Protecting Lulu (Global Protection Agency)

BOOK: Protecting Lulu (Global Protection Agency)
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Protecting Lulu

By

J.M. Jeffries

Silver
Stiletto Books

Copyright
© 2013 by Miriam Pace and Jacqueline Hamilton

All
rights reserved. This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written
permission of the publisher.

This book
is a work of fiction. Characters, names, locations, events and incidents (in
either a contemporary and/or historical setting) are products of the author’s
imagination and are being used in an imaginative manner as a part of this work
of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, settings, or persons,
living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ISBN: 978-1-61979-689-8

First
Edition

Manufactured
in the United States of America

Cover
Design by Miriam Pace

 

Chapter One

 

Noah
Callahan could barely keep his eyes open . He’d spent the last week in Mexico
extracting a witness who had the spine to testify against a Mexican drug
cartel. After nearly sleepless week and twelve hours on a plane he was beat. Back
in the day, he’d have hopped off the plane, found a cold beer, a hot blonde and
called himself done. Not anymore. Even though he was only thirty-six, at the
moment he felt ninety-six. He wanted nothing more than to sink into the
comfortable black leather sofa against the wall and sleep for twenty-four hours,
except Harrison had dragged him out of the terminal and into this meeting with
a possible client before Noah had a chance to blink.

Wilder
Bennington was a tall, lean, dark haired man wearing a slate gray ten thousand
dollar suit that fit him to perfection, like the old world elegance of his office.
Dark wood paneling covered the walls. A carpet deep enough to mask any sound
stretched from wall to wall. The mahogany desk sat perpendicular to the windows
so Bennington could enjoy the view. A sitting area at the other end of the
large office contained large over-stuffed chairs in cream leather and two sofas
in black leather. This was the room of a powerful man. A man who was
comfortable with his power

The
view out the window was prime Times Square real estate. Wilder Bennington had
money and influence to go with his power. The background check Harrison had
complied and Noah had read in the car on the way here had done nothing to
prepare him for the man in person. Even though he knew as much as Harrison could
find out about Bennington and his sister, Lulu, Noah was still impressed.

“I
thought there would be more of you.” Bennington frowned.

“I
asked your assistant to put our team in the conference room while Harrison and
I talked to you first.”

“To
decide if you wanted to take the job or not?”

This
guy didn’t pull his punches. Noah respected that. “Something along those lines.”

Bennington
tilted his head to the side. “I’m not here to audition for you.”

“We
understand that, Mr. Bennington.” Harrison’s eyebrows rose. “Why hire us? You
have your own security team.”

Bennington
pinched the bridge of his nose. “My sister is not taking the threats seriously.
Every suggestion from my security team has been turned aside or simply ignored.”

Being
ex-Delta Force had taught Noah to read people quickly, a man’s survival depended
on it. Bennington was a man used to getting his way. The fact that he wanted to
hire Global Protective Agency meant things were going sideways in a way
Bennington couldn’t control. “How so?”

The
man’s jaw clenched. “Lulu refuses to believe anyone would dislike her enough to
want to kill her.”

“A
lot of people find it hard to believe someone wants to kill them.” Noah didn’t
want to look a gift paycheck in the mouth but did he want to take a puff job? He
didn’t need a New York society babe conjuring up fake threats just so she could
run around New York with a gang of bodyguards in tow like little purse dogs. But
then again, as a fairly new company Noah needed the money and doing a job for
media tycoon Bennington would go a long way toward cementing his company’s reputation.
Except if they were just spinning their wheels babysitting for some poor,
little rich girl.

“Dave
Larkins recommended you.” Bennington flexed his hands at his side.

“I’ve
met Dave Larkins. He’s good at what he does.” Larkins, Bennington’s head of
security, was a hard ass, ex-army ranger Noah had run into a couple of times in
the Sandbox. The man had a rep for handling his business.

“He
is, or he wouldn’t be working for me.”

This
guy was wound really tight. “I see.”

Bennington’s
eyes narrowed betraying a deeper level of tension. “Dave’s a good man, but Lulu
introduced him to his wife and is also his son’s godmother. She can get him to
do whatever she wants. I need someone who won’t cave in to my sister’s ability
to wrap people around her little finger.”

“She
sounds stubborn.” The background check had given Noah facts about these people,
but not who they really were. His sense of caution deepened. He wanted to say
not interested, but instead folded his arms over his chest and studied
Bennington waiting. “Why not let the police handle this situation?”

Noah
doubted the police would do much of anything except take a report. The
department was under-staffed and over-worked and the current political climate
was determined to down-size them even more.

Bennington
let out a long breath. “You don’t read my newspaper do you?”

“I
don’t.” Noah was a
Time
s man. Not that there was anything wrong with
Bennington Media’s many newspapers, Noah just liked the predictability of the
Times
.

Bennington
stole a glance at his watch. “I’m not a fan of the new Police Commissioner. I’ve
been very vocal about it.”

As
far as Noah was concerned, a guy who owned one of the biggest media corporations
could talk all the shit he wanted about whoever he wanted. From what he heard
from his contacts in the NYPD, not many of the rank and file cops were fans
either.

Bennington
closed his eyes. “I’m not risking my sister’s life on the personal vendetta of
an idiot.”

Hell,
Noah didn’t trust that man to find his shoes much less stop a crime.

Noah
considered all his options one more time. “When do we meet your sister?” That
should give him more of a clue as to whether he’d accept the assignment or not.

Bennington
checked his gold Patek Philippe watch again. “She should be here any time now.”

Translation,
the princess is taking her sweet time, Noah thought. He’d bet the twenties in
his wallet, the sister would be at least another half an hour.

Bennington
glanced at the open double doors into the reception area beyond. His face
suddenly looked pinched and worried. “While we’re waiting for her, I’d like to
meet the rest of your team.”

“I’ll
get them,” Harrison said and walked out of the office.

 

Fratricide.
Lulu Bennington pushed
open the double doors of the studio where her talk show was filmed. She marched
across the marble foyer to the elevator. She tapped manicured nails on her silk
clad thigh as the elevator doors opened in front of her and she stepped inside
with Aiden Montez, her personal assistant. How could her brother do this to
her? Treat her as though…as though…. She was going to murder him. She didn’t want
a bodyguard. She didn’t need a bodyguard. She could take care of herself.

Aiden
slid his key card through the security channel that would take them directly to
the penthouse floor where her brother’s office was located. The elevator doors closed
with a whisper and it automatically began to rise. The digital numbers on the
panel flashed as she counted her way upward. “I’m going to kill him.” She
looked up at the security camera, the one anomaly in the elegant, old world
styled elevator. “I’m going to kill you, Wilder.” No answer. She didn’t expect
one, she just needed to vent before she faced her brother. “I don’t need
protection.”

Aiden
gave a dramatic sigh. “Diva, rein it in. You’re giving me a headache.”

Lulu
gave a heavy sigh. In the brass paneling she could see her face taut with
tension, her shoulders stiff with irritation. Though she did take a moment to
assess the way her peacock blue, silk skirt and matching blouse clung to her
curves. Lanvin always treated her right. Well dressed and ready for combat, she
lifted her chin and dared her reflection to look like anything other than the
person she already was—a woman in charge of her life. Kill him, kill him, kill
him, she thought in a cyclic mantra as she tucked a wayward strand of black
hair behind one ear.

She
gazed at herself dispassionately wondering if she did give in to her desires
how she’d keep the blood off her dress. Dry cleaning was expensive. She’d
brought Aiden along, just in case she really lost her mind and hit her brother
over the head with one of the statues in his office. He stop her or least help
her hide the body. “He ordered me to his office as if I were his minion.”

Aiden
shrugged. “That’s his style.” Aiden studied his own reflection in the brass
panels. He leaned forward and fluffed his hair. Bless his heart, he gave her a
run for her money. Next to her, Aiden was the vainest person she knew. She
loved him for it.

“Wilder
is being dramatic. I can’t think of a single soul in my life that I’ve angered
to the point where they want to harm me.” She didn’t think the driver of the
car that almost ran her down even saw her. The letters, though, were a
different story. There had been something so personal in the threats that Lulu
almost shivered at the memory of reading them. But then again she got crazy
letters all the time. It was the price of being in the public eye.

Aiden
stroked the pencil thin mustache adorning his upper lip. “Since
Luscious
became the number one fashion magazine on the planet, I suspect every fashion
editor in Paris, London, Tokyo, Milan and New York is on the list of people who
want to kill you.”

Luscious
was Lulu’s fashion
magazine. Since Lulu had spent seven years prowling the catwalks, she knew how
bitter fashion girls could get. She might understand the ire of the fashion
industry if
Luscious
were like most other fashion magazines, but it
wasn’t since it catered to plus size women like she was now. Models for her
magazine had to be at least a size twelve to get on the pages.

Luscious
sold glamour and style
to the average sized woman. Lulu wrote many of the articles herself telling
women to love themselves and not be what the fashion industry thought they
should be. Women needed to be happy about who they were. The fashion industry
spent a lot of money selling unattainable fantasies and telling women they
couldn’t be anything unless they were skin and bones.

“If
all those fashion people wanted to get rid of me, they should poison my
cheesecake and not try to run me over.” Or send her ridiculously silly letters
with the words cut out from magazine letters spelling out her demise. How
childish was that?

“I’d
rather be run over.” Aiden snickered.

Lulu
grinned. Nobody messed with her cheesecake. “I’m trying to find my inner calm
here. I don’t need some big, burly, knuckle-dragging Neanderthal bodyguard following
me around, prying into my life and judging me.”

“Speak
for yourself,” Aiden quipped. “My end of the dating pool has been dry lately.”

Lulu
giggled. Aiden always knew how to cheer her up. “I’m glad you came. You keep me
sane.”

“You
brought me to keep you out of jail,” Aiden said with a matching giggle. “Just
play along and make Wilder happy.”

Lulu
closed her eyes. Aiden was right. She would do what Wilder asked, because life
was easier when he was happy. Normally her brother was an enlightened despot
who had her best interests at heart, but since the car incident, he’d gone into
tyrannical dictator mode.

BOOK: Protecting Lulu (Global Protection Agency)
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