Only Mine

Chapter 5

Anna and I had spent the past three hours in the same clothing store now. Anna was anything but a compulsive shopper. I, on the other hand, had spent the past few hours controlling my urge to complain. I had never been a patient shopper and I was currently dozing off in one of the fitting rooms. I couldn't even imagine the kind of dreariness Gabrielle was being put through. Gabrielle, or Gabe as he prefer being called, was a lean yet surprisingly strong man in his early 30's that had been assigned to Anna for her protection. He had been working with Jean's family since he was 21 years old and had finally earned the honor of being part of The Guard.  This was the term loosely implied to describe the inner circle Jean employed to protect Anna and him, which mainly comprised of Lorenzo, Alessandro and Gabe. I had also learnt from Anna that Lorenzo was Jean's Head of Security and Alessandro was his second in command, which meant he was being groomed to take over from Lorenzo in case anything untoward happened to him. 

After Anna had finally paid, we walked out and headed towards something to eat. Gabe was walking a few feet behind us, trying to be discreet in a pair of khaki shorts, shirt and shoes. I turned around and beckoned  him to come join us.

"Nah, I'm fine right here," he replies, with his effortless smile that could put anyone at ease. Unlike Lorenzo, Gabe didn't mind speaking with Anna and I and quite often joked around with us. He felt more like a friend than a guard.

We made our way to Avicii Cafe and insisted Gabe  to sit and eat with us.

"Why do you always walk behind us? What if someone attacked from the front?" I ask him. We had ordered a round of wine for ourselves, but Gabe had politely declined and stuck to water with ice. 

"Oh, that wouldn't be smart. I would sneak out so easily if Gabe walked ahead of me. I would always do that with the guard I had before him when I was in high school. The man was built like a wall and had the emotional competence of one too. He once --," Anna said, when Gabe started laughing.

"Oh man, I remember him. Rox, right? Big burly man with the weird mustache?" Gabe asked.

"You knew him?" Anna asked, shocked at the fact that Gabe knew Rox as she believed they had  never had a reason to meet.

"Yeah. He is working as a bouncer for the Batofar these days."

"Really? That must have felt like such a downgrade," Anna said.

"Downgrade?" I ask.

"You don't go from personal security to one of Paris' richest families to a sub par club's bouncer unless you really fuck up," Gabe explains to me. "All he does now is check ID's at the front gate and break up drunken brawls. Where is the fun in that?"