Page 44 of Sawyer
Gabi plopped onto the chair opposite Lele at the table.
“Gabi!” Georgia’s tone grew angrier. Anger would feel good about now. Lele tried drumming some up but got nowhere. Shecouldn’t even reach the level of good old-fashioned righteous indignation.
No, Lele had gone numb. Glancing at Georgia, Lele knew she'd find no answers there. She turned to Gabi. “The business upstairs, is that a data analyst firm?”
Gabi laughed. “Data analyst? I’d like to see those guys sitting behind a desk all day crunching numbers. That would be hilarious. Although I guess they do gather information. But only for the clients who hire them for personal security or protection. Does Sabre Security sound like a data analyst company to you?”
Bile rose in Lele's throat. No. No, it absolutely did not. Saber Security sounded like the furthest thing from a data analyst company. She turned her gaze back to Gabi. “You've never heard of a man named Saul?”
When Gabi shook her head, Georgia groaned. “I’ll be right back,” she said and ran for the stairs.
Lele was running out of time. She tried to shove back the feelings trying to take over, but it was hard. Those would come later. Right now, there were things she needed to know, and apparently, the truth was something she was only going to get from Gabi.
Gabi’s confusion shifted to sympathy. She reached across the table and put her hand on Lele’s. “I don't know who told you that, honey. Or why. But they told you wrong. The closest person Sabre has to someone namedSaulis a man named Sawyer Dorsey. But I've never heard anyone shorten his name to Saul. If you give me Saul's last name, I can help you track him down.”
Dorsey. He said his name was Saul Dorsey.
Gabi kept talking. “I work at a law firm, and that's one of the things that we can do.”
"Well, it's one of the things my Daddy or Lovie can do.” Straightening her shoulders, she added, “I'm Daddy's administrative assistant, and I don't need to be ashamed of that because it's a perfectly valid occupation."
Lele might have laughed if her heart wasn't filled with confusion and fear.
Two weeks. Fifteen days. Three hundred sixty hours. Twenty-one thousand six hundred minutes.
Lele had been happy for two weeks.
And now it was over.
Footsteps thundered down the stairs, and she knew her time was up. Saul—no, Sawyer burst out of the stairwell.
Lele stood and headed toward the door. She needed to leave. She needed to figure out what was going on.
He cut to the door, arriving ahead of her and blocking the exit. “Half-Pint, I can explain.”
God! That sounded like the line of every stupid romantic comedy she’d ever watched. It might work in the movies, but it wasn’t going to work on her.
“I used to think that nickname was cute. I thought you gave it to me because I’m short. Turns out it was my intelligence that’s small.”
His hazel darkened, and his lips drew to a tight, straight line. “That’s one, little girl. Do not push me right now. And do not talk about yourself like that. There are things you don’t understand. I want to explain them to you. I know it feels like I tricked you?—”
“Betrayed,” she interrupted.
He closed his eyes, but she saw the pain there before his lids dropped. She didn’t want to see his pain. He deserved it. He’d lied to her. For weeks.
His betrayal clawed at her with steel talons. Shame burned her throat like bile. She clenched her teeth so hard she feared they would crack. Who was he, because he wasn’t who he’d told her he was? What did he really want from her?
Did he want to hurt her? Well, score one for Saul. Discovering his deception in front of people who hadn’t had a chance to even get to know her? Humiliation and pain sliced through her.
She wasn’t broken. She was shattered. Crushed into such tiny pieces, there was no putting her back together. She’d trusted him, the first person outside of Hector she’d trusted in a long time, and he’d lied to her. He’d pretended to care about her. He pretended to be her Daddy.
Everyone stared at her like a stupid little freak who didn’t even have the sense not to get herself thrown in prison. For the first time in her life, she wished she were back behind bars with the real criminals. At least there, she knew where the danger lay.
She had to get out of there before the walls caved in on her. Sawyer stepped toward her, fear and concern darkening his face. He reached out to her, but she stepped back.
“Let me hold you, babygirl. I promise I can make this right.”
She had no words to give him, even if she somehow had the ability to force them through her spasming throat. Instead, she shoved past him and ran. Surely in a building this size, she could find a place to hide.
