Page 6 of The Bodyguard Undone

Minutes tick over. I’ve already scanned the area for cameras and found two on the walls.

The circular room has two arched entrances on either side of me. My heart soars in love and relief when I take in the sight of Kayne coming through one of the entrances.

He’s alive, but beyond that my brain registers the ball gag in his mouth, the metal cuffs binding his wrists together, the chains wrapped around his arms to restrain him further, the cuffs at his ankles too.

The chair I was seated on falls back behind me as I run toward him.

Kayne.

His gaze, those blue eyes of his glide over every inch of me. He’s looking to see if I’m hurt. He’s fixated on the scratches on my shoulders and arms but his eyes turn a stormy, livid blue when he sees the metal band around my neck as if he knows what that thing does to me.

I’m so close to touching him, but I feel the buzz around my throat. My body already rigidifies because it knows what to expect. I cry out before I can stop myself as the electric shock ravages my insides again and I just barely hold onto the table to stop myself from falling to the floor yet again.

All I can see is Kayne, furious and rattling the chains to be free. The murderous intent in his eye scares even me. But then I follow his gaze.

I stagger backward, my body already overly taxed. My eyes unbelieving of the sight before me. From the archway of the entrance at the other side of the room enters the last person I expect to see. The unlikeliest. Yet… the proof is irrefutable and I’m left baffled.

“Your highness,” he says. His voice regurgitates the sickening feeling in my stomach. I’m breathing heavily, heaving, in pain, and furious at the same time.

For one tiny moment, I want to run to him and beg him to help me release Kayne, to help save us from the madman who has captured us.

But my intuition keeps me grounded where I am. Away from him. He is the last person I expect to see and that makes him infinitely more dangerous.

The man I was supposed to marry, a sick smile now coating his face. The man who was meant to become king of Strohamden if Kayne didn’t save me and my kingdom. A man I misjudged as being kind and understanding.

Roger Thompson, the Duke of Burkings is staring me down as if he’s won.

Chapter Three

Sophia

I shake my head. Maybe I’m jumping to the wrong conclusions too quickly. But then I cast my glance on Kayne’s face and I know I haven’t assumed the wrong thing.

“Together at last.” Roger walks further into the room. I take a step back, closer to Kayne.

“What is going on, Roger?” I demand my voice imperial because he is nothing but inferior to me. I have to maintain my power or the sinking truth will devastate me beyond measure.

“I see you are fully recovered, Your Highness,” he says instead. “It is always such a lovely pleasure to see you in person. Your beauty transcends and makes servants of us mere men.” He reaches to take my hand but I snatch it away before he can touch me.

The initial rage that splashes across his face at my undisguised slight of him touching me vanishes instantly, but his face remains an ugly red.

I’m breathing so heavily my chest hurts. My body is slowly recovering from the blitzes of electrical power that burned through my skin.

“I demand to know what’s going on here.”

“That’s not the way I wanted to be greeted, Your Highness. I would have preferred a thank you for saving your life.”

“What do you mean?”

I demand but inside of me, more memories surface. I’m being picked up and hauled onto a stretcher. Paramedics who laughed at me. An ambulance. But I never make it to the hospital. Or any other medical facility.

There’s nothing innocent about the situation, this is not how you save someone’s life. I wouldn’t be in this cold room, wouldn’t be in a place I didn’t know. Kayne wouldn't be restrained the way he is. I would be with Kayne. He wouldn’t have left my side. No. This is evil. The man standing before me is evil.

“I saved your life. And the life of your bodyguard over there. So please do thank me. Allow me to fill in the gaps for you.” He turns and takes a seat at the table.

“Come,” he says. “Sit.”

I refuse to move. His fingers play over his watch and suddenly I know it’s also the remote to the collar on my neck. I glance at Kayne but then something even more horrific happens.

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