Page 17 of Stone
His attention drifted back to his device, making it clear he didn’t want to talk about it. A pang of rejection sliced through her. She’d shared a lot with him that morning. Although, admittedly, none of it personal. And if his injury was severe enough to still cause him pain, it had to have been horrendous. Not something he’d readily want to recount.
Her password prompt flashed, drawing her attention, and she decided to let his mild rebuff go. They didn’t know each other well enough for her to feel a right to his story.
Her screen came to life as a man opened the door and walked in. He drew to an abrupt halt, then grinned. Two rows of perfectly white teeth contrasted with his sun-kissed skin, deep blue eyes danced in the reflection of the light filtering through the window, and a lock of hair, too dark to be called blond but not dark enough to be called brown, fell over his forehead.
“You must be Juliana,” he said, stepping forward.
“Don’t make me regret asking Mantis for your help,” Simon growled.
The man smirked at him, then held out his hand. “Philly,” he said. She rose and shook it. He held on a tad longer than comfortable.
“I will not think twice about kicking your ass if you make her uncomfortable,” Simon said without turning around.
Philly’s grin turned into a smile. “I would never,” he said. Then winking at her, he added, “I wanted to see how long it would take him to react.”
She smiled back, not altogether sure what to think. She’d met a lot of men who pretended to be the fun-loving troublemaker type only to discover that underneath their playful comments hid barbs, criticisms, and jabs. And it was her “fault” if she didn’t find them funny.
“Should I grab my computer?” he asked, circling the table as Monk entered, carrying his.
“Let’s walk through everything, make a plan, and then we can go from there,” Simon said. “Does that work for you?” he asked her. She nodded, and he pulled her chair out again, urging her to sit.
“All right, darlin’,” Philly said, catching her eye. “Whose ass do we need to kick?”
10
Stone agreed with the sentiment, but Philly’s delivery had him rolling his eyes. Or nearly. Juliana’s soft laugh—no doubt Philly’s intention—stopped him.
He turned to her. “Do you want to start? You can project your notes.” He nodded to the wall.
“Thanks,” she said, and he rose, leaning over the table to grab the cord from the power strip. When he shifted to hand it to her, her eyes darted away suddenly. As if she’d been staring at his ass. He bit back a grin. He did not mind one tiny bit if she ogled his ass.
Juliana cleared her throat. “After I arrived home last night, I wrote down everything I heard. We didn’t go over that at my place. Why don’t we start there?”
He nodded as she hooked up her computer, savoring the spark of pleasure that ignited in his body at knowing she found him attractive. A new feeling. One he liked. A lot.
He chanced a glance across the table. Philly raised an eyebrow. Monk cocked his head. He shrugged in response. Juliana was special. He wasn’t going to pretend otherwise.Philly’s other eyebrow went up. A smile ghosted across Monk’s face.
“Here,” Juliana said, drawing their attention to the document projected on the wall. “Once I figured out who I’d overheard, I went back and attached name tags to the conversation so we can see who said what.”
The room fell silent as he and his brothers read, the only sound when one of them asked her to scroll down.
When they reached the end, they all looked to her. Without a word, she switched apps and brought up a web page featuring Supervisor Aaron Lowery and, beside it, another tab for Dean Polinsky. “These are the two men I heard,” she said.
“A politician and a cop,” Philly said. “Fun.”
“What do we know about them?” Monk asked as they stared at the images.
Both men looked in their late fifties or early sixties. Lowery had a full head of gray hair, fair skin, and elongated features. His smile hinted at two rows of straight teeth, and his blue eyes looked out at them as if he’d shake their hands right now if he could.
Polinsky, on the other hand, had thinning hair, round beady eyes, and a soft jowl. His mouth was smaller than the width of his nose, an impressive feat of genetics since his nose, though pointy, was also small. He had a face that looked as if all his features were shoved together in the middle.
“Other than what’s on their websites, nothing,” Juliana answered. “This is as far as I got last night. Finding Polinsky was easy. Lowery took me longer.”
“Then that’s our first line of business,” Stone said. “We’ll look into Lowery,” he said, gesturing to him and Juliana.
“I’ll take Polinsky,” Philly said.
“I’ll take the Bayview development,” Monk said. “Based on the conversation, we’ll find our third guy—the blackmailer andintended victim—tied to that project.” He’d risen as he spoke, no doubt intending to hole up in his room as he researched.
