Chapter Sixty
“Do you want some dinner?” Angel asked Sam after they’d been on the road for a few hours.
“Sure.” She wondered where they were headed, but didn’t bother asking.
“What would you like?”
“Whatever.” Sam shrugged, not really having a preference.
“Sushi?” Angel suggested.
“That’s fine.”
The woman chuckled. “Boy, you really aren’t going to be a problem, are you?”
“I try my best. Have you ever had princess duty before?”
Angel cleared her throat. “Garrett told you we call it that?” Sam nodded, and the beautiful woman with the platinum blonde hair seemed surprised. “I haven’t covered you before. Your father normally uses Garrett, Dane, or Justin. But with Garrett off the job, and Dane with a gunshot wound to the leg—” She glanced over at Sam with an ironic smile.
Sam wasn’t going to apologize for shooting Dane. He’d made himself a target by threatening her.
“Anyway. No one ever complained that you were a diva, or anything. Mostly it was just boring.”
“I miss being boring.” Sam frowned at her reflection in the window.
“I bet. I sure hope these next three months stay boring.”
“Three months?”
“Yeah. Congressman Howe goes to trial in three months.”
Part of Sam was elated with the news. Her life on the run would be over in three months. But another part was terrified. Facing Ashton Howe in a courtroom was bad enough, but then she had to start over in a new town with a new identity.
Angel pulled into the parking lot of a sushi place, and shut off the car. “Do you have a weapon?” she asked.
“Glock.” Sam pointed to her back.
Angel nodded her approval. “Good. Let’s go.”
After they ordered, Angel rested her hands on the table in front of her and leaned in closer. “Can I ask what happened that made Garrett demand to be off your case?” she asked. She must have been hoping Sam would say something, and when she didn’t, her curiosity became unbearable.
Sam had asked her father to make it seem like Garrett wanted out of the arrangement instead of her dismissing him. She knew how people talked. And she didn’t want Garrett taking the brunt.
“Nothing in particular. He just got sick of me.”
Angel gave her a considering look. “Hmm. Weird. He didn’t seem sick of you.”
After their meal, they continued driving in silence. To Sam’s surprise, Angel pulled into an airport. Okay. This should be interesting.
“My gun?” Sam asked as she got out of the car.
“Leave it under the seat,” Angel instructed. “We can’t get it through security.”
Sam felt naked without a gun in the back of her jeans, but Angel assured her they would remedy the situation once they landed in D.C.
There was a fancy SUV waiting at the airport when they got to Dulles, and it was fully stocked. Including a new Glock for Sam. She pulled the clip and ran her finger over the first bullet, snapped it back in place, and tucked it into the glove box in front of her. Better.
From the airport, they made their way through horrendous traffic and parked in an underground parking garage. She had missed D.C., but wondered why she’d been brought back here.
Back where people got shot in alleys.
Angel picked up her phone and called someone. “We’re ready to come up.”
“All set,” said a man’s voice on the other end of the phone.
“Grab your things,” Angel told her. “We’re ready to move.”
Sam reached in the backseat to get her bag. She took her gun from the glove box and tucked it in the waistband of her pants. As soon as she opened the passenger door, she did a visual scan for danger.
Garrett had trained her well. She was ready for anything. If a nun with a lightsaber came riding up on a tricycle, she wouldn’t have been surprised.
Fortunately, that didn’t happen.
The steel doors of the elevator slid open and she automatically drew her weapon, needing it in her hand.
“Relax. I’ve got you.” Angel led her into the elevator and hit the button for the twenty-seventh floor.
Twenty-seven. Easy to remember. If Sam lived until March, she would turn twenty-seven.
But March seemed too far away to make any promises.
The elevator moved with a speed so fast she worried about getting a nose bleed. She winced when it came to an abrupt stop, and reached out for the rail to steady herself.
The doors opened, and the biggest man she’d ever seen took up the entire space. Holy crap. As if his mass wasn’t intimidating enough, he wore a fierce scowl on his young face. His dark eyes darted over them and then down the hall in both directions.
Shit!
Sam raised her gun in a second.
But he was faster.