“No wonder we couldn’t contact you. I tried to let you know about Bolick, then sent Baltimore PD to the pier.”
“Evidently, Cady’s even more security-conscious than we thought. And definitely pro-family. He was not interested in talking to me at all if you weren’t in the picture. Every excuse I had—that we had broken up, that you just weren’t interested in the business anymore—wasn’t going to fly, I could tell.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Evan could see tension fill Juliet’s body and her breathing become more rapid, although she was still leaning against the headrest.
“What? Are you okay? Are you going to be sick again?”
“Evan, Cady’s not going to deal with you if I’m not involved.”
He reached over and took her hand, shocked when she didn’t jerk away instantly. He had touched Juliet more in the past hour than he had in the whole past year.
“It’ll be all right, Jules. I can make it work without you.”
Now Juliet opened her pretty green eyes to look at him, her breathing becoming even more pronounced. “How, Evan? You heard Cady. He was adamant about the two of us being together or you not bothering to come to the auction at all. And he has drone override codes.”
Juliet was right. Despite his assurances, Evan couldn’t see how he was going to make it into the auction without her. If he had known what a hangup Cady would have for Juliet’s attendance with him, Evan would’ve gotten another agent—someone who could pass for Juliet—and gone in with her. Sure, that plan had its own problems, but it was better than where they were now: having an open invitation to infiltrate a huge crime lord’s organization, but not being able to move on it.
Evan cursed silently. He couldn’t force Juliet to go back undercover; after what he’d seen today, he knew the price would be too high.
And honestly, despite the confidence he had in her overall, and the firm belief she could again become the great agent she had once been, he wasn’t sure she could do it right now. Not that she was willing, anyway.
Evan glanced over at Juliet, watching her trying to get herself under control. She didn’t look like a law enforcement agent right now. She looked like a woman who was frightened. She still had her Glock clutched in her small fist.
He would just have to find another way to get into the auction with Vince Cady. But hell if he had a single damned idea of how he would do so.
He felt Juliet slip her hand out of his as she turned her head to the window. Silence permeated the car. Evan didn’t know what he could possibly say to make this better, so he didn’t even try.
They drove all the way back to DC—Evan would have to send someone else to get his car at the pier—and pulled into the Omega parking garage without Juliet saying another word. At one point Evan had wondered if she’d fallen asleep. But at least her breathing was even and she had color in her face. All signs of her earlier panic attack seemed to be gone.
Maybe that was why he was so shocked when she turned to him as he parked her car.
“I’ll go back under, Evan. It’s our only hope.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
“We sat in this very room yesterday and had this exact conversation. You weren’t ready then. You can’t possibly be ready now.”
Sawyer spoke to Juliet, but wasn’t looking at her; he was glaring at Evan. The conversation had been going on for the past twenty minutes. It was the first time in memory that Juliet could recall wishing that a bomber still threatened Washington, DC.
At least then her brothers wouldn’t be here trying to convince her of something she already knew: this was a bad idea.
“Sawyer, it’s the only option.” Juliet didn’t raise her voice.
“Hell no, it’s not the only option. And even if it was, we’d figure out something else.”
Silence flooded the room. That was the problem—there really weren’t any other options. Not ones that could solve the problem in the amount of time they had. None of the four people in the room, Juliet, Evan, Sawyer or Cameron, had much that could be offered by way of an alternate plan.
Juliet spoke calmly. “It was bad enough when Cady had the surface-to-air missiles. But now he has the drone override codes. If anyone has an alternate plan I’m willing to listen to it. If not…”
More silence. Which was broken by the phone ringing on the conference room table.
“Why did a call get routed in here?” Evan asked.
“Because it’s Dylan. I gave him a heads-up and told him to call.” Sawyer looked at Juliet, eyebrow raised.
She could feel her nostrils flare; she couldn’t believe they had brought their oldest brother into this. This was her decision, not theirs. She slammed her palm over the handset before Cameron could pick it up. “You know what you two are? Tattletales.”
Cameron brushed her hand away and pressed the button for the speakerphone. “Hey, Dylan.”
Dylan had been an Omega agent for a long time before getting out a few years ago to start his own charter airplane business in the western part of Virginia. He wasn’t one to beat around the bush. “What’s going on, Jules?”
There were few people in the world Juliet had more respect for than her oldest brother. He, more than anyone else knew the price of undercover work. “It looks like I need to go back under, Dylan. As Lisa Sinclair.”
Dylan knew what had happened eighteen months before. Juliet didn’t need to explain it to him. “Do you want to do it?” he asked.
“I think saying I want to do it would be a gross overstatement. But I don’t think there’s any way around it. Vince Cady has somehow acquired drone override codes, Dyl.”
Juliet could hear him whistle through his teeth. He knew the ramifications of having these codes in the wrong hands.
“Evan, are you there?” Dylan finally
