Page 41 of Protected Hearts

But that was a different beast than the one they were dealing with. At the moment, he merely needed to track down a handler.

The person he spoke with on the phone made a few grunting noises.

“You know him,” Oaks read the situation with Shiloh’s first handler going missing.

“Yes. He was found dead.”

Oaks fixed his gaze on Carson across the desk. His brother couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, but what heread on his face must be enough. He tipped his head up to the ceiling and closed his eyes.

“All right, thanks for letting me know.”

He ended the call and set the phone down on the desk. “The first handler’s dead.”

“Not a coincidence.”

“No. Somebody was trying to prevent Shiloh from getting the information to him.”

Carson pushed a breath through his nose. “How do you think she’ll react?”

“I’m not going to tell her.”

Carson opened his mouth to protest.

Oaks cut over him. “Yet. We’re going to analyze the fuck out of this. Find out who’s behind the murder. We have a little time. She’s out on the trail with Colt. You know how long Colt likes to be out riding. Let’s start digging.”

He reached across the desk for the laptop. Carson spun his chair to face the desktop computer, and the two of them set out to uncover more about the situation.

Oaks soon got lost in the exploration. About an hour in, he paused, fingers hovering over the keys. “I found something.”

Carson jerked around. “What is it?”

“The names of three people seen with the Drummond woman. I was able to track down one of them. A man who’s reported dead.”

“Give me the details.”

Within minutes, they had even more on the guy, enough for Oaks to make a conclusion.

“She says she never knew his name and only met with him one time. But my guess is this was her handler.”

Carson sat back, contemplating him for a beat. “Is there any information on how he died?”

“He was found on the street.”

“The CIA already knows this.”

Oaks grunted. “But they’re not going to share it with us. We’ll have to get it ourselves. The question is how.”

Excitement rippled over Carson’s features. “Do you have an address?”

Oaks blinked. “Goddamn. Yes. You’re right—we can get the closed-circuit camera footage on the street and see who did it.” His fingers flew over the keys. So did his brother’s.

“Aha!” Oaks slapped the desk and shot to his feet. He stared at the screen.

“What do you got?” Carson circled the desk.

“An image.”

Carson gazed at it. “We need to blow it up.”

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