Page 95 of The Bodyguard

“About what?” I ask, crossing my arms. Defensive stance. I’m so on my guard now.

“About Jonah.”

I frown. And just hearing his name makes my stomach give an all-too-familiar jolt, one I’ve been trying to pretend doesn’t happen anymore, but it does. More often than it should. More often than I want it to.

“Jonah?”

“Can we get out of the hallway?”

I sigh quietly, and we walk through into the kitchen.

“Nice place you’ve got here,” Ollie remarks as he stands in the centre of my kitchen and spins around on his heels, taking in the views.

“Yeah. You’ve kind of ruined it for me now, though.”

He looks at me, and there’s more than a hint of sympathy in his expression. “Dad’s scared, Lena.”

“Dad’s never scared.”

“He’s scared of losingyou. You threatened to cut yourself off from this family…”

“I didn’tthreatenanything, Ollie. I walked away.”

He raises an eyebrow, and I roll my eyes, throw my head back, and sigh again, a little more loudly this time.

“You can’t walk away, kiddo. Not really. You can distance yourself, and he’s kind of okay with that, you know? Distancing yourself isn’t the same as walking away.”

“Why didn’t he come here and tell me this himself?”

“Because he doesn’t actually know I’m here.”

It’s my turn to raise an eyebrow. “Okay, so, he knowsI’mhere, but he has no idea where you are?”

Ollie shrugs. “Well, he might do now, but he doesn’t really have a reason to keep tabs on me.”

“You see, that’s the reason I need to get away from him…”

“From him, or the entire family?”

I walk over to the window, the one that looks out over the harbour and the street below, and I focus on the people out for a late afternoon stroll, mostly tourists, I’m guessing. “I don’t know anymore.” I turn around and look at my brother, shrugging. “I don’t know. And what does Jonah have to do with any of this?”

“He went to see him. Dad. He went to see Jonah. Tracked him down in Sweden, had a word with him, about you…”

“What?”

Is he fucking serious?

“He told him you were here, on Ibiza. He asked him to come over here, and talk to you. He thinks that by allowing you and Jonah to be together, then you’ll calm down…”

“I’m sorry, what the fuckisthis? And you really can’t see why I need to step back from all of you?”

“Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. Like I said, I’m only giving you a heads-up.”

“So, Jonah’s actually coming? Here?”

Ollie checks his watch. “His plane landed an hour ago. Which means he’ll be on his way pretty soon, I’m guessing.”

“Dad told him where I was?” It’s a rhetorical question, of course, Ollie just told me he did. I just don’t know what else to say.

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