Page 18 of Duality

I cursed internally. If the situation were reversed, I would understand his hesitance, but we had to get out of here. Now.

“I actually am an assistant,” I shot back. “And right now, I’m trying to save your lives. So get in.”

Sebastian clasped a hand on Marcus’s shoulder. “Why don’t we argue about it and all the secrets Evie has been keeping somewhere where people aren’t trying to kill us?”

“How do we know she isn’t trying to kill us?” Marcus rounded on him, and I started getting twitchy. His raised voice was starting to draw attention, and sooner or later, one of those guys with rifles was going to find us.

Before I could argue with him further though,freaking Adrianwrapped an arm around his neck, squeezing until Marcus slumped in his arms. We all froze, staring at him. Adrian had always been loyal to Marcus. He considered him a brother, which made what he did that more shocking. While I knew I could count on Adrian to help keep the brothers safe, choking out Marcus until he dropped unconscious was not on my bingo card. He didn’t miss a beat, picking Marcus up over his shoulder and carrying him to the rear of the SUV, depositing him into the cargo space.

I snapped out of it. I could deal with Adrian’s actions later. I opened the back seat doors. “Get in.”

Sebastian clambered in first, but Alexander hesitated. Movement over his shoulder drew my attention, and I raised the gun in my hand without blinking, firing twice over his shoulder. He froze when I pointed the gun towards him and fired. A thud hit the ground behind him as I dropped one of the guys from the SUVs.

I grabbed his suit jacket and pulled him towards the SUV. “Now!” The gunfire had drawn attention, and shouts echoed in the alleyway.

Adrian climbed in behind Izzy as I shoved Alexander into the second row, slamming the door behind him. I dove into the passenger seat as bullets started flying. “Get us out of here!”

Izzy slammed her foot down on the gas pedal, tires squealing as bullets peppered the sides of the SUV. Luckily, the bulletproof exterior did its job, and soon we were speeding out of the warehouse district.

“You good?” Izzy checked in with me as she took a turn so sharp it felt like the SUV tilted onto two wheels.

“I’m fine. Guys?”

No one answered me, so I turned in my seat. Adrian nodded when I looked at him. Sebastian practically bounced in his seat, a wide grin on his face. “With you as my avenging angel, my darling Evie, I am perfect!”

Izzy raised her eyebrows and shot a look at me.Evie?She mouthed. The one time Liam had tried to call me Evie, I had nearly blown a gasket on him. I had apologized afterwards, but everyone knew not to call me that. So the fact that I let Sebastian call me that had mirth dancing in Izzy’s brown eyes.

“How is tall, dark, and handsome?” a voice crackled through the SUV’s speakers. The screen on the dashboard said “Command”, so I’m sure the whole team was with Liam.

“Are you referring to Alexander or Marcus?” I asked drily.

“Mr. Top Boss,” Liam’s voice purred. “I got to watch Daddy Adrian put Marcus to sleep.”

Izzy and I groaned. Liam was incorrigible and came up with the most outlandish nicknames for people. It seemed even in this tense situation, my bosses were not immune. Okay, maybe my former bosses.

“I’m fine.” Alexander’s voice was blank, the voice he used when negotiating with clients he didn’t particularly like. I winced. I was so fired. “But I would like to know what is going on and where we are going.”

“Eve? What are your orders? What do you want us to do?” Grace’s voice came through the speakers.

I rubbed my face with my free hand and sighed. There was no putting this genie back in the bottle, even if I wanted to. Citadel had already killed two of mine. I refused to let anyone else die on my watch. There was no going back.

“It’s time to Burn it to the Ground.”

CHAPTER 10

ALEXANDER

As the SUV squealed away, I struggled to find that icy calm I had perfected over the years at the absolute clusterfuck in front of me. Evelyn Harper, our assistant of six years, a woman who mastered efficiency and poise and ran our office like a tight ship, had been keeping secrets. Dangerous secrets if the last thirty minutes were anything to go by. Who was she really? What did she want with us? With SDS? Were we safe with her?

Immediately, I dismissed the last question. We were safe with her for now. Although the image of her pointing a gun at me would be seared into my brain forever. I hadn’t expected the bullets whistling past my ear and the thud of the body that hit the ground behind me. She had saved my life. But for what reason?

Before everything started, she had said one word to Adrian. Archers. Was she a part of the organization? The leader? Whoever was on the phone clearly deferred to her, but just how high up in the organization was she?

I should be furious, but it wasn’t fury running through my veins but fear and maybe a little bit of awe. We dealt in a dangerous world and had made a few enemies over the years. Itwas one of the reasons I tried to keep her at arm’s length. Why all of us had. I wasn’t blind. Evelyn was an attractive woman, but because she worked for us, she was a potential target. She would have become a bigger target if people knew she was important to us.

Our previous assistant hadn’t inspired these feelings in us. Sure, we cared for Ethel like we cared for any other of our employees, but Ethel had been a woman in her sixties and had been content to just schedule meetings and grab us coffee. She had been the one to recommend Evelyn to the role, and Evelyn had made it her own, quickly becoming an indispensable part of our business, and now I wondered if that was all for a different purpose.

The revving of motorcycles behind us had Evelyn twisting in her seat. I envied the cool, calm mask she wore when it felt like my whole world was rocked under my feet. I twisted in my seat as well, ignoring Sebastian’s coiled energy next to her. He was already obsessed with Evelyn. A few years ago, he had come up with this crazy idea that we should all date her. While Evelyn was gorgeous and smart, she was also our employee, and at the time we had been dealing with a client who needed protection from some bad players, so I didn’t want her to be a target. I had spent the last few years trying to contain him over fear of being slapped with a harassment lawsuit, but now that he had gotten a glimpse of her secrets… Well, my brother could be obsessive. In the business world it served him well, but now I worried it would burn away the tenuous grip he had on his sanity.