Page 62 of The Bodyguard

“We’re going to go back inside, for a little while. We’re going to show our faces, act like everything’s okay, and then we’re going to get out of here.”

“And go where?”

“Let me worry about that.”

“Bodie…?”

“We’ll talk later. Okay?”

He reaches for my hand again, and I let him take it. Squeeze it. And when he smiles I nod and throw him a small smile back.

We’re going to show our faces.

Act like everything’s okay.

And then we’re getting out of here.

Are you good with that?

Are you sure?

As sure as I’ll ever be.

Really?

You don’t know this man.

I don’t know my own family, apparently.

He could be lying to you.

He could.

So what the fuck are you doing?

I don’t know.

I really don’t know…

Bodie

She’s confused, of course she is. And in reality I’m surprised she said yes, after what I told her. She probably feels like she can trust me just as much as she can trust her own family right now. As much as she can trust the next stranger she meets. But, for some reason, and one I’m thankful for, she’s putting her trust in me, and that’s good. Because when I told her I don’t want to lose her, I meant that. With every breath in my body I meant that.

I watch her as she stands amongst a group of men, possibly business contacts, their leering stares filling me with the urge to knock every single one of them out. She deserves better than this. But she’s good at her job. She ignores the obvious, holds their gaze, and in the end I’m guessing she got what she needed. The handshakes and the smiles and the way they finally see her as a person – an equal – tells me she’s maybe got them thinking differently about her. Not that it matters now. I’m getting her away from this. Away from the lies and the danger.

Away from her family…?

They lied to her.

So did you.

You’re still lying to her.

For now. Not for much longer.

She goes over to her father, and my stomach lurches slightly, is she going to tell him what I told her? About the lies? The truth she needs – deserves to know? I’m a stranger, after all. I’m the one she shouldn’t trust, in reality. So I wait to see what she does, and I breathe a sigh of relief as she indicates the group of men she’s just struck some kind of deal with, and he places a hand on her shoulder and smiles at her. He’s proud of her. And so he should be. She’s ran Nielsen Construction on her own, for years now. It’s her baby. Her hard work. She’s done it all for him, but she has no idea exactly how much of that business her father actually controls. How he uses it as a front for more illegal shit than she could ever imagine, keeping her ignorant was paramount as far as Mikkel Nielsen was concerned.

She hugs him. The man who’s been lying to her.

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