“DHS?”
Jay shook his head. “I checked. The video’s not on any of their networks. If Johnson has a copy, he didn’t get it electronically from inside or through the CIA.”
“So, best guess, he got it from the source?”
“Looks that way.”
“When do we tell Chase?” Grant asked.
“Now,” Adam replied. “Jay, send a group text, tell the team to be here in fifteen.”
“Grace and Davis too?” Jay asked.
Adam nodded. “Yeah. We can’t keep this a secret from them. They need to know. Same as everyone else.”
CHAPTERNINE
Chase shook his head.“It’s not him.” Despite his insides twisting at the sight of the dead man’s face occupying half the SmartBoard, he held fast to his conviction. If Tak had died, a piece of Chase would have died too.
He’d feel it in his heart. In his soul.
The only thing he felt now was white-hot rage.
Sitting at the boardroom table, Gray’s hand in his, he worked at keeping his emotions in check, his fingers loose, his gentle squeeze reassuring. “It’s not Tak, baby. Trust me.”
She’d lost all color, and her haunted eyes tore his guts out, but she tightened her grip in his and nodded. “If you say he’s alive. He’s alive.”
“Could be an attempt to get us to back off,” Cody said.
“Or flush us out,” Zander added.
“Mutt?” Adam asked. Standing at the front of the room, he turned to the screen to address Tak’s uncle.
“Looks like him. But eighty-five percent probability isn’t a hundred. You do what you gotta do, Sergeant. But unless Johnson poses an imminent threat to Gray, I say we keep looking.”
Around the room, heads nodded, and gratitude for the teammates who had his back flooded Chase’s chest. No one wanted to give up on Tak, and they wouldn’t quit looking for him until they had solid proof—one way or the other.
Adam’s gaze swept the room, coming to a hard stop on the man sitting to Chase’s left. “I agree,” Grant said. “Seventeen seconds of video we can’t verify isn’t enough to go on, and the timing is suspicious as fuck.”
“So do we go after Johnson now?” Gray asked. “He’s the only link we have.”
“No.” Chase shook his head. “If Z’s right, and they’re trying to flush us out, they’ll be waiting for us to make a fast move. We keep doing what we’re doing until we have something more to go on.”
“For how long?” Doc asked, voicing the question on everyone’s mind. “We’re not accomplishing anything by sitting here, and if we lose Johnson, we lose Tak.”
Chase locked gazes with the man who’d yet to step up as the official leader of the JTT.
If Adam had a plan, he hadn’t shared it with anyone.
And by his impassive expression, he had no intention of doing so now.
Didn’t change a damn thing. Chase had already charted his course of action by way of Mallorca. One week. He had one week to get a ring on Gray’s finger. Once she had his last name, he was taking on Johnson with whoever volunteered to come with him.
One way or another, he intended to get Tak back.
After that, he was coming home to his wife.
“Who the fuck is that?”
