Bodyguard: Ransom (Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

sure you’ve trampled over many innocent people on your way up the political ladder.’
    ‘Yes … but this is different.’
    The voice gave a hollow laugh. ‘No, Harry, this is no different. Politics is just as ruthless as revenge. It’s just with politics you inflict harm
before
someone has done you an injury. With revenge, at least it’s after the act – a lot more honourable.’
    ‘I’m not sure I’m a hundred per cent comfortable with this,’ Harry admitted, feeling the situation slipping out of his control. He only wanted to wreck Sterling’s credibility and distract him from the campaign against him.
    ‘Too late, Harry, you’re up to your neck now. And I can assure you, Mr Sterling has no qualms about crushing you. But don’t you worry – my men will do the dirty work. The question is: do you have the means to make it happen?’
    ‘Y … yes,’ Harry replied, reaching into his jacket pocket and taking out a thick brown envelope, stuffed with five hundred crisp $100 notes.
    A waiter eerily emerged from the shadows – or at least the man carried a waiter’s tray. With a prominent tattoo and gorilla-like hands more suited to brutal work than simply serving food, the shadowy figure wasn’t an obvious choice for a high-class establishment. Harry laid the envelope on the tray and the ‘waiter’ departed without a word.
    ‘When will the “campaign” begin?’ he asked.
    The adjacent booth was silent.
    ‘I said, when will you make a start?’
    Still Harry got no answer. Warily, he rose from his seat and peeked over the divide. The booth was empty, exceptfor a wireless loudspeaker on the table. His contact had never even been in the room with him.
    Making his way past the cloakroom, Harry headed for the rear exit where a bald-headed bouncer in wrap-around shades opened the fire door for him. Sunlight burst into the darkened corridor, dazzling Harry as if a police spotlight had caught him in the act. His heart racing, he scuttled out of the building and into the alleyway. The door clanged shut behind him with a booming finality that signalled there was no going back.

 
    Connor snatched for every breath as he sprinted headlong down the indoor track. His heart pounded in his chest and his muscles burned. Jason was neck-and-neck with him. Elsa from Bravo team was close on their tail, as was Sean from Delta. The other recruits followed up behind, some already struggling with the intense circuit.
    ‘Come on, AMIR! Don’t be the first to quit; a bodyguard needs to be fit!’ bellowed Steve as he ran alongside them with apparent ease.
    A towering slab of honed muscle, his limbs seemingly hewn from black marble, the ex-British Special Forces soldier was their unarmed combat instructor and fitness coach. He’d summoned the three Buddyguard teams – Alpha, Bravo and Delta – to the sports hall for one of his infamous circuit training sessions. To ensure their full commitment, he’d pitted them against one another and, with group pride at stake, no team wanted to be last.
    ‘No pain, no gain,’ called out Steve, offering questionable incentive to the stragglers.
    Connor reached the end of the shuttle sprint anddropped to the floor for fifty knuckle press-ups. Beside him, Jason pumped away like a jackhammer, clicking off reps every second. More students joined them, racing to catch up. Connor felt the burn in his triceps. But compared with the mental overload of an operational briefing the physical exercise was a relief.
    Amir dropped down next to him, the last of Alpha team. ‘I think … I might … die,’ he gasped in between press-ups.
    ‘That’s the spirit,’ said Steve, grinning a bright white smile at his student’s torment. ‘It means you’re putting in one hundred per cent effort.’
    He stood sentry over the teams, ensuring no one skipped a rep.
    ‘An unfit bodyguard is a liability,’ he told them. ‘Not only to himself but also to other members of the team, and most of all to