Page 51 of Anything But Convenient

His eyes widened, then he was pulling the phone back to press speaker.

“Archie! I need you to get to Sinclair’s coffee shop. Damari went to get something, and he’s alone. You two stick together. I’ve already sent someone to the shop to help guide you both back. There’ll be another guard positioned with Sinclair as well.”

“What’s going on? I’m already with Damari. I ran into him on my way to the office.”

Ronan let out a harsh breath, almost as if he were relieved. “That’s good. There have been some… developments. The person we were tracking isn’t who we needed to be worried about. It was a mix up.”

Before he could finish, the sound of tires screeching stole our attention. We turned to see a van jerking to a stop beside the building.

My body was moving before I could think of what to do. “Run, Archie!”

I could hear Ronan yelling on the phone and through the glass doors, there were people rushing to our aid. But even I could sense they wouldn’t be fast enough.

Unfortunately, Archie didn’t have the same reaction time I did. I was already taking off for the doors when I realized he hadn’t moved. Then it was like he couldn’t.

At the van, I noticed a man in full tactical gear and a black face mask holding up a gun. I feared for a minute that Archie had been shot. It was only as he crumpled to the ground, and I saw the dart that it hit me.

Tranquilizer.

Why would they attack Archie? What could he have that they want?

I remembered the drive in my pocket and wondered if maybe that had something to do with it. Or could it be linked to Ronan’s call? There were too many factors, and I didn’t have enough time to weigh them all out.

As I turned to dive back in Archie’s direction, I felt arms wrap around me from behind. “Can’t let you do that, Mr. Blackthorne,” Jim said while tugging me inside.

Through the glass, I watched as my friend was snatched up and thrown in the back of the van. They sped away in a blur of motion, leaving me to wonder what the hell would happen next.

“Damari!” Ronan’s voice echoed through the building, a roar of anger and fear all rolled into one.

I fled from Jim’s arms, running straight to the man I knew would always keep me safe.

“They took him! They’ve got Archie!” My cries were met with shocked faces. It was only then that I realized my boyfriend wasn’t alone. He’d brought the entire team down with him.

Which meant I got a front row view to one very pissed off Takeshi as he stared at the spot on the sidewalk where the coffee and snacks laid abandoned.

“Oh, fuck. Takeshi is about to go nuclear,” Cohen whisper shouted.

And yeah — nuclear was an apt description for the look on the other man’s face. I’d never seen anything like it before. I wondered just how serious things were between the two for him to have such a reaction.

Maybe things weren’t as casual as we all thought.

CHAPTER 20

TAKESHI

Ten MinutesEarlier

“No! No! No!”Memphis roared. “I checked all the intel myself. This can’t be right.”

Tank shook his head. “They tricked us. Somehow, someway, they got intel on what we’re doing.”

The men I worked with had never looked more distraught. We had tried hard to be ahead of the Gilded Ones. We needed to take them down. It was a matter of life and death.

It was also a personal vendetta.

Some people who had come into our lives had been in a direct connection with these people. Our loved ones had suffered at their hands and been threatened.

All except Archie.

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