Page 83 of The Bodyguard

“He’ll be okay. I can still see him from here.” She looks up, and her eyes lock on mine. “He’s still breathing. Thanks to you.”

“I did what I had to do.”

“You saved his life.”

“I think that was mainly down to man-mountain back there.”

She smiles a barely there smile and crosses her arms tighter against herself. And I should tell her that her father isn’t out of the woods yet, all that’s happened here is a quick patch-up job so we could move him without doing him too much more harm. He’s been shot. That’s not something you recover from in a couple of hours.

“I’m glad you were there.”

I want to reach out and take her hand; remind her, again, that I came because I love her, I want a life with her, but the timing’s wrong.

“What’s going to happen to Novak?” She finally lets her arms drop, clasping her hands together in her lap, her eyes scanning the plane but, apart from the pilots and one member of cabin crew, there’s only me, her and Nielsen here.

“They’re sorting that out.”

She looks at me. Right at me. And her expression hardens. “What does that actually mean? And who are “they”?”

“It means he isn’t a problem anymore, and “they” are the people I used to work for. Contacts who owed me, I helped them finish a job that needed to end.”

“I hate that you had to be one of them.” She says the words so quietly I can barely make them out. And she’s shifted her gaze again, it’s almost as if she isn’t really talking to me. She’s talking to herself. Maybe she didn’t even mean to say those words out loud, maybe she was just thinking them. Maybe…

“I’m sorry. For everything.”

Her gaze locks back on mine. “I know.” She shrugs. “Like I said, I’m glad you were there.”

She drops her head, and takes a breath, I can see her shoulders rise and then fall before she looks back up at me. And there’s so much shit going on in my head right now, there really is. So much fucking shit.

“He wasn’t dead, when we left him.”

That isn’t a question, but it feels like she wants it to be one. And I’m not altogether sure what answer she wants me to give. Novakwasn’tdead when we left him, but something was wrong.

“Will he die?”

“I don’t know, Lena.” And that’s true. I don’t. I don’t know anything, yet. “Something wasn’t right, when we left him. It looked like he could’ve been having a heart attack, I wasn’t really paying all that much attention, I just wanted you and your father out of there. That’s all I was concentrating on.”

“Nobody’s told you? Whether he’s dead or alive?”

“Do you care either way?”

I’m aware that the tone of my voice may have been a little harsher than I meant it to be, and I sigh quietly, shaking my head.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that, I just – I know that this has been a real head-fuck for you, but Novak… you’re better off without him, Lena. Everyone is better off without men like that.”

She drops her head, and stays silent for a moment or two. And I watch as she wrings her hands together, and I hate what this has done to her. I hate it.

“What will they do to him?” Her eyes meet mine, and I can see a world of pain and confusion in hers. “If he’s still alive, what will they do to him?”

“He’s a threat, to a lot of people. He’ll be dealt with.”

“How?”

“You don’t need to know that.”

“Don’tneedto know, or can’t know.”

“Both.”

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