Bodyguard: Target (37 page)

The hotel corridor was deserted, with
everyone on the roof for the party. Charley had spotted Ash and Kay talking with a
famous film producer so decided not to disturb them. No one could access
the
penthouse floor without an authorized key card – so more than likely a
security guard or a hotel employee had entered Ash’s suite, despite
instructions not to service the room without advance notice.

Charley stood outside Ash’s suite.
The door was closed and there were no signs of forced entry. The Intruder device was
in place and undamaged. Taking out her spare key
card, she slipped it into the lock
and cautiously entered.

Subdued lighting illuminated the
spacious lounge area with its deep leather sofa and private bar. The air conditioner
hummed and the distant thrum of passing traffic drifted up through the open patio
doors leading to the balcony. Outside dusk had settled and LA glowed like the embers
of a dying fire.

On initial
inspection the suite appeared
unoccupied.

Her steps muted by the thick carpet,
Charley crossed the empty lounge towards the bedroom. She peered inside.
Nothing seemed to be disturbed. Ash’s suitcases were on
the rack and his king-size bed untouched.

Then she noticed a light on in the en
suite bathroom – and a twitch of a shadow.

With ninja-like stealth, Charley
approached the door and eased it open.

Big T stood with his back to her, a
black marker in his hand.

On the mirror, scrawled in disturbingly
familiar handwriting, were the words:

YOUR GUARDIAN
ANGEL
WILL BE
YOUR
ANGEL OF DEA

‘What the
hell are you doing?’ exclaimed Charley, shocked and confused by what she was
witnessing.

Big T spun round, the black
marker now
clenched in his fist like a knife. On seeing Charley, he lowered his guard. ‘I
… just discovered this death threat,’ he explained.

‘But I saw
you
writing
it.’

Big T’s weathered face hardened to
stone. Then he gave her a sorrowful look. ‘I wish you hadn’t.’

He made a step towards her. Charley
instinctively backed away. That’s when she spotted a red block,
with a mobile
phone taped and wired to it, perched on the basin’s vanity unit. She instantly
recognized the putty-like block to be PBX.

‘What the hell, Big T!’ she
cried, her eyes widening in alarm. ‘I thought you were Ash’s
bodyguard!’

‘And I always will be.’

‘But that –’ she
indicated the bomb – ‘looks like you’re trying to
kill
him.’

Big T responded with
a single shake of
his head. ‘I’m not one to kill the golden goose like Gonzo. My job is to
protect Ash. In fact it’s the only job I know.’

As the veteran bodyguard moved steadily
towards her, Charley retreated through the bedroom into the lounge. ‘Then why
the mirror threat and bomb?’

‘Because I must remain essential
to Ash’s survival.’

‘What makes you think you
aren’t?’

‘Kay Gibson.’ He scowled at
the manager’s name. ‘Charley, I’ll let you into a secret. I sent
the original hoax letter bomb.’

Charley almost stumbled over the sofa in
shock at his confession.

‘That red she-devil wanted to fire
me before the tour even started!’ he revealed, still advancing on her.
‘Thought I was too old for a bodyguard. But I proved I
wasn’t by
“saving” Ash’s life. It worked. My contract was renewed. She even
gave me a pay rise!’ He laughed. ‘Then that Brandon began sending Ash
real
death threats. That’s when Kay decided to hire you.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘In fact she
insulted
me by hiring a teenage
girl!’

‘But you’ve helped me,
backed me up when things went wrong!’

Big T nodded, the smile on
his lips both
tender and
regretful. ‘I like you, Charley. You impressed
me from the start. I’ve seen many wannabe bodyguards come and go in my time.
Until a person’s tested, you don’t know them. And very few have the
right stuff. But
you
do.’

Charley found herself backed up against
the bar. ‘Then why are you doing this?’

‘Because you’re
too
good. After defending
Ash in Miami, then resuscitating him in Dallas, you started to
eclipse me. And, when the student becomes greater than the teacher, the teacher must
crush the student.’ The marker pen in Big T’s fist snapped in his
furious grasp. ‘I tried to get shot of you! Give you a way out with the first
threat on your mirror. If you’d told your colonel, you’d have been
reassigned. But you
kept quiet. That’s why I need
you
to be seen as a
security risk to Ash – to fail in your duty while
I’m
the
bodyguard that saves the day.’

‘But my assignment’s over.
I’m no threat to you.’

‘Yes, you are,’ he
contradicted, sorrow entering his old watery eyes. ‘Kay’s sacking me.
You’re to be my replacement.’

Charley’s mouth fell open.
‘What?’

‘She spoke to
your Colonel Black
this very evening about extending your contract.’

Charley held up her hands.
‘Believe me, I had no idea about this.’

‘Well, you do now,’ growled
Big T, closing in on her. ‘Tonight I was going to be the hero and discover the
bomb. Change of plan, Charley –
you’re
going to discover the
bomb.’

‘Me?’

Big T nodded, his expression grim.
‘Unfortunately,
you’ll set it off “by accident” – a
tragic end to a promising career. But at least you’ll have the consolation of
dying in the line of duty.’

Charley bolted for the door. Big T lunged
forward and seized her by the arm. ‘Sorry, Charley, can’t have you
blabbing.’

‘Let me go!’ screamed
Charley as he dragged her towards the bedroom.

‘Everyone thinks you and Ash are
an item. So it won’t be suspicious if you’re found in his room,’
said Big T more to himself than her.

Unable to break his iron grip, Charley
pulled out her phone and depressed the volume button. Intent on shocking the
traitorous bodyguard senseless, she thrust the arcing metal studs into his large
gut.

‘No, you don’t!’ said
Big
T, grabbing her wrist before she could make contact. ‘I saw what you did
to Jessie.’

He slammed her hand against the edge of
the bar, forcing her to drop the iStun. He kicked the phone under the sofa. Despite
having both hands pinned, Charley booted him hard in the shins. His eyes flared with
pain, but he didn’t let her go. With the practised brutality of a bouncer, he
lassoed a muscled arm round her neck and trapped her in a crushing headlock.

‘Please
don’t struggle!’ he said, his tone more imploring than angry.
‘You’ll only make it worse for yourself.’

Fighting for breath, her neck was
crushed in his grip. Charley reached across to Big T’s hand, found his little
finger and wrenched it backwards. There was a sharp snap and a pained grunt.
But the
pressure on her throat didn’t ease.

‘Nice try,’ he hissed
through clenched teeth. ‘But I’ve broken too many bones in my lifetime
to worry about a little finger.’

He began hauling her across the room
like a giant with a doll. Charley clawed at his arm, but it was pointless. His
muscles were as unyielding as steel.

‘Why did you have to find
me?’ he muttered.
‘I had it all planned. No one was supposed to get
hurt, especially not you. But you’ve forced me into this …’

Darkness began to seep into
Charley’s vision. Then she remembered the
kubotan
pen in her pocket.
Seizing it like an ice pick, she drove its reinforced point into a cluster of nerves
in Big T’s forearm. The sudden unexpected jolt of concentrated pain ripped
through
him. Charley felt the headlock loosen and she stabbed the tip into his upper
thigh. A second excruciating burst of pain caused Big T to crumple and he dropped
Charley to the floor.

‘
You really are a wild
cat!
’ he raged as he hobbled to the wall for support.

Gasping for air, Charley used the bar to
pull herself up. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flicker of movement
and
ducked. Big T’s legendary right hook
whistled a
hair’s breadth from her head. Knowing she wouldn’t survive one of those
punches, Charley grabbed a glass bottle from the bar, spun round and smashed it on
Big T’s bald head. Vodka and fragments of glass showered over him, but he
barely flinched.

‘Now the gloves are off!’ he
snarled, and brought a bottle hammering down
towards her head. But her earlier
strike had obviously had some impact for he wasn’t quite on target. The bottle
caught Charley a glancing blow – enough to briefly stun and drop her, but not
to knock her out. With her skull throbbing and her vision doubled, she collapsed
beside the sofa.

‘Now stay down!’ Big T
slurred, propping himself against the bar.

In her daze,
Charley spotted the gleam
of two metal studs beneath the sofa. Reaching out, her fingers found the edge of her
phone. Desperately she tried to get a grip. Behind she heard a tinkle of glass and
knew Big T was heading for her. He grasped the back of her top and pulled her away
from the sofa.

With a hand clamped round her throat,
Big T lifted her off the ground. Charley spluttered
and gagged.

‘You were like a daughter to
me,’ he said, looking at her with bloodshot eyes. ‘Believe me, I
didn’t want it to end like this.’

‘Nor me!’ she gasped,
thrusting the iStun into his chest. The points contacted straight over his
heart.

Big T convulsed, choked and staggered
back through the open patio door.

But one jolt
wasn’t enough. The bodyguard
was as strong as a grizzly bear. He still had her
by the throat. Charley hit him again. Big T’s body went into spasm. He fell
backwards and hit the balcony rail. It cracked under his weight. Losing his balance,
Big T began to topple over the side.

He made no effort to save himself.

‘I’m so sorry,
Charley,’ he gasped, regret in his eyes as he tumbled into the darkness.

But his muscles were still locked out by
the iStun – and Charley was caught in his death grip. Screaming, she was
dragged over with him.

‘The doctor tells me people who
fall more than ten storeys rarely survive,’ said Colonel Black, standing stiff
and awkward beside Charley’s bed in the intensive-care unit of
Children’s
Hospital Los Angeles. ‘Big T died on impact, but his body
broke your fall. You were extremely lucky.’

Charley stared down at herself, her eyes
unfocused, yet seeing all too much.

Lucky?
she thought
bitterly.

Her paralysed legs were sprawled on the
bed, lifeless and bizarrely misshapen. She felt sick. They looked like a
scarecrow’s in a horror movie, feet bent at
unnatural angles. She
couldn’t feel them. It was as if they weren’t
her
legs at
all.

‘Mostly it’s positive
news,’ the colonel went on, a leaden smile on his haggard face, but Charley
was barely listening. ‘Your broken arm and cracked ribs will heal with no
long-term effects. You haven’t got any pelvic injuries, which is a miracle
– that can be problematic, even fatal.
The only serious damage from the fall
is to
the base of your spine, but the doctors are doing more
tests.’

Charley had little memory of the fall.
She recalled the bright joy of the rooftop party, the thrill of her kiss with Ash
and her wide-open hopes for the future. And she remembered the scrawled threat on
the mirror, her deep shock and sadness at Big T’s treachery and
the crushing
grip of his fingers round her throat. Then she had been falling … plunging
into a deep well of blackness. Drowning in darkness, she almost never came back up.
Perhaps that would have been a blessing? For when she did surface again, she knew
that not all of her had returned.

‘And I guarantee you’ll get
the best care possible. No expense spared.’ The colonel
paused and fished
something out of his pocket. He tried to make eye contact with her and failed.
‘Charley, I realize this isn’t much after all you’ve lost but
…’ He held up a small gold shield with guardian wings. ‘For
outstanding bravery and sacrifice in the line of duty.’

When she didn’t react, he
swallowed uncomfortably and placed it on her bedside table.

Charley
ignored the gold badge …
and Colonel Black.

‘Right. I’ll return
tomorrow,’ said the colonel, a crack in his voice. ‘Is there anything
you want?’

YES! A pair of legs that WORK!
Charley screamed in her head.

When she remained silent, Colonel Black
nodded goodbye and walked out.

Charley stared at
the two lumps of meat that had been her legs, now propped on
the bed. In her head a
single maddening question repeated over and over …

Will I ever walk again?