Billionaire's Bodyguard

Ch 4. Are you okay?

The clock hand on the kitchen wall had just shown 4:20 when Emily was already standing in front of the stove with an apron tied around her waist.

Thin smoke rose from the wok full of oil and fried snacks that were starting to turn golden, while on the table behind her, trays lined up filled with cakes that had already finished being fried an hour earlier.

Rey stood at the kitchen doorway, his eyes still half closed. "What time did you start?"

"Three o'clock," Emily answered without turning around, her hand flipping the fried snacks with a spatula. "Go back to sleep, it's still too early."

"No." Rey entered the kitchen and took a chair in the corner. "Is there anything I can help with?"

Emily glanced over briefly, seeing Rey's still disheveled face. "Please get the big containers from that bottom shelf. The blue ones for the wet cakes, the red and white ones for the fried snacks."

Rey crouched down and pulled out three large plastic containers from under the plate rack. He placed them one by one on the table carefully so as not to hit the trays that filled almost the entire surface of the table.

They worked side by side for almost an hour. Emily fried, baked the last of the remaining batter and arranged the results into containers according to their type.

Rey helped arrange things, closing the containers that were already full and preparing the wrapping plastic.

The kitchen was narrow, so they often switched places and their arms brushed against each other several times while reaching for something from the same table.

After all the containers were tightly closed, Emily carried the two biggest containers to the front door while Rey lifted the rest.

Rey tied everything to Emily's motorcycle with the cloth rope usually used for that.

"It's tight," said Rey while patting the stack of containers. "But don't go too fast."

"I never go too fast," Emily replied flatly.

Rey looked toward the side of the house, to the place where Mother Margaret's wooden cart used to be parked. That place was empty, filled only with wild grass and pieces of wood.

"Where did Mom's cart go?" Rey asked.

Emily put on her jacket. "Confiscated by the city order officers last year. A crackdown because of a sewer project."

Her hands moved to straighten a box that was slightly tilted. "Now Mom rents a stall at the market. But we've only paid half, the rest has to be paid off next month."

Rey didn't answer right away, he just nodded slowly while staring at the wild grass.

"Do you need my help?" Rey asked, "I can come to the market, carry things, or whatever you need."

Emily plugged in her motorcycle key and turned to face Rey. "No need. You have more important business today."

Rey nodded with a flat expression.

He got on his motorcycle and put on his helmet. Before starting the engine, she turned toward Rey who was still standing at the door. "Hope you get a job today."

Rey nodded, Emily's motorcycle sped off and turned at the end of the alley.

***

The central market was about one kilometer from the house. Rey walked on foot, choosing a route that passed the rows of shops along the main street because that was usually where they needed carrying labor.

His target was simple, to become a porter. No diploma needed, no special experience needed, no reference from a former boss needed.

The pay was indeed small, but if enough loads needed to be moved in a day, that income could still cover daily needs while he searched for a more stable job.

The first shop was a two-story grocery store with a half-open iron door. Rey went in and spoke with a middle-aged man behind the cashier. The man shook his head, everything was already handled.

The second shop had just recruited two people the previous week. The third shop already had permanent staff and didn't accept daily workers.

Rey came out of the fourth shop wiping the sweat off his forehead. He stood for a moment on the crowded sidewalk, looking right and left, then chose the next shop.

***

In another block, Emily had already set up her folding table on the side of the fairly busy street near the entrance to the western part of the market.

Most of her goods she had already entrusted to sellers who were already her regular partners, and the rest she sold herself on that table.

"Layer cake, fried snacks, steamed sponge cake!" she called out to the people walking by.

Some people stopped, exchanging small change for small plastic bags containing her goods.

Emily served them while continuing to call out to other buyers with a voice trained over years.

From a large, well-known restaurant at the end of the alley, a group of men came out together.

The men were dressed neatly and the people around them automatically made way as they passed.

Emily glanced toward them unintentionally, because the row of men dressed entirely in black indeed drew attention.

Her eyes stopped on one figure.

Tall, broad shoulders, hair combed neatly back. His expression was flat, and below his left eye there was an old scar, thin but clearly visible because of his pale skin.

The pounding in Emily's chest suddenly changed, feeling harder and faster. Her mind went back to the incident years ago.

The deafening sound of metal collision, followed by the long screeching sound of brakes on asphalt. Her mother's scream that suddenly cut off and the blood flowing on the asphalt.

Emily remembered how her vision blurred, however, her eyes could still recall a man sitting in the passenger seat of a car that drove slowly past the place where her parents lay.

The man looked down out the window, checking calmly, then looked forward again as the car moved away.

"That face."

Emily stared at the man in front of the restaurant and her heartbeat grew harder.

"No mistake."

Her hand, which was holding a plastic bag of cakes, began to tremble. She didn't realize she had already dropped the bag onto the table.

Her eyes followed the movement of the man walking toward the row of cars parked at the roadside, and a driver opened the door of a black sedan for the man.

That car moved forward toward her.

Emily didn't think, she grabbed the biggest plastic container on her table and threw it hard toward the car window that wasn't fully closed yet.

The plastic bounced off after hitting the glass, some of its contents scattering inside.

"Murderer!" she screamed. "Get out!"

The car stopped suddenly, the man inside stared at her with a shocked expression through the window that was still half open.

The people around that place stopped and turned to look. Two cars behind the sedan stopped as well.

"Murderer!" Emily grabbed another container and threw it again. "Get out! I'll kill you!"

The car doors behind opened. Several men dressed in black got out with quick steps.

The people who had been watching started to back away, some of them continuing on their way in a hurry.

The sedan's window was closed from inside.

"Hey!" A large man from the group behind stepped forward and kicked Emily's folding table hard.

The table flipped over, the remaining containers scattered onto the asphalt, and Emily was pushed along with it, together with the motorcycle behind her.

"Damn crazy woman!" the big man cursed from above. Two other men approached as well.

Emily got up with blood on the palm of her hand. As the first man swung his hand toward her head, she tilted her body so the blow only grazed her ear.

She countered with an elbow toward the man's ribs, hard enough to make the man groan and step back one pace.

But the second man immediately caught her right arm and slammed her to the side. Emily rolled on the asphalt, pain spreading from her waist upward.

"Damn bitch!" The next two punches hit her before she could protect her head.

At the end of the street, Rey was standing on the sidewalk after coming out of another shop that also didn't need his labor.

He saw the crowd and three cars stopped in the middle of the road, but his mind wasn't drawn there. A crowd at the market wasn't unusual for him.

Until a sentence was heard quite loudly from that direction.

"Finish off that bitch."

Rey turned around.

In the middle of that crowd, between the asphalt and the overturned folding table, he saw Emily's blonde hair spread out messily as her body was thrown and fell sprawling onto the street.

Rey immediately ran without thinking twice.

The big man stood in front of the sedan that was starting to move forward and nodded toward the window that was already tightly closed. "Please go ahead, Brother Li. We'll handle this bitch."

The sedan sped off, passing Emily who was still trying to get up from the asphalt with one hand. As the car moved past her, the man behind the window glass looked down toward Emily.

Emily lifted her head, her eyes meeting the man's eyes through the dark glass. One second, no more.

The man turned his face forward. No expression, the man even seemed as if he didn't recognize Emily.

"Stop!" Emily screamed, blood from the corner of her lips already flowing to her chin. "Stop, murderer!"

The big man snorted loudly. He turned around, grabbed the folding table that was overturned on the asphalt and lifted it with both hands, then swung it toward Emily.

A kick came from the side, hitting the edge of the table exactly before it could hit Emily.

BUAGH!

The table reversed direction and slammed hard into the big man's body, pushing the man back two steps before he fell to the asphalt.

Rey stood between Emily and the five other men who now stared at him together. His breathing was a little faster from the run just now.

He didn't turn around. "Are you okay, Em?"

***