The Trouble With Bodyguards: Part 2 Read Online Free PDF Page B

or newspapers and glued to every inch of visible space. Beautiful faces stared at me from all angles, full lips, perfect cheekbones, hair blowing in the wind. My breath caught in my throat, my heart dropping into my stomach as I noted that most of the women staring at me had their eyes blackened out, colored in carefully with a sharpie marker. They had been blinded by him; they could not see.
                  “I stepped farther into the room, unable to process what I was seeing. Why would he do this to them? What was he trying to hide from these women that he surrounded himself with? One image stood out from the rest, one beautiful, smiling face with her eyes still glossy, bright and blue. As I searched the walls, I noted that her face was prominent among the rest, nestled carefully between hundreds of other faces, all blinded, while she stared smiling at me from her place among them. Who was this? I thought, and why was she different from the others? Why was she special?
                  “As I stood there, staring at all of these faces surrounding me, I heard a sound from the hall. Turning, I found my brother standing outside the open door, a look of horror and betrayal on his face. I was in his space, his sanctuary, looking at these pictures that were supposed to be only for him.”
                  “Jake,” Rick said, stepping toward his brother, “I'm sorry.”
                  “Why are you in my room?” asked his brother, tears brimming in his eyes, the pallor on his face reddening with rage. “What are you doing in here?”
                  “I don't know,” said Rick, stepping toward Jake. His brother dodged his touch, shrinking away from him as if he were being threatened. “Jake,” Rick said in a comforting tone, “I just came in here. I wasn't thinking. I'll get out.”
                  “Are you trying to take her from me?” Jake yelled, tears spilling down his cheeks.
                  “No,” said Rick, confused. “Take who from you? No,” he said again, “I'm not trying to take anything from you.”
                  “I knew I had to keep her secret,” said Jake, crossing to the wall and caressing the photos of the woman who could see with his fingertips. “Keep her safe. I knew that someone would come along and try and take her from me. I just didn't think that it would be my own fucking brother!”
                  “Hey,” Rick said, “I'm not trying to take anything from you. Calm down.”
                  Jake leapt at him, knocking him to the floor of the room, pinning him down on his back, his face mere inches away. Rick could see the rage in his eyes, the blind hatred that he had seen before, when Jake had turned on their mother so long ago. Spittle flew from his lips as he screamed, “You will not have her. She is mine! I will fucking kill you!”
                  “We wrestled,” said Rick, pain visible on his face. “I didn’t know what the fuck was going on, but he had flipped out. I was really afraid that he might kill me.”
                  “Oh, Rick,” Alex said, gripping his hand tightly in her own.
                  “I ended up hitting him,” he said. “I had to. He was freaking out, screaming all of these horrible things at me, scratching my face. I couldn't get him to stop. I still remember the look on his face, after I hit him. Like he was shocked that I had fought back. He didn't say anything, just sat there staring at me as I tried to talk to him, to bring him back from whatever place that he had gone to. I apologized, profusely, for both hitting him and walking into his room in the first place. God, I felt so awful. I still do.
                  “He left. Just picked himself up off the floor and walked out of the house. I didn't know where he went, or what he could be doing. I was a nervous wreck.