My Heart | Book 4 of My Bodyguard

Chapter 1 | The Stairway

Geralt POV

Geralt led the way once Julian was out of the car, leaving his hands to rest by his sides. He'd have shoved them in his pockets, except such an action wasn't recommended for suit pockets and it would impair him slightly, should anything happen in the couple of minutes between them and the door.

Thankfully, the three minute walk was silent. There had been a decent amount of cars in the car park for the current time of day. Headquarters wasn't going to be empty. And like him, his compatriots tended to shift around the spots they parked in. 

The superiors and the underlings tended to have similar tastes in cars, mostly simple colours and the same range of brands and styles. Geralt had learned their license plates, but those changed frequently enough it was difficult to keep track. In other words, he had little idea as to who was here today.

Triss was, though, and Geralt was glad for the friendly face as he walked through the revolving door into the lobby. The receptionist looked up, peering curiously at Julian. She gave a small wave, then looked at Geralt with a frown. "Seems... excessive." She waved at her face.

"Hm," Geralt said. He came over to her desk and set the folders he carried down on the wooden counter. Triss raised an eyebrow. "Vesemir in?" He let go of the folders to let Triss flip through them, thinking.

"These can just go back to your office. And yes, he is." She jerked her head at Julian. "That why he's here? To see our boss, or at least keep him off your back?" Geralt shrugged vaguely.

"Hoping to avoid any encounters," he remarked, sliding the folders back off of the desk and into his arms. He tucked them under one arm, leaving his other one free. Geralt looked back at Julian, then gave a small nod towards the direction of the stairs. They were right beside the elevators, with a door leading into the stairwell. "Fifth floor," he said quietly.

Julian POV

Julian was silent, careful not to say anything but damn, he was wanting to damn growl at this woman and rip her head off. She had not, per se, done anything wrong but still. The way she spoke ticked him off. Julian decided not to look at her, best not to see the murderous gleam in his eyes. 

Instead, he looked onwards to the hallway and allowed their conversation to happen quickly. While Geralt was speaking with the quick encounter, Julian examined where things were mapped out. As weird as it sounded, even he had hobbies. His was house layouts. Once he had walked in a house, he could map the whole place out in his mind down to the dust molecule.

He moved forwards, noting Geralt's nod out the corner of his eye and gave the slighted of a nod back to slow his acknowledgment. Julian walked forwards, to the stairs. He opened the door, waiting for Geralt to go in before he followed suit. 

Fuck, going up was just all the more painful. And they had five flights of stairs. On the outside, he showed no change in himself. His left and moved to his Jacket, the same place where it was beforehand, which as mainly out of habit if he was being honest. It did nothing for the pain but his other hand that remained by his side occasionally twitched rather jerkily inwards by a centimeter before going back into it's normal position. He walked up the stairs at a fast pace, keeping the movement going.

He could feel every stitch, every slash on his thigh, every pull on his lower abdomen. His arm being in that position for so long didn't help the burning pain that shot through it. But he did not let it show, a tactic that had been beaten into him once again. He kept going, once the first floor was done, he only had his hand twitch 3 times to start with. 

Halfway up the second floor to the third floor,, it twitched 5 times. If you looked close enough, you would be able to notice that the twitches were slips ups of him allowing his hand to tremble from the pain. He was out of practice, it made sense to allow such slip-ups for now.