Bodyguards Read Online Free Page A

disappear into one of his
pockets.
    “Not safe?” she repeated, feeling
a little numb.
    “You will be, but not here. We
have to go.”
    He curled an arm behind her back
and steered her away while barely touching her. In just moments they were out
of the park.
    Vivien couldn’t stop shaking. She
wrapped her arms around herself, but it brought her no comfort. She wished Brad
would talk to her, reassure her, explain what had happened—or say anything,
really. Instead, he led her onward, his hand brushing against her back without
ever settling there, urging her forward whenever she started to slow down.
    “What...what’s going on?” she
finally managed to ask. “Who were those guys? Why do you have knives?”
    “I carry knives for occasions such
as this one. Please hurry. We need to get you inside.”
    The loop of images going through
her mind suddenly stopped on that first snapshot: the black-clad man falling to
the ground with a knife in his chest. She stilled, unable to take one more
step, and stared at Brad with wide eyes.
    “You killed a man,” she breathed,
her disbelief shattering in front of simple facts.
    Brad considered her with eyes that
had never seemed so cold before. “Two. They were going to take you, so I killed
them. I will do it again any time I have to, this I swear to you. Now please, I
need to get you to safety.”
    His arm pressed across her back,
pushing lightly until she started to walk again.
    Should she run? Vivien couldn’t
decide if she ought to try. Brad would catch her easily if she did, but there
were a few people on the street, cars driving by, houses where she could ask
for help. Was it worth taking the risk?
    She eyed the knives at his waist.
He’d proved that he knew how to use those and had no qualms in drawing blood.
What chance did she have when she had no weapon of her own?
    And still, even after witnessing
his fight, Vivien could hardly believe that Brad could or would hurt anyone,
let alone her. Could it have been a prank? Fake blood, retractable blades, some
elaborate act... The university had a very active role-playing group; she’d seen
them on campus before, wearing realistic helmets and carrying swords as though
they had been on their way to kill a dragon rather than off to attend a
chemistry lecture. But why here, why now, why involve her?
    Before she could make up her mind
to run, it was already too late. They had reached an apartment building, and
Brad guided her to a first-floor apartment. He reached to open the door, and as
she watched his wrist when he turned the key in the lock, she realized it was
all even worse than she had thought.
    The skin on the inside of his
wrist was pale and clean, free of any tattoo.
    It wasn’t Brad. This man—this
killer—had Brad’s face and voice, but he wasn’t—couldn’t be—Brad. Were they
brothers? Twins? Or was it only a mask? An extraordinary coincidence?
    It didn’t matter.
    She jerked back, finally knowing
what she had to do, if not what was going on. The only reason she had followed
this man was because she had thought she knew him, and part of her had believed
him when he said he had been protecting her. But if he wasn’t Brad, how could
she believe anything he said?
    She turned around, finally ready
to escape, and gasped when she almost ran straight into Brad. Or was it someone
else who only looked like Brad? Needing to know, she took hold of his hand and
turned his wrist upward. The familiar tattoo gleamed under the hallway lights.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
    Brad’s gaze flew between Vivien
and his doppelganger.
    “What happened?”
    “Inside,” the other man grunted,
at the same time as Vivien said, “Help me! He killed two men!”
    Brad’s reaction was nothing Vivien
could have expected. His hand twisted in Vivien’s grip so that he captured hers
and pulled her in through the open door.
    “Only two?” he asked the other
man. “Are there more coming?”
    Never before had the sound of a
closing