Page 137 of Override
"I can still get in."
He nods once. "I think you probably can." Hope flickers inside my chest. Then he finishes. "...Eventually."
The word lands like sandpaper.
I push away from the desk so hard my chair rolls backward into the wall.
"Eventually isn't good enough." The office suddenly feels too small.
I cross to the window before turning back toward him, my boots wearing another invisible path into the hardwood floor.
"I haven't seen her in..."
Matt glances at his watch. "Twenty-six hours."
"I know exactly how long it's been." Because I've counted every one of them. Every failed exploit. Every dead end. Every time I've caught myself opening the Gallagher file just to make sure her picture still looked the same.
"I should've gotten her out." The admission surprises even me. I stop pacing long enough to meet Matt's eyes. "I knew something was wrong."
"You suspected."
"No.” The word comes out sharper than I intend. "I knew.
Matt watches me for so long the silence begins pressing against my ribs.
Finally, he folds his hands together. "Maybe you did."
The fight drains out of me so quickly it leaves me exhausted.
"But knowing something..." he says quietly, "...and proving it are two very different things."
I laugh once. Without humor. "You didn't see her face."
"I saw enough."
"No." I shake my head. "You saw surveillance footage." I swallow hard. "I watched her realize she was trapped."
Matt looks down into his coffee before setting the mug on the desk.
"When I left the Army," he says after a long pause, "I thought the hardest adjustment would be learning to stop fighting." His eyes meet mine again. "It wasn't." I wait. "It was learning when I wasn't allowed to."
The words settle over the room.
"We aren't overseas anymore, Keaton."
"I know."
"We don't kick in doors because our instincts tell us to."
"My instincts have kept me alive."
"They have." He nods once. "And I think they're probably right."
I blink. "What?"
"I think something's wrong too."
Hope surges through me. "Then let's go."
