Bodyguard: Ransom (Book 2) by Chris Bradford Read Free Book Online Page B

the locker. Stifling a yawn, he made his way through the empty changing room to the pool. Never in his life had he got up so early to go swimming. In fact, he’d rather do an early morning run than a swim any day – and on a Sunday a lie-in was preferable to both. But, with his forthcoming operation being at sea, Connor figured that he needed to work on his swimming skills.
    As he stepped from the changing rooms, he caught sight of an abandoned wheelchair lying up-ended by the side of the pool. He glanced around, but nobody was to be seen.
    ‘Charley?’ he called, his voice bouncing off the white tiled walls and echoing his concern.
    No one answered. Then he spotted her body at the bottom of the pool. Connor tossed aside his towel and dived in, the chill water shocking his system. Opening his eyes, the underwater scene was a blur of blue shadows and refracted sunlight from the pool’s glass ceiling. He spied her black swimsuit against the white tiles and swam hardtoward her. Grabbing hold of an outstretched arm, he kicked upwards with all his strength.
    Charley’s head bobbed to the surface at the same time as his.
    ‘Hey!’ she spluttered. ‘What’re you doing?’
    Connor blinked away the water from his eyes and stared at her. ‘You’re OK?’
    ‘Of course I am,’ she replied, floating easily at his side. ‘I was practising holding my breath. Useful if you’re pinned down by a wave while surfing.’
    ‘B-but I thought … you’d drowned.’
    Charley crinkled her nose in puzzlement. ‘Why on earth would you think that?’
    ‘Because …’ Connor glanced towards her wheelchair.
    Charley immediately gave him
that
look. The one that said,
Don’t judge me by my chair
.
    ‘Sorry,’ Connor mumbled, treading water. ‘My mistake … I haven’t had breakfast yet, not thinking straight,’ he added by way of a lame excuse.
    ‘Forget it,’ she replied with half a smile. ‘It’s kinda sweet that you dived to my rescue, though. A true bodyguard reaction. The chair tipped over as I got in the water. I must have forgotten to apply the brake. But I can handle myself in the water.’
    ‘Of course you can,’ he said, annoyed at himself for forgetting that she’d once been a surfing champion. ‘Still, isn’t it a bit dangerous to be swimming on your own?’
    ‘I could say the same about you,’ she countered, a steely flash in her eyes. ‘Since I’ve been in a wheelchair, I’ve hadcountless people tell me what I can and can’t do. They see my disability as inability. But I soon realized the only person who can place restrictions on me is
me
.’
    ‘You’re right,’ Connor replied, holding up a hand in apology. ‘I was just … worried about you.’
    Her expression softened slightly. ‘What are you doing here anyway? You’re never in the pool, not at this time at least.’
    ‘I’m trying to prepare myself for Operation Gemini. And you?’
    ‘Swimming, of course!’ she said, laughing, her mood lightening as she lay back in the water. She splashed, twirling effortlessly with a single stroke of her arm. ‘This is the one place where I can forget about my disability. All day long I’m like a prisoner in that chair. So this pool offers me the most freedom I can experience since losing the use of my legs.’
    Connor didn’t know what to say to this. He still had no idea what had happened to Charley on that fateful assignment the previous year. But he didn’t press her for details. No doubt Charley would tell him in her own time, if she ever wanted to.
    ‘I virtually grew up in the sea,’ she continued. ‘For me, swimming is second nature. Now it’s the one thing I can do free of my chair. Yet –’ Charley spun to look directly at Connor and he saw the fierce burn of determination in her gaze – ‘my real dream is to surf again.’
    She grinned at the impossibility of the challenge she’d set herself. ‘And when that day comes I intend to be ready for it.’
    Ducking her head beneath