The Bodyguard (Hosie)

Chapter 15

"Hope."

Hope's jaw loosened. The years had changed Maya. Gone were the bright, fiery eyes that she had admired ten years ago. Gone was the confident, lively aura that made her attractive to Hope's eyes a decade ago. In place of them were hard, mean eyes and an older, experienced cynical mood emanating around her.

"You... you're their leader?" Hope asked, aghast at the twist of events. She couldn't be sure how Maya had changed. Had she learned a little more compassion? Or had she lost the last thread of humanity in the past ten years? One thing Hope was sure of, Maya had been a terror in combat back then and was not going to be easy to fight. It would be best to talk her way out of this but Maya was likely to give her Josie without a fight.

"What are you doing here?"

"Your men abducted me."

"Fuck." Maya looked at the men lying helpless on the ground. "Useless idiots. Can't even grab a girl without giving me problems." Her eyes shifted to Hope's again. "You shouldn't been there."

"I'm Josie's bodyguard."

Maya sneered. "Working for the rich now? Never though you would stoop so low."

"It's an honest living."

"Bullshit. You're just a slave to a rich man."

Hope held her tongue. Pissing Maya off was not a good idea.

"Got nothing to say?"

Hope plucked up her courage and looked into Maya's eyes. She could hold her own ground now. "How have you been?"

Maya flinched as though she had not been expecting a question like that. She opened her mouth to answer but a shrill scream pierced the bubble around them. Hope stiffened. It was Josie.

"Stupid bitch," Maya spat in the direction of the car and waggled her gun at Hope. "You. You injured my men. So you'll get the bitch to shut up. Now." She kicked dirt at one man and snarled at them. "Get up and fix yourselves. Stop sitting there groaning like a bitch."

Hope moved to the source of the screaming. It came from a zipped up luggage bag in the back seat. "Josie, it's me, Hope," she said loudly. The screaming stopped. "It's okay, Josie. I'm going to get you out."

"Help me, Hope. Quickly."

"I'm getting you out now," said Hope as she pulled on the zip to open the bag. She pushed the top down and Josie sat up and threw her arms around Hope's neck.

"Hope..." she sobbed. "I thought I was never going to see you again."

"Enough. Shut up already," Maya snapped from behind.

"Josie, don't worry. I'll keep you safe. Come on, try standing up," Hope said to the trembling woman. She put her hands under Josie's arms as support and helped the restrained woman out of the car and onto her feet. "You're okay," she said again, when Josie leaned against her and screamed. "It's okay."

"W-What's going on?" asked Josie, looking from Hope to Maya in confusion.

"We've been kidnapped." Hope squeezed Josie's arms.

"Shut her up, Hope."

A thousand questions flashed in Josie's eyes.

"This is not the way I wanted to do this but," Hope nodded at the woman currently pointing a gun at them, "she's the ex I told you about."

Josie stared at her, mouth opened.

"Move them inside," Maya barked at her men and they trudged to them.