Page 23 of The Bodyguard

He gestured toward her. “I thought maybe… that was you.”

“Maybe it’s you,” she snapped.

“Babe—”

“For God’s sake, stop calling me that—do you even find me attractive?”

“Of course I do. You’re an attractive woman. We make an attractive couple.”

How much of that attraction was her mother’s Senate seat? They could be an attractive couple printed on campaign mailers and sitting on the steps of an attractive house in a campaigncommercial. Angela grabbed her purse and breezed by Paul at the table. “I hope you didn’t buy a ring. We’re through.”

CHAPTER SIX

Sawyer didn’t do politics. He didn’t care for the gamesmanship and relentless twenty-four-hour news cycles, and he couldn’t imagine what growing up might have been like in the Sorenson household, the inhabitants of which valued victory and power over anything else.

To Angela’s credit, Sawyer had never seen in her a shred of the manipulative, combative woman that he knew of her mother. Angela didn’t hunger for the limelight or grandiose titles. He couldn’t imagine Angela marrying someone for politics. He couldn’t imagine her doing anything that wasn’t genuine.

Then again, she thrived on controlling her surroundings. He’d always believed that was because of what had happened to her with Pham. An arranged, low-contact marriage, one even suggested out of the blue, might be more of what she wanted.

“Stop fidgeting,” Jared ordered from the other side of his oversized desk. “She’s not marrying that fuckwad.”

The two men were alone, having deposited the Senator and her political staff in an adjacent conference room. Sawyer blew out his cheeks and tried to relax. “The office would be weird if she left.”

“She’s not leaving.”

Boss Man’s confidence did little to ease the gnawing tension in Sawyer’s chest. Angela made the place run like a well-oiled machine. She’d come into their group as a woman who needed space and as a witness who needed security. She was far more than a capable administrator. She’d become Titan.

Sawyer wondered if she knew that.

He studied Jared’s office. Angela had hung his accommodations and awards on the walls. When Jared had thrown a fit, she’d laughed. It was, she said, as if he wantedpeople to think he had been conjured out of nowhere or was maybe a machine built for special operations.

“What are your parents like?” he asked Boss Man.

Jared snorted. “Nothing like Samantha Sorenson.” He cracked his knuckles. “The Senator is a helluva person to have on your side, but I wouldn’t call her maternal.”

“What about Angela’s dad?”

“Never met him. Lobbyist, I think. He does his thing. She does hers.” Jared shrugged. “Again, nothing like my folks.”

“That’s pretty generic,” Sawyer pushed.

Jared’s eyebrows inched up. “You want me to ask questions about your loved ones?”

Sawyer drew a quick breath. “Not particularly.”

But Jared leaned back in his chair and flashed the slightest smile. “My folks. There were times when they literally held each other up. Good people. Salt-of-the-earth-type people.”

“My parents, too. Nothing like the Sorensons.” At one time, Sawyer knew what type of family he wanted. It had looked a lot like how he’d been raised. Loving parents. Happy childhood. But he didn’t want to think about that. “You’ve known the Senator for a while?”

Jared nodded.

“Did you know Angela?”

“Not until we rescued her and Chelsea.”

“I bet the Sorenson household was a weird place for a kid.”

Boss Man nodded. “Angela grew up adjacent to the watchful eye of her mother’s protective detail. There was never any need to put Angela in her own protective detail. At least that’s what they thought.”

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