by Kat Mizera
4
Lennox
I was hot. Full-blown, outrageously pissed off. Sandor Gustaffson was an asshole, and the fact that he was going to be my direct supervisor if I chose to stay on this assignment didn’t sit well with me at all. I stormed into the house, calling to Joe. He looked up from his laptop, eyebrows raised.
“Sandor threw you out?”
“This isn’t how I work,” I said firmly. “Either get whatever stick he has up his ass out, or I’m out.”
“Lennox, I told you it might take him a little time to come around.”
“He embarrassed me in front of the king and queen and made me look like an incompetent fool. I won’t do it, Joe. I don’t give a fuck who he is or who he works for. Send me somewhere else.”
“Casey and the kids want you here,” he said gently. “And so do I. Look, go for a swim and cool off, and I’ll talk to Sandor as soon as I get a chance.”
“I’m going home,” I said. “I just wanted to pack my shit.”
“Lennox.” He got to his feet and approached me, putting a gentle hand on my shoulder. “Come on, I need one of you to trust me. Sandor’s under a lot of pressure, so he’s overreacting, but I’ll give him your file and we’ll have a talk and everything will be okay. This is a great gig for you, something that requires both brain and brawn, but also doesn’t put you in the middle of a firefight every day. Trust me. Please?”
I sighed. Joe was like an older, wiser big brother and I trusted him completely, but Sandor had pissed me right the fuck off.
“Fine. I’m going for a swim.” The water was one of my happy places, where all the bad things in my life disappeared. I could swim for hours.
By the time I changed into my suit, put on sunscreen and got outside, the kids were there. Casey and Erik were a blended family, since she had a son with Erik, an adopted daughter who was an adult and in college now, twins with her ex-husband Jayson, and of course the new baby. Erik had been married during the years he and Casey had been apart, and he and his ex had adopted a daughter named Leni, who was here for the summer. Casey’s most recent ex, Jayson, had married Erik’s ex, Liz, and they lived in Monte Carlo. There were a lot of moving pieces in this family because the kids were close and would all be going back and forth between Las Vegas, Monte Carlo, and Limaj.
It made me shudder just thinking about it, but from what I’d seen so far, the kids were sweet and well-adjusted, moving from situation to situation with ease. And they seemed to really like me, which was odd because I’d never been a fan of kids.
“Hi, Lennox!” Casey and Erik’s son, Luke, waved before jumping into the pool and splashing his sisters. The twins, Joss and Jessie, immediately retaliated, splashing him within an inch of his life, all while Leni sat on a lounge chair laughing. Casey’s adopted daughter, Sasha, peered at me over her sunglasses.
“Please come sit with me. The amount of giggling happening out here today might kill me.”
I smiled and put my towel down on the chair beside her. “No giggling from me,” I promised.
“I thought you were staying with my mom for the birth?” Sasha asked curiously.
“With Sandor, Chains, and the perimeter crew, it was overkill. We figured I’d be better served here with you guys since you outnumber Joe five to one.”
Sasha chuckled. “Uncle Loco was being overprotective, right?”
I smiled. “Something like that.”
I found it hysterical that the kids called Sandor Uncle Loco. It had something to do with an old Star Trek episode and a character named Locutus, but I’d never watched the show so it didn’t mean anything to me.
“Come play keep-away with us, Sasha!” Leni called out.
Sasha glanced at me. “I will if you will.”
I opened my mouth to protest but then realized I might be out of here tomorrow, and I didn’t get to have innocent fun like this very often. “Okay,” I said, getting to my feet. “Let’s do it.”
I played in the pool with the kids for most of the afternoon, and by the time they were ready to go inside to shower and eat, I was tired, but I opted to enjoy a little time to myself in this gorgeous, massive swimming pool. It was big enough for me to swim laps, which was what I’d come out here to do in the first place, even though I’d enjoyed spending time with the kids.
I dove in, swimming the length of the pool underwater before turning and coming up for air. I could do fifty laps without breaking much of a sweat, so to speak, and I put some effort into it since this would be my only workout today.
When I got to sixty, I slowed down, flipping onto my back and using my legs to propel myself a little more slowly as my heart rate gradually decreased. I always felt better after a swim, and this qualified. I had a membership at a local gym that everyone who worked for Joe used, but they didn’t have a pool, so I was relegated to the one at my apartment complex. That meant getting up early, before the rest of the tenants took over. I was an early riser anyway, but I liked to eat and stretch before I did any serious working out so jumping in the pool at six in the morning was a hassle on a day off.
I finally got out of the pool and wrapped myself in a towel. I sat on one of the lounge chairs, squeezing water out of my hair, and noticed a shadow heading in my direction. I glanced up and managed to hide my scowl when I recognized Sandor. I’d just de-stressed and he was probably going to get me all worked up again.
“Good swim?” he asked. “You did a lot of laps.”
“It’s a good workout on a day when I can’t hit the gym,” was all I said.
“Not much for the water myself,” he replied.
“Shame.” I got up and let the towel fall, unwilling to make some phony show of modesty. I was in a one-piece suit that covered everything. If that was a problem for him, I didn’t give a shit. “How are Casey and the baby? Everything go well?”
“It’s a little boy,” he said. “Nine pounds, one ounce, twenty-one inches long. They’re both resting now.”
“Big baby,” I said, gathering my things. “I’m glad they’re okay.”
“So.” He cleared his throat. “I thought perhaps we could talk.”
“Sure. You first.” I turned as I pulled on my shorts.
“Perhaps you’d like to shower and change and then we can get to know each other.”
“I’d prefer to talk now.” I dropped into the nearest chair. “What’s on your mind?”
It amused me to see that he was uncomfortable. Whether it was because I was in a bathing suit or because I was wet or something else, I had no idea, but he didn’t look happy as he sat across from me.
I met his gaze unwaveringly, noting his fine patrician features, full lips and…hazel eyes? Something about the color was off but I couldn’t very well lean closer to look at them.
“Joe gave me your file and I’d like you to fill in some blanks for me,” he said after we seemed to take an inordinate amount of time sizing each other up.
“Finished college in three years, was in ROTC, spent six years in the Marines, Special Forces, and have been with Joe for five. That makes me thirty-two. I did one tour and multiple missions in the Middle East. I left the military because I was tired of being broke and there was a hell of a lot more money in the private sector. I was also tired of following orders I didn’t always believe in. I’m not big on missions with collateral damage, and I decided I’d be happier separating from the military.”
“Okay.”
“I’m a black belt in jujitsu and do a lot of mixed martial arts, but my specialty is Muay Thai. I’m proficient in pretty much every weapon known to man, from guns to knives to nunchucks.” I paused. “Is this a job interview? Because I already have one. If you’d like to meet me at the gym, I’d be happy to kick your ass all over the mat to show you I’m competent, but otherwise, this is kind of a waste of time. I’m sure Joe already told you most of this stuff.”
“He did, and yeah, it kind of is a job interview because even though you have a job, Casey wants you to ha
ve this one, and that only happens if I say so.”
“Well, then, by all means, fire away.” I’d met a thousand guys like him both in the military and the private sector, so I wasn’t impressed, intimidated or amused.
“What happened in Qatar?”
5
Sandor
I had to give it to her, she was good. She didn’t react at all to my question, merely continued to fix those yellow-gold eyes on me with zero expression on her face. If I’d hoped to catch her off guard, either it hadn’t worked or she was an excellent actress.
“My commanding officer’s daughter was taken by a human trafficking ring. He went after her and I went after him because there was no way he was going to take them down on his own.” She paused, a tiny flicker of vulnerability in her eyes for the first time as she looked away and stared off at nothing. “We tracked them to a billionaire sheikh in Qatar and chased them from Doha to Abu Dhabi. Unfortunately, by the time we got to her, we were a couple of hours too late. She was bleeding out from a botched abortion someone had performed on her after the sheikh got her pregnant, and there wasn’t enough time to get her to a hospital. She died in my CO’s arms.”
“And?”
“And I killed the sonofabitch.” She didn’t hesitate and the look in her eyes was steely. “He walked in, realized she was dead, and laughed. I snapped and shot that asshole right between the eyes.”
“Good for you,” I said softly. “I’m sorry for your friend, and his daughter.”
“Thank you.” She set her jaw and looked at me. “Why did you want to know about that?”
“It’s in your service record that you went AWOL but were cleared of all wrongdoing. I wanted to know what made a dedicated Marine go AWOL and Joe wouldn’t tell me. So, I asked.”
“My CO pulled some strings, told them he ordered me to go, so he was the one who got in trouble, not me. I tried to deny it but he said I’d made the ultimate sacrifice for him, so he would do this for me, because Carly—his daughter—was dead no matter what. We didn’t honor her by ruining my life too.”
“That was the honorable thing for him to do.”
“I guess. He’s dead now. Committed suicide in Leavenworth.”
“I’m sorry.” Shit, this wasn’t the story I’d been expecting.
“Anything else?”
“Tell me about your personal life.”
“Like?”
“The basics. Do you have a boyfriend? Are you straight? Do you—”
“Joe has all this info in my file,” she huffed, shaking her head. “You’re trying to bait me to see how much shit I’ll put up with. So, let’s save a little time. I’ll put up with all the shit you have to dish out if it’s related to the safety of a client. However, sitting out by the pool, asking questions you already know the answers to, just because you can? Nah. I’m done.” She got to her feet.
“Seems to me you have a problem with authority,” I said, leaning back in the chair and looking up at her.
“Joe and Casey would beg to differ.”
I blew out a frustrated breath. What was it with this woman? I’d never had such a visceral reaction to someone who hadn’t actually done anything wrong. “If it was up to me, you’d already be gone, because I don’t like your attitude, but for some reason, Casey, Joe, and even Chains seem to think you’d be an excellent addition to the team. You could try to meet me halfway, Lennox.”
“I could try to meet you?” She laughed. “You started busting my balls the second you got to the hospital, so how about you try to meet me halfway and stop acting like working with a woman somehow emasculates you.”
I got to my feet and looked down into her golden eyes. “Nothing emasculates me, sweetheart.”
“I’m not your sweetheart, but it sure doesn’t seem like it.”
“I believe you offered to meet me at the gym, so I’d like to take you up on that offer.”
“Name the time and place. I can get us mat time at the gym Westfield Security uses, but I’m down if you’d rather do it elsewhere.”
I nodded. “That’s fine. I’ve worked out there a few times with Chains and Joe.”
“Tomorrow?”
“I can’t commit just yet,” I replied cautiously. “Casey and the baby are coming home but I don’t know what time. Until they’re settled here and we have the security schedule set up, I can’t make any plans.”
“And am I going to be on that schedule or am I packing my shit and going home tonight?”
“Let’s see what happens at the gym.”
“Works for me.” She disappeared into the house and I wanted to punch something. What the fuck had just happened? I’d come out here wanting to talk, and we’d wound up in another pissing contest. I had no idea why we continued to butt heads, but if she wanted to work with us, she was going to have to get used to the fact that I was the boss. Plain and simple.
I was up early after a restless night. I was worried about Casey, Erik, and the baby, worried about the shit going on in Limaj, and still thinking about the brunette with the golden eyes who was making me a little crazy. I didn’t know which of us was being more stubborn, but after digging into every part of her life I could find a digital trail for, I had to admit Joe was right. She was clean, had more than enough experience, and was pretty badass for a girl—woman.
Dammit, I had to stop doing that. I’d never thought of myself as sexist, but I was. Even if I’d never admit it to anyone else, I couldn’t hide the truth from myself. The fact that she was a woman, and that I hadn’t vetted her, bugged the shit out of me, and the only thing different about this from all the other people Joe had sent me was that she was a woman.
She was also beautiful. I preferred brunettes to blondes, in general, and I liked a woman with meat on her bones. Tiny Hollywood-style size zeroes just didn’t do it for me. There was nothing wrong with women like that, I’d been with my share, but the women who really turned me on were bigger. I liked some muscle, strong legs, sculpted arms… And Lennox had all of that in spades. Her body was in-fucking-credible and I was going to have to work hard to keep from staring because there wasn’t a single reason not to hire her on permanently. I mean, I was willing to let her show me what she had at the gym, because it would be fun to spar with her, but Joe and Chains had already vouched for her, and her record spoke for itself.
I’d been a little surprised about what had happened in Qatar, but I probably would have done the same damn thing. Human traffickers were the scum of the earth, and for a man with that kind of wealth to let a young woman die because he didn’t want to take her somewhere to get a safe abortion, well, he’d deserved everything he got. Especially since she’d only become pregnant because he’d raped her. I was sure it had been hard for Lennox, because killing someone one-on-one was a totally different thing than shooting at unknown enemies in a firefight in enemy territory, but the fact that she’d done it showed what she was made of.
The work we did, providing security for the royal family, meant putting our lives on the line every single day. Someone squeamish, or unwilling to die to save Erik or his family, wouldn’t cut it. Lennox would be a good fit, no matter how resistant I seemed to be to working with her, and Casey and the kids liked her, which was important.
My phone buzzed and I reached for it. Joe’s name flashed on the screen.
Joe: We’re ready to bring them home. Decoy SUV is leaving now; Casey and Erik will be in the next one leaving in ten. Everything ready at the house?
I was already up and getting dressed as I typed.
Sandor: I’m ready. I’ll wake Lennox as well.
I left my room and padded down the hall to where she’d been sleeping. I knocked quietly, wondering if she was a light sleeper. Five seconds later, she opened the door.
“Casey, Erik, and the baby are on the way. Can you keep an eye on the house while I do a perimeter check?”
“Of course.” She was already dressed in cargo pants and a black tank top, but her feet were bare an
d it looked like she’d been brushing her hair. “Give me two minutes to put my hair up and get some shoes on.”
“No problem.” I headed out to the garage, checking the alarm system and breakers. We had an extensive system, with two backup generators in two separate locations. Should the power go out and if someone were to breach the perimeter and take out one of the generators, the other would automatically kick in. We’d built a steel reinforced safe room on the ground floor that would withstand a C-4 explosion and multiple grenade blasts. There was a cabinet in the den with bulletproof vests for the whole family and I had an arsenal of firearms in a locked safe in the garage.
The house wasn’t nearly as secure as I would have liked, but it was a lot better than it had been six months ago. Hopefully, Casey would agree to move to the palace at least half the year. We were in a difficult situation with the kids, though. There were no schools in Limaj that taught in English, so the kids would have to attend boarding schools outside of the country, and if they were going to be gone anyway, Casey insisted they stay where they were comfortable, which was here. It made sense, but it was a security nightmare.
That was one of many reasons Erik had been so intent on getting the education bill passed. The situation with schools in Limaj was currently a disaster, even for the natives, and he wanted to change that sooner rather than later. He already had plans in motion to build an exclusive private school with an international baccalaureate program, which would cater to the wealthy in that region of the continent, as well as provide a way for all of the children in our extended family to go to school in Limaj. It wouldn’t be possible until the public schools were sorted out, though, so that had been his focus. Between Casey’s due date and the two attempts on his life, he hadn’t been able to get it done, so we were back to square one.
Lennox joined me in the kitchen a minute later as I made a cup of coffee. Her hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail and she looked ready for anything. I probably didn’t need to test her beyond our upcoming challenge at the gym, but she was far too sure of herself, and I had to be absolutely positive she’d follow my orders in an emergency.
