Pretty boy's hero

Chapter 14

Previously: Maybe just this once.. I'll let my guard down and relax. Maybe for once.. I'll let myself get carried away into thinking this was okay. That I wasn't his bodyguard and he wasn't my client. That everything was perfect. And for a moment, I almost believed it really was. Almost.

"Here put your head down," he murmured softly, gently letting my head rest on his lap. His hands were still in my hair as I opened my eyes to find him staring at me.

"What?"

"Nothing, it's just.. Your hair is sort of red in the sun," He pointed out. It was true. The rays of evening sun poured through the window and shone on my hair. From its usual maroon, my hair appeared more red than purple.

"So you're really just a redhead?" Alex spoke again, amusement filling his voice. I scowled.

"And so he's back," I grumbled.

"Who? Oh wait I know, you want me-oomph" Before he could finish the sentence I reached my hand out to grab his face and stop him.

"Just shut up and let me enjoy the moment please," I sighed tiredly and relaxed again, placing my arm beside me.

"What moment? This moment?" His face right above mine, noses almost touching. Slowly, his head lowered, eyes staring intently, breathing deep. I was paralyzed, my heart palpable in my chest, my eyes staring back into his, wide with uncertainty. Our lips touched. Just a chaste kiss, hard yet brief, and then he was upright again. But as he left my lips tingling for more, all sense left me as I got up from my position and pressed my lips onto his again, hard.

I didn't know what I was doing, or how I was doing it, but I didn't care. It felt good, it felt right, and it felt as though I had always wanted to do this somehow, with him, with Alex. Alex. What am I doing? Kissing Alex? No no no no no.

I tried to pull back in shock but he nibbled my bottom lip and all thoughts scattered again. It was slow, gentle, as if he knew it was my first time, as if he was trying to guide me. When we pulled back, he kept me on lap, and I leaned into him further like it was an instinct.

My mistake was forgetting. Almost believing in the momentous utopia I was in. Being ignorant to all the signs of the underlying menace behind the seemingly perfect scene. Which was why when we pulled back and he kept me on his lap, I leaned in further and tried to ignore the feeling in my stomach. Something bad was about to happen. But I tried not to overthink, and I tried to focus on him. And that's what made me nearly kill him.

We sat there in silence for a while and I reached up to look at the chain he always wore around his neck. It was a long chain, with a chunky jewel pendant at the end, but the gem was unknown to me. This was odd considering I had studied many different versions of valuable gems and jewels alike when I was younger, one of the classes we had to take to tell if a piece of jewelry was fake. I frowned slightly in confusion, looking at it but before I could ask what it was, I noticed something else. Something that made my stomach turn with dread.

A red dot, from a laser, most likely a sniper rifle, was sitting on his chest, right beside my hand, right over his heart.

My heart was in my throat. Almost immediately, I shot up from his lap, pushing him out of the way. In that instant, the glass window shattered to pieces and a neat hole had been burned through the floor board beside us. I knew, that could have been his head.

"Don't get up unless I say so. I'll explain later but for now, listen to me and do what I tell you to," I said slowly. His eyes were swimming with questions I later had to face and answer but shock overcame the curiosity and he nodded slowly after a moment.

This was a problem. The window in the room took up almost the whole wall. We could be shot from anywhere if we got up. I cursed under my breath in frustration.

"I want you to follow my lead. When I say stop, you stop, when I say go, you go. We will crawl from here down the steps until we get out of the field of view," I paused when I saw the confused look on his face and clarified, "the window, we need to get away from it,"

Slowly, I crept on all fours, my body pressed as close to the ground as possible, away from the window and down the steps, praying that Alex was capable of the physical challenge -creeping around on all fours is not easy, especially when it came to the stairs. [A/N: pic of how it looks like on the right ^^]

At the base of the staircase, there was a short corridor that led to the main hallway of the school. I made sure it was empty, before signaling for Alex to come down, taking a moment to thank God my client was a physically fit soccer player.

When we realized there was no one else in the school, we finally made our way to the carpark, but with caution nonetheless.

"We will meet at your place, call your mother and make sure she's there. Make sure she locks all the windows and doors, close all the blinds and stay away from them as much as possible. I'll ride my bike behind you," I instructed.

"What about you?? What about your own family then?! Tell me what's going on. Why do you seem so calm even after all that happened? You don't seem the least bit freaked out!" He was frowning, confusion written all over his face. Well, at least it's not fear.

"Don't worry about me. Call your mom and I'll explain everything at your house. Quick, we have to move now and remember, drive as fast as you can," I stressed the last part, surveying our surroundings while doing so. Nothing seemed off yet but I knew they wouldn't let us off that easily. After a moment of hesitation, he backed down again and moved to his car.

As soon as we were on the main road I knew we were being followed. If they thought they were gonna get us now, they could think again.

The road was empty besides Alex's car, my motorbike and another bike behind us, slowly catching up with us. Tapping the call button on my watch, I didn't have to wait for EDM's emergency hotline.

[A/N: I'm really sorry if the French in this next part  is wrong because I used google translate so it might not be accurate]

"Bon après-midi, s'il vous plaît indiquer votre entreprise avec ," {translation: Good afternoon, please state your business with Eloise.}

"Cette sirène est marron en charge de bloo appel pour la sauvegarde" {translation: This is maroon siren in charge of client bloo calling for backup} I started, using the code names given to me by EDM. Soon, backup was being sent to our location. Hopefully, they'd get here fast enough. I didn't want to have to fight off The Nabs and sacrifice Alex's safety. This was the problem with being a bodyguard. You couldn't do the actual work and you had to wait on others to help you. I hated that, but for now, Alex was top priority.

"Nous espérons Eloise ont bien servi. Merci. {We hope Eloise has served you well. Thank you.}"

***

We managed to make it to his house, unfollowed. The back up I had called had done it's job to hold them up. I knew The Nabs wouldn't be back that soon after this, but what had happened today had changed everything. There was no more sneaking around, pretending to be his friend, protecting him behind his back. Things would finally get real, as much as I didn't want it to, but I knew from the start our prior arrangement wouldn't work.

After all, how can a bodyguard be a bodyguard, if she herself needs to hide from her client at the same time? All this time, I was too caught up in hiding, making friends, having fun, that I never did my actual job properly. I hadn't been protecting Alex enough like I should have. If I had, nothing would have even gotten as close as it did to hurting him. For that, I have failed. For that, I will get better.