The Bodyguard (Book 1 in the Original BOC Series) ✔

Chapter Twenty

Mara's breathing picked up again.

In a few minutes--- no, seconds---she would have to remember to do exactly as she was instructed earlier.

Hide and run.

Or was it run and hide?

'Damn it, Mara! Get it together!' she scolded in her mind.

Her blue eyes kept hold of Nathan's darkened and focused green ones. Those eyes, though in a dangerous state at the moment, were the only reason Mara wasn't in a full state of panic. She was able to restrain herself as long as she stared into those beautiful eyes of Nathan's.

And just in case, Nathan raised a brow to silently warn her to keep calm.

Just after he did this, Anna walked over smiling as she leaned on her left leg, sticking out her hip with her arms crossed underneath her bosom. She looked from one to the other, her smile brightening.

"So... Can I get you two anything else or would you like the check?"

Nathan muttered for the bill, drawing his attention back to Mara who flicked her eyes up to meet the waitress's.

Anna raised her brows, asking, "How was your water?"

Mara noticed how Anna had shifted from looking at her to now looking at the cup that was between Nathan and Mara on the table.

It was still full with a piece of napkin in it.

There was a small moment of eerie silence between the three, and for Mara, everything after occurred in slow motion; the way Anna's piercing eyes slowly shifted to Nathan and Nathan's green eyes on hers in return.

He narrowed his eyes as Mara widened hers because as if on cue, Anna's quick hands dug into her apron and pulled out two .45 calibers; each one pointed at the pair, but Nathan leapt forward and tackled Anna to the ground.

Mara quickly ducked under the table and held onto the black post centered underneath. Her fingers gripped so tightly around the cold post, they were becoming painfully numb. Her eyes were fixed on the two scuffling on the floor in front of her.

At certain points, she'd squeeze her eyes shut and felt her body jolt to certain noises that would make her snap her eyes open before starting all over again.

Nathan was struggling with Anna.

When he had tackled her down, Nathan had managed to throw himself with enough force to pin the woman's bottom half down under his. His brain was able to send a message to his hands to grab hold of Anna's wrists, and thrust them upward and away from his face. Just as he did, two gunshots rang all throughout the diner and up at the ceiling.

As everyone in the restaurant were screaming, running, and hiding, Anna's eyes narrowed up at the scowling agent on top of her, and grinned, "Smart and sexy!"

She grunted trying to tear her wrists free from his hands, but Nathan's grip tightened.

Her grin widened, her being clearly impressed seeped into her tone, "I should have known you couldn't be just a pretty face!"

Nathan grunted, throwing more weight on her to pin her down further, as he shouted over his shoulder, "Now, Mara! Go!"

Anna caught sight of the young woman crawl out from under the table and tripped over Nathan's and Anna's extended legs before she lifted herself up and turned to look over her shoulder at them.

The girl's eyes connected with hers, and Anna sneered after Nathan shouted, "Mara!" snapping the girl's delay to immediately make a beeline for the double doors.

It was at this point that Anna took advantage of the man's diverted attention from her and pulled her knee free from under him, kneeing him hard between his legs.

Nathan groaned, releasing one of her wrists, and then the other after Anna head butted him in the nose. He fell to the side, allowing Anna to sit up quickly with her focus on those double doors where her target escaped through.

She jumped up and tightened her jaw, her grey eyes darkening with determination. She pushed through the double doors and out into the open where the occupants of the diner earlier where still scattering around to hide or get into their vehicles.

With so many people running around, Anna had to squint to pick out the person she was looking for.

There was a flash of dark brown curly hair and Anna zoned in on it.

She grinned, "Hmph" when the person with the long dark hair turned around and revealed her face. The girl's eyes widened and ran to the side where she disappeared into a row of cars.

Anna's lip curled slightly, and began walking calmly towards mentioned row of cars. She ignored the screaming people surrounding, and running, from her as her attention was on cocking each of the handguns in her hand.

Each step she took pumped her with more adrenaline. And remembering the frightened look on the girl was even more riveting.

Anna scanned each of the cars.

She narrowed her eyes deciding on which to pick first. When she couldn't decide, seconds later, she chose to do the more reasonable thing.

Raising one arm aiming at the back of the cars, Anna shot at each car as she made her way down the line.

One of two things would happen, the girl would be stupid and try to wait it out before being hit with a bullet, or she'd be frightened by the sounds of the bullets and try to find a new hiding place by running out in the open.

Anna was hoping for the latter.

She liked to see her prey squirm.

Each gun shot that rang out brought no result and Anna was starting to get impatient and cursed when she ran out of bullets.

She switched the guns from each hand and checked the gun gage as she shouted without looking up, "Come on, Princess! I don't have all fucking day! Let's just make this easy on me and come out! Or---"

Anna raised her brows as she glanced around for any movement other than the other scattering people, "---I will just make it that much worse when I do find you!"

Nothing.

Anna huffed, "Fine. Be that way," and resumed her shooting with more aggression.