Chapter Forty-Four #2
“Who is everyone?” she demanded.
“You know the laundry list.”
She looked to Sawyer for answers. His hard-set jaw didn’t show he had any. “Jared, I can’t.”
“We don’t have much say—”
“Yes—”
“Angela,” Jared interrupted, “I don’t want to be the asshole. But you know that I’ll be that guy. There are a lot of people trying to do right by you, by this trial—”
“Don’t you get that the idea of someone bringing me to an unknown place where I can’t contact my loved ones is too much to ask of me again? It’s too similar to when Pham imprisoned me.” The choking memories stole her rationality. “Don’t you get that? Jared, please. I can’t.”
“I’m saying you don’t have a choice.”
Tears welled in her eyes. Angela shook her head. She tried to find safe harbor in Sawyer. His tight expression was one she couldn’t read. Her stomach knotted. “Sawyer?”
Tension flexed in his jaw, but he shook his head. “Jared knows the players, the situation… He knows everything and is working from a clear-headed perspective.” Sawyer ground his molars. “We’re not.”
Maybe Ibrahim could give her some kind of pass. A doctor’s note that would excuse her from Boss Man’s demands. But in her heart, she knew Ibrahim wouldn’t ignore her physical safety—especially when it seemed as if they had exhausted all other options.
A tear escaped. Her arms felt lined with lead. Angela couldn’t manage to wipe the tear away before another fell.
Sawyer noticed. His lips pinched, and his nostrils flared as he pulled in a deep breath. But he didn’t contradict Jared.
Her world spun. The floor had been pulled from beneath her feet. Witness Protection had always been a distant, unexercised option, but she didn’t think it would ever happen. It was happening. Angela’s chin dipped.
“Parker,” Jared said, “give me the line. Alone.” A moment later, he said, “Angela, let me talk to Sawyer. Alone.”
Her eyes flashed to Sawyer’s. Sawyer lifted his chin.
Trepidation sprung in the pit of her stomach. What was there to say to Sawyer that Angela couldn’t hear? Her throat knotted. The two men she trusted above all others wanted her to leave so they could talk about her. Slowly, she stood from the table and found herself in her bedroom.
Knowing that she was the topic of conversation needled under her skin. She shut the door and sank onto the bed. Every second crawled by. She tried to imagine their discussion and didn’t like any of her thoughts.
Finally, Sawyer knocked on the door. She opened it, partly thrilled they were finished discussing her, partly hurt that they didn’t think she could hear or handle what they had said.
“Your turn,” he said. His face was unreadable, and, though he stood inches away from her, Sawyer felt miles away.
Angela rolled her lips together and found where Sawyer had left the phone. She picked it up and pressed it to her ear. She swallowed hard, suddenly unsure of her voice. “Boss Man?”
“Hey.”
Her throat constricted. Jared sounded almost apologetic, almost… She wasn’t sure. His voice wasn’t patronizing or patriarchal. But it was something that made her insides feel like sludge. “What did you say to Sawyer that you can’t say to me?”
Jared let out a long, foreboding breath. “You said you had a problem with Witness Protection.”
Her teeth clenched. “You know I have a problem with it.”
“You said it kept you from your loved ones.”
“Yeah,” she said cautiously.
Silence hung on the call.
“That’s never what you told me before. Years ago, when Witness Protection was on the table. Before I offered you a job with Titan.”
She couldn’t recall that exact conversation. “I don’t remember specifically what I said.”
“You told me that you didn’t want to cede control again. I understood.”
“Then why—”
“The situation has changed, Angela. You know it, and I know it. Look, here’s what you can control. Your beliefs. Your values. Your thoughts and your perspective. But you can’t control your loved ones.”
“If this has to do with what my mother has said, I’m done with her weighing in on my life.”
“I wish it was that easy, Angela.”
“Why isn’t it?”
He remained silent for so long that she checked to see if the call had been dropped.
“Jared?” she asked.
“I don’t have experience on my side, but when I tell you this, you gotta know that I believe it.”
“And you have to know that you’re starting to freak me out.”
“Great,” he grumbled. “This was easier with Sawyer.”
“What was?”
“I think your loved one is sitting in the other room.”
Her stomach dropped. Her mouth did too.
“And judging by that stunned silence you’re giving me, instead of a world-class Sorenson rebuttal, I’m not off base,” he continued as Angela’s heart seesawed.
“Take a vacation. Let it be in Witness Protection. And if you need your loved one with you, bring them with you. No questions asked. Disappear together. When it’s done and time to show up to work again, that’s what you do. Together.”
Heat crawled into her cheeks. Her heartbeat raced. Jared was talking about Sawyer. “I…”
“You don’t have to manage a safe house or your safety. Neither does anyone else you bring along. If that’s what you meant about not wanting to leave your loved ones.”
Angela’s mouth had gone dry. Had Jared told Sawyer she loved him? He couldn’t know that. Still, not knowing something wouldn’t stop Boss Man when his instinct spoke up.
Jared chuckled. “And if I’m wrong a hundred different ways, ignore me.” She could almost see him shrug and crack his knuckles. “But I don’t think I am.”
“I can’t be in love with him,” she whispered.
“Why’s that?”
Angela shook her head. “You know his past better than I do.”
Jared released a soul-reaching sigh. “The shitty thing about this job is all of the ugly that I have seen over the years. Ugly conditions. Ugly humanity. Ugly, ugly grief. The kind when life’s not fair, and it’s hard to keep going.
But this is the thing, Angela. Something changed in Sawyer the day he met you. You never saw him before.”
“We’re just friends.”
“Good. You both needed that when you first moved to Abu Dhabi.”
“We’re still friends.”
“Again, good. ’Cause rumor has it that’s the basis for a lot more to build on.”
“Jared—”
“I don’t give two shits if you two are friends or fucking or in it for the long haul. But I do care if you ignore me when I say it’s time for Witness Protection.”
Jared wouldn’t force her, but until this point, he had let her take the lead on where she was. That sank in. So did the points he had made about Sawyer. “Is this the same conversation you had with Sawyer?” she asked.
Jared snort-laughed. “No. Not a chance.”
She had to laugh, relieved and more than a little curious. “Should I even ask?”
“I wouldn’t say anything even if you did.”
“Fair enough.” Angela bit her bottom lip. “What now?”
“Sit pretty and let the Marshals whisk you to the unknown. I’ll be waiting for you at the trial.”
“And Sawyer?”
“Talk to him. He either disappears with you, or he’ll make his way back to headquarters.”
“No matter if he goes with me, can he also be at the courthouse when I testify?”
Jared scoffed. “Don’t waste your time asking questions you already know the answer to.”
That reply made her smile. Of course Sawyer would be wherever she needed him to be. All she had to do was ask.