Page 73 of Stone
The more he heard about her aunt and uncle, the more he disliked them.
“It doesn’t look like there’s much on the calendar,” he pointed out. The only events noted were a fundraiser for a local hospital, a golf tournament, a couple of lunches, a dinner with their daughter and her new husband, and the travel itinerary for their return to Washington, DC, for the fall session.
“I agree,” she said, scrolling back through the year. “Look here,” she said, pointing out a meeting with another senator, the topic identified as a bill they’d collaborated on. Stone remembered the news around that piece of legislation. It was vastly unpopular and hadn’t made it to a vote. That wasn’t the point of Juliana showing him the entry, though.
“Are there others like that?” he asked.
She shifted to hold the device in both hands and rather than scroll through, she ran a search for the word “bill.” Ten instances popped up in the prior twelve months and none in the next three.
“Okay, so it’s safe to say your uncle isn’t planning a big announcement or getting ready to propose new legislation,” he said.
“Which means she didn’t call me to keep me in check.” She paused, then rolled her eyes and huffed. “As if I waseverout of control. Reading a book in bed is my idea of a good time.”
His gaze drifted over her gorgeous curves as he remembered how they’d been spending their time less than forty minutes ago.Readinghad been far from both their minds.
“Stop looking at me like that,” she said, trying to contain a laugh. “Until yesterday, readingwasmy favorite activity in bed.”
Her impliednewfavorite activity pleased him immensely. Especially since it coincided with his new favorite bed-based activity.
She held up a hand to stop him from pulling her under him. In all fairness, after the afternoon they’d had, he wasn’t altogether sure he’d be up for the task, although he’d happily take one for the team. But she had a point. The implications of their discovery were disturbing.
“Is it at all possible that your aunt would know Lowery or Polinsky? Or Gregor?”
Her brow dropped, and she frowned. “I can’t speak to anything in her life before I moved in with them or after I moved out, but maybe Gregor is a possibility?”
“Why him?”
She turned her gaze to the window, as she no doubt sorted through her logic. A few seconds passed before she exhaled and returned her attention to him. “First, this is all conjecture. Informed conjecture, but still speculation.” He nodded. “Gregor is a developer. Presumably wealthy. I’d be interested to know if he’s done any projects in North Carolina. Maybe he did and that’s how they met? If that’s the case, she’d be more likely to keep a man like Gregor in her metaphorical Rolodex than the others. He’d be a potential donor to my uncle’s campaigns, and depending on how wealthy he is, he’d have useful networks.”
“But Lowery’s a politician,” he pointed out. “Wouldn’t that be useful, too?”
She shook her head. “If he’d been a senator or even a representative, yes. But a member of the San Francisco City Council? He’d have nothing to offer her. And before you ask, the only members of law enforcement she would ever deign to speak with would be the top officers in Charlotte and Raleigh—the biggest cities—and whoever it is that sits at the top at a state level. A lieutenant from a precinct in California—even one the size of Polinsky’s—isn’t someone she’d notice. Or rather, she’d notice, then dismiss them as not worth her time.”
“She sounds so charming,” he said, tugging her back into his arms. She came easily, resting her head on his shoulder and draping her arm across his torso.
“You have no idea,” Juliana said. Only he did. Maybe not her aunt’s specific kind of crazy, but he’d seen a lot of crazy in his day, and a narcissist was always a narcissist.
“So are we going to go with this idea, then?” he asked.
He understood her hesitation. It was wild to consider that one of the triad—most likely Gregor—knew her aunt. And even wilder to think he knew her well enough to ask that she find out who Juliana might be seeing.
But while it was far-fetched, if they were right, it also meant Juliana’s aunt cared so little about her that she’d throw her to someone like Gregor. Maybe the woman didn’t know the man Gregor was, but Stone doubted it. If she’d thought Gregor had good intentions, she would have just asked Juliana her question and not buried the reason for her call. No, as sick as it made Stone, it was more likely that Juliana’s aunt didn’t care. Maybe she even hoped something awful would happen to her. At least that way, she and her husband could play the grieving family and gain a few sympathy votes in the next election.
God, people could really suck. Thankfully, he had warm, beautiful—inside and out—Juliana trusting him enough with her body and her heart to remind him there really was goodness in this world.
“I don’t think we can ignore it,” she finally admitted. “I have no idea how long my aunt has known Gregor or how well she does—or, for that matter, if she knows him at all. But if she does, then she’s one more lead to follow in getting evidence against him and Lowery and Polinsky. She might know nothing about Gregor’s activities. To her, he might just be a rich man asking her for a favor—and it’s always a good thing to have a rich personowe you one back. But we won’t know unless we look. Or have Agent Parks look.”
He could feel her pain as if it were his own, and he hated it. Hated that she’d lost her parents. Hated that she had such little love and even less joy in her younger years. Hated that she had no family. True, other than his brother, James, he didn’t either, but he’d created one in the Falcons. She had two close friends, Alyce and Chiara. And Chiara’s parents, who clearly adored her like one of their own. But did she consider them herfamily?
“You’ve gone quiet,” she said, her own voice growing sleepy. She shifted and a feeling ofrightnessstole through him with the movement. She belonged beside him. He belonged beside her. And whatever it took, he’d be sure she had the family she deserved.
35
Stone’s eyelids shot open, but training had him lying still. Quickly, he cataloged his surroundings. Juliana lay beside him, her back pressed to his side, her knees curled. Sherman was softly huffing in his crate on the other side of the room.
All was as it should be, but what had woken him?
His phone chimed quietly, softer than it should.
