Free Beloved Bodyguard by Bonnie Dee Page B

crossed the room toward her. “You know, I was this close to
having you at Burdah’s party. I decided to wait until the party
moved to the beach where it would be easier to slip away. But your skanderi bodyguard ruined my plan.”
    The slur he applied to Ja-hun was a
derogatory epithet for OldEarth humans or other inferior races.
Leelah had rarely the term. Her friends didn’t think that way. She
bit her tongue and kept silent. Defending Ja-hun was the least of
her worries right now.
    When Danje offered her the water bottle, she
spread her fingers indicating her helplessness. She couldn’t lift
her hands far enough to reach her mouth.
    Danje started to unscrew the cap, and she
knew he was going to hold her head and feed her the water.
    “Please, can’t you at least un-tie the tether
keeping my hands down? It’s so uncomfortable, and as you said, I’m
not going anywhere.”
    Danje paused then nodded. “I guess it won’t
hurt.” As he pulled out a knife and sliced the industrial strength
tape connecting her wrists to her ankles, he added, “You know, I’m
not a violent person at heart, and I hope we can get through this
together, and with you unharmed.”
    Okay, Mr. Naïve. If you think your group
will let that happen, you’re a bigger idiot than I imagined.
    He helped her sit and offered her the water
again. Although her wrists were still bound, she could take the
bottle between her hands. Leelah drank deeply, then gave the bottle
back.
    “So, I guess this means you don’t really have
that Kingset vid,” she teased, intent on keeping things light even
while her stomach was in knots.
    “Actually, I do.” Again that creepy smile. “I
happen to have it on me. Do you want to watch it?”
    “Sure.”
    While Danje took the chip from his vidlibrary
and popped it into the old-fashioned vid machine, Leelah scanned
the room for any possibility of escape. The place definitely
appeared to be a motel rather than a room in someone’s house. All
the furnishings were outdated, including the ancient vid screen.
Danje was puzzling over the buttons, trying to figure out how to
make the machine run.
    Leelah swung her bound legs off the edge of
the bed. She couldn’t hop past him and make it out the door without
being caught, but there was an antique halo-lamp she could bash him
over the head with if she got a chance. She calculated the distance
as the Kingest vid finally appeared on the patchy screen.
    A wave of sound blasted through the small
room. Danje instinctively yelled, “Sound down” at the vid. Of
course, the old machine didn’t respond to a vocal command. He bent
over, fiddling with the controls.
    Leelah rose on shaky legs and hobbled a few
steps toward the lamp. Danje was completely focused on the machine.
With Kingset blaring, he didn’t seem to hear her.
    She crept toward the halo-lamp on the table.
Her body was drenched with sweat, and she wiped her palms against
her dress so they wouldn’t slip on the lamp, assuming she ever
reached the damn thing. She prayed she could wrap her hands around
the base with her wrists still bound together. How she’d manage to
get behind Danje with her ankles tied together and a full-length
gown hobbling her was another problem. For now, she must
concentrate on getting the lamp.
    Just as Leelah reached the table, Danje
adjusted the sound to a moderate level.
    “There. That’s better,” he said.
    Before she could reach for the lamp, the door
of the room burst open, and Ja-hun lunged inside. He fired his zynpher at Danje, a flash of light pulsed from the weapon.
For a moment, Danje was illuminated in blue as the force field
surrounded him. His eyes opened wide, one hand still clutched the
old-fashioned remote device for operating the vid screen. Then he
dropped like a stone to the floor, landing with a soft thud.
    Leelah froze with her hands on the
halo-lamp.
    Ja-hun crossed to Danje’s stunned body and
crouched beside him. He checked his pulse and searched him