At the Montesino Mansion~~~
The situation was tense...the men that broke in were armed....to make things worse, they had taken a hostage.
"We want Tara and Irene Montesino...hand them over peacefully and no one gets hurt" their leader spoke.
Tara was more than terrified....this incident only brought back past trauma she tried so hard to forget. She covered her ears with her hands....and closed her eyes.
"Not my daughters, you can take anything else but not them" Tara's dad shot back at the men.
He was super protective when it came to his family.... especially his daughters.
"Don't make things hard for us old man, just give the girls" the man spoke again...
Like he was giving out a last warning.
Irene hid behind her parents, while Hardin shielded Tara.
Hardin studied the situation carefully.... he'd undergone proper training for this and wasn't going to fail to protect Tara.
"Tara...hey, listen to me!" Hardin whispered, pulling Tara's hands from her ears.
She was scared.
"Tara, I need you to listen carefully....you and I will get out of this,and we'll help everyone else okay" he tried to speak calmly.
He already had a plan in mind...for it to work, he needed Tara's help.
"Do you trust me?" He asked her.
"I trust you Hardin" Tara replied... he'd helped her relax and keep calm.
"Then let's do this together" Hardin said, before he suddenly stood up, pulling Tara along with him.
"I have Tara Montesino right here...don't do anything stupid...drop the guns" he said, pretending to hold a pocket knife against her neck..... threatening to kill her.
He was sure, if these people came to kidnap her, whoever sent them would want her alive.
The men pointed their guns at him, but their leader stopped them.
"Stop it, the boss needs her alive"
"I said drop the guns..and let all these people go out" Hardin continued to say.
They slowly dropped the guns...and one by one, the people present rushed out, including Tara's parents and Irene, who managed to slip away.
It was now only nine people present, Hardin, Tara and the seven masked men.
"You've got guts kid, outsmarting people like us" the leader spoke.
"Tara, when I let go... I want you to run away as fast as you can, and find your dad" Hardin whispered in her ear.
"I'm not going to leave you Hardin, I don't want to leave you" Tara whispered back.
Hardin spotted a fire alarm closeby....if he hit it, this whole place would be filled with water...and that was perfect.
Before the men could think of picking up their guns,in a swift move, he threw the knife he was holding straight to the fire alarm...and it went off.
"That idiot! He tricked us!" The men shouted in surprise.
They tried to pick up their guns, but Hardin put his combat skills to good use.....as fast as he could.
One by one, he put them down even though they ganged up in him.
He put down six of them, injuring them and breaking some limbs, and for the last one...he put a gun on his forehead and held him at gunpoint.
"I won't ask twice, who ordered you to kidnap Tara?" His voice was as cold as their surrounding.
He wasn't joking.
The man refused to speak...and he fired a bullet, just inches away from his head.
"The next one will go straight to your head... speak!!" He was not one to be messed with....he needed an answer.
These men were the same men that got away before... trying to kidnap Tara.
"I...I don't know his name, but he calls himself Mr Z, that's all I know believe me! Please!" He tried to plead with Hardin.
Not wanting to scare Tara even more...he walked towards her.
"Tara, your call...should I let him go?" He asked her.
The man thought he could use that opportunity to escape...but Hardin being a skilled sharp shooter, fired a bullet straight to his left leg, despite the distance.
"It's okay...your okay" He pulled Tara into his embrace....before she collapsed.
Hardin saved everyone... including Tara.
~~~~~~~~~
Some time later~~
The police arrested the men...and the ones Hardin hurt so severely were taken to the hospital.... including the one he'd shot in the leg.
Everything would be investigated by the police and the culprit would soon be arrested.
Upstairs
Tara's room
"Hardin, you don't have to worry so much...I just couldn't stand the blood and fainted..it's nothing serious" Tara complained like a little girl to Hardin who was examining her thoroughly.
"Why didn't you take her to the hospital instead?" Tara's dad worriedly asked.
"Sir, your daughter hate hospitals...she wouldn't last a minute there, and besides...I'm a doctor too" Hardin replied, not taking his eyes off Tara.
He knew too well, more than her own family.
"Dad, I'm alright nothing happened to me" Tara said to her father.
"Hardin is right, I don't need a hospital" she continued to say.
"I want to make sure that you're alright....Tara I was so worried about you" her dad replied.
"Dad, as long as Hardin is around, you have nothing to worry about... he's already proven what he can do to save me" Tara said...staring at Hardin.
Her dad had to accept the truth, his precious daughter was safer in Hardin's care.
If he risked his own life to save hers, what more could he possibly ask for.
"Alright...I'll accept this man...Hardin Cruz to be your bodyguard" her dad finally gave in.
"Thank you so much daddy" Tara jumped off the bed and hugged her dad.
She was extremely happy about it.
Hardin was glad that her dad finally approved of him....like he'd promised Tara.
"But if you ever get hurt under his protection...I won't hesitate to take you away from him" Tara's dad warned.
"Rest assured sir, I won't give you a reason to get rid of me, I'll do everything to keep your daughter safe" Hardin replied head on.
Tara's dad stepped out to check on the other guests and left them alone.
"Hardin thank you, you saved my family and me" Tara's voice was soft while talking to him.
"Its my duty to keep you safe, I won't let anything bad happen to you" Hardin replied.
Tara stared at him with discontent....she wasn't satisfied with his answer.
She approached him with slow footsteps, while he moved backwards until she had him trapped on the wall.
"Be honest with me Hardin, have you fallen head over heels for me?" She asked in a playful tone.
The closer she got,the more Hardin felt his heart race.
He was nervous....but she didn't realize it.
"What do you think?" He answered the question with another question.
Tara also knew Hardin well, he'd never confess his real feelings to her even if she pestered him.....like she did during their high school days.
She thought her love was one sided.
"Forget it, all this got me hungry...we should head out and eat" Tara changed the topic immediately.
She planned to walk away from him, but Hardin grabbed her hand and stopped her.
Without saying anything,he took off his coat and draped it over her shoulders.
"You might catch a cold" he whispered, having her close.
"Thank you" Tara replied softly.
Even though he couldn't confess, his actions spoke.
They both walked out of her room, with Tara in front and him right behind her.
Downstairs~~
Outside
"Did you see him, that young man is my hero now"
"He's so amazing"
"He's not only hot, but a fighter too, taking down seven armed men all on his own!"
"Tara is so lucky to have him by her side"
Everyone was talking about Hardin...and some few about the disaster at Irene's engagement party. The groom to be didn't even show up.
Things weren't going right for Irene at all. Some guests had already even left....after such am incident that risked their lives, they couldn't stay behind...even for a single second.
"Mom, everything is ruined...no one will take me seriously anymore..." Irene cried.
Her engagement had been ruined....and made the news.
"It's not over baby, you can still get engaged to Archie, just like you've always wanted" her mom tried to cheer her up.
"But mom, Archie isn't anywhere in sight! I almost got kidnapped if it wasn't for Tara's bodyguard saving everyone!" She snapped at her mom.
"Why can't I be lucky like Tara mom, why is it always me having a bad ending!" Irene continued to complain.
She couldn't take it anymore...she ran back into the house, only to come face to face with Tara.
"I'm sorry about your engagement party Irene" Tara sincerely felt bad for her.
"Don't pretend to be sorry for me..... I know you didn't want the engagement to go through" Irene replied.
"Irene, how can you still say that? It's me who wanted this engagement to happen the most" Tara said.
"You know I don't love Archie, I only see him as a friend" she continued to say.
Irene only felt pure hatred and envy for her little sister...why did she receive the love from the people she cared about the most wholeheartedly.....while all she got was their sympathy.
She almost lost control and tried to slap Tara, but Hardin caught her hand before she could. No body would dare to hurt her while he was around.
"Let go of me! Tara, you're not needed here,I didn't even want you to come to my party...just leave"Irene angrily said, after removing her hand from Hardin's.
"It was a pure mistake coming back here....you don't deserve my love as my older sister Irene" Tara was deeply hurt.
She almost cried.
She hurriedly walked out of the house...before her emotions got the best of her..... Hardin following behind her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile
Archie's hideout~~~~
"Those idiots! they couldn't even handle a single pathetic bodyguard! Is this even a joke!" Archie threw the things on his desk to the floor in anger.
All his plans backfired and were ruined by one person again.
He initially planned to stop the engagement by kidnapping Irene for a while, he'd send her back eventually...he wasn't going to harm her.
And as for Tara, he planned to kidnap her and force her to get married to him.
His love for her had turned into an obsession.
An obsession that was driving him mad to such a point that he could even kill, just to have her by his side.
"Tara my love....why do you keep on doing this to me!" He stared at the picture of Tara he had on his wall.
"I want to create a future for the both of us, but you keep on getting away from me" he spoke to the picture...like some kind of psycho.
"But it's not your fault, it's him, that bodyguard... he's an obstacle to our happiness...but don't worry, I'll remove him from the picture soon....so we can be together" he was really crazy.
Crazy in love with Tara.
He remembered, back when they were still children....while his own family treated him cruelly and had him sent to the country side, it was always Tara who was there for him when he needed someone.
They became best friends and very close to the point that they'd made a promise to marry each other when they were old enough...but it seemed only Archie kept those memories.
Those special memories and Tara didn't.
Letting her go wasn't going to be easy for him. Never had he ever imagined about that.... if it meant sacrificing everything he had now just to have her, he wouldn't hesitate to do it.
But first things were first, he hadn't shown up at the engagement party... the police were definitely going to interrogate his men and Tara's family.
His absence would make him a suspect...and that was the last thing he wanted, for Tara to be suspicious of him and push him away even further.
He suddenly thought of a way that would make him come out clean from everything that had happened.
A way that would make him gain Tara's sympathy and trust once again.
Getting himself injured and pretending to be another one of the victims...just like Tara and Irene.