The Bodyguard

Chapter 9: The Plan

“Whoever that was, they tried to kill us.”

“But...why? How?”

“See the stoves and the rags around? Propane stoves produce carbon monoxide which is basically a silent killer. It’s a gas that’s colorless and odorless.”

“Why was there smoke then?”

“I’m assuming he was hoping the rags would catch on fire which would burn the place up and if they had failed and they hadn’t caught on fire, the gas would’ve killed us in our sleep.”

My eyes widened in shock. “Wow. If we hadn’t heard that noise, we’d both be dead right now.”

“We aren’t safe here anymore.”

“But where can we go? Is there another safe-house set up?”

“No. I might be able to contact some people but it could take a few days.”

“We don’t have that much time. He could come back! And he could have backup next time!”

“I know. Now that he knows we saw him, he might get bolder.”

He glances in my direction, suddenly hesitant. “Adam showing up last night… that can’t be a coincidence. Someone must have followed him.”

“I don’t think so. Maybe it was someone on the inside. Someone within his inner group who had access to information about my locations. Or someone on his security team was paid off.”

“Also possible.”

“Well, should we tell Adam?”

“No. We can’t tell him where we are until we are 100% safe. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“Okay, so basically we leave without saying a word?”

“It’ll give us the extra time we need. Is there anywhere you know of that Adam would never think to check?”

“No. I really can’t go out much without him.”

“Okay, maybe somewhere he’d think you’d never go?” I pause to think. “I hate to say this because I really don’t want to go.” His eyes light up as he looks at me. “I haven’t spoken to them since my wedding. I doubt they’d let us stay after the way things ended.”

“Who?”

“My parents.”

*One hour later: Despite how relaxing my shower was, it did nothing to get rid of the nerves in my stomach. I haven’t seen them in years. I doubt they even want to see me. I shake my head and try not to think of the past. I need to pick an outfit. Despite not seeing them for so long, I want to make a good impression. I chose a jumpsuit and a jacket. It’s been a while since I wore something like this. Time to go find Warren. I take my suitcase into the living room and I find him waiting for me. “Are we going?”

“There’s one thing left before we go.”

“Which is?”

“We have to trash this place.”

“What?”

“We can’t leave anything traceable. It also has to look like no one’s been here for a while.”

“I hadn’t thought about that. So, where do we begin?”

“I’ll go to the kitchen, so you can decide where you want to go.”

“Just…” He looked at me and scratched the back of his neck.

“Don’t destroy anything valuable, it’s still my house.”

“No breaking the TV?”

“No.”

“What about windows?”

“Do that, I leave you here.”

“Boo, you’re no fun.”

He laughs. “I’m letting you trash this place, of course I’m fun.”

I roll my eyes and go to the bedroom. Hmm, what should I destroy first? My eyes look right at the four curtains hanging around the living room. As I reach for the first one, I tug on it to get a feel for how hard I’ll have to pull. This seems sturdy. I reach up, then yank down hard on the curtain. It comes down with a loud snap, and the pole almost lands on my head! I jump out of the way and hear a laugh from the other room.

Deciding to ignore Warren, I continue on the other ones. This is kind of cool! I didn’t stop until I ripped all four down, crashing on the floor. What should I destroy next? As I stand there looking around, he appears from the kitchen and looks at the damage.

“Impressive.”

“Thanks!”

“I’ve never been too fond of that couch you know. How about you give me a reason to buy a new one?”

“You sure?”

“Definitely. We kind of broke it last night.”

I laughed. “Give me a second.”

He comes back into the kitchen and comes back five seconds later with a large knife and hands it to me. “Have fun.”

“I will.” I take the knife and cut up the material as Warren watches in amusement. Feathers fly around my face whenever I stab the cushion, and when I’m finally done. I kick the couch and it slides across the hardwood floor. By the time the couch has been destroyed, I look up and see him still staring at me.

“What? Impressed by my ninja skills?” I blow a feather away from my mouth as it lands on my lips and brush a few more out of my hair.

“Well? Still think I’m not a threat?” I cockily twirl the knife in the air, pretty surprised it doesn’t clatter to the floor. His gaze is still locked on mine and he’s still silent.

“Nothing to say? It’s okay to admit I’ve scared you into silence. I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Not going to lie, that was one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.”

“Even the strongest of men would’ve cowered when…” I blink.

“What did you say? Cute?!” I narrow my eyes at him. “I didn’t think it was cute. It was impressive. My skills are un-matchable, and you’d do well to remember that.”

He coughs and hides a smirk. “Come here.”

I walk towards him and he crashes his lips onto mine.

“Of course I’ll remember.”

“You’re not taking this seriously.” I couldn’t help but smirk.

“I just agreed with you, gorgeous.”

“A sarcastic agreement.”

He laughed. “I can’t wait to f**k you later.” He whispered seductively in my ear.

I blushed and smiled. “Shall we go babe?” Why is he so damn handsome?! He takes my suitcase in one hand and my hand in the other as we leave the cabin.

Something about being on his motorcycle made me feel carefree than I’ve ever been in my whole life. I can’t imagine not being in his life, I’ve 100% fallen in love with him, he just doesn’t know it yet. As we drove to my parents’ house, I realized this is the stress reliever that I need since my nerves are literally to the roof right now. Once we get there, I look at the house I spent my childhood, and I freeze. “I can’t do it.”

“Charlotte…”

“You don’t get it! They hate me. They told me to never come back. This was an awful idea.” I go to grab the helmet off the seat but his arms wrap around me.

He pulls me back against his chest, leaving me powerless to resist him. “What’s going on? You seemed fine when we left. What happened between you guys? You can tell me.” He said as he looked down at me, cupping my face in his hand.

“I’ve never seen you this worked up. If I’d known it would make you this upset, I would have found us a different place.”

“We had a bad fight.”

“You can talk to me about anything, Charlotte. You know that right?”

I nodded. “I haven’t spoken to them in five years. Five f*****g years! No phone calls, no birthday cards, nothing. They don’t want anything to do with me.”

“Baby, you can do this. Anyone who wouldn’t want you would have to be out of their damn mind.”

I roll my eyes and giggled. “There’s my beautiful smile.”

“Oh stop.”

“Stop making you smile? Never.” We grin and each other, but my smile fades.

“I’m scared.”

“I know you had a rough patch and I’d never judge you. Tell me what happened, please.”

“I know you wouldn’t. I do trust you completely, it’s just hard to even think about.”

“Have you always had a bad relationship with them?”

“Truthfully? No, I had an amazing childhood. They spoiled me rotten.” I gave him a sad smile. “We were all so close. They brought me on so many business trips around the world and sent me to the best private schools in the area. I couldn’t have asked for better parents.” I can see the sympathy on Warren’s face. It wasn’t fake, it was real sympathy for me.

I hate people feeling bad for me, it’s never my intention but he seems to really feel awful. “What happened?”

“It’s quite simple. Adam happened.”

“And they disliked him?”

I shook my head. “They hated him. The thing is, I met him when I was at the top of my A game. A Princeton graduate with a wonderful future. I had a 10 year plan. Join a firm, become a Junior Partner within 3 years then a Senior Partner 4 years after that. But he came in and completely tore my plan into millions of pieces.”

“He didn’t support you?” Warren said, scowling.

“You guessed it. He was very subtle about it. He at first didn’t care.” I scowled, “He started hinting that my workplace didn’t appreciate me. I was filing paperwork instead of dealing with cases. Obviously, you can’t just jump right in and be a lawyer, and you have to pay your duties first, but he made me greedy. Little things that really threw me off my game. I became cocky and arrogant, thinking they weren’t giving me what I deserved.”

“That doesn’t sound like you.”

“It wasn’t. I wanted to earn my place, but he somehow convinced me it should be handed over on a silver platter. He finally got me to quit by asking me to be his campaign manager when he ran for mayor.”

“Why would you give up your dream job for that?”

“He made it seem like it was picture perfect and that he couldn’t win without my assistance or advice. He claimed I could easily return to work after the campaign was over. Why I believed his s**t, I don’t know. No one wants a graduate that isn’t dedicated to becoming a lawyer.”

“And your parents…?”

“They were so mad at me. They demanded I break up with him and beg for my job back.” I feel his hand slip into mine and squeeze his fingers lightly. “They didn’t know Adam and I eloped many months prior. I think that’s what broke their hearts the most”

“You...eloped?” The surprise on his face is evident.

I nod. “They gave me an ultimatum in the end. Either come home with the signed divorced papers, or never come back at all. I called their bluff. I told them that I loved Adam and that he only had my best interest. Now I wish I’d listened to them. Things would have been so different right now. Maybe I’d still be working my way up the ladder, or maybe I’d be making Senior Partner at a prestigious law firm. But there’s no point bothering about the what-ifs.”

Warren raises my chin with his fingers and makes me look up at him. “Your parents will still love you, Charlotte. They never would have demanded that kind of ultimatum otherwise.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t you see it? They were willing to sacrifice their relationship with you to try and get you to see things from their point of view. Obviously, their choice to completely cut you off is a bit much. But then again, we wouldn’t be here right now if that didn’t happen. I never would’ve met you.” He said with a sad look on his face.

“No. We wouldn’t have met. If I could do it all again, I think I’d still make the same choices so that we’d still end up being together regardless and I…” I stopped myself. “I’m sorry, I…”

He kissed me and smiled. “Don’t be sorry babe. I’m glad you feel the same way. Anyways, I think you would have succeeded no matter what path you chose to take. You’re exceptional at things you put your mind to.”

“Thanks, Warren.”

He shifts from one foot to the other other. “So, do you think it’s time?”

I glance over at my parents’ house and shudder. “You should go ring the doorbell.”

“But..”

“I know you’re scared, I get it. But I will be right behind you the entire time.”

I smiled and kissed him.

“It’ll be okay, Charlotte.”

I take a deep breath and follow him toward the house. All of my insecurities come back, making my palms sweat despite the bitter cold.

What if they don’t answer? What if they ask me to leave as soon as they see me? What if they call the cops?

“Don’t overthink it baby. You can do it.”

When we reach the door, my hands are shaking. Warren grabs them and spins me around to face him.

“No matter what happens, this changes nothing. You were able to live five years without them, and you can do it again. And casting you away like that...no parents should ever turn their backs on their children, no matter what the circumstance is.”

“But…”

“No.” He cuts me off with a kiss. “If anything, they should be the ones to beg for your forgiveness.”

“What? Why would they do that when it was all my fault?”

“Because a parent’s love should be unconditional."

"I know."

"It's time, Charlotte."

Taking a deep breath, I slowly rang the doorbell.

As soon as the door opened, my heart felt like it was going to explode.

"Charlotte, is that you?"

"Hey mom."

"You're alive?! We thought you were dead!"

I shook my head. "It's a long story."

"Richard, come down here!"

As soon as my father saw me, he looked more than shocked. "Charlotte?!"

"Hi."

"Oh my god. We thought you were dead!"

"It's a long story."

As he welcomed me into the house, he looked at Warren and scowled.

"Dad, he's with me."

"We saw the news and..."

The door opened and made a loud banging sound as it hit the wall. I noticed Warren reach for his gun, but immediately felt my heart drop as I looked at my best friend. "Charlotte?!"