Page 19 of Close Protection

‘You have their insignia on your neck. Maybe be a little more discreet with your tattoos next time.’

I let go of his wrist, stand back up, then deliver a swift blow to his stomach before leaning down with a hand on each arm of the chair.

‘Now. I’m going to ask again. What does Daveeno want with George?’

He coughs and splutters for a moment, so I step back and wait for him to gather himself. After a minute, he swallows then looks directly at George.

‘You have something they want.’ He shrugs. ‘And they’ll stop at nothing to get it. Including hurting your daughter. They’ve taken your wife away from you so they have no problem dealing with the girl as well.’

‘What do they want?’ George seethes.

Stefan doesn’t answer. He just smiles. ‘Wouldn’t you like to know.’

George storms past me and punches Stefan in the jaw. ‘What. Do. They. Want.’

Stefan smiles, his mouth full of blood. ‘I’ll let you find that out by yourself.’

Henry’s radio buzzes and one of the security men calls in. ‘Sir, I believe Interpol and the NCA have arrived.’

Stefan laughs. ‘Looks like you’re out of time, boys.’

‘Mr Mikelson, I assure you, this was a walk in the park compared to where you’re going. I suggest you wipe that smile off your face because by tomorrow you’ll be wishing we’d killed you.’

9Daphne

‘Mr Petrov, in the nicest way possible, get out.’

‘No.’

I hear him walk across my room and pull open the heavy curtains, causing soft beams of light to seep in through my eye mask.

In the last forty-five minutes I’ve been greeted by the dreadful noise of an alarm I don’t possess, waking me up at 4:30 a.m. in the morning. Said alarm then proceeded to go off every five minutes until I unplugged it. Then, Amelia came in and tried to wake me up. And now I have a grumpy bodyguard invading my personal space.

‘Up.’ Milosh says as he pulls my eye mask from my face.

‘Please explain to me why I need to get up at –’ I look over to my personal clock that’s set for the reasonable time of 6:30 a.m. – ‘five-fifteen in the morning?’

‘You said you wanted to learn self-defence.’

‘I do, but not at five-fifteen in the morning.’

‘Now or never, Miss Green,’ he starts, heading towards the door. ‘Be outside in sixteen minutes,’ he finishes, before promptly walking out of my room.

‘All right, Troy Bolton, calm down,’ I mumble, dragging myself out of bed to throw on some clothes.

‘What are you wearing?’ Milosh asks, looking vaguely disgusted as I walk out of the back door onto the patio, the crisp summer morning air greeting me instantly.

‘All my other coats are at the dry cleaner,’ I reply, looking down at myself. I fully understand his reaction. It’s abnormally cold today so on top of my light-pink leggings with a matching short-sleeve top, I’m wearing a long brown fur coat. Meanwhile, Milosh is wearing black joggers, a black hoodie and a black puffer coat.

‘How exactly do you suppose you’re going to train wearing that?’ Milosh asks, and to be honest that is a very fair question. I really hadn’t thought that far ahead when I pulled this on. I just knew I was cold and this was all I could find quickly.

‘You know what, Mr Petrov? I really don’t know,’ I sigh, looking at him. ‘Doyouhave any suggestions?’

He stares at me blankly for a moment before proceedingto shed his puffer coat, throwing it onto the chair with deft precision, then pulling off his hoodie in one swift motion. It may have been swift, but time stood still when his T-shirt lifted ever so slightly and I caught sight of a sliver of abs.

‘Take off the coat, and put this on,’ he says, holding his hoodie out to me. His bewitching green irises track my every move as I slip off the coat and follow his instructions. The hoodie completely drowns me, engulfing me with that strong, clean, masculine scent of his. It’s huge, but offers a lot more mobility compared to my coat.

He nods his approval before turning around to grab something off the patio table. ‘I’m gonna teach you the basics of self-defence. We’ll study boxing, weapons training and Muay Thai to establish a base, then we’ll build from there. Until this… situation with your father is sorted out we’ll meet every morning and train together for a couple of hours.’

---