Page 54 of The Bodyguard

I watch him walk away, down from the terrace towards the railings, where he stops, his back to me as he faces the river.

We did something impulsive.

We crossed a line.

Who gives a fuck?

Bodie

“Can you talk?”

“Not really. I’m with Lena.”

“Is she there with you now?”

“No… Yes, but I’m out of earshot. I can’t be away too long. Is this important?”

“Wouldn’t be calling otherwise. It’s to do with Tawnee Nielsen. Those papers you found the other day? The adoption papers? They’re real. Mikkel Nielsen isn’t Lena’s biological father, but we know who is.”

“Who?”

“This changes everything.”

“Just tell me who the fuck her real father is.”

“Stefan Novak.”

I take a second to let that news sink in. “Jesus Christ…”

“He and Tawnee had an affair, and it wasn’t exactly a one-night-stand thing, either. It went on for years, starting just after Ollie was born.”

“You found someone willing to talk?”

“A woman called Janine Winters. She’d been Tawnee’s personal assistant, back when she was a model. They became close friends. Very close, as it happens, Tawnee trusted her, to the point where she felt she could talk to her about anything, including her affair with Stefan Novak.”

“Did this woman know the kind of man Tawnee was married to?”

“She had an idea, yes. She was maid-of-honour at their wedding, a guest at countless parties the family threw, she’d spent enough Christmases at their house to get a sense that things weren’t completely normal, although Tawnee never talked about her husband’s business all that much. Janine was more of a witness to their personal life, which has suddenly become an extremely important factor in this operation. Like I said, it could change everything.”

“Does Nielsen know that Novak is Lena’s biological father?” I glance back over my shoulder. Lena’s chatting to one of the waiters.

“Tawnee came clean as soon as she knew she was pregnant. But, according to Janine, all Nielsen wanted was for her to end it, to promise she’d never see Novak again, and to never let him know he had a child. Tawnee was terrified Nielsen would leave her, she’d become accustomed to the lifestyle, the money, the power, and the thought of what she’d done and how that could see her lose all of that, she was scared. But Nielsen was obsessed with her, by all accounts. Had been ever since he’d seen her walk the runways back in the day. He’d wanted her. And he got her. And he wasn’t willing to lose her. So, he laid down ground rules. He would adopt the baby, and nobody would ever know he wasn’t her real father. And Tawnee, if she ever made that same mistake again, she’d be out. Nielsen told her there would be no more chances.”

“So, what about Novak? Does he have any idea that Lena is his daughter?”

“He knows.”

“How did he find out?”

“We have no idea. And we don’t know how long he’s known, but we’re guessing it’s only been recently. This could be the reason why he and Nielsen are suddenly back in touch.”

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. It’s all slowly starting to make some kind of sense now. “You think this is why Nielsen set up those meetings?”

“It would make sense. These families haven’t been connected, in any way, for decades, and we still don’t know exactly what’s going on, what Novak wants out of this, but it’s now obvious why the family wanted protection for Lena. The fact Mikkel Nielsen is suddenly meeting with the kind of people he’s always made a point of avoiding? It’s too much of a coincidence, all these players in a very dangerous game coming together like this? Somewhere along the line the truth came out, and now we have to assume that we have two very powerful, very dangerous men on one hell of a collision course, and what the endgame is going to be, we have yet to work out. But, we’re starting to lean more towards this being domestic. Maybe Novak wants to meet Lena, lay some kind of paternal claim to her, he could even be planning to use her as a pawn in a bigger, even more dangerous game. She could end up as the kind of collateral damage nobody wants to see.”

“This could get fucking messy.”

“Yep. It could. And it certainly looks like she’s the reason all of this is happening, so, we need to keep a close eye on her. We’re still assuming a lot of shit at the moment, we don’t know, yet, what either of these men have planned, and until we do, it’s our job to make sure no innocents are harmed. That includes Lena.”

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