Chapter Three

Lucas sat quietly in the waiting room of the agency.

God knew he needed to get his shit together, this wasn't the way he envisioned his life to go.

He'd been removed from his last job because he'd been caught drinking and it was only a miracle that the agency had called him back for one last shot at this thing.

He knew that they weren't calling him back because they felt sympathy for him or anything. They only needed his skillset.

Yes he could be a dick head at times, slacking on duty and drinking but when the chips were down he knew how to get what he wanted and how well protected his clients needed to stay.

He looked around him at the waiting area of the bodyguard agency, to his side were five other tough looking men of different areas of specialties all looking for the same job he was currently seated for.

It was funny how life worked. When one wanted something somewhere thirty to forty other people wanted that same thing.

Life was a very ugly competition.

Lucas uncrossed his legs and folded his arms across his chest. The nervousness and anxiety was building up in him like a ticking time bomb.

He didn't like long waits like this, he preferred to stay on the balls of his feet, moving, doing something, anything.

And it was this same restless trait that had led to the death of his team.

Shut up Lucas. That's the past, focus on the present.

"Mr Lucas."

He looked up at the secretary who tried to hide her blush but was unsuccessful.

"Mr Odegaard would like to see you now."

Lucas gave a curt nod and stood up from the chair making his way to the door behind the secretary who was still looking at him like she wanted to tell him something very important.

He knocked twice on the door and he heard a grunt from inside. For Odegaard, a grunt was a reply to a knock.

Lucas opened the door and stepped inside. It had been quite a while since he kastbeet his eyes on Odegaard , the owner of the agency and a retired army officer.

He was also his father's best freind.

Odegaard had aged noticeably; his once rich dark black hair was now showing grey in some places. There were eye bags under his eyes coupled with wrinkles that ran in a straight line from the corner of his eyes towards his ear.

The office was small and compact with just a polished mahogany table cluttered with papers, a metal cabinet to the right hand side, a dispenser to the left and two chairs facing the table. Littered in the walls were photographs of Odegaard's timeline in the army.

Lucas stopped short of the table and gave a salute. Odegaard nodded and pointed to a seat which Lucas settled into.

"You should know by now why we called you back?"

Lucas nodded, " I know quite alright."

Odegaard kept a cool gaze on Lucas who returned the stare without flinching.

"And asides that I'm only doing this because your father was a good freind of mine and he wouldn't want to see you going to waste and neither would i."

Lucas said nothing to that statement but he looked away from the older man and fixed his gaze on the window to his left that overlooked the parking lot of the agency.

"You've been assigned a new mission Lucas and this one is different from the others you've been given."

"I'm all ears," Lucas said, finally tearing his gaze away from the window.

"Have you ever guarded royalty before?"

Royalty? Now that was something new.

"I don't believe I have."

Well that the new mission you've been given and this one is highly classified and highly important, it's…"

"Why are you giving such a mission to me, you know my history with classified jobs don't you?

"I'm giving this to you because I know that somewhere deep down you actually have the mindset to do right by yourself. I don't care about this tough exterior you try to put up, you can drop the act with me."

Again Lucas said nothing to what Odegaard had just said.

"What does this job exactly entail?"

"You're guarding the princess of Aldorra. Her grandfather says threats have been made on her life in the past and he is looking for a bodyguard with exactly the type of your skill set and the pay is mouth watering too."

Lucas didn't care too much about the money but once in a while it wouldn't be bad to look forward to a job, after all Odegaard was giving him a fresh start all he had to do was take it with gratitude.

And try not to fuck up this time.

"Think carefully about this, Lucas. Is it a job you think you can do? This one is a bit fragile, we're talking about royalty here, if you enter any sort of scandal I wouldn't be able to pull any strings and you'll most likely end up in between a rock and a hard place."

A part of him wanted to take that job, he needed a hit of excitement again in his life but another part of him didn't want to.

But looking at Odegaard's face he pushed that later choice away from his head and nodded slowly.

"Alright then, Christian would walk you through everything you need to know, background information and every other data that we have collected on the client. You need to study it meticulously."

Lucas nodded. "That wouldn't be a problem."

"That would be all."

Lucas rose from the seat and shook Odegaard's hands which were now old and soft. The thought of breaking the older man's hands flashed through his mind but he pushed it away.

He turned and left the office. He was almost to the door when Odegaards called his name.

"Lucas."

He turned back to look at him.

"Do your best on this one."

Lucas nodded curtly and left the office.

Outside the agency Christian was waiting for him leaning against a pickup truck a cigar in his mouth. The air around him was thick with smoke.

"Odegaard said you have something for me?"

Christian flicked the cigarette downwards and stomped the end with the boot of his foot.

"I'm moving you to your client's house today. The package the old man asked me to give you is in the glove box of the pick up truck. We've packed all your essentials. Got you a fresh set of apparel and funded your account with an advance payment."

Lucas was impressed. An advance payment wasn't usually paid unless the bodyguard in question had worked for almost a month and his skills were evaluated.

"If you're thinking about the advance payment then it was because of your resume and partly Odegaard. Now get in the truck we don't have all day."

Christian was still a bastard.

Cassie stared in shock at the woman in front of her as she had just finished her statement.

"What do you mean that you're leaving. How can you be leaving and you're just letting me know now?"

The older woman sighed.

"I'm so sorry Cassie, I just somehow forgot to do so. It must be this memory of mine. It's failing me nowadays."

Bella had worked in the animal shelter for as long as she could remember and now suddenly she was leaving. She was getting two blows to her heart in less than a span of four hours.

Just recently her old body guard had told her that he was leaving. He was quitting the art of protecting people to become a full time dad.

Her heart had ached when she found out. She'd had three bodyguards in the span of a year and for her Mike had been the best so far.

Even though he was older than her, never had she had such a rapport with an older man before as she had with Mike. He was like a father figure to her.

And now Bella was leaving too. One of the only people whom she also had a special connection with in the shelter. She felt like her tiny heart couldn't handle all this.

It couldn't handle many things anyways.

She moved across the counter and enveloped the woman in a bear hug.

"You and Dean have finally managed to break my heart Bella" she murmured into the woman shoulder

"Aww don't worry I'm sure Dean didn't mean to quit and who knows your replacement might also be sexy as hell" Bella winked.

Bella was the only one in the animal shelter who knew her true identity as a Princess. She trusted her completely.

And that was speaking a lot cause Cassie didn't trust a lot of people.

"You say it like something heavy is going to happen between me and my new bodyguard?"

Bella broke the hug and threw her a knowing smirk laughing the older woman bent her head low to reach Cassie's ears.

"Oh I know you harbour some dark fantasies in that dirty little mind of yours honey, I know you more than you might even know yourself."

Cassie blushed as she looked away from Bella who had straightened up to her full height with a knowing smile still in her face.

"I'm afraid you're lying miss Bella" Cassie said In an attempt to redeem herself.

"Oh am I now?"

Bella moved aside to allow a group of people to move last with some boxes that contained animal feeds and other supplies.

"Let's drop the topic Bella," Cassie said, starting to feel uncomfortable.

"Allright, when are you returning back to Eldora. I'm sure your grandfather must be missing you."

Eldora was the name of the town that she was a princess of. She had moved over to Chicago after high school to pursue her higher education as a lawyer.

So far things seemed to be moving smoothly. She didn't like to ask her grandfather for money, she didn't believe in the fact that since he was rich everything should come under her beck and call.

She knew the circumstances of how she had gotten to that position. She had worked a lot of small menial jobs and finally managed to get enough money to start an animal shelter, without a penny coming from her grandfather.

To her it was her own way of repaying the universe for putting her in the position she belonged to now.

"I don't exactly know when I'll be going back to visit him but I'm looking at the next three

months once I'm done with my law course."

Bella suddenly enveloped Cassie into a hug again.

"Look at you soon you're going to be a lawyer, my baby girl is all grown up."

Cassie tore away from Bella, her face beet red.

"Relax Bella, I'm not a little girl," Cassie chucked.

"I know I know but I just couldn't hold my excitement."

There was a small cough in front of them and Mike, her former bodyguard, and father figure, was standing at the threshold of the door, his face looking tired.

He had certainly grown old. His hair was now a mix of his once jet black and grey hairs. Even his full grown beard had tufts of grey peeking out in places.

It was a reminder to Cassie that life was fleeting and one should treasure every single moment of it.

"Rough day?You look like shit."

"Thanks for the compliment Bella, it's more of a tough drive" Mike said stepping into the shelter with this big frame.

Even if he was aging Mike made sure he still took care of his well sculpted body.

Cassie poured him a glass of water and he took it downed it in one gulp.

"What about the new guy? Where is he?"

Bella asked the question before Cassie could.

"He's out there in the car, he's getting his bag."

"What's he like?" Bella asked.

"Chill, woman isn't it Cassie that should be asking these questions. One would think it's you that was getting a bodyguard."

"Pfft, I'm too old for that. Besides why would I need a bodyguard when I have you" Bella said, moving to grasp Mike's arm.

Mike moved back with a smile on his face, "Get away from me, I'm now married."

Cassie was still anxious as she watched Bella and Mike joke around. She wondered what he was going to look like.

Would he be as charming as Mike or maybe younger than Mike or had Mike gotten her someone who was the same age as himself.

She saw the shadow at the door way even before he stepped inside and her breath hitched in her throat.

No it couldn't be.