Page 2 of Stone
“Exactly.”
Heavy silence filled the space. Juliana held her breath.
“Fuck,” the second man said. The first didn’t bother to reply. “We have to do something.”
Her stomach somersaulted.
“It’s gone on long enough,” the first agreed.
“Barlow him?” the second man said. A pause followed. She didn’t try to figure out what that meant; instead, she committed the words to memory.
“It would take care of things. Take care of him. Permanently,” the first replied.
She bit back a whimper. Part of her brain refused to believe what she’d heard. People like her, law-abiding history geeks from small towns, didnotoverhear people discussing murder.
“We shouldn’t have let it come to this.”
“No, but did you ever see any other way out? Don’t tell me the first time he blackmailed you, you didn’t think about killing him,” the first man said.
Only apparently, people like herdidoverhear people talking about killing someone. Swallowing down her nausea, she darted a look around the gallery. How on earth was she going to escape their notice? She didn’t want to think about what they might do if they knew they’d been overheard. But what were her options?
The other man chuckled, a sinister whisper echoing down the hallway. “Of course I did. The fucker. Didn’t mean I wanted to do it.”
“And now?”
She held her breath, but the question went unanswered.
“Shit, Tony’s coming. With his entourage,” the first man said. “We’ll continue this conversation later. Tony!” he called in greeting.
The din of several voices talking at once drowned out any specific words. With her mind no longer focused on the conversation, the urge to flee came roaring to the surface. If they were willing to kill one person, what would they do if they figured out that she’d overheard them? She didn’t know the two men or whether they’d actually murder someone, but she didn’t want to test that. It seemed safer to assume they would.
A flicker of movement in the corner caught her attention, and a spider scrambled across the hardwood floors. If only she could be an animal shifter from one of the fantasy books she read and join the little guy. Or gal. Sexing spiders wasn’t her specialty.
The sound of several feet moving down the hall toward the gallery jolted her back to the situation. Books had given herunrealistic expectations of herself, and rather than act like one of the kick-ass heroines—like Giana—all she wanted to do was curl into a ball and cry.
Her gaze caught again on the eleven men in the picture. She couldn’t imagine the hardships they’d faced immigrating to California all those decades ago. The long boat ride, leaving their families, facing all those unknowns. And there they were, smiling into the camera.
With a deep breath, she mentally shimmied into her big-girl panties. If those eleven men could do what they’d done, then she could figure out how to persuade those two men that she posed no threat to them. Not that she planned to forget what she’d heard, she just needed to convince them she hadn’t heard anything.
The herd of people drew closer and closer. An avuncular laugh, a disingenuous comment, a criticism veiled as a compliment all echoed down the hall as the group drew closer.
She didn’t bother looking for another exit. Any way out would take her directly in front of the two men. And triggering their prey instincts by scampering by them was not on her to-do list.
If she looked lost enough in the photo, maybe they’d believe she hadn’t paid attention to them?
Wait…
She glanced down at her phone. Gripped tightly in her hand, the cover of her audiobook still displayed on the screen.
She had a better solution. Well, a better solutionifshe could keep her cool and not freak out. Acting had never been her strong point. Then again, her life had never depended on that particular skill.
The footsteps drew closer, making her decision for her. If she wanted the two men to believe that she hadn’t heard a thing, she had one option and one option only. Focusing her attentionon the photo, she stared, phone in hand, at the eleven men, and took a deep breath.
The group entered as she exhaled.
2
Keeping her gaze on the picture, she tuned her senses into the group of people behind her. The shuffling of feet, the pause at the entrance, the scent of several colognes filling the large gallery, the rustle of clothing as men slid their hands into their pockets.
