The Bodyguard ✔

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Mom made Frank sit behind the wheel, most likely to keep an eye on him, as she sits next to him. I sit on the back seat, switching my view between Frank and her. Well, this is a combination I never saw coming together in real life.

We're driving in northern direction, without a fixed destination in my mind. Our first priority is to disappear. Both Frank and my mom meticulously observe the road.

Minutes pass by in silence. I try to make sense of things and accustom myself to my mom being back in the picture.

Is she though?

I swallow the chunk of stress holding up in my throat. If anybody would tell me yesterday, or a week earlier, that I would see my mom again in this kind of situation, I would have never believed them.

She looks over her shoulder at me. "Honey, I've packed snacks from the house. They're in the bag. Take one, you look pale."

In a weird way, it sounds almost funny.

I search for the snack in the bag Frank dropped next to me in the back seat of the car, and I build up the courage to ask the obvious question. "Where have you been all these years? What have you been doing?" There, I said it.

The answer could be anything. Perhaps she left my father for another man? Or she had a drinking problem, sought out help and didn't want to come back?

Maybe she just got tired of us?

I guess I'll find out soon enough.

She folds her hands together, eyes still fixed at the road. "You need to know that leaving you and your father... it was the hardest decision I had to make in my life."

So she did leave us out of free will. She did have a choice.

I'm feeling more down already. "Why did you leave?"

She rubs her hands together and takes a breath before answering. "I was, still am, an Interpol agent."

What?

I'm baffled. No one ever cared to mention my mother was an interpol agent. My dad had to know it.

Frank and I make eye contact through the rearview mirror. It's clear we share the same confusion.

"A couple of years after you were born, I was assigned to a team who were investigating organised crime syndicates in Europe. In the first years I assisted the research team, until it became clear what we were dealing with. We decided it was necessary to send agents in the field." She pauses. "With that level of involvement, I couldn't risk you or your father's safety. Most of my colleagues don't have families. I didn't want to lose mine." She turns her head sideways. "Even if it meant giving it up."

I bite my jaw. She chose her job over her family.

"I can't tell you much, but some years ago we integrated a trail that led us to ties from Corsica to North America. I decided to go undercover two years ago." She became silent.

Frank glances over to her. "When were you pulled out?"

My mother looks at her watch. "As of thirty-five minutes ago."

Frank and I exchange looks. I connect the dots. "So the men you were with, they're..." she finishes my sentence "part of an organised crime syndicate."

She continues to explain the ties from oversees, the illegal businesses involved and then my involvement. "When I first got word of the daughter of Jean Paques causing more trouble than initially was expected, I prayed it wasn't really you. Soon enough, I found out the details. For months now, the Corsican mafia suspected an infiltrant within their circles. I don't know how, but they soon found out the identity of the infiltrant's daughter: you. I don't know how they found out. No one was ever supposed to find that out. At first, they kept it relatively quiet, thinking an organised kidnapping could mean leverage against Interpol. Things didn't go as planned and they couldn't contain the news. It spread like wildfire through the underground. Many more rivals of the Corsican mafia comprehended your value against such an organisation as Interpol. The only thing that held most of them back from just snatching you from the streets, is the position your father fills in the business world. Because what has more control than the law? Money. They tried to get him tied up with illegal business, so that they could essentially have more control over him, but that didn't work out as well. Your father saw through it and refused." A faint smile hovers the corners of her mouth.

Is she feeling proud of my father?

Frank glances at me before speaking to my mother. "They don't seem to be that held back anymore. What changed?"

I sense mutual distrust between the two of them that hasn't diminished since the second they first spoke.

My mother doesn't answer Frank immediately. Instead, she seems to analyse his words and expressions, presuming he has a hidden agenda. "We have theories, but we don't know for sure."

Silence dawns, while Frank and I let the information sink in.

"Where are you from, Frank? The Netherlands? Germany?"

Frank doesn't let his eyes stray from the road. "Germany."

How did she suspect he's not from here? Frank's English is flawless.

My mother nods. "Frank, wir müssen sie aus dem Land holen. Es ist hier nicht sicher."

Frank looks over at her, surprised, but quickly recovers. "Was schlägst du vor?"

"Sie muss heute nach Europa fliegen."

I don't like being put in the dark like this. "Mom, Frank, please. I'm right here."

Right before Frank pulls over at the side of the road he apologises to me. As soon as we've stopped, Frank looks at my mom. "Take over." He steps out of the car, my mom follows after some initial hesitation, and she takes place behind the wheel.

Frank opens the car door of the backseat, to search something in the bag we took from the house. He takes out a burner phone, still in its plastic packaging, and a sim-card. Frank leans in to me while preparing the phone, talking softly and thus claiming my full attention. "She thinks it's not safe for you here and that you have to get to Europe."

I look in his eyes. "What do you think?"

Frank hands me the phone. "I think she's right."

When my life started to change after my first abduction, I never thought I would have to actually escape the continent and flee to Europe. "Are you coming with me?" I wouldn't feel as safe without Frank. I can't lose him right now.

He leans in even more and presses a warm kiss on my cheek.

"There's nothing I would want more."