Page 137 of Stolen Faith
Juliette took a breath. “No.”
“No?” Eric leaned forward. “What do you mean ‘no’?”
“I mean that the church’s informant told them the Grand Master was Harrison Adams. My brother.”
“Brother?” Eric sat back, clearly thinking through the implications.
“But, if you watched any U.S. news, you might have noticed that my name…my legal name isn’t Adams. In my parents’ trinity, my mother was the odd person out. She raised me as a single mother, and my father never acknowledged me. Was never really a part of my life except, of course, using me as a bargaining chip and arranging my marriage when I was an infant.”
“Your father traded you away for land and alliances like you’re a proper princess.” He nodded in approval.
“I’m not sure there was land involved,” Juliette said dryly. “The point is, there is no connection between Harrison Adams and Juliette Lissand.”
“Then how did they figure out who you were?” Eric asked.
“I thought maybe we had a…a traitor.” Devon had taken a very long, hard look at Price Bennett, the only councilor Juliette had retained from her brother’s council. But Price was also the person who’d been able to lean on Black Arrow and force them to switch sides. As of right now, Price hadn’t been told any of the details of what had happened, or how they were handling the fallout, though Sebastian was certain he wasn’t responsible for any of this, even if his connections to the world of private security, and his possible divided loyalty, made him a suspect.
“But it seems like it’s much simpler than that,” Juliette said after a moment. “And stupider.”
“Now you have to tell me.”
“Barry Hausenfluck hired Black Arrow, gave them all the information he had, and told them he wanted the Grand Master and ‘high-ranking members of the society’.”
“Nice and vague.”
“Isn’t it?” Juliette’s voice was dry as she went on. “Black Arrow was given Harrison’s name and told that the headquarters of the society was in the Central Library. They watched Harrison for weeks, saw that he’s clearly in a poly marriage, but they never saw him go into the library.”
“So maybe he was a member, but not the Grand Master.”
“That’s what Black Arrow proposed to Barry. What they did note was that Devon Asher and his girlfriend kept visiting Harrison, and they would then go to the library. In fact, they had a lot of footage of Devon arriving at and leaving the library.”
“Ah, and on paper, he makes a good Grand Master?” Eric asked.
“Yes. Black Arrow was able to access some of his records and knew he’d worked for the agency. He’s well connected both on his own, and his family is wealthy and powerful.”
“And they never looked twice at you,” Eric said softly.
“The daughter of an actress was clearly the girlfriend, nothing more,” Juliette replied dryly. “Actually, one of the Black Arrow team dug deep. They found a social media post where I was tagged as Juliette Adams. From that, and given my proximity to Harrison, Black Arrow questioned who my father was—even proposed that I might be Harrison’s half-sister, the product of an affair.”
“The person who figured that out is one of the ones you’re recruiting?”
“Yes, and you can’t have her.”
“Damn. Okay.”
“Black Arrow had…a lot…of information about us. But they gave it to Barry, and he drew his own conclusions. He decided Franco—who Black Arrow said was probably our third, as he was often pictured with us—was Devon’s assistant.”
“Why did he think that?”
“From what Black Arrow said, Barry figured that the Grand Master would want two wives. Apparently, Franco’s ethnicity was also mentioned. It literally never occurred to him that Franco was the third member of our trinity.”
“That is high-quality racism.” Eric paused. “And sexism.”
“The finest quality,” she agreed.
Eric thought for a moment. “Even though your brother, the man they thought was the Grand Master, had a husband and a wife.”
“Don’t try to use logic. Barry certainly didn’t,” Juliette said. “The truth was that Black Arrow gave Barry all the information he needed to…to really hurt us.” Juliette looked up. “It was close,” she said softly.