Chapter Four

T hat was close. Too close. Shiloh’s heart was slamming so hard inside her chest that she was sure those men could see it through her borrowed top.

Now it would be nearly impossible for her ex to gain access to the files. Only a highly skilled hacker could attempt it, and if they did, she would get a notification.

She wished she had her phone, but that was the first thing William took. She was damn lucky to get access to a computer at all. While she ran through a system startup, she’d managed to add two encrypted passcodes, a security question and her own fingerprint. Only then did she begin work on the photos.

After that, she returned to her seat in the front of the jet and curled up with the blanket to feign sleep. Her brain that had been so foggy before was now crystal clear.

She just needed to decide on one of the dozen plans she hatched while in the air. She had no idea if she could trust the man who’d rescued her. He might have his own agenda.

Being around these guys was like hearing a language she didn’t understand, though she was quickly piecing everything together. Back in the moving van, Oaks told her that he had been helping his brother’s girlfriend move.

The other people on this flight must be the brother and the girlfriend.

Why would any of them help her? She was a complete stranger—one who’d only told them part of the story. They knew nothing about her role in William’s criminal activities or the proof in her possession that would get her—and all of them—killed.

Without those files, nobody would believe her, and she had no protection against William.

Far too soon, she felt the jet begin its descent. A new fear took hold of her. She had no idea where they were going or what she was about to walk into…but at least she wasn’t doing it in that feathered nightmare of a wedding gown.

The plane landed smoothly. Oaks put her in the back seat of a black SUV without a single glance spared for her. With his brother and the girlfriend up front, Oaks sat in the back with Shiloh.

She didn’t even know where they landed until she spotted a sign for Cheyenne. Wasn’t that in Wyoming? Or was it Montana? She should have paid more attention in geography class and spent less time on computers.

When they turned onto a sprawling ranch with a gorgeous mountain range in the distance, she stifled a gulp.

After being with William, she knew what things cost. And this ranch was worth a fortune.

This family had money. Big money. They owned a private jet and lived on a fancy ranch.

Oaks even paid a massive amount of cryptocurrency for her.

Her ex had money like that too—the jet, all the cash to buy her. She didn’t want to become another pawn in a wealthy man’s game.

The vehicle stopped, and Oaks opened her door. She met his stare with one of her own, lifting her jaw a notch higher. She refused to let him bully her around.

“This way.”

The big ranch house was quaint on the outside while being modern and updated on the inside. Dark wood floors gleamed with a fresh coat of polish, and everywhere she looked, she saw dollar signs.

Oaks ushered her into a space set up like a conference room with a long table. She looked around, trying to find any clue as to what these people did for a living and why they needed so many conference spaces.

Oaks sat across from her. And when that man sat, he didn’t just sink to the chair like other men. No, his muscles uncoiled and took over every spare inch of the leather seat. His thick forearms swallowed the chair arms, and those powerful thighs looked about to burst the seams of the jeans he wore.

“Time to talk, Shiloh.”

She eyed him. “Before I say anything, who are you? I see top-of-the-line tech. About ten thousand dollars’ worth of equipment in this room alone.” She tipped her jaw toward the costly monitors and the computer system along one wall. “You have a jet at your beck and call. You used facial recognition software to run a check on those photos.”

Oaks’s stony expression gave nothing away. “Valid observations.”

“I told you how I was taken by my ex—”

“There’s more to the story, Shiloh.”

She wasn’t giving up anything until she knew she was safe. Nothing about this felt safe.

But two men who looked as big and scary as these ones could make her talk. She had to give them something. Oaks’s brother and his girlfriend also sat at the table, within touching distance of each other.

Shiloh let out a breath. “Look, I’ve been hiding from cameras for months.”

“Why, Shiloh?” Oaks had a drawl. When he said her name, he rolled the syllables on his tongue as if he was tasting them like a good whiskey.

She looked down at her hands twisting in her lap. Could she trust him with her secrets? He had gotten her away from the Russians. He had given her small creature comforts like a drink and a blanket on the plane, and he’d unlaced that bloody gown so she could breathe in the van.

On the flip side, he’d stolen a vehicle. He threw around a lot of money. He’d bought her.

She dragged in a deep breath of air that smelled faintly of the wood lining the walls and the leather she was sitting on.

“I first went to New York City to hand over information to a handler in the CIA.”

She felt shock ripple through the men more than saw it. Their exteriors gave nothing away. Not even the corner of one gray eye twitched in this room.

“The handler contacted me,” she rushed to say.

“You’re working with the CIA.” Oaks’s stare riveted on her face like a human polygraph. She knew that stare would detect any lie she told, even though he didn’t know anything about her.

She nodded. “My ex…William. The one who took me out of my apartment. He’s been working with a group.”

“If you have dirt on him, what made you run? Was he threatening you?”

She nodded. “He told me that he knew I had files.”

“How did he know?”

She gave him a long look. “He’s in tech. He’s brilliant at it. He could see they existed.”

Oaks narrowed his eyes. “But he couldn’t access them.”

She dipped her head in another nod. “That’s right.”

“This group you mentioned he works with. Is it Russian mafia?” Carson’s angular jaw ticked in the crease with tension.

She shrugged. “I only know crypto changed hands for a terrorist attack.”

“You only know? That’s a fucking lot to know, Shiloh. Where is it supposed to take place?” Oaks’s deep voice was sharp.

“I don’t know where the next attack is planned.” That was true enough. She hadn’t been with William in six months, and she was so far out of the loop she might as well be on one of the rings of Saturn.

A crease appeared between Oaks’s brows. “Back up. So the CIA knows about this group, and you were delivering the information to a handler.”

“Yes, only she never came, so I went back to the place I was staying at to devise a new plan. I was in the middle of tracking down who was the next link in the chain, but I only got as far as speaking to the receptionist at the United Nations.”

Oaks’s eyes narrowed on her. “Can you prove any of this?”

After all that she’d been through, all the emotions she had stuffed down, she couldn’t stop herself from exploding.

“What reason do I have to lie about it? Isn’t it obvious that I’m not involved with those people back in that house?” Her voice rose with every word.

Oaks erupted too. “How do we know you’re telling us the truth? Oh yeah, we can’t!”

Carson spread his hands. “Everyone calm down.”

Shiloh whipped her head to gape at the man. “Did you just tell me to calm down? I was forced to marry—not the Russian, but the Russian-speaking guy! And he’s accusing me of not being straight with him?”

The woman who’d been so kind to her on the plane brushed her hair behind her shoulder. “I don’t blame you for having trust issues. I trusted Carson to get my shoes to Wyoming and now look what happened.”

Shiloh leveled her stare on the woman. “I’m running for my life. We are not the same.”

Her spine straightened to a pose that Shiloh could only call queenly. “I was only trying to lighten the mood. I apologize if that sounded like I was making light of your situation, but I am very empathetic to your struggle. I’m just trying to help you, Shiloh. We’re practically sisters-in-law.”

Shiloh shook her head hard. “That wasn’t a real wedding. This isn’t a real marriage.”

“As far as you’re concerned, it is. It’s the only thing keeping you safe right now.” Oaks made a sharp move, and for a horrifying moment, she thought he would try to grab her hand. Then he pulled it back, long fingers stretched on the table that was made out of a slab of marble.

He turned his head toward his brother—Carson, the girlfriend called him. Carson and Oaks Malone. Two more pieces to the puzzle slipped into place. Eventually Shiloh would see the complete picture and have a solid plan to get out of here. When she had full access to a computer, she would spend it digging into this marriage to see if it was valid or how easy it would be to undo it.

Until then, she’d leave the issue of their marriage alone.

* * * * *

Oaks watched the anger flare in Shiloh’s eyes, deepening the color that seemed to keep changing on him. In the white gown, they were pale blue. In the black top, they appeared blue-gray, like a glint on steel.

Time to defuse the situation.

“You want to go pet a horse?” His sudden suggestion had everyone going silent and still.

She blinked at him. “A horse? That’s your solution?”

“Not to everything, but let’s just take a walk. Get some fresh air.” He pushed back his chair and stood.

When he extended a hand to Shiloh, he didn’t expect her to take it, and she didn’t. She stalked to the door ahead of him and whipped it open.

“Good luck, brother.” Carson’s soft comment came with a hint of humor which Oaks ignored as he hurried after Shiloh.

This was one of the longest days he’d lived in quite a while. Acting as a bodyguard for Black Heart Security kept him on his toes, but he hadn’t been trained for protecting a woman like Shiloh.

She had more secrets than a vault in the head of defense’s office. Cracking her codes wouldn’t be easy.

As they headed to the front of the house, the phone rang in the office. Then came Carson’s clear voice. “Black Heart Security.”

Shiloh’s steps slowed. She glanced at Oaks over her shoulder, and that look told Oaks he was right about her. She was very smart and more observant than most. Considering Black Heart Security protected the lives of high-profile businessmen, political figures and diplomats, that was saying something.

It also made her much harder to figure out. She’d obviously spent a long time dodging her ex and anyone else who was after her. She was on edge, antsy and as defensive as a prisoner of war.

He should know after the years he served his country. He’d taken his skills and used them for the good of helping other military veterans. Right here on this ranch, not a hundred yards away, was a facility for those men—old friends and new—who were getting what they needed.

Working with horses and putting hands on them helped the vets, and he guessed it might help Shiloh too. In that way, to him, this was just another day at the office.

Knowing that she didn’t have peace she craved or deserved tugged at his heart. Most people were worth helping.

When they approached the fence surrounding the paddock, one speckled mare, a special favorite of his, scented him.

“Watch this,” he said to Shiloh as she hesitantly drifted to the fence beside him.

The horse lifted her head, tossed her gorgeous mane, then came over to him at a trot. As soon as she did that, two others in the paddock followed. She whinnied softly and nosed his outstretched hand.

Shiloh folded her arms and backed away a step, but he knew she was watching. He reached into a bucket on the ground a few feet away and drew out an apple.

When the horse plucked it off his open palm and began crunching, Shiloh let out a low noise.

“You just keep apples outside for the horses at all times?”

“You never know when someone might wander out and want to feed one of the horses a little treat.” The mare nosed his hand for more. “Aww, sorry girl. You had your fill. But you’re lookin’ mighty pretty today, aren’t you?”

He tossed a look over his shoulder at Shiloh. “Come up to the fence. Hold out your hand nice and flat.”

With a reluctant step forward, she did as he recommended. When the mare nuzzled her palm, she let out another small noise. It wasn’t a laugh. Nor a noise of fear. Somewhere in between.

The other two horses crowded close, wanting treats too. Chuckling, he reached into the bucket and took out two more apples. He handed one to Shiloh. Without looking at him, she took the fruit.

“On your palm like this.” He demonstrated.

One horse took the apple from her and she snatched her hand back, folding her fingers tight into a fist. He fed the other horse an apple while petting his favorite mare. From the corner of his eye, he noticed Shiloh taking it all in.

The pucker that had been almost a constant fixture on her face smoothed out. The breeze stroked across the high grasses in the field beyond, bringing a whisper to his ears and the spice of earth to his nose.

“You ready?” he asked Shiloh.

Her gaze flashed to his. “For what?”

“To pet the horse. It’s the reason we came out here.”

“Oh.” She nibbled on her lower lip, giving him a pang in his own where she hadn’t bitten down as nicely.

She moved closer to the fence and extended her hand toward the dappled gray and black mare.

“Her name is Curiosity.”

Shiloh made a humming sound and gently let her fingertips graze Curiosity’s neck. She stroked the mare in a single long pass…then did it again.

The sun beamed down on them, changing the blonde in her hair to gold and the darker strands to red. He sensed the tension flowing out of her.

“We didn’t get off to a good start,” he began.

She continued to stroke the horse, slender fingers stretching over the coat that he knew was warm from the sun.

“You don’t know anything about me,” he went on.

“What is it that I should know?” She turned his comment around like an interrogator would. She could have training in that skill…or she could just be wary as hell of everyone around her.

“I was in the military for years. Special ops. And I had a way with people, which made me a negotiator many times.”

“What did you negotiate?”

“Hostage transfers, mostly. It wasn’t out of character for me to speak Russian or to think on the fly.”

When she lifted her eyes to him, he noted how dark her lashes were. “Okay, I wasn’t wrong about you. I thought you were military. It’s why I picked you out on the street.”

He nodded. “You’ve never been safer than you are here on the Black Heart Ranch. Everyone here was in the military.”

She looked around at the barn, the house, the building beyond that housed the vets who were here to gain the peace and coping skills they needed to go on with their lives.

“Is this some sort of military compound?”

“No. It’s where vets come to heal.”

“Oh…”

“We offer a program on the ranch. Actually…” He kicked at a tuft of grass sprouting up by the fence post that the horses hadn’t nibbled yet, “I founded it.”

Again her gaze lifted to his, softer now. It made him wonder if she’d bite his lip as hard if he kissed her…or maybe not at all.

“They’re here to heal from the damage done by years of service. But if it comes to protecting you— defending you—more than my family members and I would take up arms.”

She swallowed hard, her delicate throat working. “I need access to a computer again. It’s possible that someone followed us to that airstrip. I can start covering our tracks.”

Now he was getting the information he needed. He was good at reading between the lines. She was starting to trust him enough to ask for something, even as he guessed those people weren’t finished with her, and she knew how to hide.

But whoever came after her would be signing their own death sentence. Here on the Black Heart, they protected their own.

In name, Shiloh wasn’t a Malone, but she was under his protection. Nobody screwed with him.