Page 39 of The Bodyguard

I’m not sure he should be telling me this, but I’m glad that he is, even if, in reality, I don’t think I’ve got the brain capacity to deal with it today.

“He won’t win.” Ollie turns his head away and looks back over his shoulder, out of the window. “Bodie’s up.”

I don’t respond to that, why should I? I don’t need him right now, probably not at all today, I don’t intend to go anywhere. As long as I stay here, in the house, he just needs to remain close by, there’s no need for him to be glued to my side.

Ollie lets out a low whistle, his gaze still focused outside. “Look at the guns on that guy!”

I let out a barely audible sniff of derision as I make the bed, taking an unnecessarily long time to straighten the duvet. Ollie’s doing it on purpose, trying to get a reaction out of me, but he isn’t going to get one.

“There’s a man who knows how to keep in shape.”

I feel my skin prickle, but I continue to ignore my brother.

“Anyway,” Ollie sighs, pulling himself away from the window-sill. “You coming downstairs? I can already smell bacon.”

“In a second.”

“Okay.” He opens the door, but he doesn’t go anywhere. Doesn’t leave. “Did something go on between you and Bodie last night?”

I feel my stomach hit the floor, how could he possibly know that? Am I that fucking transparent? “No. Why would you ask that?”

Ollie shrugs. “Dunno. I just see the way he looks at you sometimes.”

Excuse me?

“Howdoeshe look at me, exactly?”

“Like men usually look at you.”

“I’m sorry?” What the hell is he talking about?

“Lena, you’re beautiful, okay? And you’re my little sister, so yeah, I watch every man who comes within sight of you, because I trust no-one. I know what they’re thinking, what they want from you…”

“You’re generalising quite a bit here, Ollie.”

“Bodie’s here to do a job. But he’s still a man.” He throws me a small smile. “You’d tell me, if something was going on you weren’t comfortable with, right?”

“Yeah. Yeah, of course.”

“Alright. So, breakfast?”

“I’m not all that hungry, to be honest.”

“A fry-up’s always good for the morning after the night before.” He throws me a wider smile before he leaves, and I lean back against the door and breathe out a sigh of relief, my stomach heaving slightly at the thought of a plate piled high with fried food.

I go over to the bedside table, pick up my phone, and check for any new messages, but I know there won’t be any. None that aren’t work related, anyway. I have very few friends, and the ones I do have, we’re not that close. I don’t have that kind of close-knit circle where we text each other constantly and care about each other like sisters, and all of a sudden the weight of the loneliness I feel inside but never outwardly show hits me like a freight train head-on. It knocks the wind from me, the realisation that being a part of this family means I’ve had to sacrifice so much. I hadn’t realised before justhowmuch.

Sitting down on the edge of the bed, I lay my phone down and stare out of the window at a pale blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds. It’s going to be another beautiful day, and I should be glad about that. I don’t always get weekends off. I’m CEO of a highly successful construction company, I don’t get to relax that often. Today, though – today I’m going to try and do that. I’m going to try…

Bodie

Mikkel Nielsen will be away from the house for most of today. He and Ollie have another meeting with Stefan Novak in the city, leaving mid-morning, they should be away for a good few hours. And we’ll have eyes on them, people tracking their every move, they aren’t my problem. But, right now, Tawnee Nielsen is. I need her out of the way, too. I need to dig around more, try and find something concrete, something that tells us why Mikkel Nielsen is, all of a sudden, meeting up with the Novak family. That’s a concern. That was the trigger that started all of this, that unexpected connection between two very different families who’ve had nothing to do with each other for decades.

Reaching down to pick up my drink, I take a long draft and sit down on the step of the guest cottage in the grounds of Mikkel and Tawnee Nielsen’s impressive home. Morning exercise is a necessity for me, it helps get rid of the cobwebs, and being able to do it out here, in these undeniably beautiful surroundings, that’s a bonus. But this entire estate, it was bought from the proceeds of crimes that were never on our radar, they were never our concern, this family has never posed a threat to this country, until they started talking to Stefan Novak. A man who, for a lot of years, most definitelyhasbeen on our radar. And it’s because Nielsen reached out to Novak, not the other way around, that’s what’s making us twitchy. And we’re aware that Nielsen’s making it all about territory, and that may very well be true but we can’t find anything to back that up so, yeah. Alarm bells started ringing. And that’s why I’m here. To find out what the fuck is going on, how much of a threat this could actually be; why Lena needs a bodyguard when she’s never needed one before. It’s because of the uncertainty. We’re just being careful.

Tilting my head back, I look up at the clear blue sky. Any clouds that had been there before have disappeared now. And they always lead you to believe that the weather up here in the north-east of England is permanently gloomy, but since I’ve been here that theory seems to have been somewhat dispelled. Today looks like it’s going to be another warm, bright, sunny day, but that makes no difference to me. I don’t get to switch off or make the most of the good weather, I don’t have that luxury. I can’t remember the last time I did.

I shift my gaze back to the house, which is a good hundred metres or so from the guest cottage, just as Lena comes outside. But she doesn’t see me, she’s heading around the side of the house, where there’s a secluded terrace underneath a cluster of trees. It looks like she wants to be alone. Out of sight. But I can’t let her do that. I can’t let her be alone. If she’s out of that house, away from anyone else, then I need to be there, with her. So I pull myself to my feet and follow her.

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