Page 53 of Anything But Convenient

We had all rushed down the stairs at the sound of Damari yelling out‘run’to Archie. We burst through the stairwell door onto the main floor, and it was chaos. People were running and screaming, and the security guys were rushing in the front entrance.

Through the glass, I could see the mayhem of what was left behind. People had abandoned the street and the coffee and snacks that Damari had gone to retrieve were spread about. The man himself was being held up by Jim, one of the security guys, and he looked two seconds away from passing out.

When Ronan bellowed his name, he took off for the other man. I couldn't take my eyes off the scene outside.

My husband, my other half, had just been standing there. He was within arm's reach, and they took him from me.

Rage unlike anything I've ever experienced tore through me. If my getting injured had been the worst moment of my life, this eclipsed it a million times over.

Archie wasn't built for this world. He was not used to interrogation and torture. He hadn't been trained in it. And now these people had taken him from me.

I feared for what he would be going through, for the panic he would feel and the fear driving him. Part of me hoped that he would fight back. I knew he could be a terror when he wanted to be. He would give them hell.

More than that, I wanted him to be safe. I needed to know that no matter what, he wasn't going to do anything that would get him killed.

Because we were going to rescue him.

We would get him back.

But it would take time.

Memphis said this Mordecai person was a ghost. And ghosts didn't leave trails. Still, I knew that we would find Archie. We had to. Life wasn’t worth living without him around.

If I had to demand they help me, just like I helped them find their men, I would. Hell, if I had to remind them that I no longer had a voice, and I had taken a bullet for one of them, I would. There was no tool, no tactic, that I would not put on the table to get Archie back to me.

And once I had him back, I was never going to let him go again.

Tank let out a shrill whistle. “Team, upstairs now. Jim, secure the main floor. No one in or out. I want witness statements and everything.”

Jim nodded. “The police will be here soon.”

Tank gave a feral sort of grin. “I fully expect them to be. Maybe they'll actually be worth a fucking ounce of service.”

It wasn't strange to hear Tank’s disdain for law enforcement, especially at the local level. He had had a few bad experiences through the years, mostly because we didn't really believe in red tape. It was a hindrance to the kind of work we did.

Oftentimes, that same red tape meant to protect people was the thing that let them down and sent them our way in need of service. The stalker who wouldn't give up, yet the client couldn't get a proper restraining order. The woman who was being abused so badly, yet the police could do nothing because it was his word against hers.

Every instance fueled the hatred Tank had and made him better at what he did. It also made him hesitant to trust local authorities.

That didn't mean he didn't know how to play the game, though. He would say what we needed to be said and toe the line if it meant keeping them off our backs so we could find Archie. So we could finish what we started with the Gilded Ones.

We made our way back upstairs, this time with the elevator. Once we were in the war room, Ronan held Damari tight to his chest. The other man was crying, his voice a whisper as he apologized over and over and over again.

I wrote down"It's not your fault,"and slid the paper over. Ronan read it, then tried to show it to his boyfriend. Damari wiped his eyes enough to look at it, then bit his lip as he turned to me.

“I appreciate you saying so, but it still feels like I did something wrong. Like I'm the reason this happened. Had we just come straight inside or had we taken the time to go through the doors instead of stopping outside to talk, this would be different. I was just being lazy about not wanting to go all the way up to the floor and then back down. Now Archie's not here.”

He paused to blow his nose.

“He’s with those people. Do we even know who took him?”

Memphis gave a brisk nod as he typed away on his computer. “We know who. We just don't know where. I'm lacking the proper information I need on this person given how well hidden they've been.”

Damari frowned. “That doesn't bode well for us. How do we find someone that's that well-hidden?”

All eyes turned to Tank. He sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. “Everyone looks at me like I'm a fucking magician, and I can just pull a rabbit out of my ass.”

Cohen choked. “I mean, I don't know about a rabbit, but —”

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