Our Bodyguard|18+

Six

"Marlow, I want another ballistic test done! She didn't touch that gun for her fingerprints to be found all over it as if someone planted them!" I snap urgently while slamming the door behind me.

"Kid, it's a very simple courtesy to ask how I'm doing first. When was the last time we met, huh?" Marlow begins his sarcasm and I'm so not in the mood for this.

How the heck did he even get inside my apartment? I'm freaky certain that I locked the door. But he's Marlow, a street rat who's born and raised in the den of thieves and gamblers right in the streets of Odessa. No surprise here.

"Anyways." He tugs his steel hip flask toward his mouth. He chugs on a few sips of his whiskey and clears his throat. "You and I have to talk, kid. Precisely about Mia Kingston." His snarky eyes reconnect with mine as he fastens the lid.

And here we go again. I know what's popping in his head and I don't need to be lectured.

"What about her?" I fold my arms on the chest.

He reclines back in my plush, patiently studying me like a hunter to a prey. With his expensive Armani suit right now, and that floppy hat on his long haired head, one may easily be swayed by his ritzy disguise. I smirk.

This sneaky bastard can be anything he wants to be—that I salute. But deeply he's just a southern boy with plenty of tattoos on his arms and back, a leather jacket and bike to race through the scorching heat of Texas.

"Kid, that woman is just one of your targets so don't be wasted by emotions!" he splutters dryly. "She's the wife of Patrick Kingston! She's a married woman, dammit! What is it that you're doing now? You think I bought the crap that you're simply trying to help her as your boss? Have you lost focus of what really matters? Have you forgotten the damn reason why you're in Portland right now?"

My eyes rotate as I try to hold my trembling breath. Scorching than the afternoon sun, I feel my anger searing through me like a wildfire. I mop a hand on my face before leaning over the coffee table so my eyes are direct on his.

"A wife you say? That fucking bastard doesn't deserve her!" I grit my teeth. "He's been doing nothing but hurting her even today as we're speaking, Marlow! He's the fucking reason she's locked up right now!"

Fuck! I knew he was a cheating rat since the day one I physically met him. Yes, it was all a set up that I had to save his ass just to have him hire me to guard him around. It was just a plan so we can have access to his house and company.

But on the very same day I found him with a woman at the bar. Like a fool I almost believed she was Mia Kingston, but their features were different. And when she left him a key card to her hotel room, I realized she was a mistress.

The same mistress who happened to be the best friend of his wife! Fucker!

When I met Mia, I wondered if she knew what was happening behind her back. She looked ferocious, smart, and as hard as a coconut, but deep down she's nothing but a pretty softie who loves and trusts blindly. Her bestie screwed her.

"Even so!" Marlow bolts up like a Russian missile. "I chose you for this mission because I was confident you wouldn't let me down because of a pair of fine boobs and a round ass, kid! I know you better and women have never been your weakness! But this guy I'm seeing here, I don't think I know him!" he thunders.

I boom into an angry laugh. "An end justifies the means. Didn't you tell me that?" I ask him. "Who made me play baby daddy with her in the first place, huh? It was your fucking idea so don't ask me why I'm trying to save her from those unscrupulous people surrounding her! You made it my job to protect her and I'm not gonna do it to the fullest, Marlow!"