Page 26 of The Bodyguard

“I’m with Boss Man.” Sawyer held out his hand. “You can do this.”

Her wheels turned as her frown deepened.

“Don’t leave me hanging, Ange.”

Angela squeezed her eyes shut and then relented. Her hand met his. “Only because I trust you guys.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Angela smoothed her pencil skirt and tucked her purse under her arm as if the bag were an armored shield that could repel her mother’s disdain and disappointment. Jared was correct; they needed to pick her brain and discover the details that only she would know. Angela’s heartbeat quickened. She glanced over her shoulder. Sawyer and Jared were waiting for her to make the first move. Jared wore his usual scowl, but she couldn’t read Sawyer’s expression.

“If she says something that upsets you,” Sawyer said, “Boss Man can send her packing again.”

Jared chuckled. “You got that right.”

Angela forced herself to stand taller. With two of the strongest men she knew at her back, she led the way to the war room.

They rounded a corner and saw her mother, who had mastered the power walk after years of scuttling around the Capitol. Angela didn’t have that kind of strut, but she wasn’t demure.

She opened the door and first let Sawyer and Jared into the war room. Her mom held back, eyeing Angela. “I’m glad you caught me when you did.”

“I bet.” Because her mother would have hauled herself back home without so much as a hug goodbye. “You should have called.”

“Paul reached out.”

“You’re my mother.”

“And Paul?”

Angela held firm under the scrutinizing glance. “I guess he’s your chief of staff.”

They glared for an extra moment, but the slightest hint of a smile surfaced on her mother’s face. She wasn’t an awful mother.More like a power-grabbing politico who held a tinted view of what was best for their family. “Despite everything, you’re looking well.”

Angela almost smiled, gestured for her mother to enter the conference room, and shut the door after she walked in. Jared reigned over the war-room table with Sawyer at his side.

Parker waited on screen as her mother took the seat she’d occupied earlier. “Good afternoon, Senator,” he said.

“It’s nice to see you again, Parker.”

He smiled as if to say “bullshit” but minded his manners.

Angela sat next to her mother, took out her notepad, and tried to pretend this event was an ordinary meeting as Parker recapped their recent discussion in Jared’s office.

When Parker was finished, Jared leaned forward, a hand cupped around his fist and a don’t-bullshit-me bluster darkening his scowl. He fixed his attention on her mother with a laser focus. “All that’s to say, Samantha, you know more than you’re letting on.”

“Do I?”

“Spit it out.”

Her mom focused on Angela. “Honey, I’m trying to do what’s best for the both of us.”

Angela cleared her throat. “That’s not what we’re here to discuss.”

“Samantha,” Jared groused, “move on.”

Her gold bracelets jangled. “If we make an exchange with Pham, this chapter of Angela’s life will be over. No testifying. No threats on her life. It will be done.”

“Mother—”

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