The Bodyguard ✔

Chapter Thirty-Eight

He takes my arm and leads me to an alley next to the school. "Keep your voice down, okay?"

I entangle myself from his nervous grip and create a distance between us. "Are you insane?! What are you doing here?"

He appears to be tired, while looking over his shoulder every three seconds or so. "Listen, I wanted to apologise. I didn't want this to happen to you or to those other girls." He talks faster than he used to do and he sounds nervous. "I'm sorry."

He's sorry?

I clench my teeth and I try to stay calm. "You have to give yourself over to the police, Lucas."

"No, I can't!" He waves with his arms and he rapidly comes closer.

I instinctively take a step back, realizing his unpredictable behavior is pretty scary. I still have my phone in my hand. Should I try calling for help when he isn't looking?

Lucas has his hands up in his hair out of frustration. "I can't go to the police, they will just put me in prison."

"Well, maybe you deserve prison." I sound less firm than I want to be.

Lucas only shakes his head, like he is the one who is disappointed in me. "You don't get it, do you?" He turns his back to me and he drops his head down, like the ground is the only thing supporting him. "I'm a victim in this situation, just as much as you."

I have no idea what he's talking about, but this is my chance to call for help, while he's turned around. I don't know how quickly Lucas' temper can change, and as far as I'm concerned, he's a dangerous criminal on the run.

"I didn't want to be dragged into this, it just kinda... happened."

He continues talking faced away from me, while I unlock my phone and begin writing a text to Frank. Why are my hands sweating and shaking like this?

"I didn't want anything to happen to you and those girls. To be honest, I didn't even think they would go through with it. I even tried to stop them when I realised they actually would, but they turned on me; Vince, Pete and the rest. If I go to prison, I'm going to be killed, you can be sure about that. Vince has guys everywhere, you can't even trust the police. Even if I keep running, Vince may find me. You know what they do to 'traitors' like me? They cut your limbs off and drop them somewhere in a canal." He turns around while saying: "How do you think they got away with trafficking for such a lo..."

He abruptly stops when he notices my phone, when I fail hiding it in time for him to see. In a matter of seconds, he enrages because of my betrayal.

I distance myself even more from him when he moves into my direction. "Lucas, stay back!"

He doesn't stop.

"Lucas!"

He grabs my wrists and I try to fight back. He looks so angry, so painfully different from the sweet Lucas I knew before, that tears fill my eyes. "Lucas, stop!"

He finally does stop, only to trample on my phone, who has fallen onto the ground.

I wipe away my tears and shout at him. "What do you want from me?!"

He again tramples on my phone. "Don't you see? I'm innocent! Everyone thinks I'm guilty, because of that bodyguard of yours." For the third time, he tramples on my phone to express his excessive rage. "He thinks I'm some sort of big player in this town's trafficking business, ever since he saw me around that warehouse, like I was hanging out there deliberately."

His over-the-top sarcasm grows in a crescendo and so does his appearence of craziness. He then points at me with piercing eyes. "I was trying to save you! I even got beaten up because of it. But I was the one who got you to stay two more days in that warehouse. If it wasn't for me, Frank never could have been there in time to get you out and take all the damn credit. I even lured Vince and the guys away from where I knew Frank was holding you for almost a week. I mean, how could he have done it without me? He didn't even notice when I followed him to that motel after getting you out of that warehouse. I'm telling you, If I wasn't the one who was guarding the warehouse that night, you wouldn't be standing here right now."

My mouth tastes dry.

"Are... are you talking about when I got abducted in October?"

Lucas throws his hands into the air like he thinks I'm stupid. "Of course I'm talking about October, what else could I be talking about?"

I feel like the air has been sucked out of my lungs.

My head can't stop spinning.

My legs are weak.

Lucas just continues his ranting. "Ever since he saw me at the warehouse, he's been spying on me, thinking I actually played an active role in that trafficking business. Like I had a choice: Pete was the one who dragged me into this mess!"

I interrupt him when I start seeing black dots everywhere, because everything appears to be spinning. "Lucas, are you saying that Frank knew about you when he was assigned to be my bodyguard after October?"

Lucas looks at me like I'm from Mars. "Yeah, he knew about me. Do you think it was a coincident he punched me straight in the face when I came back for my jacket that one night?"

This can't be true.

I support myself against the wall when I completely lose my vision to the darkness.

Then it hits me.

Frank was the one who brought me to that hospital.

"Lucas," I take a deep breath, otherwise I might pass out, "are you telling me that Frank already knew me before he actually became my bodyguard?"

I feel Lucas squeeze his hands into my shoulders, before my vision returns and I find myself standing eye in eye with him.

"Why aren't you getting this? He has been wanting to bust this trafficking business all along and nothing else. He became your bodyguard to be close to my house, to spy on me, so he could take it all down!"

He lets go of me and takes a step back.

"He isn't even a real bodyguard."