Page 12 of Dichotomy

Although Sebastian asked the question, she directed her response to Marcus. He paused, then shook his head.

“Then what’s the point?”

“I don’t know. I kind of thought you were going to fight more with Marcus, as that seems to be y’all’s foreplay.” Sebastian wiggled his eyebrows at her.

“If it weren’t a crime against the universe, I would throw this at you.” She gestured at him with her forkful of lasagna. Her eyes flashed to Marcus, though, and I could see the curve in her lips. She enjoyed their banter probably as much as he did, by the way he grinned at her.

“Sebastian, let her eat,” I broke in before he could reply. We were pushing our luck already enough tonight.

Sebastian rolled his eyes but nodded. I didn’t miss Evelyn sticking her tongue out at him, and from Adrian’s choked laughter, he didn’t either. Evelyn had really been coming out of her shell the last several weeks, and I loved every glimpse of her personality that we got to see shining out from behind the mask she always used to seem to wear around us.

Everyone was hungry enough that the conversation died down. It was going to be a long week of dealing with Citadel and the FIA while also researching everything we could about the Kingfisher in our limited spare time. After dinner, Adrian and Marcus cleaned up. Sebastian refilled Evelyn’s wine, and we migrated over to the couch. Sebastian flicked on a show that Evelyn had confessed to liking. I placed a set of key fobs down on the coffee table in front of Evelyn.

“This one’s for our apartment upstairs. You’ll need to use this one for the elevator.” I pointed out each as I explained them to her. “This one is for Adrian’s apartment, and this set is for your apartment.” I paused and let her take it in. “I know we kind of forced you into this, but we still want this to be your home and your safe space.”

Evelyn’s eyes shone in the soft light, and she scooped up the keys. “Thank you,” she said, giving me that soft smile I had come to crave from her.

Adrian and Marcus joined us on the couch, and we watched an episode of the show before Evelyn started to yawn. I stood, and Sebastian shut off the TV. Sebastian gathered her up in a bighug, tilted her head back and kissed her deeply, then whispered good night. She stood there stunned as he released her, and Adrian laughed when he tugged her into his arms. He whispered something in her ear that had her blushing, then hugged her and kissed her on the forehead. He pushed her in Marcus’s direction, and she stood awkwardly in front of Marcus for a few moments. He tugged her into his arms slowly, giving her a chance to pull away, but she just melted into him. He hugged her tightly and whispered something in her ear as well before kissing her hair. They headed out, and I pulled Evelyn into my arms until her back was against my chest.

“Want me to make you a cup of tea while you get ready for bed? Do you want to take a shower? Did Sebastian show you where everything is?”

“A cup of tea sounds amazing,” she said softly. “No, and yes to the other two.”

I smiled down at her, kissing her forehead before nudging her towards the hallway. I brewed her a cup of chamomile tea, hoping it would help her sleep in a new place tonight. Once it was finished brewing, I walked down the hallway to the master bedroom and knocked on the partially closed door.

“Come in,” she called.

She had traded her professional clothing for a pair of silky sleep shorts and a large shirt that I recognized as one of Adrian’s. “Where did you all even find a bed this size?” she asked, gesturing at the ridiculously oversized bed.

It was an Alaskan King, stretching nine feet by nine feet, and had been a bitch to get down the hallway, but we had managed it. It made the oversized modern master suite feel cozy, and it was covered in a peacock green comforter and a sheet set that matched her walls at the manor. A touch of home that Sebastian had insisted on.

“Sebastian,” I said simply. I was pretty sure Sebastian had ordered it weeks ago, but I didn’t tell her that.

She took the cup of tea from me and sipped it. Her eyes fluttered shut, and she moaned softly. I ignored the tent in the front of my sweatpants as I sat next to her.

“Did you want to sleep alone tonight?” I was content to give her space if she wanted it. We had pushed her enough today. But I also wanted to keep her nightmares away.

Warmth filled me when she didn’t even hesitate. “Stay.”

CHAPTER 7

EVELYN

The silence made me want to scream.

The modern apartment, with its stainless steel and cement flooring, echoed my footsteps as I paced back and forth from the kitchen to the office in search of something to do. There weren’t even any decorative books on the fancy coffee table in front of the TV for me to browse through. Okay, I really shouldn’t complain about the apartment. It was a beautiful apartment, and the guys had done their best over the last week to make it feel homey for me while I couldn’t go back to the manor. Comfy blankets in jeweled tones were thrown across the back of a couch that felt like sitting on a cloud. Even if Adrian regularly tried to hide the coffeemaker, they were still trying to make this place a home, and having dinner with them the last few nights this week at the table had admittedly been a high point in a really long week.

But the silence this morning was starting to get to me. Adrian and Alexander were determined to enforce “work-life boundaries” for me after learning just how little sleep I got over the last six years. Which meant that I was home on a weekend while they were all at the office finishing up the mountain of work we had been dealing with all week.

And it was too damn quiet.

The apartment wasn’t the only quiet thing driving me crazy. We hadn’t heard a peep from the FIA all week. Other than being tailed every time we left the building, there hadn’t been a word from Agent Dominic Hayes and Agent Mike Holden since our interview on Monday. It was giving me the “heebie jeebies“, as Izzy called them. Liam and Sebastian hadn’t been able to dig up anything from the FIA’s servers. It was like their whole investigation into the Archers was being conducted off official agency servers. Other than the memo directing the start of the investigation, there was no formal documentation anywhere. And that made me nervous. The FIA had to have had something to launch the investigation. So what did they have?

We were still no closer to answers, and unfortunately, that meant that everything had to be business as usual.

I wanted to crawl out of my skin.

I hadn’t anticipated that putting my professional mask back on would be this hard. It felt like cutting off my right arm having to go back to just being Evelyn Harper, executive assistant to SDS’s leadership. Not having the outlet of Eve Harper, leader of the Archers, was wearing on me more than I thought it would.