Page 69 of Operation Heartbeat

Con let out a growl to silence them and shoved to his feet. “What did you find?”

She rushed into the room. It was then that he saw what she was wearing—and everybody else saw too.

The long-sleeved black T-shirt he loaned her for their stakeout.

And nothing else.

Her bare thighs, shapely calves and those sexy ankles he couldn’t seem to quit thinking about were on full display for all of Charlie Team to see.

Several guys traded appraising looks, and more than one man was staring at her.

She must have donned the shirt for bed.

The thought of her sleeping in his shirt had his gut clenching…and someplacemuchhigher, in the vicinity of his chest, tightening.

In quick steps, she reached his side, tipping her head back to look at him. Her words tripped over each other. “The composite photo of Henry VIII. One of the pictures is a geometric image of black lines on a white background. But I saw the same thing in a tattoo on somebody at the concert!”

He reached out to take hold of her. Not to steady her—simply because he wanted to touch her.

A soft snicker came from his right where Henner sat. Later, Con would rearrange his friend’s teeth but he ignored him for the moment.

“Where was the person in the crowd?”

“He was sitting in the row in front of Deniz. I noticed the tattoo on his forearm when they panned the crowd with those flashing lights.”

He remembered the lights. He also remembered how Sophie’s face had glowed with genuine pleasure in that moment. Meanwhile, Con hadn’t seen any guy sporting a tattoo sitting a row in front of Deniz. Maybe it was his vantage point. Or maybe he’d been too distracted by the woman he was with. Reason two why this relationship had to end after they no longer needed a cryptologist.

She leaned into his hand on her arm. “It stood out to me because, well, it’s not as popular for men in Turkey to have tattoos. And you did say there were a lot of Americans in the crowd.”

He waved a hand at Henner. “Pull up the footage from those glasses I had on. We need to see if I caught the guy Sophie saw.”

Moments later, the footage filled the tablet screen. The recording stayed trained on Deniz for several minutes…then panned to Sophie. Con’s focus lingered on her face, her features alive with excitement…then dropped to her breasts as they swayed with her light movements to the beat.

“Give me that.” He ripped the tablet out of Henner’s hands. His second-in-command held up both hands in surrender and took a seat again, but not before Con spotted his grin and several others from his teammates.

Con glared at the recording. Hell, he might as well hand in his resignation now. He’d been more absorbed in Sophie thanthe op.Nothingwas more important than the op. That was practically the first rule of Blackout.

If he wanted to lead these men, he had to set a good example. He couldn’t let himself get distracted again…and he sure as hell planned on destroying most of the footage.

When he finally quit looking at her breasts and beautiful face and focused on Deniz, he zoomed in for a better look. He crooked a finger for Sophie to come closer. Holding the tablet where she could see, he asked, “Is this the guy you saw?”

“Yes! In the blue shirt.”

As they watched together, the man appeared to be dancing. He moved his arms close to Deniz—close enough to drop a note in his pocket.

“There!” She pointed to the screen, and he paused the video with the tattoo clearly in view.

He stretched it on the screen and held it up for the guys to see. “Somebody find out what that symbol is. Search photos of tattoos for it too.”

He hit play again, but his own focus at the concert returned to Sophie. Henner snorted, and Matthews gave a forceful cough to cover what Con guessed to be snickering.

“Keep working,” he ordered. Grabbing Sophie by the hand, he towed her out of the room with him.

“Hey, Con?” Henner called as they reached the doorway. “We’re going to need the tablet.”

“You’ll get it when I give it to you. You have other devices.” His growl didn’t have the effect he hoped for—his team’s laughter followed them out the door.

SIXTEEN

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