Licensed to Kill

Chapter 24

Despite my calm body language, my heart was racing uncontrollably. I'd never seen Matt so serious. Not even on the day of our three fallen teammates' funerals.

I'd watched him out of the corner of my eye as the caskets were lowered into the ground. Never once did Matt shed a tear, standing there the entire time still as a statue. I hadn't understood his demeanor back then, but I did now. He had to pretend like he wasn't affected – put on a good tough guy show for the rest of us. He'd been informed the day before the funerals that he would be promoted to team leader, and with that new title came the difficult task of acting stone cold a lot of times when everyone else was drenched in emotion.

Matt was, in a lot of ways, very similar to Dallas – at least in the way that they presented themselves. Both men tried to act like nothing in the world scared them. Both men were leaders, whether the word was in their official title or not. And both men were determined to overpower the enemy at all costs, no matter how long it took or what the level of difficulty was. I admired their tenacity and fearlessness, though I knew neither of them were truly fearless.

"What is it?" I finally forced myself to ask, studying his concern-laced eyes. "Did something happen to our team back home?"

Matt shook his head, to my relief. "No. They're all fine. But to be honest, I'm not sure if they could be in jeopardy, too."

"Just what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Dallas spoke in a fed up tone of voice.

Matt was clearly irritated with Dallas, and vice versa, but he tried not to let his temper flare. I could see his pulse rushing in his neck, though, and I was sure he was fighting coming unglued any minute.

"When I got started on this search and rescue case, I wanted to gather as much information as possible to determine your whereabouts, obviously," Matt started to explain. "I couldn't get anything out of Brit. She refused to discuss with me why you'd even left in the first place."

"To find a missing London agent," I interrupted.

He nodded. "I know."

"You know?"

He nodded again. "Before I left for London, after the director invited me, I broke into Brit's office that night and went through her computer files. I was looking for anything having to do with your trips to London and Germany. I felt like Brit was hiding something from me."

"And did you find anything?" Dallas cocked a brow.

"I found more than I was looking for."

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and started scrolling through it. It wasn't his regular phone. I had no doubt he'd used the same tactic as me, ditching his old phone so he couldn't be tracked.

"Here. Read this." Matt handed me his phone, open to a folder of photos.

Each photo was of a computer screen. I looked at him with confusion, but he gestured for me to keep looking.

I eyed the first photo. He had taken a picture of an email. I zoomed in to get a better look and saw that the email was from Brit to Mr. Lancaster.

Todd,

I'm sending our agent Natalia Dobreva to your division next week. You are to tell her only what I've instructed you to release information on. If you fail to execute this correctly, it will compromise the trust I've worked months to build with Miguel Santiago. Do not screw this up for me. This mission is too important.

I rolled my chair over to where Dallas sat at the foot of the bed and I held the phone out where he could read along with me.

"What the fuck!" he exclaimed at the first email.