Julian (The Stone Society Book 9)

by Faith Gibson

  When morning rolled around, Julian was ready to crawl out of his skin with the need to talk to Katherine. He’d tried to reach out to her a couple of times, but there was too much going on in the room between the monitors at the prison and the cameras in both agents’ houses for him to really concentrate. He took a break and headed outside where the only noise was a random airplane flying overhead. He didn’t bother stepping into the barn. He paused on the back porch and closed his eyes. Julian called out to Katherine several times, but she didn’t respond. The sound of a vehicle coming down the drive interrupted the quietness, so he walked around to the front of the house.

  A brown delivery truck pulled up in front of him and stopped. The driver hopped out with a couple of packages. “Good morning. I’m looking for Tessa Stone,” he drawled.

  “She is in the house. Can I sign for her?”

  “No can do. She has to sign for these herself, I’m afraid.”

  Julian nodded and turned to go inside just as the front door opened. “I’m Tessa,” she told the driver. After she signed her name, he handed her the deliveries and bid them a good day. “Sweet. Now we have everything to become Agents Rayaz and Everhart,” she said looking at the items in her hands. Julian followed her inside where she carefully opened both packages. The first contained the brunette wig Tessa ordered the day before, and the second was from Sophia. Tessa carefully retrieved the prosthetics Jonas had made for them.

  “These are creepy,” Julian muttered. He had seen both Tessa and Sophia wear them, but it still amazed him how close to perfect the masks were. Julian would never get used to how brilliant Jonas was. He was glad the Gargoyle had come around to the Clan’s side once Tessa mated with Gregor. “I need to get a haircut at some point.”

  “I can trim it for you,” Tessa said. Julian raised his eyebrows as she pulled a pair of small scissors out of her bag. Julian cut his eyes to Gregor who was grinning.

  “You can trust her, Jules. She cuts mine all the time,” Gregor said, running his hand through his dark hair.

  “Come on and sit down,” Tessa instructed, pulling one of the chairs into the kitchen.

  “Now?”

  “Why not now? You never know when all the pieces are going to fall in place and we’ll be ready to move in. I promise I know what I’m doing.”

  Julian shrugged and sat down in the chair. Tessa went to the table and found a photo of Terry Everhart. She placed it on the counter where she could compare it to Julian’s hair. “His is quite a bit shorter than yours, but the good thing is it’ll grow back. Oh, hang on a sec…” Tessa disappeared into the bathroom and returned with a towel she placed around Julian’s neck. Fifteen minutes later, she said, “All done.” Tessa removed the towel, brushing stray hair off his shirt. “Go on, I know you want to see it,” she said, motioning toward the bathroom.

  Julian should have known by the way Gregor nodded that his hair looked fine. What surprised him most when he caught his reflection in the mirror was how it now looked exactly like the agent’s hair. He was feeling better about being able to pull off impersonating the human. When he returned to the kitchen, he said, “Thanks, Tessa. It’s perfect.”

  Instead of gloating, she smiled and said, “You’re welcome.” She had already swept the floor and was washing her hands when she said, “Has Rayaz left her house yet?”

  “No, she’s talking on her phone right now,” Gregor answered.

  Julian transferred the feed to Tessa’s laptop and set it on the counter in front of her so she could listen in. He was pulling a soda from the refrigerator when the agent’s words caught his attention.

  “I know what the evidence shows, Joe, but I’m telling you, Katherine Fox doesn’t know anything about what she’s been accused of. I’ve seen some strong men break under the pressure of what this woman has been through. She’s a news reporter, for God’s sake. She has been put through the proverbial ringer. If she knew anything, she’d have talked long before now.” Rayaz cradled the phone between her ear and shoulder while she fixed her coffee. “I don’t care what Liza Grant said. The woman is a prison guard, not a trained federal agent. It’s a wonder Miss Fox is still alive after what that bitch did to her.”

  Julian’s hands fisted at his side. He committed Liza Grant’s name to memory and would deal with her once this was over. “I’m telling you, Joe… So she said some things that were contradictory. Of course her memory’s distorted. If you saw your mother murdered right in front of you when you were seven, you’d probably have some cognitive issues as well… I understand, but I’m telling you this woman is innocent.”

  Julian couldn’t breathe. He was glad to hear the agent was seeing the truth of the matter, but what she said about Kat’s childhood... How could he not know that about her? Her mother had been murdered? Julian needed to do more digging into his mate’s background, but first he was ready to put their plan into action. He wasn’t going to wait any longer.

  Chapter Ten

  Both Gregor and Tessa had listened to every word along with Julian. “Did you know what happened to her as a kid?” Tessa asked.

  Julian shook his head, running his hands through his shorter locks. “No. There isn’t a lot of information on her past out there to read about. I knew she was in a foster home, but the reason was sealed. I…” Fuck! Julian needed to get his mate and soon before they put her through any more mind manipulation.

  “We need a plan, Jules. A definitive plan before we storm the castle. If we go in there half-cocked, we’re going to screw up. Let’s eat breakfast and talk about what we’re going to do.” Tessa turned back to the stove, and Gregor placed his hand on Julian’s shoulder.

  “You know she’s right, Brother. Let’s do this in a way that ensures you get in and out without you or Tessa ending up in one of their cells.” Gregor squeezed his shoulder, offering his strength and resolve.

  “Yes, okay. But I am doing this tomorrow. We have today to get our plan together.” Julian didn’t know if he was strong enough to keep the beast at bay for twenty-four more hours. Not knowing about Kat’s childhood bothered him, but not nearly as much as not being able to reach her mind.

  “Julian, come look at this,” Gregor said once he’d returned his attention to the feed coming in from the prison.

  “What is it?”

  Gregor pointed to the figure he’d frozen. “That man has been the only one to go in or out of the elevator that leads to the basement. He’s taking Katherine’s meals to her. There’s something about him that seems oddly familiar.”

  Julian didn’t see anything about the man he recognized. “Kat thought she was being poisoned,” Julian said as he studied the man carefully, but he did a good job of hiding his full face from the camera. “Are you sure Rayaz hasn’t been back down there?”

  “I’m sure. I can go back through the feed if you’d like.”

  “No, that isn’t necessary, but we do need to make note of what time he brings her trays. We need to time it so we are the only ones down there when we go in after her.”

  “Do you think ‘Everhart’ should go down there? Rayaz has been the only agent to visit Kat. Won’t it look suspicious if he all of a sudden takes an interest?”

  “Yes, but I have a plan.” Julian had gone over most scenarios with regards to getting caught and how that could happen. “Tessa, I think we need to cover our tracks ahead of time. We need to have Rayaz call Everhart with her suspicions. When all is said and done, the Feds are going to investigate these two if everything goes according to plan. If you call Terry as Sonja and tell him what ‘you’ suspect about Katherine being innocent, there will be a link between the two. That will be sufficient evidence for Terry to have a reason to visit Katherine.”

  “Can you patch my phone through to his so it shows up as her number?” Tessa asked.

  “No, but I can triangulate it so they cannot trace it. She should have that technology at her disposal and would make a call from a secure line to another agent if she was trying to be d
iscreet.”

  “I’m game. Let me go get the transmitter.” When she returned, Tessa asked, “Have you seen the two of them interact at all? I don’t know how much they work together.”

  “As long as I have been watching, I have never seen the two of them together. Gregor, have you noticed them talking?”

  “No. How are you going to play this?” he asked his mate.

  “I’m going to wing it, honestly. I’ll bring ‘my’ suspicions to his attention and see what he says. I think this is a good idea anyway, to see how well the agents know each other.”

  Gregor crossed his arms over his chest. He wasn’t picking on Tessa, but he was asking questions that caused legitimate concerns. “What if he asks personal questions? You don’t know her well enough to chat about things outside Katherine such as cases they would have worked on together.”

  “Again, I’ll wing it. I’ll be evasive and bring him back around to the point I’m making. If things get too dicey, I’ll hang up.”

  “I think we need to wait and do this tonight. If you call him now, what happens when they do run into each other at the prison and he brings up their conversation? If you wait until they are both getting ready for bed, it will be you and Julian at the prison tomorrow so the two agents won’t have a chance to compare notes. Once you have Katherine out safely, it won’t matter if they speak to each other after that.”

  “Damn, Stone. You’re right. See, this is why I keep you around.”

  “And here I thought it was because of my big–”

  “I really don’t need to hear about your big anything, Brother. Let’s stay on point, shall we?” Julian interrupted, and Gregor and Tessa laughed. He loved the banter between the two, but he hadn’t had sex in so long, hearing about it was torture. “But, you are right. We’ll save the call for tonight. In the morning, we’ll go to their homes, incapacitate them both, and head to the pen to retrieve my mate. Once she’s safe, we’ll go back and cut them loose, literally. We’ll be out of their homes before they have time to wake up, and we’ll be out of town before they figure out what happened. When they look into Katherine’s escape, it will be their faces on the security feed, and it will be up to them to prove their innocence, which they won’t be able to do, at least not for a while.”

  “They’ll know they were drugged when they wake up having lost hours, but with the antidote I have, it will take a while for a chemist to figure out what exactly was used. By that time, we’ll be long gone. I’m going to leave extra vials of the antidote with Gregor just in case. I’d hate for something to happen and the agents not recover.” Tessa grabbed her laptop from the counter and set down next to Gregor. “I want to spend today watching the feed from the prison to see every move Rayaz makes. I don’t want there to be any surprises.”

  “I will do the same with Everhart. While they are home tonight, we will go over our plan for exiting the building.” Julian settled into the chair on the other side of his cousin, and all three kept their eyes on the monitors, watching, searching, and learning.

  Katherine’s head felt somewhat better, and she was starving, but she didn’t want to chance eating. She was able to move from the floor to the platform that served as a bed. She used the pillow to cushion her head instead of covering it to shield the light. She wasn’t sure what day it was as she’d lost count of the times someone had brought food to her. The tray on the floor was breakfast, but it was cold and congealed. Hopefully, she’d only lost one day and not more. The mess on the floor where she’d vomited had been cleaned up. It bothered her that someone had been in the cell with her and she’d been unaware.

  Closing her eyes, Kat opened her mind to Julian. It had been a while since she’d felt him in her head. It had also been a while since anyone other than whoever was bringing her food had visited. She could only pray that meant Agent Rayaz believed Kat when she swore she knew nothing about the weapons or the farm where they’d been found. It was apparent she’d been framed, but why? And by whom? Katherine’s foster parents were good people. When she was growing up, they stayed away from politics. They voted in the national elections, but that was as far as it went. They rarely watched the news. They went to church on occasion, but weren’t strictly religious. John flew the American flag on special holidays, and Lucinda babysat for several mothers while they worked. The Praters weren’t the kind of people to sell secrets to the enemy. Kat knew in her heart they weren’t the cause of whatever was going on.

  She had been seven when they took her into their home. It wasn’t so young that she shouldn’t remember her life before them, but most of her early years were a blank. She often tried to remember her real parents, but until Agent Rayaz started poking around in her brain, little was there. Now, the bits and pieces she was remembering didn’t make sense. There were more questions than answers, and if she ever got out of her hell hole, she was going to dig until she found out who she really was. Where she came from. Who her parents had been. Growing up, she’d been curious. Now, she had a feeling someone from her past was involved in something she wasn’t aware of.

  What about Julian? Thinking about Julian didn’t raise any red flags, but at the same time, her troubles hadn’t started until after she ran into him at the coffee shop. She had never had much interaction with the well-known man before that day. After? She still didn’t understand why he’d taken such an interest in her as soon as she was arrested. If none of this had happened, would they still be the practical strangers they’d been before? Their conversation before the Feds came ran on a constant loop in her brain, even though she did her best to push it to the background. She wanted to believe someone like Julian would be interested in her. Maybe that want had transformed into a dire need brought on by her current situation, and she was projecting his voice into a conversation that was keeping her sane. Maybe she wasn’t really hearing his voice at all.

  The sound of her cell door opening had Katherine sitting up. The same man as before swapped her old tray for a new one. “How are you feeling?” he asked. When Katherine didn’t answer, he cocked his head to the side as he’d done the first time he saw her. “You really should eat. You need to keep your strength up.” He narrowed his eyes, gave her a smile, and left her alone. Even though she’d gotten sick after eating the food he’d brought, she didn’t feel threatened by him. His smile was nice, not the kind that made her skin crawl. It was possible her sickness had been brought about by something other than the food. Scooting off the bed, Katherine picked up the tray and decided to try eating one more time. If she got sick again, she’d know not to trust him.

  The first thing she did was open the water bottle and drink half of it down. Kat wiped her mouth on the back of her hand and picked up the dinner role, taking a small bite. As ravenous as she was, she knew eating too quickly could make her as sick as the poison had, so she ate slowly. She cleaned her tray of every scrap of food and took another sip of water. Getting something on her stomach returned some of her strength. Now if she only had something to occupy her time besides her mind, she might make it through another day unharmed.

  Katherine had no idea how long she sat before her stomach began rumbling and her head began aching. It was nothing like what she endured the last time, so she chalked it up to her stomach having been empty. She lay down on her bed and closed her eyes, begging the pain to subside. Drifting in and out of consciousness, Kat’s thoughts bounced all around from Julian’s kiss to her mother’s death. She’d much rather think about the kiss, but something about seeing the woman murdered when she’d been a child bothered her deeply. Was that what truly happened even though she’d been told her mother had been sent away so the traumatic experience could be buried?

  When she woke, her supper tray was on the floor by the door. The ache in her head was a small throb, so she decided to chance eating one more time. It surprised her that the food was decent. She’d always imagined prison food to be nothing more than slop. Kat devoured the mashed potatoes. They weren’t as good as what Lucin
da made, but they weren’t lumpy. The meat tasted like roast, so that’s what Kat pretended it was. She loved apples, but they were so full of sugar that she rarely indulged unless she could brush her teeth straight away. Considering where she was and how long it would be before she might get to brush again, she started to leave the fruit on the tray. When it continued to taunt her, she decided she might not ever get out of prison and it wouldn’t matter whether or not her teeth were cavity-free.

  Without a clock, Katherine had no way to measure the time, but she guessed it was about an hour after eating that her stomach began to act up. The nausea built slowly, and the ache returned to her head. She lay down on the metal frame hoping the pain would lessen in a reclining position. Instead, it gradually got worse. So much worse that she thought her head was going to implode. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes as she prayed for the pain to stop. Kat felt sick and leaned over in case she did throw up. Her vision blurred, and the next thing she knew, Kat was falling. Before she hit the floor, everything went black.

  Julian’s beast was going crazy. He’d been sitting at the table drinking a soda while keeping his eyes on the monitors, and all of a sudden, his head filled with a rage like he’d never felt before. Julian grabbed the sides of his head and yelled, “What the fuck?” He slid the chair back so fast it toppled over behind him as he rushed out the back door. He’d no sooner cleared the threshold when his wings burst forth, ripping his shirt. His fangs and claws were front and center, and he was breathing like he’d run a marathon as a human. Gregor ran outside but kept plenty of room between them.