Page 46 of Protected Hearts

“Motherfuckers!” Willow’s voice held an edge of fury only the Malone brothers would know was cause for worry. Their sister’s lips twisted as she stared at the equipment.

Oaks had to admit, it looked like pure evil. And he’d seen plenty of weapons of destruction—seen what they could do too. But this…was an invasion of their home. A threat to people they cared about.

Carson leaned over the equipment, a screwdriver in hand.

Oaks stopped him. “Wait! It might be armed.”

Colt shook his head. “I’ve seen armed drones before.” His jaw tensed as a memory seemed to sweep through his mind. “It’s not armed or I never would have shot it down. But there is a recording device, which means there’s most likely a chip still transmitting to whoever owns it.”

Shiloh turned her face aside. Seeing how upset she was, even if she wasn’t in a fit of tears, he pulled her up against him and cradled her head against his chest.

Willow’s sharp, narrowed eyes saw everything. She probably saw too much, such as how Oaks’s feelings were far from distant when it came to Shiloh.

He met his sister’s gaze and challenged her to say anything with an arch of his brow.

“Wrap it up,” Oaks instructed. “We’ll get it to the lab for analysis.”

Colt shot him an amused glance. “Sure you don’t want to be the person to take the drone to the lab, Oaks?”

He knew what his little shit brother was doing. He referred to a certain doctor at the local lab who had caught Oaks’s eye atone time. Now when he thought about the woman, he couldn’t even recall her face in his mind.

All he could see was the beautiful one buried against his chest.

Firming his jaw, he looked to Carson. “Send Colt. I’m going to take care of Shiloh.”

As he guided her to the guest room, the world zeroed in like crosshairs on a target.

His gut was reacting to her being in danger.

Maybe it was time for him to take her away from the ranch. She wasn’t safe here.

When he closed the door behind them, she turned into his arms and clung to him.

He smoothed a hand down her spine. “If anything happened to you… Thank god you’re all right, honey.”

Nodding against his chest, she made a soft noise in her throat.

A Russian spy was after her. Within the scope of capability that woman probably had at her fingertips, a drone was nothing. What was next?

He inhaled Shiloh’s sweet scent and closed his eyes at the feel of her locked against him. “Protecting you is everything. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He opened his mouth to tell her that they were leaving the Black Heart.

Suddenly, he realized his error. It was a flashing neon light in the forefront of his mind. Fleeing from the ranch—or even the state—wasn’t the right move. He was making the same mistake his brother did.

When Layne had a stalker getting a few steps too close to her, Carson’s instinct had been to flee with her to another country, but soon he realized the Black Heart was the safest place for her.

“There is safety in numbers,” Oaks gritted out. Tucking his wife closer, he brushed a kiss over her hair. “No one is getting through the Malones.”

Chapter Eleven

Shiloh huddled under the warmth of the thick quilt wrapped around her shoulders. A few steps away from the bed where she sat, Oaks stood watching her.

“You can stop looking at me like a worried pet owner.” She tucked her knees against her chest.

He straightened an inch more. “I don’t think of you as a pet. Nor am I your owner.”

“Who do you think sent the drone?” Just thinking about that thing flying over them felt like an enormous violation of privacy. What if she’d been out on that trail with Oaks? What if they had been in the throes of an intimate moment, and it was captured by the drone’s camera for anyone to see?

Oaks eyed her for another heartbeat. His shoulders were an unmovable concrete wall. His jaw was a chunk of steel.

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