Free The Trouble With Bodyguards: Part 3 by Kristina Blake Page B

evils of this world. He spat on the floor, the saliva pooling in his mouth. He thought he would be sick.
    Standing, he stumbled across the room, the magazine dangling from his hand. He made it to the desk, yanking the drawer open, jostling the few items that were inside. He was not allowed to have scissors or sharpened pencils or ball point pens, as the doctors were always afraid that one of their patients would try and commit suicide, which would mean a whole afternoon of paperwork for them when they could be sipping gin on the veranda after sunset. What he did have, after it had been deemed impossible for him to cut his own throat with it when left alone, was a thick, black Sharpie marker.  He pulled the cap off with his teeth, spitting it onto the floor at his feet and slapped the magazine down on the desktop, open to the page of his angel with his wretched brother wrapped around her.
    He ran the tip of the marker over his brothe r’ s face, eradicating him from the picture. He did n’ t deserve this happiness, any of it, and Jake could not stand to see the smug look on his face. As he blacked out his eyes and filled in the void of his slightly open mouth, his mind was flooded with memories of that night. While his angel lay waiting for him to come to her, to take her in his arms and carry her away from the dark, his brother had lay at his feet, dark red blood pooling underneath his body.
    He should have died.
    There was no way that Jake could get to him, not now, not from here. It would take forever for his plan to convince the doctors to let him get the fuck out of here to work. It felt hopeless, his dreams of ever rescuing his angel from his brothe r’ s clutches. He sat down hard on the mattress, the magazine open on his lap, the pen clattering to the tile floor of his room.
    A tear of despair ran down his cheek, dripping off his lip,and landed with a splash on the picture of the happy couple. Well, not exactly on them, but in the hands of the tiny baby in her arms. Jake cocked his head, an idea beginning to form in his mind. He sniffled, wiping away the tears from his face, and stood up from the edge of his bed, staring down at the sleeping child in the photograph. He could n’ t kill his brother, not while he was stuck in this fucking place, but he could make him suffer.

Chapter 10
     
    Alex raised her hand, shading her eyes from the bright, afternoon sun. The park was mostly empty this time of day, and she liked the quiet this time gave her to think. Life had been chaotic since Mia was born, she seemed to take up all of their time and energy. She was a happy baby, full of smiles and giggles for both her parents, but the demands of keeping her fed and cleaned seemed to fill Ale x’ s days and nights.
    Rick had been talking about going back to work. He had taken a few months off to spend time with them, not wanting to miss even a single hour of Mi a’ s first few weeks of life, but he was growing restless. Ale x’ s father had hired him to run a protection service that he had purchased in the last year, and with Ric k’ s help, the company had taken off right away. The media coverage of his brothe r’ s arrest and the story of his and Ale x’ s misadventures had been a boon of free advertisement for the service. People saw Rick as the hero that he was and knew that he would only hire men who were just as competent a body guard as he was.
    Alex was apprehensive about trying to do all of the things that were required of a mother by herself while he was gone at work each day. Even though she was a hard worker, the lack of sleep from the bab y’ s penchant for wanting to play for an hour after each late night feeding was starting to get to her. She often relied on Rick to do all of the housework, the shopping,and the cooking of their meals. She did n’ t know if she could do both.
    Maybe she would talk to Rick about hiring a housekeeper. Somebody to come in for a few hours a day, just to help with the cooking