Page 101 of No Regrets

“She didn’t.”

“What did the note say?”

Dex told him.

Another heavy silence, then Sam said, “Dawson, if this compromises your ability to lead the team...”

“It doesn’t. I’m set. I’m telling you because I know Kelly. She won't leave this alone. And with her Naval intelligence background, your people might notice someone poking around. I wanted to give you a heads up.”

“Just how much does Lieutenant Kimber know about us and what we do?” Sam’s voice held a steel edge.

Dex paused; this wasn’t going to be good. “Enough.”

Sam cursed. “Fuck, Dawson. I’ll take care of it. Keep your focus on this op, or we’ll have a bigger problem than we already have.”

Before Dex could answer, Sam rang off. Shit, he’d done it again. He closed his eyes for a moment and took a breath. No choice but to put it out of his mind. Right now, Nyx was counting on them.

KELLY HAD BEEN DIGGING for leads for three hours now. It was tough doing this from her own laptop, at home, instead of the high-tech systems she was used to. But she didn’t exactly have permission, so she needed to be careful. Getting into Dex’s cameras had been the easy part. Sadly, the footage wasn't much use. The mailbox was too far from the house for the cameras to pick up anything. However, checking back on the earlier footage, she discovered another envelope being dropped. The picture of a hooded man wearing a ball cap gave her the height and build. It was a start.

Payback’s a bitch hinted to retaliation. Perhaps for something Dex had done, but she had no idea about any of Onyx’s ops. Presumably Sam was looking into that. She couldn’t exactly call him.

If Dex’s cameras hadn’t got a clear image, perhaps there was a camera somewhere else that caught something. The hooded man either got there on foot or by car. From the camera footage, she had an approximate time of when one of the envelopes was delivered and the one today had to be sometime since yesterday morning after Dex had left.

Expertly, and with ease, she accessed various traffic cameras in the area, comparing footage from both times, looking for any commonalities. This was what she was good at. Intelligence, reviewing data, piecing things together. Screw what Dex said. Her skills could help. Despite being frustrated with him, the thought of him personally being a target made her heart ache. Being an operator was bad enough, but being singled out, that was worrying. In all the years he’d been a SEAL, nothing like this had ever happened.

After exhausting the traffic cams, she focused on local shops and home cameras. No, she shouldn’t be accessing these, but ten years in Navy Intel had taught her a few things about covering her tracks. Two hours later, her efforts paid off. A dark four-door Ford, earlier today and around 6:00 a.m. the morning Dex’s camera had captured the hooded man. It was difficult to make out the driver as the software on her laptop wouldn’t let her enhance the image enough. But the driver was wearing a dark hoodie and a ball cap, matching Dex’s security images. She ran another program, hoping to sharpen it a little more.

A knock at the door startled her. Crossing to the window, she looked out and was shocked to see a tall, broad-shouldered man in shirt and slacks on her doorstep. Her mouth went dry, fear spreading through her as it did whenever a man, she didn’t know got close.

“Lieutenant Kimber, Captain Sam Harrison. I work with Dexter Dawson.”

Sam Harrison? She looked out again. He did look a little familiar. Sam’s photo was on the accolade wall at the base.

“Hold up ID to the window.”

Sam held up his driver’s license to the window. Kelly stepped back, taking her gun from the side table drawer next to the front door. It did look like Sam Harrison, but she wasn’t taking any chances.

She opened the door, gun in her hand at her side. Just in case. Sam looked between her and the gun, then he raised his hands.

“I’m not armed and if you want to pat me down, go ahead,” he offered. She didn’t move and he lowered his hands. “I need to talk to you about Dexter.”

“Oh no. What’s happened? Is he hurt?” Kelly was gripping the door so hard her knuckles were white.

“No. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Sighing in relief, she loosened her grip on the door.

“I do need to speak to you. May I come in?”

“Yes, of course.” She stepped back to allow him in and returned the gun back to the drawer. Sam’s eyes went to the dining table where the brown envelope lay next to her laptop.

“Do you know why I’m here?”

“No.” she lied.

The corner of Sam’s mouth twitched as he faced her. “So, you know nothing about that brown envelope on your table?”

“What about it?”

---