Page 14 of Protected Hearts

She snapped her head to glare at him. “Do you buy women often?” Her terse response wasrightin character. The shuddering breath she took was not.

Before he could say more, she stood, looking calm and sexy as fuck in those sweats. She was taller than Layne, and the sweats hung low on her hips while the top rode up her slim, toned abdomen.

In long strides, she took off to the back where he and Carson had just convened. Oaks followed, trying not to note the sway of her hips with each haughty step she took.

A moment later, Carson joined them, sitting beside Oaks with both of them facing Shiloh. After a little probing, she gave her version of the story, beginning with how she’d been dragged at gunpoint out of her apartment and shoved in the car by her ex.

“Did you know you were going to meet with the Russians?” Oaks asked her.

“I don’t even know whoyouare, let alone those people.” Her eyes seemed to have changed from blue to stormy blue-gray. The color of a sea about to erupt into deadly waves.

“It’s Malone.”

“That’s your last name—you gave it to me, remember? You were talking on the phone.”

“That’s for the flight register. We couldn’t take off without the pilot knowing who was onboard.” He held her stare. “And it’s Oaks. Oaks Malone.”

She didn’t respond to that. “No, I do not know those Russian men. Nor do I know anything about what they’re doing with my ex.”

She tucked the corner of her lush lips inward, a sure sign that she wasn’t telling them the full truth if he was any judge. “All I know is he was forcing me to marry him. Then I was married to you.”

Carson leaned forward. “Oaks, I take it you caught the address of that house?”

“Of course. And a few photos too. But they’re blurry. We’ll have to wait to clean them up so we can run them through facial recognition.”

Shiloh’s gaze settled on him. “I can clean up the pictures.”

“You have experience?” Oaks asked.

“I know tech. I just need a laptop.”

Oaks sent his brother a look, then he got up to rummage through an overhead compartment. A minute later he held out a laptop in a sleek black case.

Shiloh took it. “Thank you.” She immediately opened the device and had it up and running. As she ran through some screens, it was apparent to Oaks that she possessed skills. When she ran through a few more, she did it so fast that he missed what she was doing.

She opened an app and pressed her index finger to the fingerprint scanner on the laptop, adding hers.

“What are you doing?” He hovered over her.

She shot him a sidelong look. The app closed and another opened. “It’s my photo software. Send the pics to the laptop and I’ll get them cleaned up so we can end this and I can move on with my life.”

Chapter Four

That was close. Too close. Shiloh’s heart was slamming so hard inside her chest that she was sure those men could see it through her borrowed top.

Now it would be nearly impossible for her ex to gain access to the files. Only a highly skilled hacker could attempt it, and if they did, she would get a notification.

She wished she had her phone, but that was the first thing William took. She was damn lucky to get access to a computer at all. While she ran through a system startup, she’d managed to add two encrypted passcodes, a security question and her own fingerprint. Only then did she begin work on the photos.

After that, she returned to her seat in the front of the jet and curled up with the blanket to feign sleep. Her brain that had been so foggy before was now crystal clear.

She just needed to decide on one of the dozen plans she hatched while in the air. She had no idea if she could trust the man who’d rescued her. He might have his own agenda.

Being around these guys was like hearing a language she didn’t understand, though she was quickly piecing everything together. Back in the moving van, Oaks told her that he had been helping his brother’s girlfriend move.

The other people on this flight must be the brother and the girlfriend.

Why would any of them help her? She was a complete stranger—one who’d only told them part of the story. They knew nothing about her role in William’s criminal activities or theproof in her possession that would get her—and all of them—killed.

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