Page 13 of The Bodyguard

I need you to call.

Angela. Pick up the phone.

Never mind, babe. We’ll talk this out very soon.

Sawyer smirked. “Babe?”

Angela mirrored his smirk. “I hate that.” Her lips pressed together. “Luckily, I don’t have to hear it very often.”

“You should tell him that.”

She shrugged as though she didn’t want to invest the effort. “What do you think about his messages?”

When she’d mentioned several messages, this sort of thread wasn’t what Sawyer had envisioned. “The messages are… a little pushy. Especially when you said you’d call him later in the week.”

Angela nodded. “It’s also out of character.”

All right. He could now understand why she wanted an opinion on Paul’s messages. “Are you thinking about going home?”

“Thisis home.”

He’d never thought about her leaving. Joining Titan felt like Titan for life. Once you were in, you didn’t walk away. “You like working here, right?”

She stared as though he’d sprouted a third arm and another head. “Of course I do. I’m not going anywhere, Sawyer.”

He chewed the inside of his cheek. “You might want to when the trial is over with.” Things might change once Pham was in prison for the rest of his life and no longer a threat to Angela. Jared had built the ACES team to function together in perpetuity, and Angela, in her administrative position, was part of that team. They worked together seamlessly. But she arrived because of trauma and danger. “Your family’s back home.” He lifted her cell phone and handed it back to her. “Your boyfriend is seven thousand miles away.”

“Boyfriend?” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “We write subject lines in our text messages, and he calls my momthe Senator.”

“That’s a little kinky—”

Angela smacked his arm. “We’re having a serious conversation, Sawyer.”

“Right, right. Okay, sothe Senator? That’s weird, but ya know…” Sawyer shrugged. “Respectful?”

“We’ve been dating for the greater part of the last decade. He can call her Samantha.”

Sawyer laughed. “Apparently, I don’t know that he can.”

“Maybe he could try calling her Sam?” Angela suggested, stifling a laugh. “Mom?”

“Do you even call her Mom?The Senatordoesn’t seem very mom-like.”

Angela smacked his arm again. “Don’t call her that.”

“I’m sure not going to call her Mom,babe.”

She shook his arm. “Seriously, Sawyer. He wants me to come home—why? I have no idea.”

“Because he misses you?”

Her nose wrinkled. “I already told you. That’s not why.” Angela hummed. “I bet there’s a fundraiser or a television commercial for her campaign. Why else would he ask me to come home? It’s really freaking me out.”

“I don’t know.”

“And then,” she continued, ignoring him, “when I need to talk about this huge thing, he’s not to be found.” She threw her phone into her purse. “You know what I think? I think his life revolves aroundthe Senatormore than—”

“You?” Sawyer asked.

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