Page 21 of Tormented Hearts

Her hands trembled as she brushed dirt from the top. The box looked far too ordinary to have dragged her across the country and pulled her into danger.

Hawk gave her a nod, and she opened it.

Inside was an envelope.

Her throat tightened as she reached for it. The paper was protected in plastic, dry and intact. Her father would have thought of that. Of course he would have.

She opened the envelope and pulled out an index card.

A link was written across it.

That was all. Just a link.

Sinead stared. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Hawk leaned closer. “What is it?”

“A link.”

“To what?”

“I guess we’re about to find out.”

She pulled out her phone and typed it in carefully, checking every character twice. The page loaded slowly, and then a file appeared.

A PDF.

Password protected.

Of course it was.

She let out a humorless laugh. “No idea what the password is.”

Hawk crouched beside her, close enough that his shoulder nearly brushed hers. “There’s no clue?”

She looked back at the index card. Her gaze moved past the link to the line written beneath it.

Her chest tightened at the sight of her father’s words.

The day I was never more proud of you.

Hawk arched a brow. “Awards?”

Her throat was suddenly thick. Her father’s praise had been rare.

“No. That’s not it.” She stared at the words harder, as if she could force them to rearrange into an answer.

What had her father been proudest of her for? School events. Riding lessons. The charity gala where she gave that speech without throwing up on the podium. The time she told off a board member twice her age because he spoke to a waitress like she was subhuman.

She pressed her fingers to her temple. “There was a youth equestrian thing, but he was out of the country. And the foundation dinner when I was seventeen, but that was more about not embarrassing the family.”

Hawk looked at her like she’d just started speaking another language. He studied her for a beat, then said, “The lion in Kenya?”

She gave him a flat look. “No. And it wouldn’t be rescuing you from a snake…”

Hawk returned the flat look. “So we ruled out the usual.”

Despite everything, a laugh almost broke through despite her nerves.