Authors: Elizabeth Cage
License to Thrill (17 page)
Jo laughed. “I was afraid to lie about that, but I couldn't resist.”
“Then right after, I discovered the bugs in my suite and office and in Dad's as well,” he said. “So we figured you had to have been the one to plant them.”
“When it was actually me,” Caylin admitted.
“See, I had my suspicions about you but no proof,” Jonathon said. “But about Jo we
had
proofâor so we thought. We sent someone to follow Jo, and they saw her with
Theresa. So we figured she was working against us, too.”
“So then you knew Antonio and Alfred tried to kill us?” Jo asked, finding it hard to believe now that he had anything to do with that. He was so sweetâand
so
cute.
“I didn't know until later,” Jonathon said. “I told them up front I'd have no part of anything like that. But when I couldn't find the disc, they threatened to kill my dad. That's when I really started to lose it.”
Jo put her hand over his. “I lost my dad. I can understand the pressure.”
He smiled gently. “I'm sorry, Jo. No one should have to go through that. And I didn't even lose mine, but I was biting everyone's head off. In fact, I think I yelled at Caylin at least a couple of times. And I didn't even know for sure you were an impostor.”
Caylin giggled. “You were
so
mean.”
“I knowâI'll admit it,” he said. “But I was a basket case. That was a stroke of genius, whoever discovered the Green Day CD location. I was going to give a quick look in there with Antonio because I was desperate, but I'm sure I'd never have found it.”
“It was a group brainstorm,” Theresa insisted.
“And what a brainstorm it was,” Danielle Hall said, breaking away from her conversation with William Nicholson to take a seat with the group.
“And you!” Theresa said with a grin. “I was certain you were trailing us since day one.”
“Then you had good instincts,” Danielle said, “because I
was
trailing you. Uncle Sam assigned me to be your mentor, so I was never far behind.”
Theresa shook her head. “It's such a trip!” she exclaimed. “I just can't believe it.”
Danielle smiled. “Well, believe it. I'm your real-life guardian angelâthere if you need me or are in a bind. Otherwise laying low and watching from the sidelines.”
A waitress approached and delivered a round of virgin strawberry daiquiris, courtesy of William Nicholson.
“I propose a toast,” Jonathon said, raising his glass. “To world peace and mistaken identities.”
“I'll drink to that!” Jo cheered, clinking glasses with the rest of the gang.
Before Jonathon had a chance to take his first sip, his
cell phone rang and he snapped it up. “Hello? Yes, this is he.” He nodded, then grabbed a napkin and furiously scribbled something on it. “Okay, sure, no prob.” After he hit the off button, a totally perplexed expression overtook his gorgeous face.
“What's up?” Theresa asked.
“It was a message from someone's uncle Sam,” Jonathon announced. “Um, he said you need to turn on channel ninety-six at midnight. And that there's some documentary about Prague he wants you guys to see?”
Jo grinned and grasped her friends' hands in hers. She could feel raw energy, pure excitement, and total empowerment pulsing from one hand to the next. At that moment she would have guessed their hearts were beating in time.
“Are you thinking what I'm thinking?” Theresa asked, a mischievous gleam in her gray eyes.
“Totally,” Caylin agreed.
Jo threw her head back and laughed. “Time for another international mission!”
Elizabeth Cage is a saucy pseudonym for a noted young adult writer. Her true identity and current whereabouts are classified.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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This Simon Pulse paperback edition May 2014
License to Thrill
copyright © 1998 by Daniel Weiss Associates, Inc., and Julie Taylor
Cover photograph copyright © 2014 by Jill Wachter
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Interior design by Lissi Erwin and Karina Granda
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The text of this book was set in ITC Garamond Std.
Library of Congress Control Number 2012953513
ISBN 978-1-4424-8227-2
ISBN 978-1-4424-8228-9 (
License to Thrill
eBook)