Freshly dressed, she emerged into the hall and headed for the living areas. She heard voices and stopped. She hadn’t realized Colt wasn’t alone. She listened until his visitor spoke again.
Jared Fraser.
Both men turned their heads as Angie walked into the kitchen. Colt was leaning against the counter, one leg crossed over the other. Jared sat at the table with a cup of coffee.
Colt moved toward her. “Baby, how do you feel?”
Angie smiled. “Much better.”
He put a hand under her elbow to steady her and led her to the table where he sat her down. “Are you hungry?”
She thought about it. Her belly didn’t rebel at the thought of food, which was good. “Maybe something light?”
“Soup? Or toast and egg whites?”
“Toast and egg whites sounds good.”
“You got it.”
She turned her attention to Jared, who was watching her. “Thank you for the medicine. I think it helped.”
“I’m glad. We don’t usually do too much for stomach flu, but you learn a trick or two in the field. Helps lessen the impact a little bit.”
“I can’t remember the last time I was that sick.”
“Hopefully it’ll be a long time before you are again.”
“God I hope so.”
Colt finished the toast and brought it to her on a plate. He didn’t put anything on it, but he set out butter and jam for her. She knifed up some jam and spread it on a warm slice while he went back to the stove to scramble up a couple of egg whites. “Is there any news?” she asked when she’d eaten half of the toast.
Colt tipped the pan and slid scrambled egg whites on her plate. She didn’t miss the look he and Jared exchanged.
Colt dragged out a chair and sat down beside her. His expression was more serious than she’d seen it these past couple of days. “There’s a little bit of news, Ang. Eat first.”
She thought about rebelling, but her stomach rumbled and she decided she needed the protein. She ate the eggs and finished the toast while Jared and Colt waited. When she was done, she pushed the plate away.
“Okay. You can tell me now.”
“It’s not good.”
Her heart dropped. “Did they find Charles? Is he dead?”
Colt’s blue eyes bored into hers. “Charles is still missing, baby. But a jogger found Jenny Clark yesterday. It looks like she committed suicide.”
Angie went cold and then hot. Her throat closed. She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes and willed herself not to cry before glaring at them both. “Oh my god. I just saw her. She was upset about the fire, but she didn’t seem suicidal. We went to breakfast. Oh god.” She looked at Colt. “It doesn’t make sense. If she was ever going to kill herself it would have been last year when Dwight—that’s her ex—left her for another woman. It was an ugly divorce. They share custody of the kids. Oh lord, her kids…”
Colt put a hand on her back and rubbed. “I know, minette. I didn’t tell you yesterday because you weren’t in any condition to deal with the news.”
She shook her head as a hot tear fell down her cheek. “I wish you had.” The kitchen was getting blurry. She tried to push her chair back, but Colt blocked it with his foot. “I need my phone.”
“I’ll get it for you. Here.”
He shoved a box of tissue under her nose. She pulled some out and pressed them to her eyes.
Her phone appeared on the table in front of her. “Look at your messages, but don’t send any just yet, okay?”
She frowned. “Okay.”
She picked up her phone and unlocked it. There were text messages. Lots of them. Liam had texted her. Maddy. Jenny.
Oh god.
Jenny: Hey, Angie. I need to talk to you. Can we meet somewhere? Call me.
Angie swallowed. “She tried to get in touch with me. She had a couple of Charles’s accounts. I asked her if she’d found anything wrong but she said no. Maybe she found something later…. I can’t believe she’s gone.”
Colt put an arm around her and squeezed her shoulders. “I know, baby.”
“I think I need to lie down again.” She got to her feet, her phone clutched in her hand.
“Baby, you need to leave the phone here.”
Annoyance pricked her. “I can lie in bed and look at my messages. I’ll be fine.”
“No, Ang.” His tone told her he wasn’t going to let her take the phone from the room. And that made her angry.
“It’s my damned phone,” she spat. “You can’t tell me what to do.”
“You’re under my protection, and I can tell you what to do.” His voice was harder than she’d ever heard it. Commanding and final. “You aren’t going to answer any of those texts right now. Or your emails. It’s best if you stay dark, don’t let people know where you are. Until we know what’s going on, you can’t take any chances.”
She bit her trembling lip as anger and grief assaulted her senses. Colt and Jared both looked at her calmly, like it was no big deal. To them it wasn’t. Neither the anger nor the grief. They were used to death.
If she insisted on keeping her phone, they could overpower her, take it by force. There was nothing she could do to stop them.
She was powerless, and she hated it.
“Fine,” she growled. Then she threw the phone onto the table and stormed out of the kitchen.
“I think that went well,” Colt said to Jared as soon the bedroom door slammed.
Jared snorted. “Only if pissing her off was your intention.”
He hated that he’d had to do it, but she didn’t realize how lucky she was to
