Chapter 34
Dechrau Newydd - New Start
Rhys
Ialways know when I’ve been staring at my screen for too long cos the words start jumping around and blurring.
‘Stay still, you gits.’ I rub my eyes, then scroll to the top of the document. ‘Gwarcheidol means guardian. Protection. No. That’s not right.’ I must be losing it if I’m talking to myself. ‘Gethin bloody speaks Welsh. Doesn’t need it spelt out for him. He’ll think you think he’s thick.’
‘You should keep the Welsh. It’s important.’
Lucy’s at my open office door. Already popping by. We’ve been at work a couple of hours, and it’s only our second day back. Must be hard for her after six weeks under my amazing care.
I’m still not sold that she should be here. She had another nightmare last night. The way she props herself against the doorframe tells me she’s overtired. She needs more regular sleep before she can run around after everyone else.
‘Hey, you, what are you doing here?’ Practising my speech can wait. It’s more important I check on her.
‘I was coming by to tell you I’m going to skip rehearsals this afternoon.’
I frown and reach out for her. ‘Are you okay? You can tell Gethin if you’re not ready to be back yet. He’ll understand.’
Her smile is thin, not as shiny as it used to be.
She perches on the edge of my desk. ‘I’m fine.
It’s better to be back here working than stuck at the flat by myself.
I don’t need to be at rehearsals. I have more than enough footage and pictures for social media.
And there will be plenty of other people there who can fill Cai’s water bottle. ’
‘But you love chasing after Cai. Almost as much as you love me. Who are you and what have you done with my Lucy Taylor?’
‘She’s still here. She’s just…different.’
I take her hand and stroke my thumb over her knuckles. I don’t mind the difference. This Lucy is less likely to run herself ragged or get stressed out because we don’t have the right brand of chocolate in the fridge. Not that Cai even cares. Food is food in his eyes.
‘What’re you gonna do instead?’
‘I have so many emails. Even though Gethin got to most of them while I was off, I want to be caught up. It’ll be easier without distractions.’
‘Am I a distraction?’ I place one small kiss halfway up her neck.
‘Mmm. You definitely distracted me last night.’
‘And this morning in the shower?’
Her smile grows more genuine. ‘Yes. We were almost late.’
Who knew being back at work was the kick-starter to get our sex life back on track? Not that I’d have minded waiting longer, but it’s nice that we’ve reconnected every way we can now. There was a moment after she was rescued when I thought…
I shake it out of my head. Not gonna relive the past when there’s no need to.
She’s here and safe, and we’re closer than ever.
I place my hand on her knee to remind myself of it, keeping the stroke of my thumb along her thigh gentle.
Her bruises and cuts might be gone, but I tread lightly.
Nothing’s gonna wipe the map of her injuries from my brain.
‘I could skip rehearsals too. We could go home right now. Bet I could think of a lush reward for each email you get through.’
‘I’d be exhausted after the first ten.’
‘True. Though maybe you’d sleep through the night.’
‘That would be nice.’ She rests her head against mine and sighs. ‘But I think we should stay here. Work. Besides, you’ve got your big meeting with Gethin soon, and you don’t want to miss that. I heard you practising.’
My whole body squirms. Nobody was supposed to hear that. I’m such an amateur. ‘Everything I say sounds stupid.’
‘It does not. What are you stuck on?’
So I scroll back to the first word and read it all from start to finish. Silence creeps into the room once I’m done.
‘See. Told you. Shit.’
‘Nothing’s wrong with it. I was just thinking.
’ She turns the screen off, then slides a finger under my chin, forcing my head into a weird angle so I can look at her.
‘You think it sounds bad because you’ve rehearsed it too many times.
It happens to me – everything turns into a different language.
’ She kisses me. ‘Just be yourself. Speak from the heart. You already know this stuff ten times over, and it’s all Gethin is interested in hearing. ’
‘What if all Gethin hears is that I’m stabbing him in the back?’
She laughs, and my frown deepens. ‘He won’t. He wants you to do well. And, it’s not like you’re going to be selling all of Cai’s secrets to the world. I promise it’ll be okay.’
As if on cue, my phone pings. Five minutes until my meeting. Setting up notifications for myself now, I am. I return Lucy’s kiss, then gather up my shit. ‘I better go.’
His office is at the end of the corridor.
It’ll take a couple of seconds max to get there, but I don’t want to risk being late, and I want to make sure she gets back to her room safely first. I have to be at the meeting on time to maximise my chances of impressing him.
Start off on the right foot and all that.
‘He’s going to love your idea,’ she tells me when we stop outside her door. ‘And if he doesn’t, you can do it anyway. You don’t need his permission.’
‘No, but with it, it’ll be a million times easier.’
We say goodbye, and I wander down to Gethin’s room, a whole three minutes early.
His door’s closed, the low murmur of conversation telling me he’s in there with someone.
I’m about to settle against the wall opposite, readying to wait for as long as I have to, when a floorboard creaks.
The door opens, and Gethin barely gives Imran a second to say goodbye before our boss turns to me.
‘Ah, Rhys.’ His smile stops, and his moustache settles into a straight line. Great. Start it all off with his permanent I’m unimpressed with Rhys look. ‘I need a coffee before our meeting.’
‘I could go and—’
‘No need. Take a seat. I won’t be a minute.’
I settle on the edge of my usual chair in front of his desk.
With nothing else to do, I flick through my plans, then turn to my script.
Before I can start rehearsing again, Lucy’s words catch in my mind.
I don’t need to. I know this shit. Inside and out.
Speaking from the heart will work much better.
No more practising means the wait’s even longer.
He makes the slowest coffee ever – probably using his bougie French press instead of drinking what’s already in the filter machine.
Ground coffee from the supermarket doesn’t cut it.
If it’s not imported directly from Colombia, it’s not worth drinking.
He finally reappears with a steaming mug. Nothing for me, then.
‘So, Rhys,’ he says once his mug’s on his brass coaster and he’s in his own chair. ‘You had something you wanted to talk to me about.’
I take a deep breath. This is it. Business face on.
‘Lucy and Bethan’s kidnapping got me thinking,’ I start. That’s my script flying straight out the window. ‘ Even with all my experience, I couldn’t think of everything, but now I know more and I want to use that to help others.’
It doesn’t take me long to find the research, and I slide the open page across the desk.
‘Celebrity security needs improving. Look at those photos. It’s easy to see who’s in charge, who’s the weakest link and how to take advantage of that.
People are being put in danger on a daily basis, all because of something that should be easy to sort.
Now I’ve tightened up Cai’s details, I wanna do the same for others. ’
Fuck the script. The words flow because it’s something I believe in. Making changes, introducing more checks had to be done. It’s the only way I can make up for what happened.
‘I wanna do consultancy, look for chinks, then offer solutions for fixing them. I wanna provide teams that come fully trained in personal security. That know all the risks inside out. The same way I do.’
He flips through the pages, and I watch, trying to work out what he thinks about it all.
Starting my own business might be the next best for me, but it’s gonna be disloyal as fuck to him.
I wouldn’t be anywhere without everything he’s done to help.
He and Cai. They gave me a job when no one else would.
It’s a stab in their back to take all their training and use it elsewhere to make money.
Gethin’s face gives nothing away. Even his moustache keeps its razor-straight line. The silence grows, and my palms turn sweaty. But still he flicks, flicks, flicks through my plan.
‘Cai’d still be my top priority,’ I blurt out. ‘I could make him my first booking, get him set up with a good team. That sort of shit.’
‘That sort of shit, is it?’
Bollocks. First thing out of his mouth’s a reprimand for swearing. I tug at the collar of my top. Why’s it gotten so hot in here all of a sudden?
‘Shit. Yeah. I mean…sorry.’
He closes the binder. Places it face-up on his desk. Straightens it. He takes a long sip from his drink and settles it back on the coaster with a clink.
‘You’re a good bodyguard, Rhys. I don’t want to lose you from my team. Why can’t you do all of this while minding him?’
Good question and one I already anticipated.
‘It’s too distracting. How can I give Cai my undivided attention – which is what he deserves – when I’m also analysing other people's security?’ Plus, I’m kinda looking forward to having something I can call my own.
‘Bryn and Alina are keen to be my first team, so—’
‘Poaching my staff now, are you?’
Fuck. ‘Uhm. No. I mean. I used them to bounce some ideas around, and they seemed interested. You could keep them, or I could buy out the rest of their contract, then rehire them.’
There’s no way I’m telling him they loved the idea of working under my company. That’ll kill this deal right away.
He watches me, fingers steepled in front of him. Sweat trickles down my back.
‘On the face of it, your plan is a good one.’
Oh hell-fucking-yeah. I clear my throat, keep my face neutral. ‘Thank you, Gethin.’