Cavanaugh Watch by Marie Ferrarella

chewed on her lower lip. Should she tell Woods, or take a risk that Sawyer would keep his mouth shut about this? After all, it wasn’t as if Wayne had offered her a bribe, or even hinted at one. And she certainly hadn’t done anything improper—other than not immediately hang up on him. Sawyer had taken care of that, she thought darkly.
    What if Wayne had taped their conversation? she thought suddenly. He could have the tape altered, make it sound as if she’d said something she hadn’t. If he did that, he could get a mistrial. And she’d be out on her ear.
    She needed advice, Janelle thought.
    There was only one person she went to openly for advise. Her father. She decided to go see him tonight, even if just to use him as a sounding board. Maybe, if she was lucky, he could help her get this damn monkey off her back.
    Which brought her to the other reason that her mind kept wandering. She was having a devil of a time concentrating. Knowing that Sawyer was standing right behind her chair for some reason kept her mind from moving forward. From taking in more than a few sound bites at a time as the A.D.A., or someone else at the conference table, was speaking. Part of the reason, she supposed, was that she was waiting for a sneak attack, the way she used to when she was a kid and one of her cousins or brothers was out to get her at any time, any place.
    She had no idea why that feeling seemed so pertinent now.
    Sawyer wasn’t here to attack her, she silently argued, he was here to protect her from an attack. While antagonizing her at every turn. Was that on purpose? Was he doing that to keep her at a distance?
    That was it, she realized suddenly. Sawyer was being surly and off-putting to assure himself that she would remain at arm’s distance. That she wouldn’t get to know him, break through his steel reserve. For some reason, that seemed to bother him.
    The good thing about having so many male relatives milling around, she thought, her mouth curving, was that the mystery of the male psyche was pretty much exposed to the light of day.
    She glanced smugly over her shoulder toward her shadow just as Woods was winding up the impromptu meeting.
    I have your number, Detective Sawyer Boone. And I’m pretty sure that I know how to use it.

Chapter 5
    J anelle glanced at her watch. She’d been at this a number of hours now. Since her office had no windows, she couldn’t identify the portion of the day by the sun’s position in the sky. But she could congratulate herself for being able, for the most part, to block out the man seated to the side. Pausing, she looked at him now. Sawyer was reading some paperback book he’d pulled out of his jacket earlier.
    Probably something triple-X-rated, judging by the way it absorbed him, she mused. Tired, not making nearly enough headway, Janelle dropped her pen and rocked back in her chair, careful not to lean too far. The chair was somewhat unstable.
    Sawyer seemed oblivious to his surroundings. Some bodyguard. “So, just what’s the plan here? You’re going to sit there all day, reading, while I work?”
    He glanced over in her direction. Nothing had escaped him since they’d entered this oversize crayon box of a room. Ever on the alert without giving that impression, a burst of adrenaline was only half a heartbeat away.
    Still, he managed to sound almost lazy as he said, “Pretty much.”
    She would have thought a man like him would be going stir-crazy by now. But then it occurred to her that everything she knew about him was just supposition on her part. Beyond what her brother had mentioned earlier, no one had given her Sawyer’s credentials. Something she was going to have to look into the first chance she got, Janelle promised herself.
    Until then, she went on instinct, picturing one of her brothers in this same situation. “Doesn’t that bother you?”
    Since the conversation didn’t appear to be ending, he closed the book he was reading, marking his place with his