Page 39 of The Bodyguard

Jared nodded.

“They’ll want to run point,” Sawyer continued. “Which isn’t something you like to do.”

The corners of Jared’s lips quirked, and he gave a slight nod. “This is what I’m thinking.” He studied Sawyer and Angela. “You two go into the field and dig where Parker says to dig.”

“What?” they both said, his voice laden with confusion, hers with hope.

Angela perched on the edge of her seat, hands still tightly grasping the chair’s arms, but now, it was as if she held on to keep from springing into the air. Sawyer was the polar opposite. Trepidation pooled in the pit of his stomach. “What do you mean? Both of us dig?”

“You dig. You find out what’s out there to learn.”

“Field work? In the U.S.?” Sawyer did a double take. He understood Angela had asked to be involved, but this assignment didn’t make sense. Angela didn’t leave the office for work. She didn’t go anywhere dangerous. That was the point ofAngela’s job, far, far away from her home base, where she was safe from Pham’s network.

“Yeah,” Jared said. “Get in the field. Dig around. Learn what there’s to learn.” He focused on her. “You can do it.”

“I can do it. Absolutely,” she replied.

“I’ll get you everything we have,” Parker said. “Mylene Hathaway’s full history. Army. National Intelligence Office. The files from the murder investigation. Anything I can find.” Parker turned from their screen to work on his computer. “And I’ll dig on this end. We’ll see if we can find anything that points to Pham’s involvement in the murders.”

Sawyer’s jaw jutted. “What? Now we’re cold-case investigators? I don’t think so.”

“We’re not trying to exonerate Mylene,” Jared said. “We’re researching, trying to confirm Pham’s involvement.”

“We can do that from here.”

Angela glared. “I don’t think so.”

“Parker is in the U.S. We’re here with NSA-level technology—”

“What happens when we prove he’s involved?” Angela asked.

Jared pursed his lips and shrugged as if he hadn’t just suggested the most ludicrous assignment Sawyer had ever heard. “Once we do that, if we’re right, one thing begets the next.”

“Begets? What the fuck, Boss Man? We’re not—”

“There will likely be one of two outcomes,” Parker said, finally sounding the slightest bit data driven. “She’s dead or held against her will.”

“Parker, man, this doesn’t sound like anything we—Angela, especially—need to get near. Right?”

Parker ignored him. “Killing his targets hasn’t been Pham’s typical M.O.”

Were they really having a conversation about Angela working in the U.S. when someone had just attempted to kill her? How was he the only one who didn’t see sky-high red flags?

Jared nodded. “That leaves us with the option of finding her alive.”

“So she’s out there.” Angela released the chair from her death grip, letting hope infiltrate her words. “We can find her.”

Possibility lit her sweet, innocent face in a way that gutted Sawyer. He didn’t want to tell her no. Hell, the two other people in their conversation should be putting their feet down with absolute hell-nos. Sawyer’s heart galloped. There was no way he would gallivant around the world with Angela to find Mylene Hathaway, and there was no way he would endanger Angela to find another of Pham’s victims.

His molars ground again. Jared needed to shut down this half-cocked idea, but he didn’t. “Wait.” Sawyer glanced from Parker to Angela and then to Jared. “We can’t—are you all serious?”

Jared nodded.

Sawyer did another double take. “In what world is this a good idea?”

“In the world we’re living in,” Angela snapped.

“Look, Ange, I didn’t mean—” Honestly, though, he did. He couldn’t imagine what she’d gone through. If he had been in her position? Yeah, he’d want to do what he could to help someone living in that same hell. But this wasn’t how they needed to handle the situation with Angela. “Neither of us is the right person for this job.”

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