The Guard

Chapter Two- More Than Meets The Eye

Pulling a suitcase from deep within her closet, Lilianna began to pack anything she deemed as a necessity within the spacious luggage while continuously glancing to the door to try and ensure her ‘babysitter’ remained unaware of her actions. Attempting to move swiftly, she did not care to fold her Alexander McQueen dresses or wrap her Prada shoes-instead, she tossed everything into a heap, shoved it down with a great amount of force, and moved into the direction of the window with these supposed necessities. A bag of designer clothes, toiletries, and a few electronics seemed to suffice for her tastes was then hauled over her shoulder as the one-time notorious model brought her gaze to the land below. 

Having only been a few dozen feet from the ground, she prepared to make this jump and crawled over her balcony railing before taking a final look upon the room set before her. Memories of her lifetime had played throughout her mind as she recalled the day she got the call that she was signed to a modeling agency or came home to speak to Bianca on the phone following her first kiss with Zachary Duke. As tears formed in her eyes, she dried them to their ducts before allowing herself to fall towards the ground-but never quite falling the way she had expected. Aside from the harsh ground connecting with her bare feet, she was met with a rather claustrophobic hold of strong arms and a force keeping her in place. Her eyes came slowly open to find how she had been in the arms of her supposed bodyguard. 

For a perfect instant, she found solace within his masculine hold before feeling the sudden drop of her ass having met with the grass made damp from the sprinklers the night before. With Julian having ruined such a pristine moment, she grunted while pulling herself upright before glaring in his direction. 

“You-” In an attempt to insult him, she realized she knew absolutely nothing more of him than his physical features, the fact he smelled of fresh pine and linen, and his birth name. With such little information, she was unable to conjure anything that could hurt his ego, and instead, kept her words hanging in the air as she brought her luggage back upon its wheels and continued her narrowed gaze to him. “I could have been killed!” She spoke dramatically as he scoffed before looking up to the balcony she willingly jumped from and the few inches her butt had been from the ground that she was forced to rise up from him having released her. 

“I believe you’ll be fine-Considering the fact you jumped the size of the statue in Granite Park-” He spoke with disinterest before attempting to walk away from her; an action that drove her wild as she had never chased after a man a single moment in her life; and even if it had been in a physical sense more than proverbial-there she was, one foot after the other until she was practically riding his heels. 

“I could sue you!” She informed him as he turned to her with a deadpanned expression; one she was unable to read with certainty. “If a single bruise lands on my body or scar on my figure, I could take you for everything you’re worth!” She continued making her point while holding her fists clenched at her sides and her foot stomping with this continuation as if she had been a spoiled child. 

“You have done more damage to yourself in this last year in the spotlight than I had dropping you on your ass...Besides…” Julian curved his neck around her to witness the damp stain left upon her fabric-but everything else had seemed untainted. “It seems as though you have no problem sashaying in my direction to accuse me so I believe that you’ll be fine…” Lilianna crossed her arms over her chest to his words before watching him roll his eyes and leave her alone in her family’s garden. 

Her anger slowly subsiding as she walked among the calla lilies beside the coy pond, she thought of the excitement she felt when feeling her body become weightless within the arms of her handsome bodyguard. But with this kind thought having taken precedence above all others, she was reminded of the secondary actions that would prove him to be less than a gentleman, and therefore returned to her initial loathing of the man who was set to protect her. 

“What the hell are you doing out here?!” Her father questioned her, tearing her from her restless thoughts, and forcing her to rise to her feet from habit. Anger residing over all other feelings in terms of her father, Lilianna, did not allow him the luxury of a response, and simply made her way back into the home before hearing the familiar tones she had once grown excited to have echo within her home. But now, they made her nauseated. 

“Leaving already?” A male voice spoke behind Lilianna as she had turned to find Zachary Duke, her one-time boyfriend at her back. His eyes studied the suitcase in hand before then outlining her frame and finally meeting with her gaze that looked to him with confusion. “Do you hate me that much?” His signature blonde mane sat styled loose down his cheeks as he kept his body purposely close to her own. 

“More…” She responded honestly before coming to the sight of Zachary’s dad-a man of impeccable aging although he was on the brink of his sixties and did not have an ounce of plastic surgery within his youthful appearance. But of all of his attributes that were of note, Lilianna was envious of his charisma; a trait that his son did not seem to inherit from him. 

“You look absolutely gorgeous! If I were a few years younger…” Lilianna casted an appreciative smile into the direction of her ex’s father before being rejoined by Zachary; who was attempting to use his presence to intimidate her back into a relationship by brushing her fingers and remaining at her side to seduce her with the apparent bath of cologne had had placed himself in earlier that day. A man having tried too hard, Zachary was anything but rousing to Lilianna as her eyes locked upon Julian, who entered the room as a classy figure who managed to get under her skin within the first five seconds of meeting her; a trait she seemed to fancy over Zach’s desperation. 

Julian’s eyes locked to her as he sensed her distress before Lilianna was invited upon the couch beside Milton; Zachary’s fraternal parent. “How does it feel to be back home?” He began to interrogate her as she offered kind yet vague responses while she began to fiddle with the edge of her nails from anxiety. This impromptu questioning came to a cessation when Zachary then took it upon himself to lead the conversation. “Can we have a moment to talk? I never really got to explain-”

“There isn’t a need…” She attempted to remain classy for the sake of her family name that was already smudged by her sibling, as Zachary continued to push her. “I appreciate it...your attempts; the calls, the flowers-”

“Flowers?” He interrupted her in complete confusion before the sudden scream of her mother could be heard in the foyer of the home. Immediately, everyone moved directly upon their feet and towards the origin of the sound before coming to a box set upon the ground with a slew of cockroaches making their way around the hardwood floors adorned by expensive but rather plain rugs. 

“Farah! What was that?!”

“A messenger came to the door with a package for Lili…” The group then looked at a stunning black velvet box wrapped with a faux red bow wrapped upon the top and continuing to the bottom. “It came with this…” She commented while bending down momentarily to pick up a card that read a threat towards the beautiful model standing a few feet away. 

“What does it say?!” Lilianna begged to know but was absent from this information to spare her paranoia and anxiety. Her father set the note to Julian’s view who studied the note for a moment before nodding and setting it within the pocket of his suit jacket. 

“It is too dangerous for you to be here…” Her father informed the family as he took a moment to pace the floor before Milton spoke up among the group. 

“You are always welcome in our home...I am aware it isn’t what you are used to-but it is safe…” Both Arthur and Farah looked at each other before looking to their daughter, who was watching them with wide eyes. 

“Unfortunately, I think remaining here in general is where the danger lies. Anything coming into this home; mail, guests, even staff could be a danger or at danger…” Arthur spoke aloud. “Forgive me for rejecting your offer, although it is appreciated…” Lilianna breathed a sigh of relief as she would not be forced to endure residing with her ex-boyfriend who seemed to have a problem keeping his pants on, but became anxious about the next set of words that would then leave her father’s lips. 

“Julian...I need you to take her alone with yourself…” He began to speak while pulling away from the rest of the crowd to ensure her safety as she followed them as she became curious as to what would become of her. “I have an apartment in New York City...you will stay with her there until we find out who sent that f**ing package…” Julian nodded before turning to find Lilianna at the ready with a rebuttal. 

“You want me to be safe and yet you are about to send me across the country with a man neither one of us know?!” She questioned with anger as Julian remained tight lipped and waited for her father to answer as he remained at an emotional distance from the conversation. 

“You are fortunate any person is willing to, given your own reputation... You will go there and remain with him. He is trained, he is clever, he is strong, and he is trustworthy-which is more than I can say for you...Now go pack…” His eyes now drifted to the piece of luggage set in the entryway beside his current position. “You will need more than that...You will leave in the single digit hours of the morning...”

Lilianna stood in disbelief before letting out a huff and moving up to her room again-this time, keeping the door ajar and making her way around the room-unaware that Julian stared at her in the way he had. This time, it had been out of pity in place of anger or frustration-as if he saw something within her. But this analysis would be uncovered yet ignored as she turned to feel his presence in the doorway. 

“I don’t know why he trusts you...but I don’t. There is something about you that I don’t like and whether you have my entire family fooled-I WILL get you fired...If I do nothing else in my life...it will be that…” Speaking this out of anger, Julian nodded in understanding before breaking away from this aforementioned pity and returning to his opinion of the privileged woman standing in front of him.

“I look forward to watching you run in circles and into walls, then.” Their eyes locked for a moment of mutual rivalry as she noted the determination in his eyes as it had mirrored her own in companionship to the fire burning in both of their souls, making her understand that they were more alike than she would like to admit.