Page 35 of The Bodyguard

She refused to lower her head, but disappointment crept into every inch of her body. She wanted to cry but didn’t daresniffle around Boss Man. Besides, she’d wept more than enough tears yesterday.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Don’t give up yet. Okay? Let Parker dig. Once that guy finds the smallest hint of intel, he’s like a cat pulling the string on a sweater. The whole thing will be a ball of yarn when he’s done.”

Parker as a cat? The corners of her mouth rose. “A ball of yarn, huh?”

“Yeah, a big pile of possibilities. Okay?”

Parker wasn’t a cute kitty. He was more of a stealth hacker cat. That might be the inspiration she needed for one of the little notes that she wrote for Jared, which he occasionally left for the ACES team to find. He said the notes were psychological training to help a new team build camaraderie. Honestly, Angela was ninety-nine percent sure that Boss Man enjoyed theatrical moments. He’d never claimed to love drama, but he was in the thick of it sometimes.

“You can’t think of anything that might help Parker?” Jared asked. “Anything from years ago, from conversations with investigators or the prosecutor’s office? Anything.”

An old idea came to mind. She chewed the inside of her cheek.

Jared scrutinized her as buried thoughts tried to surface. “What is it, Angela?”

“Nothing, really.”

His face pinched. “That look on your face doesn’t look like nothing.”

Angela shaded the corner of a Post-It note, weighing whether she could handle a second day in a row of judgment. “I’ve been told it’s nothing.”

Jared took her pencil and tossed it down. “Why don’t we let Parker be the judge of that?”

“I’ve been told it is a big ole nothingburger.”

Jared cocked his eyebrow. “Like what?”

“I brought this up years ago. The investigators treated me like a moron—and they might have had good reason.”

“Angela, you have to trust us. We’re here for you. You know that.” He waited until she left the Post-It note alone and raised her eyes to him. “I wasn’t blowing smoke up your ass. You’re Titan. You know what that means?”

“That I’m good at my job.”

“It means that I believe in you. Parker. All the guys.” His pointed look tightened. “Sawyer. Trust in us like we trust in you. If what you say is a nothingburger, we’ll let you know. If not, we work on it. But we’re not going to treat you like crap because you gave Parker a lead to smoke out.”

Trust in Titan.That was always the mantra, and she did. She believed in the team and their work. Angela took a deep breath. “After you guys came in and saved the day, investigators grilled me for weeks. They wanted to know everything they could about Pham.”

Boss Man nodded. “I hired you as soon as they let you out of their claws.”

“There were parts of my story that they ignored. It was as if they were only listening for certain details, and the ones I found noteworthy were…” She made a face. “Not of interest to them.”

“What kind of things?”

“Mostly about how the abduction happened. Faces I saw more than once. Sometimes again later…” She shook her head. “They were very certain that my recollections were off.”

His eyes narrowed. “Why were they so certain?”

“Because the faces—actually, it was only one face. A woman who I swore I would randomly see throughout the years, she was…” Angela shrugged. “Just a face. They told me she was a vision, like an imaginary friend, that I conjured up as a rescue daydream.”

She could tell that her vague explanation failed to make sense to Jared. “I told you. It’s a nothingburger.”

After a beat, he shook his head and asked, “Can I get Parker in on this conversation?”

“We shouldn’t waste his time.” Her cheeks warmed. “I was told more than once that I didn’t see what I thought I saw.”

His lips pursed, and then Jared smiled as though he detected a challenge. “You’ve known me long enough to know that I like to double-check the bureaucratic types.”

“I know, but—”

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