Read The Trouble With Bodyguards: Part 2 for Free Online Page A

hope, and was about to head back to the empty house, I caught a glimpse of him, walking down the steps toward you. I couldn't believe it; he was actually there. Then a horrible thought came to me, that he was headed toward you, and I didn't know why. Fear that he was going to try and hurt you hit me, and I jumped out of the car and ran toward him. I called out, hoping to catch his attention, but he was really focused, not seeing the world around him. He had something in his hand, and I watched as he sat that paper bag down on a table. I tried to catch him, sprinting down the sidewalk, but as soon as he set down the bag he ran off into the crowd. I chased him, frantically trying to catch up, but he melted into the group, and I lost him. By the time I got back to you, hoping to take the bag away, see what was inside it, you had already packed up and were leaving.”
                  “It was the pictures,” she said, her voice far away. “He was taking the pictures, and you were there.”
                  “Yes,” Rick said, “I was trying to find him, and I thought that he might try and get close to you.”
                  “He did,” she said, fear trembling in the pit of her stomach. “He walked right up to my table. I was only a few feet away, and I never even noticed.”
                  “Yeah,” he said, rubbing his thumb gently over hers.
                  “I got into my car,” he continued, “and followed you onto the freeway. I didn't know what else to do. I didn't want to lose track of you, because I had been right in thinking that he would try and get close to you. I sat in the lot outside your apartment, after you got home, hoping that he would show up.”
                  “You sat outside my apartment?” she asked, uncomfortable with the thought that there were two men following her that day, and she had been clueless.
                  “I did,” he said. “I know, stalker. I watched people come and go, searching for his face. I saw the delivery boy arrive, a huge box in his arms.”
                  “The dress that my mom had picked out,” she said, remembering the young man who had come to her door that day.
                  “Yeah,” he said.
                  “But you didn't see your brother,” she asked, “when he came up and left the necklace outside my door?”
                  “I don’t know how he got past me,” he said, frustration in his voice. “I was watching everything. But he must have, since I didn't see him until the delivery boy was headed down the street.”
                  “Oh no,” Alex said, her hand going reflexively to her lips.
                  “He was across the street, in the park,” said Rick. “I only caught sight of him when he stood up. He looked angry, furious, and he was walking toward that poor kid. I jumped out of my car, running toward him. The kid who had delivered the dress was clueless, lost in his own world, not knowing that my brother was right behind him.”
                  “Oh god,” said Alex, her voice catching in her throat.
                  “I caught up to them just as Jake jumped the kid, knocking him to the ground,” said Rick. “I was screaming at him, trying to pull him off, but he was in such a blind rage that I don't even think that he noticed that I was there.”
                  “Rick,” she said, “what happened?”
                  Rick sighed heavily, not wanting to frighten her, but feeling as though she deserved to hear the whole story so that she knew what she was involved in. “He stabbed him,” he said, hanging his head. “In the stomach, and then he took off running. I wanted to chase after him, to keep him where I could see him, to get him some help, but I couldn't leave this poor kid to bleed to death on the