Page 79 of The Bodyguard

“Intel analysts have picked up some chatter.”

Impatient, Sawyer set the apple down and frowned. “About?”

“Angela’s location.”

He exchanged looks with her. Not many people could announce her travel with this kind of speed. Sawyer assumed the Senator had told the ex-boyfriend. There was the FBI special agent. No one from inside Titan would have known enough to share, but even if they had, that wouldn’t have been a concern. They were trustworthy. “Her location as in ‘Angela is Stateside’? Or her location as in ‘camped in a safe house on Emerald Isle’?”

“Closer to the latter. Intel says North Carolina.”

“What the fuck?” His eyebrows arched. That kind of information was more than whispers from the FBI’s offices. “How does that happen? Her mother?”

“I don’t know. It could be a couple of things.”

Angela set down her spoon. “Like?”

Parker sighed. “Anything from someone you spoke with this past week to perhaps the Senator has a security breach in her communication network. The intel’s kind of fuzzy. Not to mention we’re a few hours behind. They have a tactical advantage. But we need to take it as a serious and immediate risk.”

Sawyer tossed the apple again. His mind raced to map the possibilities. “So we need to go?”

“Go where?” she asked. “We haven’t talked to everyone on our list.”

“There’s a silver lining,” Parker said. “If they’re talking about you, that’s something we can look and listen for. If Mylene Hathaway is alive and anywhere close to you and they put two and two together, they’re going to do two things.”

“What?” Angela asked.

Sawyer felt a churning in his gut. “Move Mylene and go after you.”

Tension washed over her expression. “Neither of those sound helpful.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I guess you’ve run the statistics on the likelihood either of those will happen?”

“Yup,” Parker confirmed.

“I’m not going to like it, am I?”

“Nope.”

“Wait a minute.” Angela perched on the edge of her chair. “This is great news. They’re changing their behavior. That opens us up to a chance for them to make a mistake. If they make a mistake, we can swoop in and find her.”

“I don’t know about swooping,” Sawyer grumbled.

“But I’m right, aren’t I?” she asked.

A shadow passed along the outside of the closed blinds. Sawyer’s stomach dropped. He turned off speakerphone and pressed the phone to his ear, holding a finger up to his mouth. “We might have company. Call you back.” He ended the call. His gaze swept the windows for the shadow. “I need you to sit still and be quiet.”

“But—”

“Ange—” He shook his head. “Quiet. Don’t move.” Carefully, he padded to the kitchen window and tried to peer out the edge of the drapes. He had no line of sight.

Sawyer’s ears burned to hear who was outside. Someone who’d accidentally stumbled up to the wrong beach house would have made his day. If it had been a property manager who had an incorrect beach house address, they would have tried to jam their keys into the door. Neither of those situations had been the quiet shadow that made the hairs on his arms stand at attention.

He opened a kitchen drawer and retrieved the handgun he’d spotted after they’d first arrived. A Titan Group safe house was well-armed if a person knew where to look. Another bonus feature of the safe house was the multiple ways in which theycould see their surroundings. Nondescript mirrors hung on the walls. Windows overlooked the points of entry. There were several ways to exit each floor. The décor on the deck offered reflections to check angles.

Angela’s chair scratched the floor as she pushed from the table.

He lifted his hand. “No one has a shot on you if you stay put.”

Her lips parted, but she didn’t protest.

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