Page 56 of Dichotomy

Sebastian’s voice crackled through my ear. “Mission successful.”

“Bold of you to assume I’m not the distraction.” I winked at him, sashaying out of the room.

I was learning to lean on my men. Letting them handle the breaking and entering while I played the distraction was a good place to start.

I exited the room, heading back to the party. The door to the first powder room opened as I passed, and Donna Keesecker, a former client of SDS’s, stepped out. “Evelyn, darling.” Her curly white hair bounced as she enveloped me in her arms and a cloud of Chanel Noº5. “It’s so good to see you again.”

“Mrs. Keesecker,” I greeted warmly.

The older lady was a firecracker and ran several charities around the city dedicated to ending food insecurity. She hired SDS to outfit her charities with security after a series of break-ins happened. The police ended up arresting a young man for the break-ins. Mrs. Keesecker decided not to press charges when it was revealed the young man was just trying to provide for his younger siblings after their parents had died in a car accident. Detective Patel had given me a heads-up in case wecould intervene, but Mrs. Keesecker stepped in instead and took temporary guardianship of the kids, providing them with food, shelter, and love. She was a treasure, and the world needed more people like her.

“Please, Evelyn, call me Donna.” She waved her hands. “How are you? I saw you come in with Marcus Stone.” She waggled her eyebrows at me while she looped her arm through mine. “You have to give me all the details. I need to live vicariously through you young people.”

“From what I hear, a certain Mr. Dennis Eli is courting you, so not sure how much you’re missing out on,” I teased her softly.

The older gentleman was a wealthy widow, and the two had been spotted around the city together.

She laughed. “Maybe we can compare stories instead. If young Marcus needs any assistance, Dennis would be happy to talk to him. The things that man can do…” She trailed off and waggled her eyebrows at me as we stepped into the crowded room again.

Laughter bubbled out of me as she led me to a table with a few of her friends. I scanned the room for Marcus. He was chatting in the corner with a few men, one of whom looked like Nathaniel Drake from the groundbreaking that Alexander and I had attended. It made sense that he would be invited as it really was a who’s who guest list.

I chatted with Donna and her friends for a few more minutes before Marcus cut across the room to me. Dominic had slipped back into the room at some point and gave me a discreet nod as we made our rounds. His gaze was a heavy weight. He had promised his help, but in this room, surrounded by all of the judge’s connections, it felt like an insurmountable battle. Would his help be enough?

CHAPTER 24

EVELYN

“We were right,” Liam said, his face looming over me on the TV screen in the executive conference room.

Alexander had blocked access to the top floor of SDS without an escort and let me take over the executive conference room to go through the judge’s hard drive. Sebastian and Adrian had also taken pictures of all the documents that were in the judge’s safe as well. They had been printed out, and I was taping the last of them to the glass walls of the conference room when Liam spoke up.

“About what?”

“The judge is dirty. Likedirtydirty,” Liam said. News articles flashed up on the screen next to his head. “Like has taken bribes and bribed juries.”

Each article detailed a surprising outcome for a case, and in each case, the judge was the same. Judge Jefferson.

“Is there proof?”

“There are like twelve offshore bank account statements I’ve found so far,” Liam said. “There are large deposits into the accounts in the days immediately after the verdicts came through. So I’m guessing, yes. It’ll take me time to findthe sources of the payments, though. They’re layered in shell corporations.”

“Fuck.” I rubbed my temple. The door opened, and Sebastian slipped into the room.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his blue eyes narrowed on me.

“Oh, you know, just the confirmation that our legal system is bought and paid for,” Liam drawled.

He filled Sebastian in as I studied the cases. Fuck, I knew some of these cases and some of these people. They were cases the Archers had tried to put through the legal system, sure that we would win. Our legal team wasn’t big, just a couple of lawyers who donated their time, but no one liked losing cases, and some of the lawyers had stopped picking up the phone after we’d lost these. How had we not seen this?

“Because there’s always so much going on,” Liam said, reading me well. “Don’t beat yourself up, Boss Lady. We would have found out about the judge eventually.”

“After he rigged how many more cases?” I asked.

I wasn’t angry. I was exhausted. The weight of the uphill battles we fought every day was an anvil crushing my chest. We fought hard, and we won some battles, but it was never enough. There was too much corruption.

Warm hands pressed gently down on my shoulders, and Sebastian’s thumbs dug into the tension in my neck. My head dropped forward.

“We’re going to get him,” he promised. “And then we’ll help you with the rest. You’re not alone anymore.”