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S tone felt Monk’s and Viper’s eyes dart toward him as he sat and listened to Agent Parks and Juliana throw potential ideas out and poke holes in them. At least Philly was on a job site and Stone didn’t have to deal with his wary looks, too. Or the tension between Philly and Parks. No, there was quite enough of that in the room, thank you very much.

As Parks and Juliana discussed each member of the triad, and which would be the most likely to cave first, he tried to find a bit of calm in the storm swirling inside him. Juliana had been right in pushing him to name his fears—they needed complete honesty to make it through this without resentment or doubts—but honesty was a double-edged sword.

It ripped away all artifice. It exposed his deepest vulnerabilities, leaving him feeling as if he’d flayed himself standing there in the lodge room.

On the other hand, without it, neither one of them would have felt truly heard . And that was a breeding ground for resentment and distrust.

She was a far braver person than he, of that he had no doubt. Not only had she seen through his smoke and mirrors, but, making herself as vulnerable as he, she insisted that they push through them, together. Because it mattered to her, to him, and to them .

A fleeting sense of shame washed through him that he hadn’t been strong enough, honest enough, to give voice to his real fears on his own. That he’d needed her to push him there. But in those few minutes, he’d learned a lesson—the responsibility for building the relationship they deserved sat on both their shoulders. Some days, she’d carry more of the burden, and some days, that would be his place. But neither would ever have to carry it alone.

“So that’s the plan then,” Agent Parks said, leaning back in her chair.

Stone blinked.

“He missed the whole thing,” Viper said. Parks and Juliana looked at him.

He shrugged. “My mind was on other things.”

Parks’s expression was as unreadable as he’d expect from a seasoned agent, but concern shadowed Juliana’s eyes.

“I trust you,” he said. “Now, why don’t you tell me what you decided.”

Her eyes searched his. “It’s all good. If I see any holes or potential snafus, I’ll say so. Although if Monk and Viper were paying attention, I suspect they’ve already covered those bases.” His brothers nodded. “Promise,” he added, leaning forward and dropping a chaste kiss on her cheek.

When he sat back, she let out a quiet sigh and turned to face him fully. “The triad might know about you and me, but we don’t think they’re aware of Agent Parks’s involvement. I’m going to place a call to Lowery and offer to hand over everything we have in exchange for leaving us alone. Now, the obvious issues with that plan are first, he won’t believe that I won’t still go to the authorities, and second, he might kill us anyway once we’ve turned the information over.”

“As to the second, I assume we’ll tell him there’s a copy in safekeeping that will be made public if something unusual happens to us?” he asked. Juliana nodded.

A cliché approach, but Lowery and the others would weigh the risk, and if they were smart—which they’d proven to be—they’d err on the side of not killing them. If they did kill them, they risked the evidence coming to light. If they didn’t—if they left Juliana and him alone—then they were back to the first objection. As long as they were alive, they could bring the crimes to light.

“What will your response be to the first objection? That we may go to the authorities anyway?” he asked.

“He’ll have to take a gamble on believing we won’t,” she replied. “I’ll point out that it wouldn’t make sense for us to contact him if we planned to go to the authorities anyway. I’ll tell him I just want to live my life. That I’ve experienced the limelight enough with my aunt and uncle to know I never want to be under that kind of microscope again, which would happen if the evidence gave rise to a criminal case. I’d also make a bad witness.”

Both smart and charming, he thought she’d make a perfect witness, but a question for another time. “You may need a few more reasons.”

She sighed in agreement. “We’ll think of something.”

A cozy warmth curled through him. “We will,” he agreed.

She smiled. “I’ll also give him the upper hand, or illusion of one. We’ll let him pick the venue.”

His gaze skittered to Agent Parks. He understood that psychologically the offer would make Lowery more open to the idea, but securing Juliana in a known location was different than organizing the logistics for an unknown one.

“I have teams ready,” Parks said. “Or I will by tonight,” she amended. “I’ll bring one down here with me and leave one in Sacramento. Whatever location Lowery picks, he’ll have to give you time to get there, which will give us time to get in place. We do think he’ll pick somewhere remote, though. He won’t want to chance being seen with Juliana, either by people or nearby cameras.”

He agreed with her on that last point, but that still left a lot of options between San Francisco and Mystery Lake. “What if they’re in town already?” he asked.

“They aren’t,” the agent said. “We have eyes on them, and all three are still in the city.”

Remote locations weren’t easy to come by anywhere within a few hours of the city, which made him think Lowery would pick somewhere closer to Mystery Lake, even if it meant he’d have to travel to get there.

“Does Gregor have any projects going on right now? Any that might make a good meeting spot?” he asked.

Agent Parks cocked her head. “That’s a good call; let me look into it,” she said, picking up her phone and tapping out a text.

“So I assume the plan is that we meet, lure him and the others into confessing, and record the whole thing?” he said.

Juliana flashed him a sheepish look. “I know, not very creative, but creativity in situations like this might be overrated.”

“I agree. Gregor will be the most suspicious of the three, but I think Lowery and Polinsky will overrule him and want to meet,” he said. “They won’t trust us, though. They’ll be armed.” The thought of Juliana anywhere near someone who both disliked her and carried a gun was enough to churn his stomach.

“They’ll search you, too,” Monk said, nodding to him.

“Do you think they’ll search me?” Juliana asked. All eyes swung to her. “Just a question. I don’t want a gun or whatever of my own—I’ve never used one, so I’d be more of a danger than any help—but could I bring one in then somehow hand it off to Simon?”

Stone considered this. It was a good idea. If they searched them both, then she’d hand the weapon over. If they only searched him then it might give them options. “It’s worth thinking about. We’ll have to look at your wardrobe to see if there’s something that can hide a gun but not be too obvious.”

“He has one project in Sacramento right now, the San Francisco one, and two pieces of property he owns,” Agent Parks said, looking up from her phone.

“Are you confident that’s all he has?” Stone asked. “It wouldn’t surprise me if he hid things behind shell companies and the like.”

Parks shook her head. “I have the best of the best on this,” Parks said. “If they say that’s all he has near enough to use, then that’s all he has.”

Viper tapped his pen on the table. “Leo might find those fightin’ words.”

Parks tipped her head. “Leo Gallardo?”

Viper hesitated, then nodded just as someone knocked on the door.

A beat later, Leo walked in, followed by a woman Stone didn’t recognize. “Who do you think she has on the case?” Leo said.

Stone bit back a grin. He had an inkling of what had gone down. “Mantis talked to Charley and Charley called you guys, didn’t she?” he asked the cyber expert.

“Technically, I was already helping,” Leo said, taking a seat and pulling his laptop out. “But her call spurred us to get involved more officially.”

Juliana cleared her throat. “I figure you must be Leo, Joey’s boyfriend.” She switched her gaze to the petite woman with strawberry-blond hair and striking blue-green eyes. “But who are you?”

She smiled, and Stone knew without a doubt that her almost fey look hid more than he could probably ever comprehend.

“You must be Juliana Morganstern. I’m Sabina Warwick. And we’re your cavalry.”