Car Bomb

Claire was exhausted the next day at work because she had too much on her mind to sleep properly. She got up at one point to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night too and found Alex sitting on the couch looking up facial expressions and body language on his phone.

He really was trying so hard, poor thing. Her feelings of pity only increased and she was up for nearly an hour wondering exactly what all of his 'training' entailed that he ended up like this.

"Are you okay?" Ray asked in concern after she blearily stumbled face first into a medicine cabinet.

"I'm fine," Claire replied, mortified at screwing up in front of her supervisor as she rubbed her forehead.

"I meant in general. You've been a little out of it lately."

How could she not be a little out of it when she feared for her life? Worrying about getting killed was exhausting. She never knew when someone was going to pop out and try to kill her again.

Alex had stopped every attempt so far but what if somebody managed to get past him at one point? The uncertainty was draining the life out of her.

"I have some stuff going on," Claire said lightly. "Sorry. I won't let it affect my work anymore."

Ray frowned. "That wasn't what I was concerned about. I'm worried about you not your efficiency. Do you need anything? Is there any support you need right now to make your job easier to handle while you're dealing with stuff at home?"

He really was such a nice guy. He joked around a lot but always looked out for his team. She was lucky to have him as her supervisor.

Claire gave him a tired but genuine smile. "I think I'm okay but thank you. I appreciate your concern."

Ray reluctantly let it go and they got back to work. She really needed to pull herself together and stop giving everyone else a hard time. If anyone at work knew what was going on, they would want her to go to the police and she absolutely could not do that while harboring a killer.

At the end of her shift Alex was waiting for her at the door like usual. Normally she was the last one to leave on the early shift but today Ray was leaving at the same time so he ran into them.

He raised an eyebrow at the sight of her bodyguard. "Who's this, your boyfriend?"

"Yes," Alex said before Claire had the chance to respond. "I'm Si—Alex. I'm Alex."

She gaped at the two of them in utter disbelief as they shook hands. Where had he even learned how to do a handshake? And why on earth did he claim to be her boyfriend?! Did he know what that meant?

"Nice to meet you, Alex. I'm Claire's supervisor. I hope you're taking good care of her; she seems stressed lately," Ray said.

Alex took his question the wrong way and nodded seriously. "Yes, sir. I am doing my job well."

Claire wanted the ground to swallow her whole. The misunderstandings happening here were too much for her. There was no recovering the situation now because she had stayed silent for too long.

"We should go," she said feebly. "See you tomorrow, Ray."

The older man waved jovially as they headed to her car and Alex crawled under it immediately to check for a car bomb. She was getting really tired of this routine. There was no way there would actually be anything on her car.

As he was under there, she began to question him because Ray was out of earshot. "Why did you say you were my boyfriend? He totally misunderstood us!"

"I am a boy and your friend," Alex replied calmly.

"Yeah but that isn't what that means! If you were actually my boyfriend that would mean we were dating! Oh, you probably don't know about dating either. It's what people do when they're in love with each other. But you don't know what that means either…my point is we aren't dating so you aren't my boyfriend. Understand?"

"Yes. You should stand back."

Claire was completely derailed by this. "Why?"

Alex's answer was far too casual. "Because there is an explosive device down here and I can't guarantee I will be able to disarm it."

"WHAT?!" She began to panic and paced back and forth in the parking lot waving her hands around wildly. "Are you crazy? Get out from under there; we should both run! Do you even have the right tools?"

"Yes. I always come prepared. I have armed car bombs before but not disarmed them. I know the theory so I should be able to do it."

Claire didn't like those odds. Alex was good at literally everything he did but this was no time to gamble! Lives were at stake here, including his! The parking lot was mostly empty but there were still a few people around. And what about the building? If the blast was big enough, those inside might be affected too.

"Alex, I really don't like this."

"Stand back," he repeated. "Car bombs don't have a very large blast radius and you didn't park close to the building anyway. Go to the other side of it and you should be fine. Just be sure to cover your ears."

How could he be so cavalier about this? He might be about to die!

"We can do something else," Claire insisted. "We can leave the car here and take an Uber home. You don't have to do this!"

"Yes I do so listen to me. You said you would trust me with your life so stick to your words," Alex said sternly.

She couldn't argue with him further when he put it like that. She ended up hollering. "You better be careful because if you die I'll find a way to bring you back and kill you again myself!"

"I would love you see you try. Go."

Claire went but she wasn't happy about it. She braced herself for an explosion that never came and freaked out right up until Alex appeared in front of her and said they were good to go. He had gingerly placed the car bomb in a nearby dumpster and went to the bus stop to use the pay phone and call the police tip line about getting the bomb disposal squad to come by at her request.

She wasn't happy about this—two incidents had now happened so close to her workplace, there was no way the police weren't suspicious at this point about who was the target—but what could she do? The bomb needed to be disposed of properly so it didn't go off on some unsuspecting person.