Bodyguard: A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance (Snake Eyes Book 1) by Tabatha Kiss Read Free Book Online Page A

for a pulse and feel the faint thumping against my fingers — although, I can’t be entirely sure it’s not just my own heart pounding.
    “Wake up, Smith!” I tap his face with my palm, hard enough to open his eyes. He grunts and I breathe a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank god, you’re alive!”
    The door flies open and I turn to see a man standing there. He’s dressed all in black, wearing the same mask and tactical vest as Mercer. I scream as he slides a knife from his holster and lunges at me.
    A window shatters in the living room and a bullet pierces his head. He falls to the floor and drops his knife while a red pool spills out beneath him.
    I stare at him with wide eyes, terrified to even move.
    My cell phone rings and I jolt at the sound singing through my purse on the counter above my head. I reach for it with shaking hands and answer it without looking. “Hello?”
    “Dani, I need you to run.”
    My jaw sags. “Fox?”
    “Stand up and move to the window.”
    I push off the floor with quaking knees and look out the window. “Are you actually out there?” A small light flashes at me from the window across the way. “What the hell is going on?”
    “Right now, there’s two more of them running up the stairwells — one on the north side, the other south. Take the north stairs down. Do it now.”
    “Fox—”
    “Now, Dani.”
    I move to the door and my foot slips in blood. “Which way is north?” I ask, wiping my toes on the carpet in the hall.
    “Go left.”
    “Should I take the elevator?” I ask, my phone trembling against my cheek.
    “No,” he answers quickly. “The stairwells have windows. I can’t see in the elevators. Go, Dani! Move! ”
    I push the door open to the stairwell. Boots echo up at me, charging fast. I look down to see a black mass bolting up just a few floors down. “Fox—”
    “Just keep going, Dani. I have a shot.”
    “You have a what ?”
    The window cracks beside me and the man falls off balance. Blood sprays my face as he tumbles to his knees and crumples back down the stairs. I look up at the broken window, too shocked and scared to move.
    “Run all the way down, Dani. Don’t stop. I’ll meet you there.”
    My lungs jolt from lack of air. They force me to take a breath and my knees lock beneath me. I can’t stop staring at the body. Red blood rolls down the stairs, dripping softly against the linoleum.
    “Dani, listen to me. Okay. Listen to my voice. ” He’s so calm and steady. It’s almost unreal. “Tell me you can hear me. I want you to say it.”
    My teeth chatter in my mouth. “I can hear you, Fox.”
    “I know you’re scared but you have to keep moving.”
    “I… I don’t—”
    “I’ll be with you the whole time. I’m right here. I won’t let anything happen to you. Say it.”
    His voice crawls over my nerves, melting into me like an ice cube in a glass of warm water. “You won’t let anything happen to me,” I repeat.
    “That’s my girl.” I hear the smile on his lips. “Now, run .”
    I lower the phone from my ear and do as he says, racing down so quickly I can barely stay upright. My heart pounds in my chest, fear blinding my vision. I’ve filmed a dozen sequences like this before but it’s done nothing to prepare me for the real thing. I flinch as my bare toes slam against the floor and I lean into the railing to support myself until I reach the bottom.
    As I step outside, a black car swerves to the curb and stops a few feet away from me. Pedestrians do a quick double take, many of them recognizing my face.
    “Get in!”
    Fox . He throws the passenger side door open and I don’t hesitate to lower myself into it. “What the hell is going on?!” I ask him again as we speed off into traffic.
    “Keep your head down.”
    “Why?”
    He reaches for me with his right hand and forces me down as a blaze of bullets pierce my window. I scream and cover my head with my arms.
    “That’s why.” He turns back in his seat and grabs a