Julian (The Stone Society Book 9)

by Faith Gibson

  “This is Special Agent Terry Everhart,” Julian said as he flashed a photo of the agent he’d followed for days onto the screen. “And this…” He forwarded to the next photo… “is Special Agent Sonja Rayaz. A couple of women entered the facility, but Agent Rayaz was the only female agent I noticed. It would make sense she is working on Kat’s case. I don’t know that for certain, though.”

  “How long did you observe the two of them?” Gregor asked.

  “Six days. I followed Everhart everywhere he went so I could get a lock on his schedule. He is a boring human, from what I gathered. Goes to work, stops to get take-out on the way home, and does not leave his home until the next morning to do it all over again. Agent Rayaz is the wild card. I didn’t have a chance to follow her before Rafael called me home.”

  “Do you think those two are the only ones you want to impersonate?” Sophia asked after swallowing a cheese curl.

  “Yes. I don’t want to take a chance on more than two agents being out of commission, however briefly.”

  “Okay. Email the close-ups you have to me, and I’ll get JoJo on the prosthetics.”

  “If I’m going to impersonate Agent Rayaz, I’ll need to do a little recon before we go in. Julian, you’re built more like Agent Everhart than Gregor, so you’ll probably want to pretend to be him. Stone, you’ll be our eyes and ears on the outside,” Tessa instructed. Julian had no problem letting the feisty redhead take lead on their mission. She had more experience in going undercover than any of the males, and she was good at what she did. “Are you going to bring Katherine back here when we rescue her?”

  “I was thinking about that before you arrived. The Feds shouldn’t be able to link Kat to me, so I think it would be safe.”

  “Has Landon been able to figure out where the false information came from?” Nikolas asked.

  “No, but he is working on it.”

  “Something about him seems a little off to me,” Sophia said.

  “What do you mean?” Nik asked.

  “He’s too perfect,” Sophia responded. Nikolas growled at his mate, but she rolled her eyes. “Not that way, Gorgeous. With computers. When it comes to technology, nobody is smarter than Julian. The system is one he built himself, yet Landon came in and was immediately able to take over with little instruction, like he’d seen the system before.”

  “Most systems run the same, don’t they?” Nik asked.

  “Not necessarily. I haven’t seen another set up like mine, and you know I have seen quite a few.” Julian had bypassed more firewalls over the years than probably the best hacker on the streets. “What are you saying, Sophia?”

  “I’m saying you should keep your eye on him. Since I’ve been helping Nik with the archives, I’ve found it interesting to read about the Gargoyles’ past lives. Who they were originally. Who they chose to be when they moved around keeping their identity safe. What profession they chose each time they moved. When I went in to change Landon’s location from California to Georgia, I found it odd that his history wasn’t as diverse as most others. His name, according to what Nikolas has recorded, has never been anything other than Landon Roxburgh. When I searched that last name, there aren’t any other Roxburghs in the States. I know I’m not a super hacker, but I didn’t find many Roxburgh Gargoyles in the rest of the world either.”

  “So, he what? Has hidden his identity his whole existence?” Tessa asked.

  “I can’t put my finger on what’s bothering me, but I think it’s worth looking into his background a little further,” Sophia admitted.

  “I’ll worry about that,” Nik said. “For now, let’s concentrate on getting Katherine home where she belongs.”

  “I think we should keep this quiet,” Tessa said. “The less people who know what we’re doing the better. We don’t want whoever was responsible for Kat being framed aware of our movements. Sophia, if you’ll get Jonas to fabricate the prosthetics, Gregor and I will head down to Texas and begin our own recon. I will follow Agent Rayaz and get a feel for her schedule. I’ll figure out a way to get close enough to study how she moves and talks. We will need to get recordings of both agents speaking so I can modify voice transmitters for us to use while at FSM.”

  Julian went into his office and found two spare jump drives. He copied everything he had to both of them and handed one to Tessa and the other to Sophia. He was impressed with both mates and happy to have them on his team. He was looking forward to the day Katherine was a part of their team as well as their family. He prayed to the gods he would get to her and eventually clear her name so they could live without hiding.

  “Thanks. I’ll take a look at these as soon as we get home, and then Stone and I will make arrangements to head to Texas. We’ll find a secure place to rent so we can have more privacy than a hotel will allow.”

  “Thank you, all of you. This goes above and beyond having my back, because what we are going to do will be breaking the law. A law Gregor has sworn to uphold.”

  Gregor stood and pulled Tessa to her feet. “Truth, but they have your mate. While they believe her to be guilty from the proof they have, we know differently. We’ll spring her out of SuperMax, and then we’ll worry about clearing her name.” Gregor walked over to where Julian was standing and clasped his shoulder, squeezing.

  Tessa pointed at him with the jump drive in her hand. “I don’t think of it as breaking the law. I look at it as the next adventure in securing one of the mates. None of the Goyles have had it easy where that’s concerned, and I don’t see it changing anytime soon. Whatever we call it, I’m looking forward to it.” She gave Julian a quick hug, and surprisingly, Gregor didn’t growl.

  Once everyone had left, Julian took a shower and rounded up something to eat, even though he didn’t feel like it. What he wanted was to head back to Texas. Before he did that, though, he would get a good night’s sleep and go to Family Day at the manor. He owed it to Rafael to make an appearance. He also wanted to at least check in on Jonathan before he left town again.

  While he was relaxing with a glass of whiskey, Julian imagined Kat being there with him in his home. It would soon be her home as well. He didn’t have the luxury of easing her into their relationship. He’d already claimed her verbally when he visited her at the Pen. He would do his best to give her time to become acclimated to the notion of fated mates, but with her living in his home, he would be hard pressed to give her much time. His cock already ached from merely thinking about her.

  Julian wanted to go to Katherine’s apartment and gather her things, but he couldn’t risk anyone seeing him there. He decided to ask Sophia to do a little breaking and entering while he was in Texas. If she could somehow get into Kat’s apartment, she could grab enough of her personal items and clothes to make Kat feel more comfortable while she was holed up at Julian’s. Once she was situated, he would make sure to buy her whatever she wanted and needed. Figuring it was probably futile, he closed his eyes and meditated, reaching out to his mate anyway.

  As soon as Sophia and Nik were alone in their car and headed home, Sophia said, “I think there’s more to Landon than we all realize. I think he is Julian’s hacker.”

  “What?” Nik glanced over at his exquisite mate. The mother of his unborn daughter. She was growing more beautiful with each day that passed, even when she woke him up in the middle of the night craving something crazy to eat. “Don’t you think Julian would have figured that out if he were?”

  “Not necessarily. Julian has been distracted. But think about it. Shit calmed down once Landon got behind the keyboard. I know it could be a coincidence. The hacker could have gotten bored. Or grew a conscience after what happened with Katherine. Or, Landon could be learning everything about the Stone Society from the inside. If that’s true… I want you to help me do some digging before we all jump to conclusions – okay, before I jump to conclusions. Julian has too much to worry about right now without adding that possibility to the mix.”

  “I will search the archives mysel
f. Not that you haven’t done your homework, but maybe you missed something. And I’d much prefer I did the searching so as to avoid cheesy fingerprints on the old tomes.”

  Sophia laughed at him and reached out to entwine their fingers together. His mate was a sexual female, but her need to touch him in non-sexual ways had increased since she became pregnant. Whenever they were in the same room, Nik found his mate holding his hand or brushing his hair off his forehead. Running a finger down his cheek. Placing chaste kisses on his lips. Small gestures he adored. “Ooh, can we stop and get some fries? Your daughter is still hungry,” she informed him, scrunching her nose.

  “My daughter, you say?” Nikolas pulled Sophia’s hand to his mouth, kissing her knuckles. He’d give his daughter the world. He pulled into the drive-thru at Sophia’s favorite fast food restaurant and ordered two large orders of fries. Hopefully, that would keep her satisfied until morning as far as food went. He also hoped he could keep her satisfied in other ways once they were home. Something about his mate’s round belly turned Nik on past the point of being painful. He passed the bag over, and Sophia dug in, her moans at the salty treat doing nothing to help ease the ache in his hard cock.

  Chapter Three

  The happy mood usually present during breakfast at the manor was overshadowed by Jonathan’s declining health. Priscilla tried her best to smile, but her heartbreak at the inevitability of losing her brother was palpable. Instead of fussing over everyone and making sure they all had enough to eat, she excused herself to take her brother a plate. Julian could only imagine how the woman was feeling. Being a Gargoyle, death wasn’t something they had to worry about unless they were at war. Only when the beloved housekeeper was in her and Jonathan’s part of the manor did Rafael bring up the topic of Katherine.

  “Tell us everything, Jules.”

  “Tessa and I are going to impersonate a couple of FBI agents who have been in and out of FSM the last week. Sophia is having Jonas fabricate prosthetics to that end. Gregor and Tessa have already flown out this morning to begin recon on the female agent. As soon as we are finished here, I will head back to Texas. I have blueprints of the prison, but I haven’t been able to find out where they are keeping Katherine. Once we have enough intel, Tessa and I will incapacitate the agents, go in posing as them, find my mate, and bring her home.”

  “Surely it won’t be as easy as all that,” Kaya said.

  “Of course not, but I am confident with Tessa’s help, we will be successful.” Julian admired his Queen. As former chief of police, the human was smart and not afraid to speak her mind. She also had no qualms about expressing her dislike for Katherine. Having had run-ins with each other over the last few years at crime scenes, Julian could understand Kaya’s reluctance to accept Kat as easily as she had the other mates. No one really knew anything about Katherine other than the little interaction they’d had with her in a professional setting. Julian didn’t know the real Katherine Fox, either, but he was looking forward to finding out all about his mate. He wasn’t going to worry about how the others felt about her.

  Since he and Tessa didn’t have a definitive plan in place, there wasn’t much more discussion about it. After breakfast, Julian asked Nik and Sophia to follow him outside. The three of them sat on the patio sipping coffee as Julian told Sophia, “I need a favor from you. If you would, please find a way into Katherine’s home and get some of her clothes and her toiletries. I want to be able to make her comfortable as soon as I have her home, and I think having those things will help.”

  Grinning, she said, “Looks like I get to have a little adventure too, even if it is in town. I’ll get JoJo to make a Katherine mask, and I’ll wear it while I’m there. If anyone asks, I’ll tell them I’m her twin.”

  Nikolas groaned, but he didn’t disagree. “And I’ll be close by. Just in case.”

  “Of course you will, Gorgeous.” Sophia grabbed his free hand and clasped their fingers together.

  Julian had initially planned to talk to Rafe about Landon. After Sophia mentioned not trusting the Goyle, Julian had thought back to everything the male had done and accomplished since arriving in New Atlanta. Julian had been so caught up in Katherine and what she was going through it only made sense he turn over the day-to-day tasks of the lab to Landon. Having done so, Julian directed his focus to his mate without paying much attention to how Landon was accomplishing the things Julian hadn’t been able to. Now, instead of trusting him, Julian felt an unease where the Goyle was concerned.

  Instead of going to the lab to check up on the other male, Julian had logged onto the mainframe as soon as he woke and spied on Landon. After three hours of nothing that raised a red flag, Julian decided his unease was unsupported. He didn’t mention Landon to Nik or Sophia since he had found nothing alarming earlier.

  With everything in place on this end of things, Julian stood. “I need to hit the road. I will call you as soon as I arrive in Texas and get settled. Tessa will have already secured a place for us to stay, and she will give you the address where you can ship the prosthetics. Please let me know if Jonas has an issue with helping us or if the masks will be delayed for any reason.”

  “He’s already working on them. Well, the two for you and Tessa. Once he’s finished with those, I’ll have him fabricate the one for me. He has no issue helping us, Julian. My grandfather wants nothing more than for all the Gargoyles to be as happy as he is with Caroline. He realizes trying to keep us apart was a fool’s endeavor.”

  “Good. I am going to visit with Jonathan for a few minutes before I take off. I cannot thank you both enough for–”

  “Stop it. Were you not in Egypt when I was looking for this one?” Nik asked, holding up Sophia’s hand. “It’s what we do, Jules. I would go to the deepest pits of the vilest realms to rescue Sophia so she and I can be together, and I would go with you to ensure you have the same happiness with your mate. I want you to know this level of love. I want our daughter to have cousins to grow up with.”

  “Do you not plan on having more than one child?”

  “I don’t know that I can afford Sophia being pregnant more than once. Our grocery bill has doubled in the past couple of months.” Nik didn’t duck quickly enough. Sophia clipped him on the back of the head, but the smile on her face told the real story. Julian hadn’t missed the fact that she ate three platefuls of food for breakfast. She was carrying a Gargoyle after all. With her being a half-blood, they were all interested to see if the baby was going to transition early like a full-blood, or wait until later in life when she found her mate like her mother had. He was looking forward to having his own children with Katherine.

  Julian smiled down at his brother and sister-in-law. They hadn’t needed a human wedding to know they were bonded for life. However, Sophia had legally changed her last name to Stone. A piece of paper didn’t make her family. The love she had for his brother did. Julian wanted to have that kind of love returned to him. He was eager to get to Texas and get his mate so they could begin their life together. Nikolas stood, pulling Sophia to her feet. Julian gave her a quick kiss on her cheek before bending over and talking to her belly.

  “You take good care of your mommy, and don’t forget your uncle Jules loves you.” When he rose back up, Nik had a funny look on his face. Instead of saying anything, he pulled Julian in for a tight embrace. He could tell through their own bond his brother wasn’t upset with him. If anything, Nikolas was over-the-moon happy.

  “I love you, Jules.”

  “I love you too, Nik. I’ll be in touch.” He set his forehead against his older brother’s briefly before leaving the couple outside. He found his way to Jonathan and Priscilla’s wing and paused outside the door, reaching out with his senses to gauge the mood in the room. He sighed to himself at the conversation going on in the older human’s bedroom.

  “Seriously, Prissy. You need to go back and take care of the family. Spoon feeding me isn’t helping me get better. If anything, you’re making me feel like I have one
foot in the grave. I’m not dead yet.”

  “I know that, but you need to keep up your strength. If I don’t feed you, you don’t clean your plate.”

  “Because this, my dear sister, is not a plate. It’s a platter filled with more food than Frey can eat. I couldn’t eat this much food when I was twenty. Now, go on with you, and dry your tears. We’re human. Death is part of our lives, and I’ve had the best life I could possibly have. Between caring for Rafael and having you by my side all these years, I couldn’t ask for more.”

  “But–”

  Julian knocked on the door and interrupted. He knew if he didn’t, Priscilla would worry her brother to death. “Sorry to interrupt…” He wasn’t sorry, but he didn’t need the housekeeper to know that.

  “Julian, please, come in.” Jonathan pushed the tray away from his chest, and Priscilla took it, shaking her head. Jonathan grinned at his sister before turning an even larger smile to Julian.

  Once Priscilla was gone, Julian sat with the older man who’d been much like a father to all the Gargoyles over the years. Julian didn’t ask him how he was feeling. He made small talk before telling Jonathan about Katherine. Being in the lab more often than not didn’t allow Julian to interact with others frequently, but he wanted Jonathan to know how he felt about him. Life for humans was short, and Julian was afraid he might not get another opportunity to express his gratitude for Jonathan’s service to the family over the last forty years.

  Julian stood, pausing by the bed before he took his leave. “I don’t know how long my trip will take. Hopefully, not long. I am ready to get Katherine away from the Feds and home where she belongs. Before I do that, I wanted to say thank you. You’ve been a bright light in my life, and for that I am grateful.”

  Jonathan smiled again. “My dear Julian, it has been my privilege serving your family. I know I’m not long for this world, and the hardest part is watching my sister fall apart. When you live your life surrounded by immortals, you forget how fragile that life is. How short it is. But I have no regrets. Not one. Now, enough with the maudlin talk. You go get your mate and bring her home. I’ll do my best to still be here when you get back.” The older man winked at him, and Julian placed his hand on Jonathan’s shoulder and gave a small squeeze.