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J uliana had never met Sabina Warwick before but knew her to be the wife of the oldest of William Warwick’s grandchildren, Chad. She’d heard about her, of course. The town loved to talk about the Warwicks—especially at the library.

Despite everything she’d heard, though, Sabina’s appearance surprised her. The Warwicks were not small people. The men were all tall and built, with dark hair and dark eyes—all eight of them looked so much alike it was almost comical. And Charley and Joey, the only girls in that generation, weren’t petite, either—they weren’t as curvy as she, but they were athletic and tall.

Sabina, on the other hand, looked like a sneeze might blow her over. Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but not much of one. With her delicate features, pale hair, and tiny build, she could be a fairy fresh from the woods.

Sabina dumped her bag on the table and pulled out a chair. Sherman promptly dropped his snout on her thighs, and she reached down and rubbed behind his ears. “Brian Gregor is smart for a small-time criminal, but he’s small-time,” Sabina said without preamble. “Like really small-time compared to what HICC is used to tracking.” She paused and typed something into her computer.

“You must be Stone,” Sabina continued, darting a glance at him. Simon nodded. “And Monk and Viper?” she asked, directing the question to the two men, who also nodded. Sabina’s face broke into an easy smile, the kind that told Juliana she smiled often. “Glad to finally meet some of you. I know Noah, of course. But Will and Clare, my kids, keep us from getting out too much.” She paused, then wrinkled her nose. “Not because we couldn’t go out. There are plenty of people who’d watch them, so don’t think I’m blaming my kids for my lack of social life, but mostly we don’t go out because we like spending time with them.” Sabina paused, then gave an airy wave. “But I digress.”

“When I told Sabina I was looking into things for you, she figured it was her best chance to meet you without having to go to Rita C’s,” Leo said.

“Not to mention that I hate corrupt politicians,” Sabina said. “One killed my mom and, well, to say I hold a grudge would be an understatement. So, let’s get this party started,” she said, flexing her fingers and focusing on her computer.

Juliana turned to Simon, who looked as speechless as she at the tiny tornado who’d blown into their lives.

“To fill you all in while my computer finishes its security protocols,” Sabina said. “HICC works with the FBI all the time. It’s sanctioned and legal and blah blah blah. The long and short of it is, everything we do is official and can be used in building cases against Lowery, Polinsky, and Gregor. Oh, and Juliana?” She looked up but didn’t stop moving. “You asked Leo—or Stone asked him—to look into how your aunt and uncle might be involved?”

Juliana nodded. Sabina looked to Leo.

“Your uncle traded a key vote on a federal land use designation for a chunk of cash from Gregor,” Leo replied. “It had to do with post-Hurricane Katrina land grabs. Although, between us, your aunt probably orchestrated it all. The money went into her account.”

Juliana blinked. That seemed to be about the extent of her abilities at the moment.

“You have proof of that?” Parks asked, her tone laced with hope, not challenge.

“Of the transactions and timeline? Yes,” Sabina answered. “We sent it to you a few minutes before we arrived. We’re working on identifying when Gregor and Aunt Petunia might have met.”

“Petunia?” Simon said. “Her name is Margot.”

“Petunia is the horrible aunt from Harry Potter who took in her sister’s son and treated him terribly,” Juliana answered. She didn’t even want to consider whether Sabina was guessing about her childhood or knew things Juliana hoped she didn’t.

“Okay, so here’s where we are,” Sabina said, her gaze fixed on her screen. “The three men are still in San Francisco going about their business, but that shouldn’t surprise you. They’ve been hiring out their dirty work all along as they sit safe in their castles.”

“Evidence of the hires?” Parks asked.

“Yes, but I’m not done. Once I have everything, I’ll compile it and send to you.” She paused and looked at Simon. “Thanks for the video of the arsonist; it was a huge help. We ID’d him this morning, and that opened the door on tracing all the unusual payments into and out of Gregor, Lowery, and Polinsky’s accounts.”

“I sent that to the fire chief,” Simon said, more confused than anything.

“And Mitch, my husband’s cousin, is the local arson investigator. HICC has agreements with several federal agencies as well as local law enforcement. He sent it to us,” Sabina replied.

“The arsonist’s name is Leandro Brown,” Leo said. “You probably already figured out he’s the same guy who came to Juliana’s place the morning after she overheard the conversation at the museum. That confirmation came from your neighbor’s doorbell camera. And no,” Leo said, turning to Parks, “don’t ask any questions about that.”

For the first time, Parks looked a little flustered. “O-okay.”

“And his accomplice is Ned—and yes, people are still named Ned these days—O’Grady. Charming guy. He has a couple of warrants out for his arrest,” Sabina chimed in, shooting Parks a look. “I’ll send you the info,” she added before the agent could ask.

“Based on the recent traffic cam data we have,” Leo continued, “we believe those two have located the clubhouse and are conducting recon activities.”

Juliana swung her gaze around, sweeping it over the three Falcons. None of them looked concerned.

“They won’t get in, not unless we invite them,” Simon said.

“I agree, they won’t,” Sabina said, pulling her attention back to the conversation at hand. “They aren’t smart enough to find a way through all the bells and whistles you have here. And before you ask, no, I don’t know what all those bells and whistles are, but I know enough to say what I said.”

Juliana sensed that the only reason Sabina didn’t know was because she’d decided she didn’t need to.

“We’ll get eyes on them,” Parks said, pulling out her phone.

Sabina nodded, her attention fixed on her computer again. “Have them liaise with HICC since our guys are on them now. They can hand the job over once your people arrive. So,” she said, looking up, her gaze on Juliana. “The ten-thousand-dollar question.” She paused, then frowned. “Or should that be a ten-million-dollar question? Inflation and all? Do I sound like Dr. Evil from Austin Powers? Anyway,” she said, waving off her digression again. “Where will Lowery suggest meeting?”

“If he goes for it at all,” Juliana said.

“Oh, he will,” Leo replied with a confidence Juliana didn’t share. “We’ve encountered a lot of criminals in our work. A handful are truly unique and surprising, but those tend to be sociopaths on the far end of the spectrum. Your triad isn’t there. Don’t get me wrong, they are narcissists and have sociopathic tendencies, but they are run-of-the-mill evil on our scale of evil.”

“Which means?” Viper prompted.

“Which means if you provoke them in the right way, they will react predictably,” Sabina answered.

“Okay, assuming we do that, where do you think they’ll suggest meeting?” Juliana asked.

“Can I project?” Sabina asked, her gaze bouncing between the Falcons.

Monk nodded, then leaned forward and punched a few buttons on the control panel before handing her the cord. Her screen flickered on the massive white space, then steadied.

“I agree with Stone that they are likely to pick one of the locations connected to Gregor,” she started. “These are the current projects.” As she spoke, two red dots appeared on a map of Northern California. “And these are the properties that Gregor owns that are within reasonable driving distance.” Two blue dots popped up. “He owns more property than this, but none of it is nearby.”

“The projects are in populated areas, so if we focus on the properties, there’s something in Galt and something in Auburn,” Juliana said. Galt, a historic city, wasn’t far from them. It had been one of the many small, rural, agricultural towns in the area until the government built Highway 99 along the edge. It still wasn’t large, but it had a lot of traffic running nearby. Auburn, on the other hand, though also small, had a larger influx of tourists and the added benefit—depending on a person’s point of view—of being between San Francisco and Tahoe.

“An old warehouse in Auburn and a defunct granary and processing plant in Galt,” Leo said.

“They’ll pick Galt,” Simon said.

Sabina flashed him a smile. “I agree. I’m 98.3 percent certain they’ll go for Galt.”

Juliana was back to blinking. That was an oddly specific probability.

“Because Auburn is too busy,” Parks said, her gaze fixed on the map, her fingers drumming on the table, and her mind clearly miles ahead of where they were.

“It is,” Sabina said. “But look at this.” She brought up two images side by side of the locations.

“The warehouse backs to a large city park,” Juliana said.

“Whereas the granary sits alone on a two-lane country road,” Simon said.

“They’d be exposed, but so will you,” Viper said.

“You won’t be able to hide your approach, that’s for sure,” Leo said. “It also means any backup will need to be positioned several minutes away.”

“I have someone looking into the security of both in order to see what we’re up against,” Sabina continued as if it were as common as picking up eggs at the grocery store.

The further into this conversation they got, the more real it all became. Juliana should have expected that—talking at a high level about putting her life on the line was one thing, but being in the weeds was another thing altogether. She wasn’t going to back out, but still, her stomach flip-flopped.

“Once we know, is it worth putting advance teams in?” Parks suggested.

Everything Juliana “knew” about the FBI she’d learned from books, but she envied the woman’s cool. She’d only just been brought into all this yesterday, and she rolled with the punches and pushed forward like a…well, it wasn’t flattering, but she reminded Juliana of a snowplow. No matter what weather came at her, she kept pushing forward.

“Yes,” all three Falcons answered at the same time.

Juliana didn’t know exactly what an “advance team” entailed, but she could guess at the basics. “Are we getting ahead of ourselves here?” she asked. “We don’t even know if Lowery will take the bait.”

“As they say, failing to plan is planning to fail,” Sabina replied. “But I hear you. Even if he takes the bait and agrees to meet, who knows where or when he’ll set the meeting. Unless we want to have teams in place indefinitely, I’d suggest we only put eyes on both for now.”

“And when he makes the call and gives us a location, then we can decide whether to put advance teams inside,” Simon said.

“I agree,” Parks said.

Sabina nodded. “If we have surveillance at both sites, we’ll be in position to make a move when we need to. If the triad doesn’t send in their own advance team, then we can decide whether to send in ours.”

“I’ll make arrangements for the Auburn site. It’s closest to Sacramento,” Parks said.

“HICC will take the Galt site,” Leo said, typing something on his keyboard.

Juliana’s heart hitched, and her palms started sweating. “So I guess that means I’m making the call soon?”

Sabina glanced at Parks, silently signaling that the ball was in her court.

“We have a lot to walk through in terms of what you’ll say to him to, as Sabina said, provoke him in the right way. And while we’ve agreed on the site logistics, we haven’t even begun to talk about what might happen during the meeting.” Parks paused as her phone dinged with a text. She read the message but didn’t share. Instead, she set the device down and looked Juliana in the eye.

“We have a lot of ground to cover, but you should make the call tomorrow.”