Page 100 of Freeing Lark

“We’re still working on that.”

Voodoo’s expression was grim. “They weren’t shot.”

Hoot frowned. “Then what?”

“That’s the problem,” Flint said. “We’re not sure.”

Haley pulled up photographs on the screen. The four men had been found separated from one another in the woods. No obvious signs of a firefight. No weapons nearby. No useful identification.

“Could they have turned on each other?” Spark asked.

“Doesn’t look like it,” Eggs replied.

Hoot studied the images. Four dead men. One missing. Did he escape the carnage? Or was he the perpetrator? He expressed those thoughts to his team.

“If he escaped, that could point to someone else being there,” Jeeves said.

“If the fifth killed them,” Voodoo started. “Where did he go?”

Flint’s expression hardened as he studied the photographs. “Four men dead, one missing. That’s not random.”

“Someone’s cleaning,” Voodoo said. “They got sloppy, somebody noticed, and now someone is tying off the loose ends.”

Hoot’s stomach tightened. His first thought wasn’t about the missing man. It was Lark. What if she was a loose end, too?

The thought hit harder than that bullet had. She’d seen the men. She’d heard them talking. She’d found the crate fragment. She’d connected the symbol to Calloway. Too many coincidences had put her in the middle of something she didn’t understand.

“We keep her safe,” Hoot said. His voice came out sharper than he’d intended.

Flint nodded. “Already thinking the same thing. We put a rotating team on her, upgrade the security around your place, scrub her known locations, and keep her movements unpredictable.”

“And she doesn’t go anywhere alone,” Hoot added.

Voodoo gave him a look. “You planning on telling her that?”

Hoot frowned. “You look like you’ve just been sentenced to the gallows,” Eggs taunted.

“You need us to have that argument for you?” Flint said dryly. A few of the guys chuckled, but Hoot didn't.

Because underneath the teasing was a truth he couldn’t ignore. If someone was eliminating loose ends, Lark had just become one of the most important loose ends they had.

Nobody had any further answers. They discussed tracking the missing man, searching the river, checking nearby roads, and pulling every scrap of information they could from the recovered data.

Nothing gave them a clear direction. When the call finally ended, Hoot sat staring at the blank screen. They’d learned something. Just not enough. And every answer seemed to create another question.

He headed back downstairs. Lark was curled into the corner of his couch with a book resting in her lap. She looked up immediately.

Her eyes narrowed. “Something happened.”

Hoot stopped. “Nothing you need to worry about.”

Her expression hardened. “Cormac.”

He sighed. He’d forgotten how quickly she could see through him. “Lark⁠—”

“No.” She closed the book. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”