Page 52 of The Bodyguard

She nodded. “Angela doesn’t like unplanned anything.”

He agreed. “It bothers me that the Feds thought it was okay to fly across the world without giving us a heads-up. That doesn’t sit right.”

“They didn’t want her to have time to prepare.”

Those were his thoughts exactly. “Prepare for what?”

Footsteps approached.

“We’re about to find out,” Amanda said.

Alone, Angela walked into the reception space. Her angry eyes gave a clue to how the meeting went.

Sawyer stood. “That must’ve been fun, huh?”

She gave him a hesitant once-over and kept her distance. “Nothing like someone asking questions that don’t have black-and-white answers.” Angela frowned at Amanda. “I stormed out.”

“That bad?”

“That bad.” Angela nodded. “If you’re feeling up to it, would you mind escorting John Patterson to the lobby?”

Amanda unfolded her legs from the couch and closed her laptop. “That’s why I’m here.” She gave Angela a reassuring touch to her arm as she passed then added over her shoulder, “I need to take him out this way if you two want to disappear first.”

Sawyer nodded and guided Angela from the corporate reception area to the elevator. Her arms were folded over her chest as she walked. An awkward distance hovered between them, as if she didn’t want to stand beside him. “Where to?”

“Are we friends?”

He stopped abruptly. “Yeah, of course.”

After another stride, she turned toward him. Her folded arms remained up, guarded. She almost said something but shook her head and looked everywhere but at him.

“What happened in there, Angela?”

Uncertainty had softened the anger in her eyes. “A mind screw.”

He wanted to close the gap between them and absorb whatever doubt and hesitation colored her thoughts. He also wanted to throw John Patterson out of the hotel. Instead, Sawyer shoved his hands into his pockets. “We need to go somewhere before Amanda and the Fed arrive.”

“Do you think we’re going to find Mylene?”

“I think we’re going to give it our best.” He checked his watch. “Where do you want to go?”

Voices flitted down the hall. Angela glanced over Sawyer’s shoulder, squeezed herself, then dropped her arms. “I want to pack.”

He smiled. “For North Carolina?”

She nodded. “I want to leave as soon as we can go wheels up.”

He called the elevator. “Parker has a jet on standby.” The elevator arrived as if it knew they had to make a quick escape. Sawyer pressed his thumb to a nondescript print reader and eased back into the corner to watch her.

“Don’t look at me like that.” Angela tucked her chin down and squeezed her eyes shut. “I can’t take any more judgement—”

“None of my thoughts had a damn thing to do with judging you, Ange.”

Her eyes darted upward. “Then what were you thinking?”

“That you’ve had one hell of a week. Starting with the shooting, dealing with your mom, the ex-boyfriend.” Sawyer gestured to the floor they had just left. “The Fed digging for who the hell knows what.”

“A field readiness test.” She bit her lip. “Or some kind of relationship psych exam.”

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