Page 34 of Operation Heartbeat

EIGHT

The infinity pool shimmered turquoise under the cloudless sky, the smooth water feeling like a calm against the chaos that Sophie and Con chased.

She rested against a plump lounge chair cushion and let out a small sigh of contentment. “What a view.”

In the chair beside her, Con looked up from the laptop he was working on and gave the Istanbul skyline his full attention.

If the view was arresting, Con’s rugged profile was heart-stopping.

She studied his fine, straight nose and the hard angle of his cheek and jaw, his eyes fixed on some horizon as if he were able to see much more than most humans did. With his training, she didn’t doubt his mind analyzed everything from ways to defend them in the hotel room to potential threats by air.

She set aside her laptop and stood with a stretch. She’d been staring at screens for endless hours now. While her inner type A personality pushed her to complete the job she’d started, her logical mind told her there was no way she could do that without taking a break.

“I’m going to take a swim.”

He didn’t respond to her announcement, not that she was waiting for one. She crossed the textured concrete to the edge of the pool and dropped the thin cotton swim coverup.

A faint noise like car gears grinding fluttered on the breeze toward her. She pivoted and shot Con a glance from the corner of her eye. The man hadn’t budged from his chair. Unlike her,who’d come outside prepared for the hot weather in a swimsuit and coverup, Con was fully dressed in jeans and a T-shirt.

She eyed him, unable to envision him in tourist attire of shorts or lightweight linen pants. Not Con’s style.

His gaze seemed to hover around her knees. Before he could catch her gawking at him, she dipped a toe in the water and found it surprisingly warm.

She issued a low chuckle. “I’m used to cold swimming pools. Growing up, we swam in lakes in Massachusetts.”

He made a humming noise in his throat but didn’t seem to want to engage. She adjusted the straps of her black one-piece, walked to the deep end of the pool and performed a perfect dive.

She sliced through the water and came up with a light splash. Okay, she might have been showing off her diving skills just a bit. She’d practiced enough to try to outdo her big brother, and she swam on the high school team when her nose wasn’t in a book.

In smooth strokes, she crossed the pool, did a swift turn and swam the length back. After only a few laps, she lay on her back, floating, and stared up at the sky.

Even though the sky was empty of clouds, her mind was far from blank. She’d memorized the letters of that first cryptogram, and they played through her head in a loop. She’d looked at them left, right and upside down and still hadn’t come to any answers about what they meant.

When she grew tired of floating, she swam another couple laps and then climbed the steps out of the pool. A stack of thick towels was on a rack against one wall, and she had to pass in front of Con to grab one.

As she did, she swore she felt the heat of his gaze burning into her. The sensation made her stomach dip, and she hurried to wrap herself in a towel. She stretched out on her lounge chairin the sun to soak up the rays and allow that puzzle to roll through her mind.

“I’m going to place a call to my team.”

She opened her eyes and lifted her head off the chair to peek at Con. “Do you need me to go inside?”

“No.” The tendon in the crease of his jaw was balled up tight again. She couldn’t think what might be annoying him, but if she’d learned anything from her divorce, it was that it wasn’t her job to figure it out. She wasn’t responsible for Benjamin’s emotions, or Con’s or anybody else’s. Only her own.

“As long as I’m not bothering you,” she said and let her eyes drift shut once more. The heat sank into her pores bit by bit, relaxing her body. She wished her mind would relax too—she’d have a much better chance of solving that cryptogram if she could just get out of herhead.

“Chickie. I’m just checking in to see if you heard anything new.”

“Man, are you by the pool? It looks like you have a tough gig. Really in the trenches there. Is that a tan I see on your face?”

Sophie stole a peek at Con. When he said he was making a call, she didn’t realize it would be a video call. And what kind of phone did he have, anyway? She’d never seen tech like that.

He set his feet flat on each side of the chair, pushing into a sitting position. That meant the phone shifted in his hand, giving the guy on the line a new view.

“Is thatyour bridesitting next to you?”

“Sophie is here. You know that.” Con sounded like he could grind nails with his molars.

“Dude, did you compliment her? She looks smokin’.”

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