Page 15 of The Bodyguard

“Are you fucking the king’s daughter?”

The princess gasps at his words, but I think it’s more because she never imagined the man she knew could speak this way. Her uncle fooled her and the rest of the royal family. Maybe the reason he's never liked me much is because he's never fooled me.

I don’t answer. He walks around to the princess. He cups her face. A man moves in behind her and shoves a gun into her side. He looks at me when he does that. He would pull that trigger without much encouragement.

“Sweet little Sophia,” Johnsen says.

Her lips quiver. I want to smash his head into a tree spiked with rusting nails.

I clench my fists. He knows he doesn’t have to explain the situation to me. One single attempt at retaliation, and the bastard carrying the iPad, with a live video link to the playroom in the palace, will give that one-word code: to pull the trigger on the little girl. Johnsen has covered his bases.

The princess knows this too. She figured it out.

Fuck.

I force myself to remain where I am. I’m their biggest threat, and his men are warier around me.

Johnsen’s hand creeps from her face into her hair. He pulls, and she fights not to let tears spring to her eyes. I imagine all the ways I’m going to kill him.

“Sweet, stupid Sophia. Do you think I was on your side all this time? All I want is to be queen, Uncle Neil,” he mimics in a female voice. “All I want is to put Strohamden back on the map where it belongs,” he continues mimicking. “And I listened to you. And I championed you. But you know what? I knew you were never going to be queen. Apart from it going against tradition to have a ruling queen, a tradition your stupid father is willing to follow because it’s expected of him—he won’t change his mind by the way—he would rather slit his throat than be the man responsible for putting a queen as head of state of Strohamden.”

Tears roll down her face now at those words. I decide I’m not going to kill him. That would be too easy on him.

“But it’s not even that,” Johnsen says. “It’s because if you become queen, I know you could do all the things you said you would have. You would have taken Strohamden back and made it the country it once was before all the debt it has accrued.

“But you see, this is my mastermind plan. The duke of Burkings' son is the only eligible candidate to be king of Strohamden apparently. And if you’re… 'tainted' in any way, and there’s evidence to support it, the duke will not allow this marriage. Your father must retire, and that means I will be the only viable candidate left to become king. I’m the only available male that could stand a chance. Don’t for a minute think I haven’t thought this out for years and years. While I’m here with you, and my girl is with Lia, your father is, at the moment, also watching the video of a gun pointed subtly at his youngest daughter. All he must do is make me his successor and we all win.”

Johnsen laughs, proud of himself.

“Now,” he says, pulling even harder at her hair. “Are you still a fucking virgin, or did the bodyguard already stain you with his cock?”

She doesn’t answer. I can see the defiance in her eyes.

“It’s no problem for me. For the purposes of the duke, to leave him with no doubt that you’re something he doesn’t want for his son, 'an unclean slut,' to be precise—his words, not mine—one of the men will happily supply the footage. I know you haven’t fucked her, Langley. You won’t. But you see, I wanted to twist the screws a bit more. I wanted your father to know that his favorite, most trusted man is the same man who has taken his daughter's precious virginity. Now, I’m going to ask you again, did you fuck her?”

He’s asking me this time.

“No,” I say. The thought of another man touching her, fucking breathing the same air she does, turns my gut and brings out the psycho in me. The parts of me my uncle said I was born with, and that’s why I would make the perfect killing machine for the family.

But I can’t make a mistake.

From what I’ve seen of the nanny with the little girl, I don’t doubt she’ll pull the trigger without feeling, when given the command. I also know these men would die for the cause. And they would take both the princesses down with them. I won’t fucking risk their lives.

“Was that so hard?” Johnsen seems too pleased with himself. He puffs his chest out and smiles broadly. “Perfect.” He strolls over to the tallest and biggest man in the room. “Alonsen? As we discussed, comrade, this is our moment where we take everything, where we let the monarch fuck itself, and then we give it back to the people of Strohamden, but I have to be at its head for that to happen. You know what to do, brother.”

With that, Johnsen steps out of the cabin. He doesn’t even look back.

The atmosphere changes. They’re in charge now.

Two men come to me, their guns at my head. The man with the princess grips her arms and throws her onto the sofa, on her back.

“You heard the boss.”

I move forward, not taking my eyes off the kid with the iPad. He shuffles about. He seems too young, trying to act brave, but I can smell his fear.

Using their guns, they gesture I climb on top of her.

She’s terrified. Trembling so hard, her whole body is shaking.

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