Bodyguard (Den of Thieves, #2) (14 page)

“What do you mean? What is so wrong that I wouldn’t?”

Bo sighed hard and fell back on the bed. There was too much for him to list.

“My job for one. It is not easy. You yourself have seen what can happen in a blink of an eye.”

“I also saw how you handled the situations. I know if anyone can get through that stuff, it’s you.” She placed her head on his chest.

“But what will happened if one day I don’t come home?”

“We will cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Bo’s heart eased, and he started breathing deeply. She wanted to give this whole thing a try. She didn’t want to let the entire thing go down the drain. He might actually finally have a chance at a normal life.

She snuggled in deeper into his chest and he tightened his arms around her. For the first time in a long time, he felt really at peace with the world. He knew that they were still in danger but he also knew that somehow it would all work out in the wash.

He just had to believe that it would. He kissed the top of her head and closed his eyes.

*****

H
e had just drifted off into a light doze with his arms wrapped around Olivia, when there was a crash, as Bo heard the door to the apartment fly back on its hinges. 

Olivia stifled a scream as Bo jumped out of bed and reached for his clothes. His gun lay nestled in the folds of the fabric and it took precious seconds to pull it out. Olivia quickly ducked to the floor beside the bed as far away from the door as she could get.

“Olivia!” A mans voice hollered down the hallway. “Come out! I know you’re back there! There is no use hiding anymore.”

Bo said nothing but motioned to Olivia to stay quiet. She nodded and hunkered down as far as she could. Bo made his way along the floor as low to the ground as he could.

“Olivia!” the man called again, “What is the matter? Don’t want to come and see your brother anymore?”

Her brother. Great. This was not going to go well. No where near how he had hoped that this would all play out.

Bo edged his way closer to the doorway around the closet. He peered around the corner quickly and he could make out the figure just around the corner of the front hall. Thirty feet away.

There was nothing in between them. No where for her brother to hide if he chose to come out from around the corner. Bo would have a clean shot. Not that he wanted to take that shot but he would not hesitate if the man came down the hall with the intention of doing Olivia harm.

“Olivia! You need to come out so we can talk about this like rational human beings.”

“Go away, Gerald! I don’t want to talk to you!” Olivia’s voice came from behind him, strong as ever.

What was she doing? Bo glanced back at her and signaled for her to be quiet.

“For a second there, I was wondering if I had gotten the apartment wrong and this wasn’t yours!” The voice sounded closer. Bo took a quick peek around the corner and saw that Gerald had come out from his hiding spot and was making his way down the hallway slowly towards the room.

Bo fired a shot, wide on purpose and it lodged in the wall a few feet from Gerald’s head. Gerald scurried backwards and ducked into the living room.

“Oh! I see your little boy toy has some balls on him, does he? Does he really think that he is going to be able to protect you?”

Bo listened, trying to get a bead on where in the rest of the apartment he might have gone. He couldn’t quite get it.

Almost as if she had read his mind, Olivia spoke up again.

“He is far more of a man than you will ever be, Gerald.” There was bitter venom in her voice as she spoke.

“I don’t know about that. But he certainly is a poor shot.”

Bo just listened.

“What I don’t understand, Gerald, is why you are doing this. I haven’t done anything to you.”

There was silence.

Bo strained to hear what the man might be doing.

“Is that what you really think?” He finally spoke, sounding further away.

“What have I ever done to you that would ever warrant this sort of treatment?”

Gerald laughed.

“You don’t get it, do you? You wouldn’t though. You are perfect. You are everything that I am not. You went to law school and I—”

“That was your choice, Gerald. I had nothing to do with your choice. I made mine and you made yours.”

“But everyone loved you. You were the perfect one.”

“I never did anything to you or your life, Gerald. I stayed away and left you to handle your own business.”

“Do you know where that got me? Multiple jail terms, Olivia. And do you know I called and I wrote and I tried to get you to come and help me and nothing. My big sister was too dammed busy living her high and mighty life to be bothered to come and bail her little brother out. Do you know how many times I was the fall guy for someone else’s shit because they thought I was going to have my big sister to help get me off?”

Bo looked at Olivia. He could see the torment in her eyes. There was a part of him that wished that the man would just shut up and stop torturing her. Just do what he came here to do and leave.

“I couldn’t do that even if I wanted to, Gerald. You know I have to follow the law to the letter. I can’t do anything that would be considered against the law. Not for anyone.”

Olivia had moved closer to Bo as she spoke.

“Maybe I can talk him out of this,” she whispered to Bo the second she was close enough. “It’s my fault we are in this mess, I have to see if I can talk him down. He is my brother.”

Bo shook his head hard but she wasn’t listening anymore and was slowly making her way towards the open bedroom door.

“What are you doing,” Bo hissed, “Don’t go anywhere.”

He tried to reach for her but she was already to the door, looking tiny in the oversized t-shirt.

“Gerald. Let me come out there and we can talk about this. Together. Maybe we can find a way to work this out and put and end to it.”

She took a step towards the doorway with her hands raised in surrender.

Bo felt his heart jump into his chest. He wanted to run to her and pull her back out of the way of danger but he also trusted her and knew that if anyone could talk him down it would be her.

“You are looking pretty good,” Gerald observed. “For some one who was shot a few days ago.”

“I am still in a lot of pain but I forgive you, Gerald. I know you didn’t mean to hurt me.”

Bo heard the distinct click of a gun being cocked. His heart hammered in his chest.

“Actually, sweet sister of mine, I did. You see, my friends think that somehow you are behind a lot of their troubles. You have been busy putting a bunch of them away for a very long time. Now because you are so good at what you do, they think that I am in some way helping you get the information that you need to prosecute the cases you do. They don’t think that you and the rest of the police are smart enough to do all of the work on your own.”

“I—” Olivia started

“I know you would never help me, nor I help you. But my friends, they don’t believe that. And the only way that I can prove it to them is to kill you myself. It seemed like a fair trade. My life for yours.”

Bo slowly stood up and peeked around the corner and he could see Olivia standing at the mouth of the living room her hands still raised.

“And here you are all nice and neat in front of me. Or did you still think that you would be able to talk me out of it?” The gun clicked again.

Bo couldn’t wait any longer; he dove out of the room headed straight for Olivia. He grabbed Olivia, pushing her to the ground, behind the couch as he fired off shots in the general direction of where he thought Gerald would be as he went.

Gerald, too, fired back. Bo had missed him somehow.

Just then, the busted front door flew back on its hinges once more.

“FREEZE! LAKE CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT!” Men in full SWAT gear stormed into the room.

“DROP YOUR WEAPON, MISTER WOODS AND KICK IT TOWARDS US.”

There was a clatter as the gun fell to the floor.

Bo could hear Olivia sobbing as she hid under his chest. He pulled her close.

“Shh. It’s going to be alright now. Everything is going to be alright.” He kissed the top of her head.

*****

“H
ow the hell did you know?” Bo asked Stan as soon as he found him, once he was sure Olivia was in good hands with the paramedics the police had brought with them.

“Actually, it was your pal, Rudy that really helped us out. The package he sent me last night gave us all the information we needed to get a search warrant for Gerald Woods’ place of residence.”

“I take it you didn’t find him sleeping in bed?” Bo raised an eyebrow.

“No, we did find a whole ton of information on Miss Woods and her habits and such. We knew we had the right guy, but we didn’t have a clue where to find him or what he was planning for his next move.”

Bo nodded.

“I was just about to come over and have a talk with Miss woods and you about the situation when I found him sneaking in the back door of the building. So, I made a quick call and here we are.”  Stan gestured around the room.

Techs were busy taking samples from here and there. One of the techs had his laptop and was looking through his surveillance equipment and files.

“From what he said to Olivia, he was here purely to kill her off as he is involved in one of the gangs that Liv has been cleaning house on lately and the gang members think that he is the one feeding her information. So they told him to prove loyalty to the gang and kill her.”

“That’s lovely. Total show of brotherly love.” Stan shook his head

“Yeah, apparently the two haven’t spoken in the better part of a decade. So there is no way in hell that he was helping her at all.”

“Gangs don’t see that. They only see whatever it is that they want to see.”

“Exactly. For Gerald it was either he dies or Olivia does. There was no in between for him.” Bo shook his head. So much waste. If he had succeeded, there was no guarantee that he would have been spared by the gang. They very well might have killed him anyway.

Bo said as much to Stan.

“You’re absolutely right. At least now the poor bastard stands a chance to live to see another day. We will keep him segregated from the general population until we get things sorted out. Might see if I can’t flip him and get him playing for our team for real this time.”

Bo nodded and turned to walk over to where Olivia was being checked out.

“And one other thing,” Stan added, stopping him in his tracks. “I am not going to say anything to Jake about your current attire, but I think, you should tell him yourself.”

Bo looked down at his loose fitting track pants and suddenly felt very exposed. Stan had him dead to rights but he was grateful for the other man’s silence. Bo would have a talk with Jake once this whole mess blew over and things went back to normal.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome and good job,” Stan praised, reaching out a hand for Bo to shake.

Bo headed back over to Olivia.

“How are you doing?” He could see a fresh bandage had been place over her wound but it was slowly filling up with blood.

“Tore my stitches open when you pushed me to the ground.” She winced.

“I am sorry about that. But I didn’t have—”

“I know you didn’t do it on purpose. You were only trying to save my life, which might I add, you succeeded in doing.” She smiled at him.

He sighed and wrapped his arms around her. All was forgiven. For that split second everything was suddenly right in the world. In his mind’s eye, he could see Sooraj’s face. She was smiling, happy even. She too, had forgiven him.

Tears came to his eyes. He buried his face into Olivia’s hair.

“Thank you, Liv,” he whispered into her hair.

“Thank you, Bo,” she whispered back.

He held her tight and promised himself he would never let her go.