Page 7 of The Bodyguard

They shook their heads. Liam crossed his arms over his chest. “Strange, huh?”

“Yeah.” Sawyer dragged his hands across his weary face. The night before hadn’t given him enough sleep to confront an absence of answers.

“Where’s Angela?” Hagan asked.

“Upstairs, acting as though no one tried to put a bullet in her face.”

Hagan glanced around the lobby and nodded to a surreptitiously hidden camera. “It’s the safest place Angela could be.” His wife, Amanda, and her associate, Shah, managed the hotel’s security and surveillance nerve center. “You know that as well as I do.”

“He already knows that.” Liam eyed Sawyer. “What do you want Angela to do? Sit in her suite and stay put until we figure everything out?”

Sawyer shrugged. “That doesn’t sound like an awful plan.”

The guys chuckled as if they had an inside joke. Sawyer wasn’t in the mood to suss it out.

“Look, man. The offices are safer than the suites,” Hagan said. “But she could be anywhere in either of the towers and be fine.”

“I don’t think ‘fine’ is the level of security I’m comfortable with.”

Hagan and Liam exchanged looks. Hagan continued, “Amanda would know if a militant mosquito farted on the premises. No one can get to Angela while she’s on site.”

He was probably right. The problem was that Amanda and Shah couldn’t prepare for every possible situation. There would always be a risk. He had planned for a thousand scenarios, andyet an assassin had walked into a secure location and nearly blew Angela’s brains out.

As if Hagan had called in for reinforcements, his wife exited an elevator. Amanda didn’t look worried for Angela or concerned about security problems, but she did look paler than usual.

Hagan greeted Amanda with a hand around her waist and a quick peck on the cheek. “I didn’t expect to see you.” He gave her a quick once-over and maybe saw what Sawyer did. “You feel okay?”

“I have a headache. That’s all.” She rubbed the back of her neck.

Hagan shifted closer to his wife. “Do you want a bottle of water?”

Amanda’s color was definitely off. Sawyer motioned for them to give him a minute. He asked the front desk for water stashed in the mini fridge behind the counter and then returned and handed the bottle to a protesting Amanda.

“Really, I’m fine.” Amanda inhaled deeply through her nose and exhaled through her mouth before taking a sip.

“Better?” Hagan asked, far more concerned about his wife’s headache than threats that might loom over the hotel.

“Yeah.” She recapped the water. “But I’m going to lie down.”

“I’ll go with you—”

Amanda cut Hagan off with a flick of her hand. “I can manage a headache.” She eyeballed Sawyer. “Stay with him. He’s not looking so good.”

“Me?” Sawyer shirked from her scrutiny. “I’m just a guy with unanswered questions and a missing boss. Not to mention a laundry list of security uncertainties.”

She narrowed her eyes. “My head hurts, Sawyer. Don’t make me shake you.”

“Fine,” he relented. “Not uncertainties. But…” Sawyer shrugged. Amanda had this place on lockdown. There was no question about Titan’s security.

Amanda squeezed Hagan’s hand and turned. “If anyone needs me, find Shah. I’m off to nap.”

“And don’t forget,” Hagan said, watching his wife leave, “Angela agreed with Amanda and Boss Man. If she’s off-site, she’ll wear Kevlar.”

“Yeah, as much as she won’t like it.” Sawyer rubbed the back of his neck. Angela liked clothes and fashion. She wasn’t trendy, though. Her skirts and blouses conjured images of timeless models and classic beauties.

“Well, she likes it more than being dead,” Liam said. “She seemed levelheaded enough last night.”

“More than you,” Hagan added under his breath.

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