Bodyguard: Target (17 page)

Charley was first blasted by the noise of
the crowd, then hit by the heat of the spotlights as she raced past the dancers. The
stage suddenly seemed to stretch before her and she prayed she’d
reach Ash in
time. The red laser dot remained fixed on its superstar target.

‘
What the hell?
’
cried Ash as Charley leapt on him, breaking the beam.

Shielding Ash with her body, she bundled
him offstage to the shocked screams of his fans. Ash was too stunned to resist at
first, but quickly regained his senses.

‘Let me go!’ he shouted,
struggling in her grip.

Only when she reached the safety of the
opposite wing did she release him.

Ash glared at her. ‘Have you gone
completely insane?’

‘You were about to get
shot
!’ replied Charley.

This news shocked Ash into silence. He
reached out to a nearby speaker for support.

‘
What in God’s name is
going on?
’ demanded a squat black guy with a trimmed moustache and
shaved
head. Terry was the tour manager, a hard-nosed, flinty-eyed man
with a reputation for running a tight ship on tour. He hated
any disruption to the schedule.

‘A red laser sight was targeted on
Ash. Someone was about to shoot him,’ explained Charley.

Terry frowned. ‘Did anyone else
see this laser?’

The group of road crew, dancers and
musicians who’d gathered round Ash
and Charley all shook their heads.

‘Did you see it?’ Terry
demanded of the other bodyguard, as Big T came hurrying along the gangway to join
them. He was a little out of breath and perspiration shone on his bald dome.

The bodyguard, a blond-haired Adonis
with a chisel jaw, crossed his bulging arms and grunted a definitive
‘No’.

Realizing her credibility with Big T was
at stake, Charley said, ‘Of course you didn’t. You were too busy eyeing
up that dancer.’

The bodyguard shot her a dirty look.
‘Who is this girl?’ he sneered.

‘A PR assistant,’ cut in Big
T. ‘Now, let’s establish if Ash is in danger or not. Charley, did you
actually see someone with a gun?’

Charley shook her head. ‘I spotted
the laser sight, that’s all.’

There was a groan of irritation from the
band and road crew.

‘Did
no one
else see
it?’ she asked, her tone almost pleading. ‘It was following Ash round
the stage!’ She was met by blank and hostile looks.

‘It was probably one of the stage
lights,’ said the bassist.

‘Yes, most
probably a stage light,’ agreed the tour manager, his eye twitching as he
barely kept
his anger in check.

‘No. It wasn’t,’ said
Charley. ‘The beam came from a corporate box. The one closed for
renovation.’

Big T radioed up to one of his team to
check out the box. The group stood in tense silence as they waited for a response.
In the main arena, the bewildered crowd started chanting Ash’s name, at first
with enthusiasm, then with growing impatience.

‘The box is empty. No one
there,’ came the reply eventually.

Everyone stared accusingly at Charley.
As a flush of humiliation reddened her cheeks, she wished the ground would just
swallow her up.

‘False alarm,’ Big T
confirmed.

‘On with the show!’ ordered
the tour manager, shooing people away with his hands.

Ash shook his head angrily at Charley,
then
strode back on to the stage.

‘Hey, you fans are crazy!’
he called out to the whistles and cheers that greeted his return. ‘Next time
one of you wants a hug, just ask!’

This offer sent the crowd into hormonal
meltdown and almost lifted the roof with shrieks of delight. With a nod to the band,
Ash kicked off the next song and the set resumed.

The stage wing quickly emptied
as the
crew returned to their duties. Charley remained where she was, her head
hung in shame. She’d screwed up again! How could her
judgement be so off? She was acting like a rookie on her first assignment. But she
knew
what she’d seen: a laser sight tracking Ash’s every
move. Her gut instinct had told her to act – if she hadn’t, Ash might
now be lying on stage in a pool of
his own blood!

On the other hand, perhaps it had just
been a harmless trick of the light, a reflected beam from the show or some other
stage effect. Whatever, the threat had come to nothing.

‘We all make mistakes,’ said
Big T, his tone surprisingly sympathetic.

‘Not this big,’ she replied,
unable to meet his eye.

As the dancers congregated in the wing
for another
routine, Big T took Charley to one side.

‘I don’t doubt you saw a
laser, but it’s most likely to have been one of these,’ he said, pulling
a small silver pen-sized pointer from his pocket. He pressed a button and a red dot
appeared on the floor. ‘These things are banned from concerts, but people
still smuggle them in.’

‘I’m a complete
idiot!’ said Charley, holding her
head in her hands. ‘How could I have
thought that was a laser gunsight?’

‘Don’t be so hard on
yourself. To the untrained eye, there’s virtually no difference between the
two,’ he said, pocketing the laser pen.

Charley wondered why the old bodyguard
was being so understanding about her monumental mistake. She’d disrupted
Ash’s first night of the tour, potentially blown
her
cover as his secret bodyguard and made enemies of virtually everyone on the
crew.

‘Did you know I was once Stevie
Wonder’s personal bodyguard?’ revealed Big T. ‘Didn’t last
long, though. On my second night, I was guiding him up a podium, didn’t spot a
loose cable and he tripped. Fell flat on his face. Even in my early days as a
bouncer I never managed to put someone
down so quickly.’

Charley looked up into his heavily worn
features. ‘That must have been awkward.’

‘Yeah, it was a real
bummer,’ Big T admitted. ‘After that, I was guarding the toilets for the
rest of the tour!’

Charley let out a heavy sigh. ‘I
suppose that’s what I’ll be doing then?’

‘No, Jon will be,’ he said
with a fierce glare in the direction of the blond-haired
bodyguard. ‘He should
have been keeping his eye on Ash, not that redhead.’

‘So you’re not throwing me
off my assignment?’ asked Charley, astonished.

By way of an answer, Big T showed her
the tattoo on his inner forearm:
Only the paranoid survive
.

‘As a bodyguard, this is a useful
code to live by. I’d rather you overreact than not react at all,’ he
explained. ‘When
I started out, there was no training. Just thinking on your
feet and learning from your mistakes. And, believe me, I made a truckload. But each
mistake taught me something. You see, good judgement only comes from experience
– and much of that experience comes from bad judgement. Live and learn,
Charley, live and learn!’

‘It’s all across the
internet,’ said Blake, speaking to Charley on her smartphone the next day.

Charley groaned. The nightmare
wasn’t over for her yet. Backstage the road crew were preparing
for
Ash’s second night at the arena, everyone giving her odd looks and a wide
berth as they went about their business.

‘Don’t worry,’ Blake
continued. ‘The only footage of the incident shows a flash of blonde hair,
then you and Ash were gone. It was a textbook-perfect extraction of a
Principal.’

‘So my cover’s not
blown?’ she asked.

‘Not by the looks of it.
All any
photographer got was the back of your head. The story is that a Wildling fan jumped
Ash in a fit of starstruck excitement. What spooked you anyway?’

‘A laser dot. Thought it was a
gunsight,’ she admitted. ‘But I was wrong. In fact, everything seems to
be going wrong on this assignment. First the press conference, then the security
guard and now this –’

‘Whoa,
hang on! What guard?’
interrupted Blake.

Sighing, Charley
explained the incident that had occurred when she’d tried to gain access to
the venue.

‘You headbutted a security
guard!’ laughed Blake. ‘You’re out of control!’

‘Thanks,’ she replied
flatly. ‘That’s what everyone here thinks too. And after last night
I’ve ruined any chance of gaining Ash’s confidence.
He now thinks
I’m highly strung. A liability. He hasn’t let me anywhere near him all
day. How am I supposed to protect him? The only person showing any faith in me is
Big T.’

‘Best person to have on your
side.’

‘I suppose so,’ said
Charley, pacing the corridor outside Ash’s dressing room. ‘I’ve
been learning a lot from him about celebrity protection. He really knows
his
stuff.’

‘He should do,’ said Blake.
‘He’s been in the game long enough. And that’s what you have to
remember. This may be your sixth assignment – more than any other Buddyguard
recruit – but that’s nothing compared to his experience. Hang on in
there, Charley. I’m sure as the tour goes on, things will calm down. Just keep
your head and do the best you can. I’ve
faith in you too.’

‘Thanks, Blake,’ she
replied, feeling better with his support.

‘I’m missing you, by the
way.’

‘Yeah, I’m
miss–’

‘Charley!’ called out a
gruff voice.

Covering her mobile with a hand, she
turned to see Big T’s bulky frame heading down the corridor towards her.
‘You need to hear this,’ he said.

Blake’s
muffled voice sounded from
the mobile’s speaker. ‘Charley, are you still
there?’

She took her hand away and put the
speaker to her ear. ‘I’ll call you back.’

Ending the call, she slipped the phone
into her pocket. Her mouth had gone dry and her chest tightened at Big T’s
approach. She feared that he’d reassessed her actions in the cold light of day
– and the conclusion wasn’t good.

‘What’s
up?’ she
asked.

Big T scratched at the stubble on his
chin. ‘I’ve just heard from the venue manager that the corporate box
being renovated was broken into last night. Also, the fire exit nearby had been
jammed open.’

Charley’s jaw went slack.
‘You mean … I was right, after all?’

Big T gave a non-committal shrug.
‘We’ve no proof of a shooter, but there was certainly
an intruder.
Whatever, I’m taking no chances tonight. There’ll be guards patrolling
the boxes. Terry’s been updated and it’s gone a long way to easing his
concerns about you. I’ve informed Ms Gibson too.’

‘Thanks. What about
Ash?’

‘I’ll tell him after
tonight’s show. Best let him focus on his performance rather than worry about
getting shot or not.’ As Big T strode
off, he patted her on the back with one
of his meaty hands. ‘Good work, Charley.’

Charley allowed herself a smile. Her gut
reaction hadn’t failed her. There
had
been a threat to Ash’s
life. While it wasn’t good news for Ash, it did mean her actions
on stage were justified. The tension she’d felt in her
chest subsided.

Pulling her phone from her pocket, she
went to dial
Blake’s number when the door to Ash’s dressing room burst
open and his bassist rushed out. His eyes were wide with panic.

‘Charley, come quick!’ he
cried, seizing her by the arm.

They ran into the dressing room. The
other members of the band were crowded round Ash, who lay on the floor not
moving.

‘What’s happened?’
Charley demanded, hurrying to his side.

‘I
don’t know,’
replied the bassist. ‘He simply collapsed.’

The drummer knelt beside Ash’s
prone body. ‘He’s not breathing!’

‘Move back, everyone,’
instructed Charley, trying to get a grip on the situation.
Dr ABC
flashed
through her head. There was no apparent danger. The floor was clear and Ash
wasn’t touching anything electrical.

She knelt down next to his head.
‘Ash? Are you all right?’

No response.

She gently shook his shoulder. Still no
response.

Airway was next. After checking nothing
was blocking his mouth, she tilted his head back and lifted his chin to open his
airway. Then she placed her cheek close to his mouth and nose and looked down his
body for any signs of breathing. She waited ten seconds but felt and saw
nothing. A
spike of alarm shot through her.

‘Call 911,’ she ordered.
‘We need an ambulance
fast
.’

While the bassist
fumbled for his phone, Charley assessed Ash’s circulation. There was no
obvious sign of bleeding. She checked his pulse. A little fast but strong. That was
a good sign. But he still wasn’t breathing. She had to begin CPR
immediately.

Pinching Ash’s
nose, Charley took
a deep breath and placed her lips around his mouth. Before she could breathe out, an
arm wrapped round her waist and a tongue caressed her own. Ash’s eyes opened
and met her startled gaze as he began to kiss her in earnest.

Charley leapt away in shock.

‘Now that’s what I call
mouth-to-mouth resuscitation!’ cracked the bassist, having taken a video of
the intimate moment with his phone.

The other band members were all
apparently in on the joke. They laughed heartily.

‘I thought you were dying,’
Charley exclaimed, wiping the back of her hand across her lips in disgust.

Ash sat up and grinned mischievously.
‘One false alarm deserves another!’

Charley was too stunned to reply.

‘Go on, admit it. You liked
it,’ he said, getting to his feet. ‘Most girls would give their right
arm to kiss me.’

Now over the initial shock, Charley felt
a surge of anger at being duped. She was even more outraged at Ash’s arrogance
that he imagined she’d liked it!

Charley responded with a tight smile.
‘How lucky I am.’ Then she drew closer and whispered in his ear,
‘You
ever
try to kiss me
again, I’ll break your arm.’

Ash laughed it off.
‘Worth the risk!’

He waltzed out of the door with the rest
of his band, their laughter echoing down the corridor as they headed for the
stage.