasted the last few bites as I went over the last set of documents in my head. They were shipping documents, but maybe there was a double meaning I wasn’t catching there.

Working on autopilot, I pushed back in my seat, gathering my plate to take to the sink and wash. I startled when Adrian took them from me. He frowned, exchanging a glance with Alexander. I didn’t like that the two of them were ganging up on me. Adrian had always been closer to Marcus than to Sebastian and Alexander, although all of them got along well. But in the last week or so, I noticed he had gotten closer to Alexander. Their bossy caretaker personalities blended well, but they were wasted on me.

“We were thinking of watching that new action movie tonight,” Alexander said.

Somehow in the last few days, my living room had been cleaned out and a new sectional delivered, along with a new TV. Danny swore it had been delivered using our usual channels to maintain the secrecy of my home’s location, but he had been light on any additional details.

“You all go ahead,” I said firmly. “I’m going to keep working.” I was prepared for them to fight me on this, but Adrian just nodded.

“We’ll clean up and join you,” he said.

“You can watch the movie,” I protested. Some space was probably good for us. Good for me, at least.

“Nope, you’re not alone.” Sebastian grinned at me, echoing his words from our…interlude in the closet the other night.

Sebastian and Alexander joined me in the dining room, while Adrian and Marcus cleaned up. I didn’t realize I had drunk all my water until Adrian set a steaming cup of coffee down next to me.

“It’s half decaf,” he said with a smirk when I reached for it eagerly.

I narrowed my eyes at him but took a sip, anyway. The bitter warmth spread through me, and I sighed. Perfect. Now to find this needle in a haystack.

It was quiet for the next hour. The sound of paper rustling and cups being picked up and set down were the only sounds. My eyes caught on a line from the pending invoice I was reading.Frontline Solutionsreceived fifty grand for “situational management assessment.”

The invoice was innocent enough, but I had seen Frontline Solutions before. And we were fucked. Well, maybe not.

“What is it? What did you find?” Adrian asked, picking up on my rigid stance.

I breathed out heavily. This could go one of two ways, and it really depended on sibling love. But first, I needed to make a phone call.

“I need to call a Ghost.”

CHAPTER 19

EVELYN

Iclasped my hands behind my back, my stance loose as I tried not to shift my feet. I took a deep breath and blew it out, forcing my shoulders to relax.

“This is insanity,” Marcus said for the fiftieth time this morning.

Sebastian and Danny groaned while the others shook their heads. We were standing in the Archers HQ, waiting for our guests to arrive.

“You’ve said that already,” Adrian pointed out from his spot against the wall. He leaned against the side wall, his arms folded and his stance casual, but I had no doubt that if this turned out to be an unfriendly visit, he could spring into action in an instant. A trait that had no business being that attractive.

“And I’ll keep fucking saying it,” Marcus said, “Until it dawns on your thick skulls that this is a terrible idea. They’re a mercenary group, for fuck’s sake. A mercenary group that took out a hit on us.”

“They didn’t take out a hit on you,” I corrected. “They accepted a contract from Citadel for information gathering on you.”

Marcus glared at me. “Like that’s much better. They’re actively working with Citadel, and you invited them here? Like I said, insanity.”

I blew out a breath as irritation swelled in me. “I’ve explained this no less than ten times. Carter is a friend of a friend. Having a conversation with him is in our best interests.”

I left out the part that the Archers had saved Carter’s sister, Lily, two years ago. We hadn’t known her identity at the time as the sister of the leader of one of the scariest mercenary groups on the black market. She had been part of a human trafficking ring we had busted up that was kidnapping high school girls for this rich guy’s parties. When we rescued the girls, she had called her brother to come pick her up. Her very frantic brother, who had revealed his identity to us as the leader of one of the most infamous mercenary groups.

Thus began a tentative working partnership where the Ghosts would contact us if women and children were involved in their missions, and we helped relocate them and gave them new identities. Carter had also granted me a personal favor for saving his sister. I was about to call in that favor to try to keep the guys alive. We could protect them against a lot of threats, but against the Ghosts? We would struggle and might even fail, and failure wasn’t an option.

“So what’s the plan? You’re just going to ask him nicely to not kill us?” Marcus was on a roll.