Page 59 of Close Protection

I start coughing uncontrollably, my battered body spasming. It takes a moment for me to register that someone is calling my name.

‘Daphne,’ a deep voice calls. ‘Daphne, get up!’ It calls again. Louder this time.

I roll over and find Milosh hammering a punch into Teddy’s jaw before kneeing him in the gut. Teddy doubles over, giving Milosh leverage to place him in a headlock. One arm wrapping around his neck and the other behind it, restricting his air.

‘Daphne, baby, look at me,’ Milosh practically shouts. I look over at him, finding his eyes so full of power and darkness it shocks me for a moment. ‘Daphne, I need you to run inside and get Henry.’

‘But the gun!’ I gasp out.

‘Forget about the gun, go and get Henry and your dad.’

‘Bu—’

‘Now, Daphne.’

I get up, stumbling when I’m aggressively reminded of the pain in my stomach, but managing to break into a run.

‘Henry, Daddy!’ I scream as I run back to the house.

‘Henry! Daddy, please!’

Henry and my father rush into the kitchen at the same time, panic-stricken. ‘Daph, what’s wrong? What was that noise?’ Henry asks, bracing me when I almost run into him.

I cry out when his hands clasp my arm where Teddy nicked me with a bullet, bringing their attention to mysleeve which is soaked in blood.

‘Daphne, your arm, what happened?’ my father says, eyes widening in horror.

‘Milosh… Teddy… Amelia…’ I try to catch my breath and speak clearly, but fail. ‘Teddy attacked me and Amelia, Milosh got me away but he—’

‘Stay here,’ Henry demands, cutting me off once he’s heard enough. He and my father run past me into the garden.

‘He has a gun,’ I shout after them, just before I hear a boom.

The gun.

The gun went off.

‘No,’ I whisper to myself, imagining the worst. Terror saturates my body, enveloping my pain. Not caring about the consequences, I run back out to the garden to check what happened.

I can see a fallen body at the far end, but I don’t know whose it is.

Daddy continues running, but Henry stops as soon as he reaches Amelia. He picks her up and carries her back towards the house, his eyes black with rage.

‘Daphne, go back inside,’ he instructs. ‘Now, Daphne,’ he continues when I don’t move.

‘But I have to check Milosh is okay,’ I plead, walking towards them.

‘He’s fine. Now go back inside.’

His tone leaves no room for argument.

We speed-walk through the kitchen and into the snug. Henry places Amelia down on one of the large sofas, planting a light kiss on her head before moving her stray hairs off her face to assess the growing bump. He gives her a full-body once-over before turning to me.

‘Are you okay?’ he asks, worry emanating off him. My lip trembles as the adrenaline wears off and I start to process what just happened. Pain sears through my upper arm and my stomach all at once.

Teddy attacked me.

Teddy, the boy I’ve known my whole life, just threatened me with a gun and shot at me.

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