She Stood Barefoot Before the Guns

CHAPTER 1 - THE TEST

"Don't touch him!"

Elena Walsh heard her own voice break against the glass walls of the house.

Julian Cross sat in his wheelchair near the floor-to-ceiling windows, the evening city lights behind him. Calm. Too calm.

Elena threw herself in front of him and spread both arms wide.

"Stay behind me. I won't let them hurt you."

Her heart slammed so hard she could barely breathe. She had only worked in Julian's home for three months, hired as a live-in physical therapy aide after his accident on a mountain road last winter.

Julian looked up at her. There was surprise in his face, but something else too. A question sharpened by suspicion.

"Why are you doing this?"

She turned just enough to see him. Her eyes stung.

Tears slipped down before she could stop them.

"Because I promised to protect you."

Silence.

Then Julian's expression changed. The uncertainty vanished first. Then the weakness.

He placed both hands on the wheelchair arms and rose to his full height in one smooth motion.

Elena stumbled back a step, staring.

The men with guns lowered them instantly.

Julian stood over her, steady and unhurt.

"The test is over," he said.

She could not speak.

One of the gunmen removed an earpiece and looked away, almost ashamed.

Julian's voice turned cold.

"Now tell me why a woman who was sent here under a false reference just risked her life for me."

And from the hallway behind them, a third voice answered first.

"Because I asked her to."

Elena turned and saw Julian's older sister, Margaret, standing in the doorway.