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They’d cuffed his hands to a metal loop on the table, and though he balked at being shackled this way, it was more comfortable than sitting with them behind his back.

By his reckoning, it was probably about three-ten or three-fifteen a.m. The SOS he’d sent to his brothers was a code red.

They’d put protocols in place when they’d first started expanding Callahan Security.

The SOS meant that all family would be taken to the Callahan Security building, which would go on lockdown.

Dani knew what to do, so as soon as the cops left, she would be on her way to safety.

Thank God. He wanted her and the baby to be safe.

With the timing of everything, he figured Logan would be here within the next thirty minutes.

What was interesting was that they hadn’t formally arrested him yet, despite the search warrant and the handcuffs.

It told him a few things. One, the evidence against him could only be circumstantial, which was true because he hadn’t actually entered the museum.

Two, the authorities had something fairly solid in this circumstantial evidence, or they wouldn’t have requested the warrant in the first place.

That said, the fact that the cops knew nothing about him before descending on his place like a bunch of fucking storm troopers meant that someone higher on the food chain was involved.

Only time would tell if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

In short, there was nothing he could do but sit and wait. The ball was in the cops’ court. He would just have to wait and see how all this unfolded, which just pissed him off to no end.

He’d called Dani his wife. That wasn’t true, but only because she kept refusing to marry him.

She was worried he only wanted to marry her because she was pregnant.

Fucking ridiculous, but he was doing his best to honor her wishes and alleviate her fears.

After this, he was going to have a serious talk with her about marriage.

He didn’t like that she was just his girlfriend.

She would have more rights if they were married.

The door opened, and as he straightened on the uncomfortable metal chair, Connors walked in, followed by the shorter detective. They both took seats across the table from him.

Connors had taken off his suit jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. “Well,” he said, “you have quite the military record. Or maybe I should say at least I think you do. Most of what I could get was redacted.”

Gage remained silent.

Connors continued. “You and your brothers took over your family’s company a few years ago and have expanded it into all kinds of areas. Funny how the only information I can find on your business is on your website, and that says very little.”

There was no point in responding to this. It was true. They kept their information locked down and most of their clients came their way by word of mouth. They advertised in the right circles and those circles weren’t the type where you put up an ad on social media or in a newspaper.

The shorter guy, in his shirt sleeves as well, leaned forward. “Where were you tonight?”

“That’s a bit vague,” Gage responded, not exactly regretting his flip tone, but deciding it was in his best interest to at least appear to be cooperative. “Did you have a time frame in mind?”

“Let’s say from five p.m. onward until we knocked on your door.”

He’d hardly call forcibly entering with the assistance of a battering ram knocking.

Gage studied the man. His blond hair was trimmed in a military crew cut.

He wasn’t as old as Connors, but he’d been around a bit.

Definitely former military, but if Gage had to guess, he’d go with Air Force. He had the look of a fly boy.

“I—”

The door opened. “Gentleman,” Logan said as he entered the room, “I am Mr. Callahan’s attorney. He will not be answering any questions at the moment. In fact, he will be leaving with me.”

A big smirk curled Gage’s lips. He’d have sighed with relief, but that would clue in the cops that he’d been concerned.

“Now, wait a minute,” the blond guy started.

“Detective Montrose, is it?” Logan said.

The other man nodded.

“Detective Montrose, we both know that if you actually had anything on Mr. Callahan, you would have arrested and charged him by now. Instead, you broke into his home and terrified his pregnant wife. This tells me you have something… but not enough. In light of that, we will be leaving. If you wish to speak with my client, you may reach out to my office, and we will schedule something at a decent hour.”

Logan glanced down at Gage’s hands. “Really?” he said, glaring first at Montrose and then at Connors. “I expected better of you, John,” he said to Connors.

Connors said nothing, but his lips flattened into a thin line as he fished the key out of his pocket and unlocked Gage’s cuffs.

Gage said nothing but gave a nod as he stood. He maintained his silence as he turned and followed his brother out of the room and then out of the station. A town car and the driver waited in front of the station, and took them to Callahan Security.

No one said a word. Both brothers knew that talking in front of a driver might provide evidence admissible in court.

Finally, they arrived at Callahan Security and made a beeline for the top floor.

The receptionist, who also happened to be a crack shot, resecured the entry.

The building was on official lockdown. As Gage stepped off the elevator, Dani raced to his side and captured him in a hard hug.

He kissed the top of her head and ran a hand down her baby bump, ensuring they were both in one piece.

Then, he wrapped an arm around her and led her back to the couch and settled her on the cushions before joining her, pressing as close as he could get without hauling her onto his lap.

He hadn’t realized how worried for her and the baby he’d been, and he took a moment to haul in a deep breath, hold it for a four count, then sighed it back out.

She didn’t say a word, but Gage knew she was desperately trying to keep her emotions in check, and he loved her even more for it.

“So,” he said as he looked around at his brothers and their significant others. “What the fuck?”

Mitch grinned wryly. “That pretty much sums the situation up right there. We’re all wondering the same thing.”

Alex started to pace. “It’s the guy, the one that I ran into in the museum. I told you he looks like Gage. It’s got to be him that they are looking for.”

“Great,” Logan scoffed as he walked behind the counter in the kitchen area. “Just how do we convince the police that Gage has a doppelganger?” He started pulling food out of the fridge. “That’s going to be a hard sell.

Lacy climbed onto one of the stools at the bar in front of Logan. “It is, no doubt. Some other guy who looks like me did it? They’d never buy that defense. The thing is, we have to be able to prove that Gage wasn’t anywhere near there when it happened.”

Dani sighed. “Except he was. He was right there in Central Park outside of the Met.”

“That does make it more difficult,” Mitch agreed. “But not impossible. What if we all say he was here?”

Lacy and Logan exchanged a loaded look. “They won’t believe it because we’re all family. We would need proof to back that up. An outside witness or five would be good.”

Alex took a stool next to Lacy. She turned to Mitch. “Where’s Drake? Is he in town? Do you think he’d back us up?”

Mitch shrugged. “I have no idea where he is, but if he’s here, I’m pretty sure he’d be happy to say he was here as well.”

Logan shook his head as he put a charcuterie tray on the counter. “We would need it to be in a public place where other people could say they saw Gage. It’s known that Drake is one of our clients. Connors and Montrose aren’t rookies. It’s not going to be easy to fool them,”

Dani licked her lips. “What if we put them on a manifest?”

Logan stared at her. “What do you mean ‘on a manifest’?”

She tucked her hair behind her ear. “Well, what I’m saying is... what if we said he was with the client and just arrived late last night. If we put him on the manifest and fly him into Teterboro, we could then show video of him arriving there. That way, he couldn’t have been at the Met.”

Gage’s pulse quickened. It was an idea, but he wasn’t sure if it was a good one.

Lacy chewed on a cracker. “Here’s the thing—wouldn’t you have to fake a flight? And on top of that, fake all the videos? And the origin of the flight?”

Dani nodded. “I know it sounds like a lot, but honestly, I think it can be done. I know I can make it so nobody can figure it out. Deep fakes are pretty easy these days.”

Mitch shook his head. “No. You know what? That’s too much.” He held up his hand as Dani opened her mouth to protest. “I know you have the ability to do it, but I think it’s too much faking. We need to stick to something simple. Something we can manage without going too far afield.”

Dani frowned. “But we’d need witnesses. You guys just said—we need a lot of witnesses. Witnesses who aren’t us.”

Alex cocked her head. “Where’s Jake Boxer?”

Mitch looked over at her and raised an eyebrow. “What are you thinking?”

“He and Gage have a similar build, and I know he’s looking after Drake. So maybe we find out where Drake was, and Dani can use her magic to turn Jake into Gage.”

“That could work,” Gage agreed. He liked the odds of this working better than the manifest idea. It was simpler. It had been his experience that it was better to keep it simple. Fewer things to go wrong.

Mitch picked up his phone. “I’ll text him now.”

Logan looked at Lacy. The two of them exchanged another look.

“Guys,” Logan said slowly, “I know we want to protect Gage, and I know he was in the park, so it’s going to be hard. But I have a bad feeling about mucking around with this. And no”—he glanced at Mitch—“it’s not just because I’m a lawyer. Lacy feels it too,” he added.

She nodded. “I agree with Logan. Faking Gage’s alibi isn’t the best move.

Gage, they obtained a search warrant for your apartment.

Somebody pulled a warrant, and they sent two detectives over immediately to execute it.

Those detectives had no time to dig around or build a case, which means the warrant came from someone important.

“So, if some bigwig is behind this, and they managed to get a search warrant that fast, that means there’s real interest. And if there’s interest, there will be resources. If you start faking alibis, it’s going to come out and make things worse.”

She looked at Dani. “And I know you’re super talented, but if someone finds out you faked his alibi, it just puts Gage deeper in the shit.”

Mitch dropped a piece of cheese onto a cracker and popped it into his mouth, chewed, then said, “What choice do we have? If we leave it, there is a real chance he’ll go to jail.”

“Oh, the irony,” Gage muttered with a half-hearted chuckle. “The one time I don’t do anything, and they want to put me in jail for it.”

Logan crossed his arms and leaned back against the counter behind the bar. “We all know it wasn’t actually Gage in the museum. And he didn’t steal anything. Rather than trying to fake an alibi, why don’t we try to prove his innocence?”

Alex frowned. “Because I was in the Met. And even though I didn’t steal anything, that puts me there. And it puts Gage and Mitch in the park. Dani’s van wasn’t far away either.”

Logan nodded. “I know. But I’m afraid if we start tinkering with this, it’s going to end badly for Gage.”

Lacy finished her cracker and wiped her lips. “Let’s try to figure out how to keep it from ending badly for anyone. I think Logan’s right—we need to find out exactly what they have first. Do you have any contacts at the police department, Logan? Or the D.A.’s office? Anything?”

Logan shrugged. “Not sure. But I’ll reach out.”

Mitch’s phone dinged. He glanced at it. “Jake was with Drake down in D.C. He says they left here around five and got back around midnight. They took the jet.”

Dani perked up immediately. “Well, that works. We don’t even have to fake the flight.”

Gage put his arm around the mother of his child. “Let’s keep that on the back burner,” he said to her. “To be honest, I agree with Logan and Lacy. I don’t want to set us up for something major to crash down on us.

He held Dani’s gaze as he explained. “If we can find a way to discredit whatever they think they have, I think that’s the better route.

Dani, I’m not going to drag you into this.

Or Alex. Or Mitch. Or anyone else. I’ll figure it out.

We’ll figure it out. If anyone has contacts who can find out what’s going on, reach out to them.

Let’s see if we can make this make sense. ”

He rubbed the back of his neck. This was turning into a much bigger nightmare.

He wouldn’t blame Alex. Or Mitch. This was who they were.

All of them. She had agreed to steal the statue.

It wasn’t a big deal. It was what they did.

What we all do , he told himself. But he wasn’t going to jail for it.

And none of them were going to go to jail for it, either.

He just had to figure out how to stop that from happening.