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“You’ve made that perfectly clear, and as I said before, your company’s reputation in international security rivals no other. We’re honored to be your first official celebrity client,” he said with a slight nod and a curve of his lip.
“Then why didn’t you come to us in the first place? It’s not like you knew for sure we didn’t cater to celebrities at that time. There’s always an exception to every rule,” Farrah asked.
“Farrah!” Francine warned.
“It’s okay,” Tiffany defended, waving off Francine’s concern with a flip of her diamond-studded hand and a wide smile. “The other company came highly recommended from a reputable source,” she explained with a look at both Francine and Farrah.
“So why the change?” Farrah pressed.
“We thought it would be nice if there were more female agents around,” Mr. Morgan said before Tiffany could answer.
“Female agents...what are we missing?” Farrah continued to question.
Mr. Morgan looked at Tiffany, who was putting her phone into her Prada bag. Before he could say anything, Tiffany sat up in her chair, pushed a wayward strand of blond hair behind her ear and said, “I have a stalker.”
“Okay. Any firm can deal with that,” Farrah said with a small frown and a slight tilt of her head.
“He was a part of my security detail,” she added.
“We think he might have been a part of the security team,” Mr. Morgan corrected. He was clearly not convinced, and he gave Tiffany’s hand a small, condescending pat. “We don’t know for sure.”
“Why do you think that? I mean you’ve had the same team for two years, and they’re all good men,” she said, shaking her head. “We’ve checked them out.”
Tiffany stood, walked to the window and stared out at downtown Houston. The room was quiet for several moments before she spoke.
“I found notes and gifts in my bedroom...in my underwear drawer. Every time I get a new phone number, my stalker seems to get it,” Tiffany explained without facing the group. “The last straw was when I started receiving pictures of naked body parts in my personal email.” She looked over her shoulder at Francine. “The only people who had access to my home and private numbers, other than my family and a few close friends, were the members of my security team.”
“We’ll need a list of those names—both family and friends,” Francine said.
Tiffany turned and faced the group. “Why?” she asked, frowning.
“Because they’ll need to be checked out,” Farrah said. “All of them.”
“Did you report this to the police?” Francine asked as she reached for her cell phone. While she waited for a response, she texted Meeks: Conference room. Now. And bring Robert.
“No,” Mr. Morgan said, again looking at Tiffany as if taking direction from her as to how much he should share.
“Why the hell not?” Farrah asked through narrowed eyes.
“Farrah...” Francine said with a warning glance in her sister’s direction.
Tiffany returned to her chair and took a long sip of her water.
Before she could reply, Meeks and Robert walked through the door. “Bill Morgan, Tiffany Tanner, this is our chief operations officer, Meeks Montgomery, and head of our corporate security division and resident computer expert, Robert Gold. He helped develop the systems we’ll be installing in your home,” Francine introduced.
After handshakes all around, Meeks and Robert took seats at the conference table.
“I asked them to join us because in a case like this,” Francine said, looking around the table, “it’s best to not only get the police involved, but to make sure all parties involved in your security are fully aware of the situation.”
“What situation would that be exactly?” Meeks asked Francine with narrowed eyes.
Francine brought Meeks and Robert up to speed on the situation as they knew it, and as expected, Meeks took over the questioning.
“Stalkers aren’t to be played with,” he explained with a pointed look at Tiffany. “What makes you think it’s someone from your former security team?”
Tiffany took another sip of water and said, “I had an affair with a couple of guys on my security team.”
“A couple?” Robert asked, his eyes wide.
Both sisters glared at Robert. He shrugged and mouthed, “What?”
Mr. Morgan reached for Tiffany’s hand and gave it a supportive squeeze before saying, “Tiffany, you don’t have to—”
“Yes, she does,” Meeks said. “We need to know everything if you want us to be able to protect her.”
“It’s okay, Bill,” Tiffany said before removing her hand from his grip and taking another sip of her water. “I’m twenty-one years old, and I’ve been working in this industry for ten years. For the past four years I’ve had some exceptionally good luck, which required me to be even more selective with the people I associate with.”
“Exceptionally good luck?” Robert said sarcastically as he too flipped through his electronic tablet. “You’ve had three back-to-back blockbuster movies and gained access to a fifty-million-dollar trust fund. Yeah, I’d say that’s some exceptionally good luck.”
Tiffany smiled. “I’ve never wanted to be one of those childhood stars that ended up broke and in the gutter somewhere, and my family and Bill made sure that would never happen.”
Tiffany gave Bill a smile that clearly expressed gratitude, but his responding smile seemed to offer more than paternal love.
“Do you have any idea how hard it is to make friends? I mean, real friends?” she asked, her voice rising an octave. “Let alone trying to find a nice guy? Trust me, it’s not easy. So I find myself gravitating toward my security team.”
Tiffany got up and walked around the table and stared out the clear glass wall of windows that looked out over the city. She wrapped her arms around her body and slowly moved her hands up and down her arms. The room was at a comfortable temperature so Farrah recognized the gesture as a defense mechanism and asked, “Tiffany, would you like to take a break?”
Tiffany turned away from the windows and faced her. She wiped away a lone tear that had escaped her left eye and said, “No...I’m fine. What more do you need to know?”
“Is this really necessary?” Bill demanded as he made his way around the table to stand next to Tiffany, where he placed his arm around her.
“I’m afraid so,” Francine said before she continued to question Tiffany about her relationships with members of her former security team, her friends and her normal routine—all under Meeks’s heated scrutiny, which appeared to have made the air slowly evaporate from the room.
Another hour and several cups of coffee later, Tiffany had finally decided she’d had enough. “I’m exhausted, and I have an event tonight,” she said, gathering her things. “So if you need any more information, feel free to join me at the house.”
“I’ll accompany Ms. Tanner home and get the team in place,” Robert said as he too gathered his things to leave. “While I’m there, I’ll figure out what updates her current security system may need.”
Meeks nodded. “And we’ll have any necessary adjustments made first thing in the morning.”
“That’s great. Robert and Farrah and I will accompany you to your event this evening until we can assign someone to watch over you on a more permanent basis,” Francine explained to Tiffany.
Tiffany breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Thank you.”
Francine could feel Meeks’s eyes on her, but she ignored him and continued to go through her security checklist.
Meeks pulled out his cell phone and started dialing. “I’ll contact a friend of mine at the police department—”
“Is that necessary?” Mr. Morgan questioned Meeks. “The way I understand it, you have better resources than most police departments across the country. Besides, we really don’t want the press to get wind of any of this. Why can’t you just handle this on your own?”
“You didn’t let me finish,” Meeks added. “I’ll see if he’s willing to make a house call and take the police report there. That way, there’s less of a chance of this news getting out. There are protocols with everything we do, and while we will do everything in our power to find the person that’s behind all this, our priority has to be to keep Tiffany...” he slid a glance at Francine, “and our team safe,” Meeks told Mr. Morgan, leaving no question as to his priorities.
“Having the police work with us on finding Tiffany’s stalker will hopefully make apprehending him that much easier,” Francine offered. “And the sooner we can put that person behind bars, the sooner we can get Tiffany settled into that routine we discussed earlier,” she reminded Mr. Morgan, who acknowledged her statement with a simple nod.
“Thanks, I’d appreciate that,” Tiffany said, making her way to the door. “The less publicity this thing generates, the better.”
“Farrah and Robert will see you out,” Francine said.
Farrah gave her sister a small nod and said, “After you,” to their guest.
Francine waited for the room to clear before she turned to pick up her tablet and found Meeks glaring at her. “What? Go ahead, say it. I’d hate for you to spontaneously combust from holding back,” she declared as she retreated to her office, knowing that he would follow.
Chapter 6 (#ulink_de0a362f-fcaf-5eb4-89e4-c681331c79ff)
“Are you crazy?” Meeks asked Francine as he followed her into her office. He closed the door behind him with enough force to make his point.
“Last time I checked I wasn’t, but let me check again,” Francine replied, tapping her index finger against her temple. “Nope...still not crazy.”
Meeks walked around her desk to stand in front of her with his arms folded across his heaving chest. “Then why the hell do you insist on doing crazy shit?”
She raised her chin and crossed her arms, matching his stance before asking, “What are you talking about, Meeks?”
“What am I—” He took a deep breath. “I’m talking about you taking the lead on this stalker case—a case that has danger written all over it. Especially with what we know now, our experience and your dumb luck, it is likely someone who’s familiar with our line of work! That’s what I’m talking about,” Meeks explained as he took another step closer to Francine.
Francine blew out a breath and rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Not this again.”
Meeks took the final step forward that had them mere inches apart. She stared up into his eyes and dropped her hands to her sides. Meeks watched as her breathing escalated, as her breasts slowly rose and fell. He dropped his arms and fisted his hands at his sides to keep himself from reaching out to caress them. He could imagine the taste and the softness of them and grew hard. Francine held his gaze and bit down on her lower lip—another move that made things worse for him. The sexual tension in the air was like a fog circling around them.
After several moments of tense silence, Meeks couldn’t resist any longer. He raised his right hand and traced the tip of a finger slowly across Francine’s lower lip. The feel of her silk-like skin made his hand tremble slightly. He captured Francine’s chin in between his thumb and index finger, raising it slightly as he slowly began to lower his head and held her gaze.
Francine rose up on her tiptoes and wet her lips. The sight of Francine’s pink tongue nearly sent Meeks over the edge, and he leaned in to capture her mouth.
Knock, knock.
Farrah, as usual, had entered the office before being invited in. She stood smiling in the doorway and asked, “Excuse me...am I interrupting something?”
Francine and Meeks continued to stare at each other for several additional seconds before Meeks dropped his hand, straightened to his full height and said, “No...not at all.” Meeks gave both women a curt nod before making his exit.
* * *
When Meeks returned to his office, he closed his door and proceeded to bang his fist against it. “Shit! What the hell is wrong with you?” he asked himself, rubbing his knuckles. “Okay, so she looks exceptionally beautiful when she’s angry,” he mused aloud. “So what if she was just as turned on as you were? You know better. You could have made a big mistake.”
“You usually bang your fist against the door and talk to yourself? And who looked exceptionally beautiful?” a soft voice asked from behind him.
A wide smile spread across Meeks’s face before he turned around. “Hello, Mother,” he said as he walked forward and into his mother’s extended arms. “What brings you into the city? Did I miss an appointment?” Meeks kissed Constance Montgomery on both cheeks.
“How sad is that? A mother has to make an appointment to visit her own son,” Constance said, holding him at arm’s length. It was clear where Meeks had inherited his tall frame, fair skin and dark brown eyes.
Mother to Meeks and his younger brother Matthew, Constance had been a fixture at Blake & Montgomery when her husband was the company’s COO. Milton Montgomery joined his best friend and former army ranger buddy Frank Blake in his desire to build a corporate and personal protection security firm that rivaled no other. Together, they had worked hard for years, using their extensive military combat and weapons training and worldwide contacts to do just that.
While Constance never played an active role in the business, the stay-at-home mom made sure her family spent as much quality time together as possible, even if that meant piling the boys into the car and driving to the office to spend that time with their father. The boys had loved the on-site gym in particular, but more important, they loved family togetherness.
“Don’t start, Mother,” he teased, taking the hat and jacket she offered and placing them on his desk. “Scheduling times for visits was your brilliant idea, remember? You know you can drop by and see me whenever you like.”
She shook her head, the movement causing her stylish gray bob to release itself from behind her ears and frame her round face. “Yeah, right. And take a chance on you being out on some assignment? No, thank you.”
Meeks gave her a toothy grin. “So...what did I do to deserve this unexpected pleasure?”
“Better,” Constance said as she released her grip on her son and sat her tall frame eloquently into the chair facing Meeks’s desk.
Meeks followed suit and settled into the chair next to her.
“I came to town for my monthly lunch with Mary and Victoria,” she explained, crossing her legs at her ankles. “Victoria is meeting us at the restaurant, and since I was a little early to pick up Mary, I thought I’d stop in and say hello to one of my two favorite sons,” she explained as she fluffed out her hair.
“Well, that’s—”
“But enough of that,” she said, ignoring his attempt to respond. “Tell me why you were banging your fist against the door.” Constance clasped her hands and placed them in her lap. “And who’s incredibly beautiful when she’s angry, as if I don’t already know, and why was she angry?”
“Mother, I don’t—”
Constance held up her hand to stop his protest. “You might as well tell me, because you know I’ll get it out of you eventually. Is this about Francine?”
Meeks took a deep breath and sat up straighter in his chair. “It’s not that big of a deal. Francine and I had a slight disagreement about a business situation and that’s all there is to it.”
“You usually bang your fist against the door after a business disagreement?” Constance asked her son with questioning eyes.
“Really, Mother, there’s nothing for you to worry about,” Meeks said as he reached for Constance’s hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
“You know, Victoria tells me Francine is still single.”
Please don’t go there, Mother. Not today.“If she doesn’t stay out of trouble, she’ll stay that way,” he murmured to himself.
“What was that, dear?” his mother asked. She gave him a knowing smile, the kind that she’d often given when he and his brother were growing up.
“Nothing,” he mumbled. “I just know where this conversation is going, and as I’ve told you a thousand times, Francine and I can never have a relationship.”
“You’ve been in love with that woman for most of her life. I understood and agreed with your decision to stay in that friend and protector lane when she was younger. But son, Francine is a grown woman now and something special has grown between you two through the years. That big brother, protective seed sprouted into something wonderful and if you let it, it could become something magnificent.”
“Mother, I know you mean well. I just can’t. We’re too different.”
Constance released a deep slow sigh. It was a gesture that told Meeks to shut up and listen, which he did. “Son, I love you, but sometimes you’re too much like your father, God bless his beautiful, stubborn soul. You know better than most just how short life can be, but living in fear of loving someone isn’t the answer,” she said, twisting her wedding band on her finger. “Can you honestly tell me that you have no feelings for Francine?”
“Meeks, man, I need you to take a look at this...” Robert said, walking into Meeks’s office without knocking or looking up from his tablet. As he saw Constance, he added, “Oh, excuse me. No one was out front and I didn’t realize you weren’t alone.”
Constance turned slightly in her chair and smiled up at Robert. “He’s not, and you better get over here and give me a hug, young man.”
Robert offered her a wide smile. “Yes, ma’am.” Robert took her hands, pulled her up from the chair and into a big hug. “You look beautiful, as always.”
“And you’re a charmer, as usual,” she said, kissing him on both cheeks. “How’s your mother? I’ve been meaning to call her.”
