"Sasha Bordeaux, I take it," I could not hide my happy smile. "Glad to welcome you here. I am Alex Reath, and it is me you will have to protect in the future."
"Nice to meet you," the security guard responded briefly.
"Will you mind if I call you Sasha?"
"No, on the contrary, I would only be flattered."
"Good. In that case, I have a question for you, Sasha... Can I trust you?" I asked without taking my eyes off her cold black eyes.
"You can trust me with your life."
"No, that's not what I'm talking about," I got up from the table and came closer to my interlocutor. "Although, wait, maybe that's it. Tell me, does this include all kinds of services? In particular, my personal life, my work, my home... My very existence. Can I trust you with all this? Won't you betray me? Won't you give away my secrets? Won't you hurt me, and won't you lie to me?"
"I am my client's shadow, and I will protect him as long as there is life in me. The shadow will not betray, will not reveal secrets, will not hurt, and will not lie. Yes, you can trust me, Mr. Reath. From now on, your life is protected by me," Bordeaux stated calmly, in a firm and decisive voice.
"Well, in that case, I hope for a pleasant cooperation," I extended my palm to seal the above with a handshake.
She glanced briefly at my hand before extending hers. "I only hope, Mr. Reath, that you will be worth my efforts, and will not spoil my good impression of you."
"I'm afraid you will be disappointed, Sasha. I am a fickle person. You will get to know me over time, but you can always be sure of one thing ... I will never lie to you. As long as you work for me, you will witness incredible events and see things you never suspected before. You will understand that the world is not as simple as it seems at first glance." My words caused a bit of surprise in her, but only for a short moment.
Apparently, she thought that she had already seen enough of the mysterious, the mystical, the great and the incomprehensible. I wonder how her fate will turn out now that she has joined me. Her history in the comics was full of ups and downs, and quite cruel ones.
She was close to death several times. In the last case, in order to save her life, Bordeaux's body was subjected to cybernetic changes. After that, she was hired by the spy agency "Checkmate", where she quickly rose through the ranks, becoming their new head, better known as the Black Queen. But I'm afraid that now all this is just echoes of her possible future. Now she is here, with me…..
She did not become Bruce's bodyguard, which means she has already lost several key events in the future for herself. But I think she should not worry about it too much. I'm sure she'll have a much more fun life with me, full of adventures and dangers.
"Oh, right," I remembered something that had been bothering me until now. "And how exactly do bodyguards work? Or rather, how do they distribute their working time?"
"You chose me as a bodyguard and you don't even know it?" Bordeaux asked, not believing her ears.
"Heather was in charge of drawing up the contract. I've had a busy last few days, and I didn't have time to keep track of everything. Luckily, my irreplaceable secretary is simply a master of her craft: she knows me and my preferences as well as I do myself. That's why I trust her to review most of my cases."
"But it was you who should have approved me for the job…"
"Yes, of course... Em, everything will be like that. It's just that I haven't had time to read your contract yet. But I believe that it is drawn up competently, so I don't think there will be any problems with this. So, regarding my question."
"I work 24/7," the security guard said without blinking an eye.
"Seriously? Where will you sleep?"
"The contract states that you will provide me with housing. According to Lady Heather, I will be living in your apartment." still with the same imperturbability.
"R-really? Give me, please, a minute…" After half an hour of discussions with Heather, in which my assistant won, the contract was approved. And from that very moment, I officially have a personal bodyguard. And, yes, now she will live in my house...
To be honest, I have nothing against it. There are five bedrooms in my apartment, three of which are safely reserved by Victoria, Barbara and Silver. The doors of my house are always open for them. Of course, my girls may be a little uncomfortable with the fact that an unknown woman will live in the apartment with them. But I am more than sure that they will quickly get used to it, and over time they will even stop noticing Sasha's presence.
After all, she is a master at hiding. In addition, all the rooms are soundproofed, there will definitely be no problems.
"So, Sasha, do you have any wishes?" I asked the girl.
"Yes, I would like to get a haircut," Bordeaux answered, running her hand through her long hair. "I haven't worked as a bodyguard for the last two years, so I've grown my hair out. But now it's going to get in my way, so I'd like to cut it off."
"In that case, let's go to the hairdresser's," deciding not to put it off for later, I grabbed her hand and we left the office. During this action, I felt how firm this feisty girl's hand was. It seemed she had trained a lot, since even the muscles in her palm had become so rigid. But despite all this, it was nice to hold her small hand.
Sasha was still in some shock that we had just rushed off and gone to cut her hair. We were already sitting in the hairdresser's, and her face was still perplexed. I suppose she wanted to visit this establishment herself later, and did not expect that I would tag along with her. And what about me...
Firstly, I could use a haircut too. Secondly, I just wanted to relax a bit and think about the eternal. I must admit that short hair suits the warrior much better. It seems to fully reveal her fighting charisma. Having finished with the hair, we went to the recording studio to visit two promising stars. We spent half a day in the studio... I supervised the training of our new performers, provided a little help to Alison with the arrangement of her songs, and also discussed our future plans.
Of course, I did not forget to introduce my new escort - Sasha. The latter behaved quite friendly with everyone, which I was incredibly happy about. It seems that she is not at all such a withdrawn person as she tried to seem.
True, one nuance did occur, and it concerned Bordeaux's suspicious attitude towards Dazzler. I suppose my bodyguard sensed some danger emanating from the mutant, or rather, her inner strength.
Sasha told me her concerns about the situation, so I had to privately reintroduce the two. My security was a little taken aback when she learned that the director of the music studio was a mutant. I give her credit, she came to her senses rather quickly and took this information relatively calmly. Later in the evening, we visited the Babylon laboratory, where the artificial intelligence Eva entered Sasha's data into the building's security system, giving her access inside.
Sasha did not understand what exactly this room was needed for, and why there was such a powerful security system here. But contrary to my expectations, she did not ask questions, but only silently followed me. I met with Kavito Rao, introducing the latter to my new friend. The doctor told me that the work was going rather slowly, and she clearly could use the help of another specialist. Was this how she subtly hinted at Ivy?
Night was already falling in the city, so having finished all my business for today, I, together with my security, rushed home. We went up to the very top floor of the building, which was directly at my complete disposal.
I showed Bordeaux her new apartments, and judging by her sparkling eyes, she was quite pleased with her new place of residence.
I told her to make herself at home, but I still decided to warn her about a few minor details. Like the fact that there were three other girls who sometimes lived here besides me. She took this news much more calmly than I expected. Apparently noticing my puzzled expression, she told me that she had seen worse things.
According to her, in the past she had a client who spent every day with some prostitute. There were even cases when he did something indecent right in the office, completely ignoring her presence. So, she would not be surprised by such things. Hmm, well... This is probably good, right? Although the devil knows what exactly I should think about this whole situation.
No matter, now what I wanted to do all day was about to happen. We went up to the terrace located on the roof of the building.
"Let's have a sparring match!" I said cheerfully, starting to warm up my hands.
"Excuse me?" Sasha clarified, thinking that she had misheard.
"I want to fight you. In fact, I have been training hand-to-hand combat for a long time with a famous master. This training is very tough, my eyes bleed as soon as I remember it. You may ask: why do I need this? I just want to become stronger ... As strong as possible," I looked at my hand, clenching it into a fist. "And it would be great if you also train me when we have a free minute."
"Are you serious? You want me to not only protect you, but also teach you to fight? This clause was not written into the contract," she cut me off.
"This is a request," I said. "This student wants you to become his master," I showed respect with a gesture, hugging the fist of my right hand with my left.
*Do you want to study with me? But you said that you already have a teacher."
"But no one forbids having several mentors. Knowledge comes from everywhere and from everyone, wherever you are - get it. That's the motto I live by."
"Well said. But I've never taught anyone before, and I don't know if I can now."
"Believe me, there's nothing complicated about it. The easiest way to find out exactly how to teach someone is to spar with them. During this fight, all the fighter's strengths and weaknesses will be revealed, and then you can choose a suitable training plan. At least, that's what my sadistic teacher says."
"Sparring? Well, in that case, let's have a fight. I want to find out what you're worth," my new mentor said arrogantly. It seems she's already starting to get a taste for it. Heh, and I guess so am I…
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