Read Online Bodyguard (Shifters Unbound #2.5) by Jennifer Ashley - Free Book Online Page A

house
too. Elizabeth didn't let anyone get too close. She was friendly,
yes, but any personal question was deftly turned aside or
evaded.
    Ronan had asked Sean to run her name in the
database. Sean had access to a vast network, built by Guardians
over the last two decades, which contained more information than
any non-Shifter could possibly imagine. Humans didn't know about
this network, which ran on a lot of technical know-how coupled with
a little bit of magic. Only Guardians knew how to access it, and
only Guardians were allowed to use it--Guardians being those
Shifters who stuck their swords into the bodies of dead or
near-dead Shifters to send their souls to the afterlife.
    Sean had run Elizabeth's name but turned up
nothing. She had no police record, not even a minor traffic ticket,
and neither did Mabel. Elizabeth was thirty, according to her
driver's license, and had lived in Austin for about six years,
owning the store called SoCo Novelties for five. She'd bought the
business as a whole from the previous owner who'd retired.
    Ronan thought about how she'd skillfully
plucked Kim's card from his pocket, and wondered again. Elizabeth
Chapman had picked pockets before, and she fought like a street
kid. Juvenile records were sealed, sure, but not to the Guardians.
They could hack anything.
    Sean had added the little detail that there
was no record of Elizabeth at all before her move to Austin. A
reference to an address in El Paso when she'd rented an apartment
upon her arrival in Austin, but that El Paso address turned out to
be bogus. She'd used her store as proof of residence or proof of
income for everything else, including the small house she'd
purchased a few years ago. She paid all her taxes, no
under-the-table dealings, and had a social security number, bank
accounts, and IRAs for herself and Mabel.
    So who had Elizabeth Chapman been before
she'd become Elizabeth Chapman? And why had she needed to turn into
someone else?
    The store did brisk business, but Elizabeth
closed down at eight when the crowd started to thin. People still
wandered the streets to seek restaurants or to walk down to the
bridge to watch the bats emerge, but all but the most dedicated
shoppers departed. Elizabeth turned off her sign and locked up.
    "I'm making this deposit tonight," she said,
heading toward the office. "You've been here all day, Ronan. Don't
you have a job of your own?"
    "Starts at nine," Ronan said. "I'll take you
to the bank on my way."
    "You go. Spike can drive me. I don't want you
to be late because of me. You've already done so much."
    Ronan stepped squarely in front of her.
"Spike drives like a maniac, and he's heading the same place I am.
You're stuck with me, sweetheart."
    "What place?" Elizabeth caught up her lock
bag and turned out the lights. "Where do you work, anyway?"
    "Shifter bar." He opened the back door for
her but walked outside first, as Shifters did, to check that the
way was safe. "I'm the bouncer. Come and say hi to everyone."
    *** *** ***
    Ronan took her on his motorcycle to the bank
around the corner and stood close guard--at the same time keeping
himself out of sight of bank cameras--while Elizabeth put the
deposits into the slot. After that, she was free.
    As Ronan pulled out onto Congress and headed
for the bridge and downtown, Elizabeth again felt the heady joy of
simply riding with him. She wished they could go on through the
city and keep on riding, to the long, empty stretches of highway
Texas had so much of. Out there, in the darkness, they could find
freedom.
    But Ronan had people to take care of, as did
she. Responsibility was a tether, but at least in Elizabeth's case,
it was a tether of love. She thought, as they sped toward the
illuminated dome of the capitol building and the Saturday night
craziness of Sixth Street, that the tether Ronan had found here had
become one of affection, even if it hadn't started that way.
    Ronan drove through downtown and out again
into darkness and more derelict