The Bodyguard

Ready Smith?

Chapter 3

"People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do" - Lewis Cass

•••

Chapter 3 - Ready Smith?

Stella's POV

"A bodyguard is as strong as their weakest number. So, we are going to test all your numbers and improve everyone as much as possible. Six weeks from today, 2 of you will get picked to continue. We are going to be testing your situational awareness, general knowledge, dependability, communication skill as a team player, confidence, and common sense. I don't care how many years some of you have served in the military, the second someone lacks something and isn't willing to cooperate, they are out. Am I being clear?" Lucas spoke after we all finished warming up.

"Yes sir" everyone replied and man I could not f*****g wait until those drills begun so I could punch him in the face. There was no doubt in my mind that I could take him down. He looked pretty fit and well trained but with right timing and decisions, everything is possible. He didn't look like he weighed that much either, so this was most likely going to work smoothly.

"Let's start with some simple drills. 3 rounds, first to bring their opponent down twice gets to run half the laps. Rules are simple, I want everyone alive by the end of training. Good luck" Lucas spoke making me smirk. Who knew this boy could party..? Surely not me.

"Ready Smith?" Lucas asked, turning around to me as everyone spread out in the gym.

"Ready when you are" I replied rolling my wrists.

"Let's see why I shouldn't fire John for bringing you hear"

Game on, jerk.

We both spun around in a circle not removing our eyes from each other. I tried focusing on both his movements and mine, trying to locate any weakness he has but without losing focus and attention from my form, but so far I got nothing. His form was pretty much perfect. His legs were placed shoulder width apart, his dominant foot leaning to the front while the other one was leaning back. He had an equal amount of weight on each foot giving him both an attacking and defending stance.

He knew what he was doing, which just made me question why the hell he needs to hire a bodyguard?

He clearly wants someone phenomenal at their job and not just a bodyguard for looks. Otherwise he wouldn't go through the trouble of training a group for weeks, but why?

I have had some short-term clients before him and all the clients I worked for had some obvious reasons. I could not understand why the hell this 30 years old, very fit millionaire wanted a protection team, especially so suddenly.

I clearly got too carried away in my thoughts though because before I even knew it I was being tackled down onto the ground by him. I quickly placed a hand around his neck and tried standing up again before he could fully knock me down, but he managed to rapidly spin around forcing me to let go. He pinned me down and quietly whispered "1-0" into my ear.

Shit.. Focus Stella.

He stretched out his arm for me to grab and helped me onto my feet again.

"6 years in the army taught you that..?" he asked sarcastically, clearly knowing that he managed to get on my nerves too.

I took a deep breath before looking him up and down quickly. His left leg was shaking a bit...

I looked into his eyes again and I'm pretty sure he knew I was up to something when a smirk spread on my face.

"Bring it on, Luc" I said and the tiny smile that appeared on his face when he took me down disappeared.

We spun around in circles again waiting for the other one to make the first move. If I wanted to prove myself then he had to take that step, but he clearly knew that too since he wasn't pulling any moves. He tried faking a run towards me, but he wasn't so slick this time and I managed to get a hold of his arm and quickly pulled him towards me. I slid my leg behind his left knee and kicked him slightly making him unintentionally bend his leg. He managed to catch himself before falling completely and tried kicking me away, but I got a hold of his leg and twisted it making him turn around too. I gave him a kick in the back as he fell down to his knees and I practically ran to get a hold of his neck. I wrapped my arm around it and kept my elbow under his chin as he struggled and tried to remove my arm. I promptly placed my other hand on his head and pulled it back while squeezing my bicep and forearm on either side of his neck.

"Just give up already" I whispered into his ear, not only talking about this fight but his childish behavior and comments too.

"Stella I think you won" I heard John say and once I looked up I noticed that everyone was now staring at us. I let my guard down for barley a second and he managed to get out of my hold and twist my arm causing me to groan. Motherfucker..

He wrapped his legs around my arm, one under and one over and applied so much f*****g force that I knew if I tried to move he would break it.

Fuck.. think Stella, think.

I could literally feel the blood pulsing through my arm because of the pressure he was applying and then, there was it. His freaking left leg.

I quickly yet carefully took my other arm and punched his left knee with as much force as I could gather in this position. I literally heard everyone around us and him groan once I did so. I got up to my knees and put my hands on his shoulders keeping my arms stretched. He did the same thing attempting to keep me away, little did he know that he did exactly what I wanted him to. I grabbed his arm, turned around and dragged him towards me making him lose his balance and end up leaning on my back. I tried getting up before squatting down again and using whatever force I had left to carry him and throw him over my shoulder. As soon as his body hit the ground making a loud noise I jumped over him, pinning him down and proudly whispered "This is what 6 years in the army taught me"

I got up and when my eyes caught the crowd that had formed around us I couldn't help but smile. They all looked starstruck. Before I enjoyed my moment though he kicked my knee making me fall down and he pinned me in place scoring his second point.

"Enjoy your laps" he said before getting up and walking towards his water bottle.

"Alright everyone out to the field now. Whoever didn't score the 2 points, I want 10 laps around the field, the rest of us will do 5" He spoke as I closed my eyes and took a deep breath trying not to go back and punch him.

"Good luck, Smith" He said before making his way outside to the field and I swear to god if he said one more word I would hit his pretty face.

"Nice fight you put up there" John said, making me notice him in front of me reaching out a hand for me to grab.

"Not nice enough" I spat. "Thanks though"

"He's impressed"

"He can kiss my ass" I said, causing John to laugh out loud as we made our way out.

I rotated my shoulder around to decrease the pain from him almost breaking my arm.

"You alright?" John asked as I nodded.

"Yeah I'm fine thanks. Should run those laps though" I said, and he nodded as we started.

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Fuck you Lucas

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I really want to punch him someday

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10

I basically collapsed to the ground when finishing my last run and laid down on the fake grass to catch my breath for a few minutes. When I did start breathing somewhat normally again I reached over for my water bottle, but someone decided to come over.

"You're Stella, right?" he said as he sat beside me on the grass.

"Yeah. You're Chris?" I asked remembering his name from earlier.

"Yeah. I don't know if you remember but we have met before"

"You look familiar, but I don't know how" I replied truthfully.

"Remember Hugo? Hugo James" He said making me immediately remember and cheer up.

"Oh my god you're Chris! Chris James! It's so nice seeing you again! It has been a minute"

Meet Chris. Chris has a sibling named Hugo. Hugo is an absolute legend who I had the honor serving with for a few years in the army, but he finished his duty earlier than me and returned back home a year before me. Although we were pretty close friends in the army, we unfortunately lost contact before I got back home. Whenever we had the time to talk though he would tell me stories about Chris and how much he looked up to him. Both me and Hugo went through rough times. Mine was my fight against depression. For Hugo it was battling his drug addiction which Chris got him through. I got to meet Chris once when both me and Hugo went back home, and our friends came to pick us up. Becca picked me up and Chris picked Hugo up. I always wondered how life is treating Hugo, but I never had the guts to hit him up. Not that I even knew how to. Such a small world to meet Chris now though.

"It has indeed. How's life treating you Stella? God you have grown up beautifully"

"Thank you! It's alright. Still living with Becca. How are you? How's Hugo? It's been a while"

"We are both doing great. Hugo managed to settle down. Got himself a fiancée. He lives like 40 minutes from here. Oh man I can't wait for you guys to meet again. He will be over the moon"

"That's wonderful! How are you? Finished college I'm assuming?"

"Ah yes. Thank god" he chuckled.

"What brings you here?" I asked not really expecting him to show up here.

"After the 2 years in the military I was never really satisfied with college life. So as soon as I graduated I signed up for the first BT class I found near where my parents live and here I am a few months later. Found this gig and it seemed pretty interesting. Signed up and here we are"

"Your parents moved out here too?" I asked excited, missing the whole James family. They were truly the best. They invited me and Becca over for thanksgiving once when Chris was away with his friends and girlfriend and the time. I knew that they broke up shortly after though.

"Oh no, I wish. They wouldn't leave their home, but I knew I wouldn't find any jobs up there. So as soon as I finished the class I moved out here and bought a small house kind of close to Hugo's"

"That sounds amazing! Hope you're enjoying the city so far"

"I am. It's a bit lonely since I don't know a lot of people here yet but can't complain. How's Becca?" He asked, making me smile. I looked up taking another sip of water and saw John sitting beside Lucas in front of us on the opposite side of the field. Lucas looked seriously pissed.. it made me smile for some twisted reason. It made me feel powerful, although I still ran the full laps I knew that I proved him somewhat wrong. I still had much more to improve & prove though. 

"Alright, gather around" Lucas yelled, still not removing his gaze from mine.

"I'll make sure she knows I met you" I said as we made our way to the middle and Chris smiled.

Chris and Becca both had a little thing for each other apparently but once he was single Becca was fresh out of a relationship and didn't want to jump straight into another one. Me and Hugo didn't push it much & in addition to that, we pretty much never saw Chris. He was always away. I'm pretty sure I have actually seen him like 2 times in total. But I have heard so much about him it felt like I personally knew him. Now however, they both seemed single and ready to mingle.

"Alright one last drill and then everyone can head home. This is going to be some basic medical stuff. Stella, can I borrow you to demonstrate?" Lucas asked as I nodded knowing I don't really have a choice.

Why is he even doing this though? Everyone here surely has the basic medical knowledge.

"I know all of you know this, just a refresher though" he spoke as if he read my mind as I made my way to him.

"Lay down on your back please" he said as he grabbed a bandage from beside him.

"Alright let's pretend it's an arm bleed. Someone got shot. After checking your surroundings, doing the proper procedures, and following the chart we still gotta control the bleeding. We have to be careful here. Sometimes being too comfortable and confident leads to stupid mistakes. So, don't pretend that everything is just a piece of cake" he started, and I would be lying if I didn't question whether he was still talking about the bleeding or if he meant something else. I was probably just exaggerating though.

"Which arm did I twist?" He asked whispering, looking at me and I swear to god if this is some sadistic act of his, I will seriously kick him where the sun doesn't shine.

"Left" I whispered back and to my surprise, he demonstrated on my other arm.

I couldn't help but stare into his eyes as he was focused on my arm and explaining the steps. My eyes wandered down to his lips and I'm pretty sure that he caught me staring since suddenly I heard him say "Isn't that right, Smith?" and holy hell I never enjoyed hearing my name being uttered as much as now.

I obviously had no clue what he was talking about and just nodded barley able to get the words out.

You'd think I'd know better after that but I still zoned out for a lot of what he said. My body shivered as his fingers kept running around my arm and tracing where the wound would be to visualize it. I was just hoping to god he wouldn't be able to tell. This dude already has a big ego. We don't need to inflate it, but what the hell was wrong with me?

I heard a few sentences but I really rather wished that I hadn't heard any, because my anxious mind tried over analyzing everything which only made my heart beat faster.

What made it worse was that I couldn't take my eyes off him. I tried looking up at the ceiling but every time my eyes would wander back to his face, he would smirk clearly aware of the effect he had on me.

"That should wrap it up" he said, making me accidentally let out a small chuckle that I thought only I had heard.

"Anything funny?" He asked, whispering as I tried my best to hold it in.

"No. Not at all. All good" I said unwrapping the bandage as we stood too close to each other.

"Should we leave you two alone?" This dude in the group said sounding like an asshole making me clearly annoyed. I went to turn around and tell him off, but Lucas caught my arm before I spun around and opened his mouth instead.

"Watch it, Kyle," Lucas said, looking at him as Kyle let out a faint "my bad" and turned around.

Of course it's a Kyle.

"That's it for today. We will be doing some shooting practice tomorrow. John will send you all the locations. I want everyone there at 8 sharp. If you are late, don't come"

Everyone from the group, apart from John and Lucas made their way to the dressing room. I made my way to the other room and just grabbed my bag not wanting to change into my clothes all sweaty.

"Hey Stella!" I heard John as I was about to walk out. I could see Lucas staring at us from behind him, but I just tried my best to ignore him.

"What's up?"

"Was just wondering if you wanted a ride home?" John asked.

"Oh, thank you but I have got one" I spoke, and I could see Lucas smile.

"I'm down to grab a drink or coffee someday though if you are down" I quickly added, making Lucas replace that smile with a frown.

"Oh, for sure, I'd love to. You have my number, just hit me up whenever you are free" John said, and I smiled nodding.

"I will. Have a good rest of your day, John" I said turning around as John replied with a "You too"

I made my way to the parking and called Becca on the way to the car. I have never been so thankful for having Eduardo's car as much as I was right now. There was no way in hell I'd be able to walk to the bus station after those laps.

"Hey! How did it go?" Becca picked up pretty excited.

"Not bad. I was just calling to see if you were working tonight or if I should bring something for dinner?"

"Nah I'm good thank you. I'm covering a shift for a friend, just grab dinner for yourself" she said.

"Alright. Talk to you later" I said and hung up. I made my way to the car and you have got to be kidding me. How did he even get here..?

"Nice job today" He spoke, making me blink my eyes multiple times trying to see if this was real.

There is no way.. did he- did he just pull his head out of his ass?!

"Know that no one will go easy on you though" he said looking back at his phone.

Apparently his head is still there huh..

"Good thing that I don't need anyone to go easy on me. Have a good night Bruno" I said getting in the car and driving away not wanting to see his stupid face for any longer.