Page 5 of Not the Bodyguard's Widow
Alex put his gun back together, then fastened it into his holster. He studied the practice gun he’d taken from Kimberly. Candace must have left it here after one of her self-defense lessons. Good thing he’d found Kimberly and not the local security team. They might not have realized they were not in danger and taken the first shot. Coincidence or divine intervention? Alex assumed the latter. They could have ruined three lives with a real bullet.
“You never told me why the gun didn’t shoot right.” Kimberly watched him from halfway down the spiral staircase.
He lifted the gun, aimed at a vase on the table, and pulled the trigger. A red laser beam shot out, accompanied by a pop. “It is one of Hastings’s training guns. Same weight and recoil as a real gun, but no damage.”
“So I laser-tagged you.”
“If you hadn’t missed, you would have.”
“Then why did you tackle me if you knew it wasn’t real?”
He rubbed the side of the gun. “I wasn’t positive it was ours until you shot it. I was already in motion.”
“Oh.” Kimberly reached the bottom of the stairs. “Can we talk in the kitchen? I was about to make myself some lunch when you pulled up.”
In the kitchen, she opened several cupboards and the freezer. “Sorry, it doesn’t look like I have more than the single bag of food I purchased last night at the convenience store. There are some old fish sticks and spices.” She reached in the back of the cupboard. “Oh, and a brownie mix—but no eggs.”
“Don’t worry about me.” Alex took a seat at the table.
After filling two glasses with water and setting them on the table, Kimberly pulled out a small quarter of cheese, a bag of baby carrots, and a bagel and placed them on a plate. Alex made a mental note to check the food situation before he left.
“Don’t look at my plate that way.” Kimberly sat across from him.
“What way?”
“Like you wonder how I will survive.” She bit into a carrot.
“I was going to make sure you had more groceries.” Didn’t pregnant women eat for two? No wonder she hardly showed at more than halfway through her pregnancy. His frame of reference could be off, though. One baby took up less room than the three his sister Abbie was expecting.
“I’d planned on going out today until I realized leaving would set off the alarm system. I found some emergency food in the tornado shelter and figured I had enough nutrients for a week. If I didn’t reach Candace by then, I was going to risk calling her husband’s office.” She broke off part of the bagel.
Alex leaned back, hoping his relaxed posture would help set Kimberly at ease. “You are an unknown or, rather, an uncleared caller. As long as you refuse to leave a voicemail, the network will block your call. Candace never even sees the unknown-caller calls.”
“Oh, that explains it. This is my second burner. I dumped the last one when I landed in Indianapolis.”
“I gather you are hiding from your father-in-law and you believe your life is in danger. Will you fill me in on the rest?”
Kimberly stiffened and stuck a carrot in her mouth.
Wrong tactic. He tried another route. “Why don’t I tell you about me while you’re eating?”
The question garnered a single nod.
“As I told you, my name is Mr. Alexander, but my friends know me as Alex Hastings. Candace calls me by my first name because we were friends first...” There wasn’t a good way to explain. Anyone who knew Candace well would know she didn’t put up with stuffiness for long.
“And she is Candace.”
“The reason I go by Mr. Alexander is my brothers and I all work for our father at Hastings Security. Five “Mr. Hastings” got confusing fast, so my father is Mr. Hastings, then there are Mr. Adam, Mr. Alan, Mr. Andrew, and me. When my sister, Abbie, worked with us, she was Miss Hastings.”
Kimberly turned the bagel over and over.
Alex waved at her plate. “Keep eating. Yes, my mother regrets allAnames now and blames it on pregnancy brain. And the boys are alphabetical by age. I think Mom planned on more girls so she started out with Abigail. My sister is expecting triplets, and not only has she sworn not to name them with rhyming names, she has promised no alliteration orAnames. The four of us would threaten her husband to make sure it sticks, but that would cause other problems as he is Preston Harmon.”
Kimberly’s eyes widened. “Your sister is the bodyguard who married the media mogul? Is that working for her? Please tell me she didn’t marry for money.”
“I have photos.” Alex opened his photo gallery. “She seems thrilled to be with him, and they are so over-the-top in love it’s sickening. Money was actually not in his favor. Like any bodyguard, Abbie has seen the problems that come with it.” He swiped past a photo the day of the impromptu baby shower and another from last Sunday’s family dinner. There were several more of her showing off her times-three baby bump.
“She looks happy. You are sure it’s real?”
