CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Sawyer closed the hardcover and ran his thumb along the worn fabric and title imprinted along the book’s spine. He rarely visited the administrative arm of Titan’s executive office suite unless he was visiting Angela’s office. Most often, the team met in the war room or the hotel’s lobby. Until today, Sawyer had never sat in the formal area that greeted the bigwigs and head honchos who hired Titan for covert operations worldwide.
Across from him, Amanda Carter waited, legs kicked out across the cushions of an uncomfortable-looking couch, her laptop resting on her thighs. She didn’t appear to be working. At least she was less pale than the last time Sawyer saw her.
Amanda raised her gaze from the screen and chewed on her bottom lip. “What do you make of the Fed?”
He turned the book over and over again. “I don’t like unplanned visits.”
She nodded. “Angela doesn’t like unplanned anything.”
He agreed. “It bothers me that the Feds thought it was okay to fly across the world without giving us a heads-up. That doesn’t sit right.”
“They didn’t want her to have time to prepare.”
Those were his thoughts exactly. “Prepare for what?”
Footsteps approached.
“We’re about to find out,” Amanda said.
Alone, Angela walked into the reception space. Her angry eyes gave a clue to how the meeting went.
Sawyer stood. “That must’ve been fun, huh?”
She gave him a hesitant once-over and kept her distance. “Nothing like someone asking questions that don’t have black-and-white answers.” Angela frowned at Amanda. “I stormed out.”
“That bad?”
“That bad.” Angela nodded. “If you’re feeling up to it, would you mind escorting John Patterson to the lobby?”
Amanda unfolded her legs from the couch and closed her laptop. “That’s why I’m here.” She gave Angela a reassuring touch to her arm as she passed then added over her shoulder, “I need to take him out this way if you two want to disappear first.”
Sawyer nodded and guided Angela from the corporate reception area to the elevator. Her arms were folded over her chest as she walked. An awkward distance hovered between them, as if she didn’t want to stand beside him. “Where to?”
“Are we friends?”
He stopped abruptly. “Yeah, of course.”
After another stride, she turned toward him. Her folded arms remained up, guarded. She almost said something but shook her head and looked everywhere but at him.
“What happened in there, Angela?”
Uncertainty had softened the anger in her eyes. “A mind screw.”
He wanted to close the gap between them and absorb whatever doubt and hesitation colored her thoughts. He also wanted to throw John Patterson out of the hotel. Instead, Sawyer shoved his hands into his pockets. “We need to go somewhere before Amanda and the Fed arrive.”
“Do you think we’re going to find Mylene?”
“I think we’re going to give it our best.” He checked his watch. “Where do you want to go?”
Voices flitted down the hall. Angela glanced over Sawyer’s shoulder, squeezed herself, then dropped her arms. “I want to pack.”
He smiled. “For North Carolina?”
She nodded. “I want to leave as soon as we can go wheels up.”
He called the elevator. “Parker has a jet on standby.” The elevator arrived as if it knew they had to make a quick escape. Sawyer pressed his thumb to a nondescript print reader and eased back into the corner to watch her.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Angela tucked her chin down and squeezed her eyes shut. “I can’t take any more judgement—”
“None of my thoughts had a damn thing to do with judging you, Ange.”
Her eyes darted upward. “Then what were you thinking?”
“That you’ve had one hell of a week. Starting with the shooting, dealing with your mom, the ex-boyfriend.” Sawyer gestured to the floor they had just left. “The Fed digging for who the hell knows what.”
“A field readiness test.” She bit her lip. “Or some kind of relationship psych exam.”
His eyebrows rose. “Say again?”
Angela sighed and then met his gaze. “You heard me. My mother wanted a reason to bring me home or, at the very least, keep me from this job. But Jared could’ve been involved. I’m not sure. The guy wanted to know a lot about Paul and…” She blushed. “Relationships.”
The elevator doors opened, and Sawyer ushered Angela toward her apartment. He wasn’t sure what to say. Field readiness evaluations weren’t unheard of. They all underwent psych evals and a battery of readiness tests—but not moments before an op. The questionable timing crossed Jared off the list of instigators. Boss Man didn’t pussyfoot around a healthy, well-functioning team, but he never surprise-tested mental acuity like they were playing a game right before a job. “Why do you think Boss Man might be involved?”
“Does anything happen in this building that he doesn’t know?”
Sawyer could think of a few events, starting with the time Hagan and Amanda began dating and the poet ninja who posted funny-but-antagonizing flyers around the building to drive Boss Man crazy. “He doesn’t butt into people’s personal lives.”
She shrugged as they stopped in front of her door. “Of course, he knows John Patterson was here.” Angela unlocked her apartment and let Sawyer in behind her. “But even if he knew the line of questioning, Jared probably didn’t think twice because, all things considered, it’s not a big deal. I’m blowing this out of proportion.”
“I don’t know about that.”
Tension pinched at the corners of her lips and eyes.
“Something happened in that meeting that you’re not telling me about.”
She wrapped her arms over her chest. “My entire body aches.”
“Stress is a physical thing.”
Angela squeezed her eyes shut.
“You’re avoiding my question.” Sawyer hesitated but then stepped closer. He didn’t like the unknown and hated that she wasn’t sharing her burden.
“I know.” She released a deep breath. “He had questions about you.”
Surprised, he faltered. “What kind of questions?”
Her cheeks turned pink, and just as she had at the elevator, she looked everywhere but at him. “I don’t know. If we’re friends.”
Sawyer cocked his head. He shoved his hands into his pockets again, restless that she had to ask, restless in a way he couldn’t pinpoint. “And you didn’t know?”
Angela side-eyed him, looking half defensive, half annoyed. “Of course I know.”
“But you just asked me in front of the elevators if we’re friends.”
She hesitated. “I—uh, he started to ask if we were more than friends.” She tried to laugh, but it sounded more like a wheeze. “I know. Crazy.”
Sawyer stood very still, able to hear his heartbeat. “You were in a relationship.”
“A nonexistent one, but yeah,” she agreed. “But the idea that you and I were…” She wouldn’t meet his gaze. “That doesn’t make sense.”
His thoughts scrambled. Sawyer considered his words and struggled to keep his tone even. “Why wouldn’t we make sense?”
“Because you’re you, and I’m me.”
“What does that mean?” he pressed.
“I have no idea.” Her laughter didn’t ring true. “I need to pack. Make yourself at home.”
She sidestepped Sawyer. He caught her arm. Her breath lurched. He heard it the same way he had heard his heart jerk. More than that, he felt her gasp in his chest. A heady hunger that damn near blinded him took hold.
His hand stayed on her elbow. The pad of his thumb skimmed against the fabric of her blouse. Nerves jumbled in his throat as a charge of electricity radiated up his arm and down his spine. Angela watched him, beautiful, with wide eyes so overwhelmed that guilt punched him in the chest.
Sawyer stepped away. “I’m already packed.” He released her arm and swallowed hard. “We’ll leave when you’re ready.”