Page 36 of Close Protection

‘Okay,’ is all I can reply as my mind works a mile a minute to process what he’s saying.

‘Daphne, this is important. I need you to listen to me, okay?’ He cups the side of my head, bringing my attention back to him. ‘Look down, hold my hand and walk fast. No English and no names. Yes?’

‘Yes… Yeah, okay.’ I clear my throat and properly refocus. I would prefer to get out of this mall alive so now’s definitely not the time to lose focus. He breaks the security tags off the clothes, before piecing them back together and placing them in the tote bag on the floor, so the alarm won’t sound. ‘Wait, what about our clothes and all the stuff I bought earlier?’

‘We need to leave them here.’

‘Oh, okay.’ I’m not too sure why I’m sad. I know Daddy will buy them back for me but it just feels like a shame.

‘We’ll get everything back, okay?’ Milosh’s voice isoddly comforting and I start to feel at ease, giving him a small nod. ‘All right, let’s go.’ He looks back down at his phone. ‘Henry’s five minutes away.’ He takes my hand in his and guides me through the store, exiting via the children’s section, just to be safe. With both of us wearing glasses, our new outfits and my hair down, we’re pretty hard to recognize. Apart from the fact that we’re a pretty distinctive bulky white guy and dainty black girl combo. And the fact I’ve still got my very pink sandals on with my very dull, very stolen outfit doesn’t help. Keeping up with Milosh’s long strides is okay at first, but the faster he moves the more I have to work sustain his pace.

‘Mi…’ I stop, remembering what he told me about names. ‘Rodnoj,’ I say instead, gaining Milosh’s immediate attention. ‘Slishkom bystro.’ I smile weakly as he slows down a little, still walking with purpose but at a more manageable speed. ‘Spasibo.’ He turns to look at me and gives me a small lopsided smile, and I think it’s the first time I’ve seen him properly smile. I’ve never used the nickname darling in Russian before, but if it results in smiles like that I’d happily do it over and over again. I need more. The way his lips tip up, light crinkles gathering around his eyes, makes me want to stretch up and kiss him again.

Whoa.

Nope.

Not doing that.

That kiss was an act. It wasn’t real, it was just a diversion, but goodness was it one heck of a show. I shake off my thoughts and focus, but just as I do, someone bumps into me. If it weren’t for Milosh grabbing me quickly I would have ended up on the floor.

‘Sorry, miss,’ the culprit says, but he’s not looking at me. He’s looking at my feet. My sandals, to be exact. Milosh and I seem to realize at the same time because, after a quick nod, we both start picking up speed again.

‘He’s following us,’ Milosh says quietly, spotting the guy’s reflection in a shop window.

‘We need to lose him quickly,’ he continues, pulling me through another shop and exiting out the other side, momentarily losing the man behind us. He hauls me into a small maintenance room at the side of the shop, leaving the light off. We stay completely silent for a moment, the only sound coming from the rise and fall of our chests as we catch our breath.

‘The emergency exit is about thirty seconds away.’ This close, I can feel his warm breath caressing my skin, bringing me back to the kiss that happened only moments past but somehow feels like a lifetime ago. So much has happened since we entered the mall, my brain is working overtime trying to place everything. ‘We’re gonna waithere a moment then we’re gonna run. And I need you to really run, okay baby?’

‘Mm hmm.’

He grabs my hand. ‘Good girl.’

I have no time to process what just came out of his mouth because he immediately yanks open the door, the light outside almost blinding me with its brightness, and starts to run. Well, it’s more like a jog for him, but I’m running – and that’s not an easy feat in sandals. We reach the exit and emerge into a corridor, closing the door behind us. Milosh looks around and finds a discarded construction pipe on the floor, shoving it between the handles to secure the door.

Fire hazard? Yes.

Does he care? Not in the slightest, apparently.

He takes my hand again, at the same time pulling out his phone, before guiding me down the corridor that leads out onto the road. We pick up our pace again as we emerge onto the street, where Henry’s car is now in view.

‘Let’s go,’ Milosh says, opening the door to the back seat for me, before sliding in next to me.

‘Daphne, sweetie, why is it that I can’t leave you alone for a second without something happening?’ Henry says from the front as he performs a quick U-turn, driving in the complete opposite direction to the house.

‘Honestly, Henry, I don’t know,’ is all I can muster before I switch off as Milosh begins to explain what just happened. I can feel my adrenaline crashing as I close my eyes and try to steady my breathing. The combination of Milosh’s deep, almost melodic voice and the soft hum of the engine lulls me to sleep before I can resist.

17Daphne

It always starts the same.

I’m running down the stairs to the basement, trying to avoid being caught up past my bedtime. I head into the pantry in the prep kitchen on a mission to find my favorite late-night snack, Manzanilla olives with crushed peppercorn and seasalt crisps.

I drag over a footstool, feeling unusually short, and reach up to retrieve the jar. Once I have it secured I make for the crisps but as I grab them with my left hand, the olives in my right, I am abruptly stopped by a loud thud echoing through the prep room.

Clasping the jar to my chest, I wait in anticipation for the owner of those footsteps to find me.

When a few moments pass, with my chest still heaving, I hear another thud, harder yet further away this time. Jumping off the stool I set the olives down on the counterand go to hide behind the door. I don’t know how long I stay there, but once it sounds like the coast is clear I slowly open the door and make my way to the stairs. The renovation team was here earlier in the day, I think, maybe it was some of their tools that fell, causing the thuds?

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