HER BODYGUARD

Kimberly,

Please. I’m desperate to get in touch with you. Please call me as soon as you read this. It’s your father. He’s had a heart attack and he is near death.

Kimberly stared at the email for several seconds before panic set in. She scrambled for a piece of paper and a pen, then quickly wrote down the phone number. When she had it, she ran into the control room and picked up the phone.

“Please enter your authorization code”

The computerized voice confused her. She punched in Christopher Keane’s number, only to hear the instruction again.

“What?” she demanded, then remembered this was Asher’s safe house. The regular rules didn’t apply. She hung up the phone.

“I have to know” she murmured as she scanned the room for some way to find out the truth. She couldn’t find her phone. There were only blinking cursors on various computer screens. How could she –

Asher’s phone. She could use that or have him make the call from the regular phone.

She turned toward his bedroom, then froze in place as fear battled with reason. Asher. He had said that her father was okay. He had let her listen to his conversation with one of his men. Her father was fine. He hadn’t been going to the doctor. This might just be some sick trick.

“But what if it wasn’t?” she whispered to herself.

The man had been friends with her father for years. Kimberly had met him countless times. There was no way he was one of the kidnappers. Why would he lie about her father’s health?

Nothing made sense. This was strange and she had to find out so her mind would be at rest.

She hurried to Asher’s bedroom. He was still sprawled across the bed. She stared at him, not sure if she should wake him or not, then she decided to err on the side of caution. She reached for the phone in his jeans. When that was done, she hurried to the far end of the house and punched in Christopher Keane’s number.

There was a moment of silence followed by the sound of ringing. Thank God Asher didn’t use an access code for his cell.

“Hello?”

Kimberly’s chest tightened. “Christopher?, Is that you?” she asked.

“Kimberly? Finally, Where are you? I have been trying to reach you” His voice sounded frantic. “Oh Kimberly, your father is so sick. He had a heart attack. It’s bad. Really bad. He has been having symptoms but he has been ignoring them. You know how he is, so wrapped up in his work. I made him go see his doctor. I warned him to take things easy, but would he listen? ”

Kimberly began to cry softly.Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

“I’m sorry. I was the one who found him. I got worried when I didn’t see him for a while and he missed an appointment with me, I went to his office. He was on the floor. I thought he was dead”

Kimberly felt the tears fill her eyes. How was this possible? “You are sure? He’s really sick?” she asked.

“He nearly died,” Christopher replied. “The doctor said if I had found him an hour later, it would have been too late. You have to go see him right away. He’s been asking for you”

“I will. What hospital?” Kimberly asked.

Christopher gave her the name and address, along with the direct number for Cardiac care. Kimberly wrote it all down. She felt as if she were living underwater where nothing was as it should be.

“I wish he had listened to me. And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the symptoms he’s been having” Christopher said..

Kimberly thought of Asher’s man’s report. Was it all a lie?

“Thanks Christopher,” she said. “I’m going to call the hospital right now”

“You do that, honey. I’m praying for him to make it” he said.

“Thank you. For everything”

Kimberly finished the call and immediately made another. She called the hospital’s cardiac care.

“Hi.”she said.” I’m trying to find out about my father. Hillary Blake.”

“Just a minute”

A couple of seconds later, another woman picked up. “Hi, this is Emma. Are you Mr Blake’s daughter?”

“Yes. This is Kimberly”

“Great” the woman sounded intensely relieved “We have been going crazy trying to find you. Your father was brought here in a critical condition. The doctors are hopeful he will pull through, but it’s not a sure thing. The next twenty four hours will tell. He’s pretty out of it, but he’s been asking for you ”

Kimberly’s tears fell faster now. Oh God. Her father was really sick. He could die. Christopher had been telling her the truth.

“I will be there,” Kimberly promised. “Please tell him to hold on a little lounger. I will be there”

She hung up the phone and ran to her room. It only took her a couple of minutes to dress. She tucked the phone into her jeans pocket, then headed for the cabinet in the control room where Asher kept the keys to his car. And then she remembered.

Damn. The second she walked out of the house, the alarm would go off. Damn the stupid safe house. Asher couldn’t possibly sleep through the noise. He would come after her and stop her from seeing her father.

Panic surged through her. She glanced around. What if her father died when she was here wasting time. Then she remembered the gun Asher had used when he came to rescue her. The one with a sedative instead of a bullet.

She returned to the cabinet, pulled it open and grabbed the car keys. When they were safely in her other pocket, she searched through the various weapons on shelves until she found the one she recognized. She knew enough to drop the clip and check that there weren’t any bullets. She wanted Asher out of it, not dead.

She ran back to his bedroom. He lay sprawled across the mattress, naked, vulnerable. How could he have done this to her? How could he have lied about this? Even if it was to protect her.

She thought about her father, slowly getting sicker and sicker. Fury and pain steadied her arm as she pointed directly at his chest and pulled the trigger.