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—”
“And we’ll accomplish your goal,” her mother added. “We’ll have rescued someone else who might still be in the same predicament you lived through, Angela.” She faced Jared. “I think we can all agree that’s a win-win.”
Jared’s frown lines deepened. “This isn’t one of your political negotiations.”
“Pham needs to go to prison,” Angela spat out. “Don’t you get that?” But even as she said that, waves of shame at her hypocrisy rolled through her chest. If only Ibrahim would give her a magic cure to wash away her lingering empathy for her abductor.
“Angela, dear…”
“Stop that.” She hated the patronizing way her mother could say her name. “He needs to go to prison. If not for me, for all the people and families he hurt.” Her lips pursed, and she smirked. “That would make one hell of a press release and photo op for you to capitalize on.”
“Watch yourself, young lady.”
Angela jutted her chin out. “If not for me, then to send a message to other terrorists. Mess with you, get prison time. Rich and Rob could make posters and T-shirts.”
The gold bracelets clinked again. Her mother wanted the debate. Angela could see it in her eyes, along with the deepening frown that she held back. “What you’re asking for only makes sense in an ideal world, and we don’t live in one of those.” Her frown deepened further. “Believe it or not, I’m looking out for your best interest.”
“You’re so invested in yourself that you can’t see where our interests intersect and diverge.”
“That’s not fair, Angela.”
“We don’t live in a fair world, Mom.” Angela turned to Parker. “If there’s someone else out there, can we find them without Pham’s assistance?”
Parker’s dark brows furrowed. He took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. After considering, he searched for an answer before saying, “That’s a tough one.”
Jared’s lips pursed, apparently in thought. “We don’t know a who, where, when…” He glanced at Parker. “Do I have that correct?”
“If they exist at all…” Parker suggested.
“But if we did,” Angela pressed, “we could find them and kill the trial negotiations.”
Sawyer looked from her to Parker and Boss Man. “I mean, that’s what Titan does. Find people. Manage situations. More or less.”
Her heart squeezed. Thank you, Sawyer . “We could do so much more if we had more information.” Angela turned pointedly to her mother. “Which we could probably get.”
“That doesn’t keep you safe,” her mother pointed out. “I might have an agenda, but I don’t want Pham to hurt you again.”
“You did blow her cover, Samantha,” Jared growled.
“I had a plan,” her mother snapped.
“Stop.” Angela waved her hand at them. “Can anyone tell me if I’m safe here ?”
Sawyer crossed his arms. “I won’t let anyone get that close to you again.”
He couldn’t blame himself. They had no idea she’d been compromised. “I know.”
“We could put her in a safe house somewhere,” Jared mused.
Dread crawled up Angela’s neck. “I don’t want to go to a safe house.”
“Here or at home?” her mother asked as though Angela hadn’t protested.
“I’m not going to a safe house,” Angela reiterated.
“Do you have places in Canada? I’m unaware of Pham’s network up there.”
They weren’t listening to her. “I want to help find this person.”
“Well, Samantha, you put a fuckin’ bull’s-eye on her in Abu Dhabi,” Jared spat. “Though here with us is still safer than Canada or wherever else you have in mind.”
Sawyer caught her eye, his brows rising. They had never seen Jared spar like this with someone before.
Angela slapped the table. “Enough.” Jared and her mother finally turned their attention to her. “Surely the Feds didn’t hear what Pham’s people had to say and decide to sit and wait for more information.” She faced Parker on the video conferencing screen. “Could you find out if they’ve made plans to gather intel?”
“It’d go faster with a little help.” Parker eyed her mother.
“ Fine .” Her mother picked up her cell phone and sent off several messages.
Jared gave the Senator an appreciative nod and told Parker, “We’ll wait.”
Parker’s video feed remained on but muted. He pressed a phone to his ear and turned to face another computer screen, typing as he talked.
Angela’s gaze dropped from Parker to Sawyer. The corners of his mouth lifted in a stealthy smile that made her feel like a million bucks.
Parker continued to work. Her mother returned to her phone and typed away. Jared and Sawyer had far more patience than Angela, though she’d guessed they’d had enough special forces gigs that required them to wait in places far less comfortable than Titan’s war room.
Finally, Parker returned and unmuted. “Good news.”
That phrase hadn’t lived up to all it could have so far today. She hoped he wasn’t just saying that.
“They have a possible informant, someone who shared a cell with Pham while his lawyers were kicking around the idea of an exchange.”
That news wasn’t especially great. Prisoners offered jailhouse gossip in exchange for better deals. That didn’t mean the gossip held a kernel of truth. Vetting the information would take more time than they had.
“They’ve also been trying to ferret an agent or two into Pham’s network, but no one’s confident they know enough about his system to make it work.” Parker frowned. “In short, we don’t know what Pham’s thinking. It’s a work in progress.”
Everyone looked as though they’d hit a dead end. She waited in disbelief for the moment that Parker, their resident genius, or Jared would realize the resources she possessed. They wanted to know about Pham’s network? She didn’t know the specifics yet, but she understood them completely. “The Feds can profile his thoughts, but I understand them.”
Her mother’s jaw ticked. Jared’s brow furrowed. And Sawyer—she couldn’t read his expression. Of everyone in the room, he was the one whose opinion she wanted to know. “I know Pham better than any agency. I lived his operations.” Angela inhaled deeply and mustered the courage to ask for what she needed. “I can do whatever the Feds are trying to do. I should be the one who’s in the thick of his network, hunting for someone who might be going through what I lived through.”
Sawyer’s brow furrowed. “Ange, his network is trying to find and kill you. You’re not the person that should step into this role.”
She deflated but only for a moment. He didn’t say she couldn’t do it, only that she would be spotted. But he was wrong. Angela shook her head. “If that’s what everyone thinks, then that shows how little you understand his network. Pham’s network is like a corporation. Like a bank. The people who specialize in murder are not the same people who work on money laundering.”
No one said anything.
“He had an entire staff of people who took care of me. They brought me meals. Books. Everything I could think of. They were housekeepers and chefs, assistants. Those are not the people on high alert, searching for me, trying to kill me.” She eyed each person in the room. “Whatever undercover identity the Feds have, I can do it better than what they’re trying for without even being read into the profiles they’re creating.” Angela faced Boss Man. “I want in on this. I need it.”
“Angela,” her mother warned under her breath.
But she didn’t look away from Boss Man. “Let me in on this. Please.”
“Angela,” her mother said more forcefully. “You’re asking for a lot. You’re risking a lot. And I don’t know if you know what you’re doing.” She shook her head. “This isn’t who you are.”
Her heart lurched.
“With all due respect, ma’am,” Sawyer said, “I don’t think you know Angela, who she is, or what she can do.” He focused on her. “Is this who you are? What you want to do?”
His defense had tied her throat into a double knot. From the moment that Titan had rescued her from Pham, she had controlled every aspect of her life. Now, she’d asked Jared to let her work a nonexistent assignment, searching for an unknown person, without an hour of operative training. She had no idea who she was at the moment.
“It’s what I need to do,” she replied.