Page 57 of Anything But Convenient

I should have taken his words for the truth that they were. People did always try to take from us. They wanted what we had, wanted to tear us down. They wanted to stop our advances against them.

But they always forgot that good prevailed over evil.

And while we weren't cookie cutter clean in how we handled business; we were definitely the good guys.

I drummed my fingers on the desk as I searched through the paperwork Memphis assigned to me. He was on the computer scanning through various programs while the rest of us were shuffling through different notes and photographs, hoping forany hint of who Mordecai truly was. We were digging through all the Gilded Ones notes we had so far.

Every little crumb of information about them was getting touched again in hopes that we would learn something new this time.

I had no doubt that what we needed was in here, that the clues would be obvious just as soon as we found them. But we had to find them first.

We had to find him.

As frustrated as I was, I remained steady. Each line I scanned and each photo I worked through was another step in the right direction.

I could hear Memphis bitching in the background. He complained about every little thing after realizing something was amiss. Even after Sinclair showed up, he was still upset.

We had suggested that Sinclair shut down early. With the fire at the other cafe and the increase in customers, it wasn't safe for him to keep operating. Not for him, his employees, or even his customers.

Once he knew that, and he heard about Archie being taken, it was a no-brainer for him to close up and come home. Or rather, come to the office.

He and Damari were tucked in a corner looking through their own version of paperwork. They wanted to help. They said they should be useful in some way instead of just sitting around. I knew Damari felt guilty. He didn't say it out loud, but there was a look in his eye that I recognized. It was the same one I wore whenever I couldn't stop Brad from getting to Sinclair, from getting shot.

Their version of paperwork was a lot less gruesome than what we were going through. Some of it I recognized, but quite a bit was stuff that Memphis had ruled out early on. It was then I realized just how much my friend had taken on. There was stuffhere that no one should ever have to look at, yet he had filtered through it for us because he didn't want us to have to suffer.

As fate would have it, we wound up having to look anyway.

Still, I could appreciate the kindness he was trying to give us.

I focused back on the page as I attempted to stop letting my mind wander. There was no point in hashing through everyone's feelings or motives. We had a person to find.

Ronan slammed a piece of paper on the main desk. “I’ve got information here that includes chatter about Mordecai.”

Cohen leaned forward. “Okay, and?”

Ronan tapped a finger on it. “There's something about the way they talk about him. Read this.” He handed the paper over, and Cohen read over the documents. Godric leaned over and mimicked his movements. I waited to see what would happen next. My hands itched to grab the paper they were reading to see if I could uncover the clues myself.

Godric scratched his chin. “It's almost like how they would talk about — ”

“A woman, right? That’s the vibe I got. Unless they're all gay. I mean, we're all gay,” Cohen added.

“Bisexual. Don’t forget some of the team still like women. Orion isn’t here, but he’d have said something too.”

Cohen nodded at Ronan’s words. “Oh yeah, absolutely. Sorry for the bi-erasure. Whoops!”

Godric rolled his eyes, but handed the paper back to Ronan, who then handed it to me. I looked over the document, noticing it was a communication transcript from a conversation between two people that had been picked up in association with the guilty ones. From the way they spoke, it did sound as if they were attracted to Mordecai.

I frowned, wondering how this had been missed in the first go around. Memphis spoke up then. “I ruled out a bunch of those transcripts because they were noted as being transcribedby AI software. I questioned the accuracy in them, especially since the people were possibly speaking in another language. These agencies weren't the best at keeping up with the latest technology. Anything said that wasn't in direct context to the mission at the time was disregarded.”

His eyes cut to mine.

“I apologize if my neglect is what led us here.”

I shook my head at him, then typed out a message on my phone and sent it to him. He looked at his computer screen.

‘None of this is your fault as much as it's not Damari’s. There's nothing any of us could have done. Let's just find him and bring him home.’

Ronan called everyone's attention back to him. “If it's true, and Mordecai is not the man that we have a photo of, albeit a horrible one, then who is Mordecai? Because I don't believe this bullshit about them being a ghost. Everyone has a trail, whether it is the most direct path or a diversion.”

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