“Nice.”
They let the silence stretch while she went back to sanding and he finally said what he came for. “How’s Gina doing?”
She stopped and wiped her face again. “I was wondering how long it would take you to get to that. Other than the fact that she’s being pulled in a thousand different directions, she seems okay. More tense than she was when she was here.”
Tense is what he would expect from a woman who ran a multimillion-dollar business. “I’m glad everything worked out for her.” He rose. “Take it easy, Charlie. Stay out of the heat.”
He started to walk away when she called him back. “It’s none of my business, but you two seemed good together.”
Funny, he thought his and Gina’s short-lived fling had been fairly covert, even if his nosy cousins had been watching from the sidelines. Apparently their women were keeping tabs on his love life—or lack thereof—too.
“Not that good,” he said and went home.
* * * *
Sawyer opened his front door the next morning to find Cash standing there.
“You going somewhere?”
“Thought I’d stroll over to the horse barn.” It wasn’t like he was getting anything done in the apartment. For the last hour he’d been attempting to make a pot of coffee. The first time, he’d forgotten to add beans and had had to start from scratch. On the second try, he forgot to refill the well with water. If he didn’t screw his head on straight he was liable to leave the house without his clothes on.
Just to be sure, he looked down to see if he had buttoned his fly.
“Can I come in?” Cash waited for Sawyer to move away from the entrance.
“Yeah, sure.” Sawyer shook his head as if to clear it of its cobwebs and motioned for Cash to follow him upstairs. “What’s up?”
Cash went to the kitchen and helped himself to a mug of Sawyer’s third-time’s-the-charm coffee. “Let’s sit in the front room.”
At first, Sawyer assumed Cash had come to give him shit about Gina the same way he’d done when his cousin had dragged his feet with Aubrey. She’d almost moved to Las Vegas. But this was different. Gina was already gone, back to the world she’d come from.
But Cash’s body language spoke volumes. His cousin’s lips were pressed in a grim line and his back was ramrod straight. It reminded Sawyer of Cash’s FBI days. He wasn’t here to talk about Sawyer’s relationship issues.
Angie.
For a second he froze, afraid to hear whatever Cash had come to say.
The only explanation for his sister’s uncharacteristic radio silence all these years was that she was dead. At least it was the only explanation that made sense. On an intellectual level Sawyer had always known that. He just hadn’t wanted to believe it. Even the New Mexico lead seemed hinky, as if someone had made the whole thing up to throw him off course.
He took a bracing breath. “Just say it.”
“Sit.” Cash took the big leather chair, sipped his coffee, and put the cup down on the coffee table.
Sawyer wanted to stand. He actually wanted to run, find a quiet place, and bury his head in the sand. He took the sofa, squeezing the armrest until his fingers went numb.
“She’s alive.”
Sawyer’s ears roared and he wasn’t sure he’d heard Cash right. “What?”
“Angela’s alive, Sawyer. I don’t know where she is or even how long she’s been there, but she’s safe. At least for now.”
“WITSEC?” When Cash nodded, Sawyer steadied himself. He was finding it difficult to breathe. Angie was alive. All these years and she was alive. He had so many questions swirling around in his head that he didn’t know where to start. “What is she involved in, Cash? Who—what—is she up against?”
Cash scrubbed his hand down his face. For the first time since he’d arrived, Sawyer noted how tired his cousin looked. He’d been sitting on this for a while, probably gathering enough information to give Sawyer a comprehensive picture. Or at least as comprehensive as he could.
“Everything is still pretty sketchy, Sawyer. I’m lucky to have gotten what I did.”
Luck had nothing to do with it. Before Cash had been terminated, he’d been on the FBI’s fast track. He’d not only been a terrific agent; he’d had lots of friends. Friends in high places. Sawyer suspected one of those friends had helped Cash put some of the pieces of Angie’s disappearance together.
