Page 51 of Operation Heartbeat

More of that laughter sounded in his ear before they cut the call.

When he gave Sophie his attention, he waited for her to ask about Deniz’s wife. Instead, she asked, “Why do you call him Chickie?”

“It’s for his last name—Henner. Hens and chicks.”

“He’s the one with the blue eyes?”

Con didn’t like that she had noticed his eyes.

“Yeah.”

“What’s the plan?”

“Who said anything about a plan?”

She tipped her head to the side, giving him an exasperated look. “Why else would they call?”

He pushed air through his nostrils. “We’ve got Deniz’s routine.”

“We’re going to follow him?”

He shook his head. “You’re not doing anything but staying right here, working on that cryptogram. Did any of that intel help you get in the suspect’s head?”

She nodded. “I have enough of a history that I can make some guesses that will help me decipher the cryptogram. And there is the matter of this email that just arrived in his inbox.” She pointed at the screen.

He gave her a sharp look. “You didn’t mention an email.”

“It arrived right as you answered your call.”

“What’s it say?”

“It’s another cryptogram.”

He leaped up to look at her screen. Sure enough, the email only contained a single long line of code.

“Who sent it?”

She wagged her head in answer. “That’s the thing. The IP address is hidden by a VPN. The email address was a disposable temporary one that deletes after it’s used. The sender also used an encrypted, secure account. There’s no way of tracking it.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything else.”

“Right.”

“I’ll make sure the appropriate people get control of this guy’s emails. It’s not what we hired you to do.”

She didn’t answer, absorbed in what she saw on the screen again, leaving Con to study her profile. Feminine. Lovely.

And that Princeton T-shirt was driving him crazy.

When he and Charlie team went to intercept Deniz, Con had to make certain that Sophie was left with an armed guard. He wouldn’t take any chances that she could be snatched.

It was protocol—not personal. While he didn’t want any harm coming to a woman on his watch, it definitely was not because he cared about her.

Definitely not.

* * * * *

When the knock came at the door, Sophie jumped. Con automatically reached out and touched her arm.

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