The Bodyguard

Memories

Chapter 6

"You can never trust the human mind anyway. It's a death trap." - Anthony Hopkins

•••

Chapter 6 - Memories

Stella's POV

"Alright everyone. Great one today. Get some rest, tomorrow is off since me and Lucas got a busy schedule. Enjoy your weekend" John said wrapping up the session.

Lucas didn't join us today. He was too busy apparently. It was a bittersweet thing.

The sweet part was enjoying a session without that douche being up my ass all the time, but the bitter part was a session without that douche being up my ass all the time.

It felt kind of empty without him here today. Otherwise it went quite well if we don't consider Kyle.

He seems to have some sort of problem with me. Whenever he sees me and Lucas or John talking he has to throw some kind of unnecessary comment as if I were doing something wrong with one of them.

He really seems to love himself quite a lot, which is quite weird since there isn't that much to love.

He is an asshole.

He sucks at this. I mean for heaven’s sake it took me less than 20 seconds to bring him down & he lacks so much communication skill, it's near nonexistent.

So far it seemed as if me, Chris, and Michael were looking the best. Speaking of Chris, me and Becca are going to have dinner with him, Hugo, and Hugo's fiancé Michaela, tonight. I had to quickly head home and get ready.

"I'll see you tonight yeah?" Chris said as we were making our way out.

"Yeah absolutely. Hugo still doesn't know does he?"

"Not yet. I think it would be fun for him to know as it happens" He said as I nodded in agreement. Oh, how I missed that dude.

"Drive safely" he said as we arrived at the cars.

"You too. See you tonight" I said getting in and and driving away.

The rest of the night has one word that I can use to describe it.

Tears.

Tears from the shock, tears from happiness, tears from laughing so hard. But just tears all around.

Chris and Becca made sure to take all the pictures they could when we got into the restaurant and I stood behind a clueless Hugo.

The rest of it was honestly a blur, probably because of the tears. But I remember me & Hugo expressing how crazy it is to meet again at least 100 more times throughout the night.

"Holy s**t it's so crazy seeing you again" Hugo said hugging me once more making me smile before we sat down.

"I know. It's been so long dude. How's it going?"

"Pretty good. Got myself this pretty lady to spend the rest of my life with" Hugo spoke taking his fiancés hand and kissing her making me smile.

"Oh my gosh you should have seen him in the army" I spoke.

"Oh, please tell me. He never shares those stories" Michaela said making me so happy that she isn't acting jealous. Hugo did well.

"Alright so my earliest memory of him is one time we were doing a 48h drill and Hugo was exhausted at like hour 30 so he thought he could sleep, and our squad leader wouldn't notice. So, he made this little tent and hid in it during one of the drills. The squad leader obviously noticed that someone was missing cause those squads usually consist of 9 soldiers, so he asked everyone to stand by & be quite. Not even 20 seconds later you could hear Hugo snoring from 20 freaking meters away-"

"Stella?"

I looked up immediately at the sudden voice from beside me to see John here with two other men. Lucas and..

"David?"

"The Stella Smith" The older man said from besides them making me immediately stand up & hug him.

Meet David Topal.

My father’s lawyer and close friend before he passed away. He always helped our family, especially when dad got sick and passed away when me and my brother, Damon were just 18.

"Oh, what a small world!" He said hugging me back.

"David this couldn't have been a better time"

"I don't know if I should be pleased or scared by that statement" he said making me chuckle.

"Damon is coming back home soon" I said, and his face immediately turned into a serious business face.

"When?"

"Still not sure. Lost the contact with him since.. 2010" I said, remembering when he came home from his Afghanistan tour back then.

2009-2010 were the most violent years of fighting during the whole war. I was at home by then, but Damon had started his service late and decided to go for 8 years total, so he was deployed in Afghanistan. I remember when he came back from that tour, the slightest bang he would hear would make him very alert. To the point where he couldn't enjoy normal everyday things in life without his mind racing and remembering the war.

Who could blame him? He saw his soldiers get blasted into pieces at one point.

He himself got a nasty burn too, yet the worst part was the survivor’s guilt. The fact that he was the squad leader at the time and lost soldiers from his own squad made him sign up for even more tours hoping to lose the survival part...

Dad knew he didn't have much time left once we were signing up to join the army, so he wrote a will. However, he wanted us to wait until we both finished our time in the military since he knew we both wanted to enlist. He didn't think that we would need anything before that time since he thought that mom would still be alive. But when mom was found dead and we were 21, we barley had enough money to cover for her funeral. No one thought that something would happen to her. We took her being with us for granted and there was nothing we could do when she was gone.

Now however that Damon is almost home again we will have the ability to access dad's will and inherit whatever he left us.

"I'll try pulling some strings to find out when. You enjoy the rest of your dinner. I can get your contact information from Lucas or John" he said as I smiled before hugging him again.

"Enjoy your night" John said giving me a quick hug as David & Lucas already made their way to their table.

"Stella? Made your mind up for what you're gonna order?" Becca said from beside me as the waiter stood beside our table taking everyone's orders.

"I'll just take the steak. Medium rare please"

"What would you like to drink with that ma'am?"

"Just water, thanks"

"I'm sorry. That was my boss & colleague" I apologized, and Michaela looked kind of starstruck.

"You work for Lucas Bruno?" She whispered surprised.

"No.. well yes. Technically. Not really. I'm a bodyguard. He likes to test out the people before he hires them so I'm still in the testing process" I explained.

"That's freakin amazing!" She said making me smile at how excited she seemed.

"Stella that's awesome. I'm glad you found a line of work that you're interested in" Hugo said.

"Thank you! Me too honestly" I replied but looked at Chris confused, however.

Did they not know about this?

I mean surely he must have told them. Why wouldn't he..?

Chris gave me a look while slightly shaking his head making me understand that whatever he thought I was going to say, I shouldn't say it now.

I nodded a bit annoyed hoping that he'd explain later.

"I'll just take a quick trip to the bathroom. Excuse me" I said as Chris stood up too.

"I'll actually also do that before our food arrives" he said and followed me. It was a tiny bit crowded in the restaurant, so he placed his hand on my back as we made our way to a little corner near the bathrooms.

"Why haven't you told them about the job?" I asked as soon as I made sure that no one was around.

"It doesn't feel right.."

"What do you mean it doesn't feel right?"

"Stella has it never crossed your mind why Lucas, a young billionaire needs this protection all of the sudden?" Chris asked.

"Of course, it has. It still doesn't make sense why you aren't telling anyone about the job though"

"Cause something feels wrong. What if this is bigger than me and you? We don't know how he got to where he is today and what he had to do to even get here. I don't want to put Hugo and anyone close to me or him at risk by telling them information that won't matter to them" he whispered making sure to look around meanwhile.

"Look I agree about that part, but do you really think it could be something that big? Don't you think Hugo would be able to take care of himself even if something would happen?" I asked kind of agreeing but also afraid that we would be just exaggerating. Overthinking never did me any good in the past.. so why should it now? The normal life wasn't supposed to be complicated.. is it..?

"I don't know. But me and you both learned that it's better to be safe than sorry. Hugo would have been able to, before. But it's different now. He can't risk anything Stella. He's starting his own family and I don't want anything to set him back from that" he said as I sighed nodding.

"Okay. We gotta have a story though. Becca already knows that we met through work"

"Can you message her quickly, so she doesn't say anything now?" Chris asked as I nodded quickly taking my phone out of my purse and typing a message to her.

'Can you please not discuss how me, and a Chris met again. Keep quiet about the job, for work reasons" I typed and showed Chris before he nodded, and we sent it.

"So, what's our cover up story then?" I asked.

"Ran into each other at the gym?"

"Don't you have a home gym? I'm pretty sure your brother would figure it out" I replied.

"Fine, how about at the library?"

"Honest to god when was the last time you read a book?" I asked as he sighed.

"Stella what the hell do you want me to say? Met you at the nail salon?" He sighed, resting his arms on his hips.

"More realistic than you reading" I said but he didn't seem to be quite as amused as I was. 

"Okay fine, we just ran into each other at the grocery store" I said as he nodded.

"Everything clear now?" Chris asked as I nodded. 

"We should head back" I said and as soon as we turned the corner, with his hand on my back again, we collided with the man that could be the cause of our future troubles based on the conversation we just had.

Instead of apologizing he just stood there, staring at us two.

He looked quite handsome in a more casual, black button up that wrapped around his body, a pair of black suit pants with a matching jacket that was left open with no tie.

His hair was styled beautifully with a tiny strand loose in the front.

Chris cleared his throat, but Lucas seemed to be in an entirely different world right now.

"Uhm.. excuse me?" I said to Lucas, but he didn't even seem to be listening.

Damn, talk about maladaptive daydreaming..

"Sir?" I asked again but still no answer.

"Lucas!" I said snapping my fingers in front of his face which seemed to catch his attention but also trigger some of his anger since he clenched his jaw and rolled his eyes.

I got tired of waiting so I attempted to push past him, but he gripped my arm making me freeze in my tracks.

"Chris you can leave" He spoke making me immediately open my mouth.

"No!" I said but his eyes never left mine. His stare got more intense and he raised a brow, so I just sighed and let out a "fine".

"You sure?" Chris asked and I pulled back my arm making Lucas let go off it.

"Yes" I said not removing my eyes from him.

Shortly after, Chris walked away.

"What do you want?" I asked but he didn't answer. Instead, his eyes traveled down to my body.

This man is not checking me out right now!

"I.. I want you.." he said before sighing and looking up again.

"I want you to stop overthinking everything"

Shit he must have heard us.. I had to get away & quickly.

"Have a good rest of your night, sir" I said and quickly walking away to where Chris was waiting near the bathrooms.

"Did he hear anything?" Chris asked stopping me.

I can't exactly tell him, can I? He will start freaking out. Instead I just went with; "Let's hope not. But I doubt it" as I sighed, and we made our way back to our table.

The rest of the night went by quite rapidly. I remember glancing over at their table each now and then until I did it once and they weren't there anymore.

For some reason, it kind of sucked knowing that he isn't here anymore, even if it was a relief at the same time.

What the hell are you doing to all of us, Bruno?