“Well I didn’t think anyone would be so interested in my keys if they were able to get past the armed guards at my door.” She glared back; if he was going to be like that, two could play at that game.
He turned and started out of the room.
“What, no goodbye?” she snapped at his back.
He turned around and gave her a look before leaving without saying a word.
*****
Bo stormed out of Olivia’s room. What the hell was he thinking? There was no way that he was going to be able to do this. Cat was right. He wasn’t ready for this and he might never be ready.
“Everything alright?” Tim asked, as he left the room.
“Fine. Just going to head over to Miss Woods’ house now and make sure things are ready for her to come home.”
“She going home soon?” Joe asked.
“Not that I know of, but knowing my luck I’ll be the last to hear about it when it happens. The lady doesn’t like the idea of having a bodyguard.”
“Yeah, she does seem to be a bit on the feisty side,” Tim chuckled.
“Yeah,” Bo agreed. He wished he could get out of the hospital that moment but if he left too quickly, the cops might say something to Detective Brookshire and then he would never hear the end of it from Jake.
“If you need us please let us know,” Joe observed, “You seem to need to get on your way.”
“Yes, thank you.” Bo nodded and made his way back down the hall to the elevators. He could still feel the watchful eyes of the officers on him as he boarded the elevator.
In the elevator, he replayed the entire encounter with Olivia Woods. While she seemed helpless, she clearly wasn’t entirely. There was still quite a bit of spunk in her and she clearly was not going to be an easy asset to protect.
Not to mention, she asked too many questions. All of the others he had protected over the years had just let him do his job and not bothered with idle chatter, but this woman asked questions like he was a witness on the stand. Questions that he did not feel like answering.
Why he had agreed to this assignment against everything his mind was telling him was beyond his understanding.
He shook his head and got off the elevator.
After making his way through the pouring rain, he got into his jeep and took a deep breath before putting the key in the ignition. He was going to have to find a way to explain to Jake that there was no way that he was going to be able to continue with the assignment.
By the time he had made it back to D.O.T., he had almost come up with the words that he was going to say to Jake. He didn’t so much care about what the others thought, as it wasn’t up to them. Cat would no doubt back him up, but really he didn’t care what else happened.
He walked into the office and scanned the room for Jake.
“What’s wrong, Bo?” Gracie asked, standing up from her desk and moving to meet him as he went by.
“Jake around?” he asked.
“Right here,” Jake said, popping his head out from the weight room. “What’s up?”
“We need to talk,” Bo said, ushering Jake back in the weight room.
Once they were inside the door, Bo closed the door behind them and turned around to face Jake, taking a deep breath as he went.
“Bo, what in the hell is going on?”
“I can’t do this.” The speech he had thought about the entire ride back to the office suddenly evaporated.
“Do what?” Jake looked confused, and really Bo couldn’t blame him.
“Be a bodyguard. I can’t do it, Jake.” The words were coming out but they sounded like they were coming from someone else.
“Bo, I don’t know what the hell is going on, but you aren’t making a whole shitload of sense at the moment.”
Bo rubbed his face.
“Jake, I cannot be the person in charge of ensuring the safety of Olivia Woods.”
“Bo, I am really not sure what in the hell that has come over you but you have to understand that there is no other option. This is your assignment and you have to see it through to the end.” Jake folded his arms across his chest.
“I cant do it.”
“Yes, I have heard you say that three times now, but you still haven’t told me why you cant do it.”
“I am not ready to do this sort of thing again. Cat was right. I need more time.” Bo didn’t like the way he sounded.
Jake took a deep breath and sat down on the weight bench in the middle of the room. He rubbed his hands over his face and through his hair before he spoke.
“Look, Bo. We have known each other for a really long time. I backed you up on all sorts of different things and in so many different situations, but honestly as your friend, let alone your boss, I have to tell you that you have to pick up and move on. I know what you went through is nothing easy to have to deal with, but you can’t keep hiding yourself from life just because you could end up in a similar situation. You have to pull your shit together, man,” Jake advised, giving Bo a hard stare, “Besides, out of all of us, there really isn’t any one of us that could do it better than you.”
Bo looked around the room not wanting to look at Jake. He knew the man was only being logical and he really couldn’t fault the guy.
“Jake...” his voice trailed away as he tried to come up with some sort of explanation or reason, all of the ones that he come up with on the way back to D.O.T. either sounded stupid now or if there was a brilliant gem in the pile, he had forgotten which it was.
“No, I am sorry to say this, but I am not changing my mind on this at all. Time to come back to the real world once again, my friend. The first one is always the toughest, so don’t worry.” Jake stood up and patted him on the shoulder. “You can come and talk to me any time if you need to. I am not going to abandon you, but you need to start standing up and dealing with things instead of running from them.”
Jake turned and walked out of the room, leaving Bo standing there, wondering how he was going to handle the coming days.
Chapter 4
Bo didn’t feel much like talking to anyone when he finally left the weight room. He spoke not a word to anyone as he crossed the main room, but he could tell that almost everyone was watching him.
What the hell were they thinking? His mind wandered, not that he cared that much what others thought, but he also didn’t want them to start doubting his ability to perform his job. There was a distinct difference between him not feeling comfortable doing his job and him not being a capable of doing his job.
Not that anyone would really make that distinction and he knew it.
“You alright?” Cat asked, following him into the armory.
“I will be, if only because I have to be.”
“What did I tell you, Bo? Jake can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.”
“I know what you said, Cat, but the man is my boss and I have to do as I am told.” Bo pulled a case of monitoring equipment off the shelf and opened it to inspect it.
“Yes, you’re right; he is your boss but he is also your friend. You need to sit down and have a talk with him about what you are going through and see if there is another way. I don’t want you to be second guessing yourself in the field.” She frowned, “It is that second guessing of ourselves that gets people like us hurt or worse.”
“Cat.” He stopped and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, “I am going to be just fine. I know what I am doing, and I know that everything is going to turn out the way that it has to be in the end.”
Cat leaned her head on his shoulder.
“Besides, maybe Jake is right, maybe I do need to stop wallowing in the past and get myself back on track.”
“I hope you are right about that. If anything happened to...”
“Cat, no more of that, alright? Nothing is going to happen to me. I am only going to be babysitting the poor woman until they catch the bastard that fired on her.”
“Fine, but Jake will suffer if anything—-”
“Since you wont let me talk you out of doing this because you are clearly a macho jerk today, at least you could let me help you pick out the toys and goodies that you are going to be needing for your assignment.”
“Fine, fair enough, since I am being a macho jerk.” Bo suddenly felt a weight lift off his shoulder.
As tough as this assignment was going to be, it would have been infinitely that much more difficult had he had to do it with the disapproving eye of his best friend watching over him.
“So, monitoring system: are you going audio and visual or straight visual?”
“Any reason you think I should use audio?”
“You never know, these bastards could see you coming and stay just out of camera range, but they would never know if there was super high grade microphone as well and that you would be able to hear them breath.”
“Not sure that these guys are the type of folks who would worry about getting caught. Something about the whole drive-by shooting of a high ranking court official in the middle of the day tells me that they might not give a shit about being all stealthy.”
“You might have a point there.” Cat shrugged and made her way over to the bank of weapons on the wall.
“I’m thinking a few small hand guns, shotgun maybe?” he suggested as he watched Cat dance her fingers along the wall of firearms.
“I am thinking you might want to pack a little more heat than that. These guys weren’t afraid to use a semi-automatic weapon in broad daylight. You should at least have something that can match that.”
“Point taken. Just trying to avoid an all out firefight.”
“Granted. Just take something along with you just in case.”
Bo packed up the rest of the gear he figured he would need. Cat helped move it to the jeep without saying a word.
“You sure about this, Partner?” she asked once everything was carefully loaded in.
“Cat, I'm alright. Maybe Jake is right. Maybe it is time for me to break out of this and get back into the game the way I was trained.”
“If you're sure—”
“I'm sure,” he insisted, getting into the jeep and closing the door behind him.
As he pulled away from D.O.T., he glanced in the rearview mirror. Cat was still standing, watching him drive off. He could see her concern for him etched in the lines on her face. He knew he hadn't sounded as convincing as he had hoped.
Truthfully, he wasn't sure about anything other than he had a job to do.
The drive to Olivia's condo was uneventful and the traffic was light so it didn't take long to make his way across the city.
A doorman greeted him as he entered the front doors.
“Can I help you, Sir?” The older man looked at him suspiciously.
“Yes. I am here for Ms. Woods. I’m sure by now you’ve heard what’s happened. I'll be looking after her to ensure her safety until the situation has been resolved.”
The older man looked at him a moment before speaking.
“We had some detectives in here already this morning, asking questions.”
“I know. They are the ones who hired the company I work for to handle Ms. Woods’ security.”
“You work for a security company?” The man’s voice sounded a little more at ease but there was still a hint of suspicion in his voice.
“Give them a call if it will make you feel better about my being here. I don’t mind waiting until you have confirmed with them that I have a legitimate reason for being here.” Bo placed his gear on the ground at his feet.
“I’ll do that. You just wait right there.” The old man shuffled off slowly.
“Not going anywhere. Take your time,” Bo assured him, watching him go, wondering how he was still standing. The man looked about ninety.
A minute later, Bo’s cell phone started ringing.
“Jackson,” he answered it.
“You sure are causing a lot of shit, aren’t you?” the voice on the other end of the line responded.
“I’m sorry?” He tried to place the voice, “Who is this?”
“Detective Brookshire.”
“Oh.” He had to smile, the man was certainly living up to his reputation, “Detective, I am sorry for the mess of phone calls you have had to field, I’m sure you’re dealing with enough as it is.”
“It’s fine, Bo, at the end of the day I know D.O.T. is on the job. I think I would be more concerned if I wasn’t hearing you lot making your way around the city, taking care of Ms. Woods.”
“You never need to worry. We are on the job.”
“Jane is talking to the doorman right now clearing everything up for you. Anything else you can think of off the top of your head that you will need? Things that I can maybe take care of ahead of time for you?”
“Not at the moment. But if I do, I’ll give you a call?”
“No problem, you have my number, let me know what you need.”
Bo was just hanging up when the doorman shuffled back.
“I’ll take you up to her floor.”
“Do you have a key, or do you need me to get one for you?” he asked as they headed towards the elevator.
“I already have one from Ms. Woods,” he said, holding up Olivia’s key ring.
The elevator door opened on Olivia’s floor and the doorman lead the way down the long hall, to the north end of the building. Olivia’s apartment was the door at the very end of the hallway.
The doorman unlocked the door for Bo before swinging the door open and ushering Bo inside.
Bo stepped into the apartment; everything in was neat and in its place. It was the apartment of a highly organized individual. He had expected nothing less, given what he knew about Olivia.
“Do you need anything else from me?”
“No, I think I am good for now. I have some things I’ll need to set up in the common areas but I’ll let you know when I do that.”
“No problem. I’ll leave you to it then. You know where to find me when you need me.” The old man waved a wrinkled hand over his shoulder as he turned and closed the door behind him.
Bo heard the lock click as his guide locked the door behind him.
Taking a deep breath, he turned back around to the task at hand and started unpacking his gear.
*****
The sun was shining. Olivia could feel the heat of it on her face as she brought her coffee cup up to her mouth. Taking a deep breath in through her nose, she inhaled the robust aroma of a well-roasted brew.
A blue jay called in the distance, barley audible above the hum of traffic on the road and the din of conversation as she sat, enjoying a quiet moment.
It had been a long week; her cases, while going well, felt like they were piling up lately. There seemed to be a never-ending river of hate and evil peppered with the crimes of the desperate and lost. As saddening as it was, she found her passion in seeing justice done, or at least as much as she could.
She picked up the newspaper and her croissant in the other hand. The headlines screamed for justice.
Sighing, she put the paper back down and sat watching the people coming and going. She often wondered about their lives. She’d look at what they were wearing or carrying and then hypothesize about where they might be coming from or headed to. There were some she saw every week but some were new and different.
She was just watching a young woman in sweats carrying a rolled up yoga mat when she heard the screech of tires.
She looked up and saw the car bearing down on her.
Her heart raced.
She watched, frozen, unable to move a muscle, as the car raced faster towards her.
In slow motion, the window on the rear passenger side of the car rolled down.
Her breath caught in her throat. She knew what was coming next. She tried to move but it was like her body had become fused to her chair.
She watched in horror as the muzzle of a gun slowly inched
its way out the window.
She struggled against the invisible force holding her down, the panic sweeping over her swallowing up an any rational thoughts.
She watched, terrified, as the muzzle flashed right in front of her.
In sickening slow motion, she watched as the bullet moved towards her. She tried to move but found that she was still stuck to the chair.
The panic built up inside of her as the bullet moved closer. She struggled harder, terror washing over her in waves.
She felt the cold, sharp pain as the bullet hit her hard in the chest. She flew backwards, suddenly no longer stuck to her chair.
A scream rose up in her throat and all the pain and terror came tumbling out.
Blackness engulfed her as she continued to fall backwards.
“Miss Woods!” the voice called sharply.
Her eyes snapped open, the scream dying on her lips as reality came rushing back.
The room quickly flashed into focus as she clawed at the person who was suddenly at her bedside.
“Are you alright?” the young nurse asked, her eyes wide with fear.
“Water,” Olivia croaked her throat dry and raw.
The nurse brought the straw up to her lips and she quickly sipped the cool water. Her throat instantly felt better.
“Feel better?” she asked, pulling the straw away from Olivia’s mouth.
“I think so.” The pain in her shoulder was the only thing sore and even that was only a dull throb.
“You were having a nightmare.” The woman nodded relieved.
“Thank goodness that was all it was. It was so horrible.” Olivia tried to shake the last of the terror from her mind.
“No doubt, but from what I understand it is completely normal, given what you have been through,” she commented, smoothing Olivia’s hair back off her forehead.
Olivia said nothing. She did not want this to be her normal. Not now or ever.
“Listen, I’ll have the doctor come and visit you and see if there isn’t something he can give you that will help you sleep better.” The warm smile that was meant to make Olivia feel better fell short of its mark, and faded quickly when Olivia didn’t reciprocate in kind. “You need to get a good night’s rest so you can heal faster.”
Bodyguard (Den of Thieves, #2) Page 4
