Page 41 of The Bodyguard

Us living on a farm had been at my mother’s request. She wanted the illusion of simplicity even though my father’s empire was worth twice what King Ernst owed the Duke of Burkings.

That money is mine.

“Look what the cat dragged in,” Benjamin sneers. He thinks he’s sitting pretty, surrounded by his beefy bodyguards, all five of them. I don’t need proof that the minute he saw me coming into his office on his ranch, he called in three more of his best men.

He might have trained me to be a killer. To take care of the dirty work of the business but he didn’t make me who I am today. My hatred for him did that.

My father had thought he was leaving us in the care of his brother who would raise me and my sister with love and care. Instead, he drew up false papers, that put him in charge of our trust funds immediately and continued running the business.

He wasn’t kind. Or pleasant. I would have settled for indifferent even. No. He tortured me. Then took it out on my sister when I rebelled, when I retaliated.

When my sister died, ten years ago, I found out something about my uncle that would place a bullet right in the center of his skull.

The fire at my parents' farm wasn’t accidental. The reports were all covered up and I was only twelve years old and powerless.

I didn’t tell him I knew he murdered my parents so he could own the company and the family himself. I let him live thinking he had gotten away with it. I needed to feel that rage, that vengeance. It’s what made me get up every day. It’s what made me go to sleep every night.

Until Princess Sophia.

She turned my world upside down and now she’s given me a reason to end my rage and start my vengeance.

I smile. Because I have reason to smile.

His five bodyguards look at me and I see a bit of nervousness in their eyes. They must know they’re no match for me. No man will ever be a match for me when it comes to protecting my princess.

“What can I do for you, Kayne. You need a job? The king gig up already?”

“I’m here to take back what’s mine.”

Benjamin throws his head back and laughs. His bodyguards snicker, unsure if they’re allowed to laugh or not.

“And what exactly is yours?”

“Everything. But mostly the two hundred billion dollars my father left me.”

The richest men in the world are not the most honest men in the world. They don’t make lists. Their money is hidden, dispersed, untraceable.

Benjamin tries to laugh again. But he lacks gumption this time round.

“And you think I’m just going to give you that money, son?”

“I’m not your son. And yes.”

I’m beginning to lose my patience now.

“I tell you what. I’ll pay you,” he shrugs his shoulder then retrieves a checkbook from a drawer in the desk. “I’ll pay you one hundred thousand dollars if you kill your precious, King Ernst of fucking Strohamden.”

I have no patience left now.

Benjamin has a rule in his house. No guns because he had a couple of kids now and his wife doesn’t want them in the house. I was divested of mine before I entered his property.

That’s all right. It’s been long since I used my hands.

“Boys,” Benjamin says, “I’m done with this. Take the trash out and be fucking grateful I’m keeping you alive out of respect for my brother.”

That’s all I needed. He thought he was safe with his bodybuilders and martial arts fighters surrounding him.

He wasn’t safe from the moment I learned he murdered my parents.

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