Page 68 of Close Protection

Milosh has managed to seep into my mind and I don’tknow how to get him out. To be honest, I don’t think I want to. But if this is how I’m feeling now, what will happen if he finds his way into my heart?

26MILOSH

‘Are you sure you don’t want us to stay?’ Amelia asks Daphne for the seventeenth time.

‘No. I don’t. It’s your anniversary week, you should be anywhere but here,’ she answers before bringing another forkful of breakfast to her mouth.

‘See,’ Henry chirps, looking at Amelia who is sitting right next to him. ‘She’ll be fine, Meels, and Milosh will be here if anything happens, even though nothing will.’

It’s been a week since the Teddy incident and everything’s been pretty quiet.

Amelia’s concussion has subsided and Daphne’s walking at her normal speed now with her stomach healing. Her neck scar is barely visible and her arm, that was getting rewrapped regularly by Josh, and has now progressed to the large Band-Aid stage. We haven’t done any training sessions since Teddy, to allow her to rest, and with her being either in her room or the snug I haven’t had much reason totalk to her so have kept pretty much to myself, until now.

With Amelia and Henry set to leave for their two-week-long anniversary trip to Italy, Amelia asked if she, Henry, Daphne and I could all have breakfast together before they go.

‘And she’s going to the gala tonight,’ Henry continues, ‘so she won’t even need us.’

‘Actually,’ Daphne cuts in, ‘I don’t think I’m gonna go tonight.’

We all stop and collectively look at her while she casually sips her orange juice.

‘What do you mean you’re not going?’ Amelia gawks, and to be honest I can understand her reaction. Daphne has been going on about this gala for weeks, probably months, now, so for her to suddenly not want to go causes alarm bells to ring in my ears.

‘I mean, I’m not going.’ She shrugs. ‘It just doesn’t feel right any more.’

‘Daph, you have to go,’ Amelia almost pleads. ‘You’ve got the outfit, you’ve got the date,’ she points to me, ‘and there’s going to be plenty of security, literally nothing bad could happen. And you’ll be able to see your friends and your cousins who you haven’t seen in a while.’

‘I know, I know, I’ve just lost the desire to go. That’s all.’

‘Are you feeling okay? Is it your stomach?’ Henry askssincerely, his face crumpled with worry as he turns to Amelia. ‘Maybe we should stay home.’

‘No, no,’ Daphne rushes out. ‘It’s nothing like that, I feel fine. Please don’t stay here on my account.’

‘I don’t know,’ Amelia says, ‘you do look a little grey.’

‘What?’ Daphne almost shrieks. ‘No, I do not.’ She turns to look at me. ‘Do I look grey to you?’

‘Oh, don’t ask Milosh, that’s cheating.’ Amelia rolls her eyes. ‘That’s like me asking Henry if I look ugly.’

Daphne completely ignores her as she stares at me, waiting for an answer.

‘You look fine.’

Almost instantly, Henry starts laughing, whereas Amelia looks like she wants to chop my head off.

‘Right, well, if you’re not grey, I see no reason for you not to go tonight,’ Amelia counters.

Daphne groans then turns to look at me. ‘What do you think?’

‘I think you should go,’ I respond, my voice low.

Am I saying she should go just so I get to see her in whatever dress she picked out? No.

Am I saying she should go because I’ll be able to spend some time with her? Absolutely not.

Am I saying she should go on the off-chance we have to do that fake girlfriend-boyfriend thing and I get to kiss herand touch her the way I did when we went shopping? That’s absolutely ridiculous, of course not.

But am I aware that those things may happen if she does go? Definitely.