Saving Serena (Hawk Security #1)

Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

Duke

I returned to the Hawk Security offices after grabbing lunch. I’d rationalized that a Whopper, fries, and a shake were a higher priority than explaining to my boss and brother, Lucas, that the client had fired us.

Actually, that was a copout. In reality, Lucas was on the very short list of men who could scare me. I wouldn’t enjoy his dressing down about how protection meant staying in the background and that my leaving the background had led to this.

I stopped by my other brother Jordy’s office with his dozens of screens that made it resemble a NASA control room. “Any word from Brett?”

Jordy didn’t bother looking up. “Not yet.”

Our fourth brother, Brett, had been called back to active duty for an above top-secret mission, and I missed him already.

Winston Evers looked up from his computer when I entered the office space we shared. “Done already? Got your princess tucked safely away at the castle?”

“I’m done,” I confirmed. “You should apologize to Jordy,” I added, changing the subject.

Winston was ex-FBI and a crack investigator. If I gave him a single crumb to run with on Ariana, he’d have figured out what had happened faster than I could recite the alphabet backward.

“Already did,” he confirmed. “I just got a little heated because I didn’t want to screw up the tail.” Naturally, Winston wanted to make a good impression with my brother because he was the other person we’d recently hired when Hanson Security closed down.

“Constance back yet?” I asked, wanting to circle back with my partner. Ariana had been a pain in the ass. I was sure Constance would be relieved to be rid of her as well. We were ready for something other than babysitting a rich, spoiled princess.

“Said she’s on the way, and she promised to take Jordy out to get a cup of coffee.”

I nodded. “Smart move to enlist her to smooth down Jordy’s feathers for ya.”

His smirk confirmed my guess. “My girl Constance has the touch.”

“If you value your balls, I’d be careful about calling her a girl to her face.” It was a lesson I’d learned quickly. Constance was ex Secret Service and tough as nails. You had to be to join the First Lady’s protection detail.

“Noted.” Winston looked back at his screen.

The blinds in Lucas’s office were pulled, which didn’t happen often.

I thumbed over my shoulder. “Who’s the boss got with him?”

Winston shrugged. “Dunno.”

“Singleton and March, maybe?”

Winston shrugged. Again.

I’d referred Jeff Singleton and Zane March when Lucas had said he was looking to add more talent. I’d known both from DEVGRU—known to the public as SEAL Team Six. The guys were still at the top of their game, and would make excellent additions if my brother could stomach bringing in more frogmen.

Lucas was a former Delta operator and Army through and through. He was not shy with his opinion that Delta could run rings around the SEALs all day long.

As a former SEAL, I knew that was total bullshit. Deltas had some limitations—take them out of the desert, throw some water into the equation, and they folded like wet cardboard. There was a reason SEALs had been chosen to take down Bin Laden, and it wasn’t because we were second-rate.

Just then, Lucas’s door opened.

Winston and I looked down the hall and caught sight of a man I knew we both recognized. We’d done work for the Covingtons before. As Bill Covington emerged, I caught a glimpse of a homeless woman still in the office. I liked Bill, and I lived in the same building as he did, one floor down.

The office door closed behind him, and Winston and I both raised a hand in greeting to Mr. Covington.

He waved back and thumbed over his shoulder. “Take care of her.” Then he disappeared down the stairs.

Dumbfounded, I didn’t reply. What would he be doing with a homeless woman? And why would we be taking care of her?

“One of our irregulars?” I asked Winston. We had some people on retainer who made good lookouts as they hung out on the streets unnoticed.

“Don’t think so.” He used a toothpick on his teeth. “Could be an interview to join, I guess.”

My phone vibrated. It was Lucas. “Yeah?”

“Get into the office as soon as you can. I have a new assignment, and I need my best man.”

His comment filled me with pride. “I’m here now.”

“My office,” he commanded. “And bring Constance too.” He hung up before I could say anything.

I looked over at Winston’s questioning eyes. “New assignment. He wants Constance as well.”

“I’ll tell her.”

When I entered Lucas’s office, I knew immediately that the woman across from him wasn’t homeless.

She didn’t look up, but in those clothes and shoes. The dirt, the blood, the twigs in her hair—she looked beaten up, not beaten down.

I sat, knowing enough to let Lucas do the talking.

“Serena, this is Cobra. He’s the best we have in personal protection.” “Constance is on the way in,” I explained, smiling in Serena’s direction.

She didn’t smile, nor did she look over. She wasn’t merely scared. With the way her leg shook and she’d glued her eyes to the floor, she was terrified.

“Cobra,” Lucas said. “Somebody tried to kill Serena today. We want to find him, and in the meantime, we need to protect her. Constance will be your number two. I’m shifting you off the Zolotarev girl and on to Serena’s case.”

I nodded. I still needed to tell him Ariana had fired us.

“Cobra is a former Navy SEAL, and Constance was on the First Lady’s Secret Service detail,” Lucas explained. “They’ll keep you safe.”

Serena nodded tentatively as she pressed down on her jittery leg.

Lucas turned to me. “Take her to the Santa Monica safe house for now and keep her there until we get a handle on who is responsible.”

“No.” Serena’s voice was hoarse but firm.

Lucas’s eyes narrowed. He wasn’t used to being overruled, and Serena’s tone said she was doing exactly that.

“I want protection, but I won’t go into hiding. That’s a deal breaker.”

“Cobra and Constance are the best, but if you insist on being foolish, maybe you should choose another firm.”

With that, her gaze shifted to assess me. Slowly, recognition shone in her green eyes.

In that instant, I also recognized her. She was no longer the skinny teenager from years ago. She was Serena fucking Benson, daughter of the man who’d tried to ruin me and killed my dreams. If it hadn’t been for him…

“I can afford the best,” she said, turning back to Lucas. “And Bill Covington says your firm is the best. Is he wrong? Is my case too difficult for you to take on? Is your only solution to lock me away in a safe house?”

I hid a smirk behind my hand. Her play was a good one, using Lucas’s ego against him, and his relationship with the Covingtons as well. The bedraggled look was deceiving. This woman was cunning and strong-willed.

“There’s nothing we can’t handle,” Lucas said. His dark brown eyes became almost black with controlled anger.

She pivoted to me. “Are you really that good?”

I’d never been challenged like that before. “Yes.”

After a second, she nodded. “No safe house. I will not be chased away from my home, my work, or my family.”

At family , I checked her hand. No ring, but that didn’t mean anything.

“Okay, not the safe house,” Lucas said.

After a single knock, the door opened, and Constance entered. “Lucas, Winston said you wanted me?”

“Yes. Constance, this is Serena Benson, a new protection client.”

Constance offered her a hand. “Nice to meet you, Serena.”

They shook hands. “You too.”

“Serena was run off the road in the hills,” Lucas explained.

“Oh, that’s terrible,” Constance replied.

Serena locked onto Lucas. “I will not be hidden away. I will continue my normal schedule and activities without restriction from you or…” She looked my way. “…or anybody.”

Lucas tried to hide his annoyance, but I saw the clench of his jaw. “We will secure your house, and you can continue your normal activities. But this will only work if my team accompanies you when you are out and you follow all their instructions. If they see a threat and think it’s necessary to remove you from a situation, you will not object. Do we understand each other?”

I wished he’d said those words about following instructions when we’d taken on Ariana as a client.

“I understand perfectly.” Serena turned to look at me. She didn’t blink, and her pale-green eyes held a determination I’d rarely seen off the battlefield. Behind the blood and the dirt, she was a strong natural beauty, and I bet she knew it.

For a moment, Freddy’s words came back to me. “ You need a strong woman by your side for the long haul. ” Serena struck me as that kind of strong. I blinked away the memory, needing to lock down that shit. After what happened with Marilyn, I didn’t want or need a woman long term, strong or not.

Lucas nodded, seeming satisfied that he’d won the round.

“To clarify,” she said. “I work at the EPA on Wilshire. It’s a secure federal building with armed guards, metal detectors, the works. They won’t be able to follow me inside.”

Lucas looked my way.

“I’ll get an office nearby, and you can notify me when you’re leaving the building,” I suggested.

“That’s a good start,” Lucas said. “Constance is technically still a Secret Service consultant. So if we determine we should also be in the building, we can arrange credentials to get her inside.”

I looked over at Constance, surprised. She hadn’t mentioned that consultant tidbit to me.

“I’d rather play that by ear,” Serena said. “I don’t want my coworkers to know. Nobody knows.”

Lucas nodded. “We’ll keep this as discreet as possible.”

Serena eyed my boots. “Outside the office, we may also be going places where your current attire doesn’t fit in.”

“He can adapt,” Lucas quipped.

I smirked. “I can even shower if the occasion requires it.”

Constance bit back her laugh.

Lucas drilled me with his don’t-piss-off-the-client glare. “Should I assume we’ll bill your father?” he asked, turning back to Serena.

Her father must have been a previous client.

“No,” Serena blurted. “This is my business. You aren’t to tell my father anything about this.”

Lucas shifted. “That may be difficult.”

“Not a thing,” Serena emphasized. She straightened in a way that had me noticing her chest, an asset I’d been trying very hard to ignore. She had a surprising amount of spunk. I’d give her that.

Lucas’s jaw ticked. “If you don’t comply with Cobra’s requirements, we’ll withdraw and notify?—”

“I get it,” she said, interrupting what was likely a threat to tell her father.

“Very well.” He rose and offered her his hand.

She stood as well, her leg calmer now than it had been, and shook with him.

“I’ll let you three get started with the debrief in conference room one, and I’ll join in a minute. First group meet at seven.”

A whole-group meeting to launch a new client and then regular updates to the group was one of the things I liked about how Lucas ran his operation—a holdover from his time in Omega.

Standing, I opened the door for Serena. “You can start by telling us everything that happened today. Second door on the right.”

As she exited, just her proximity made me gulp. The grime, the cuts, and the blood stains did little to hide the fact that grown-up Serena was a total smoke show.

Lucas was dialing his phone when I closed the door.

Following her down the hall, I couldn’t help but notice the sway of her fine ass. She wasn’t a cookie-cutter, stick-figure airhead like Ariana. No, Serena was a real woman, intelligent and determined. If it weren’t for that entitled attitude… “ I will not be hidden away. I will continue my normal schedule and activities. ” Yada, yada, yada . I pulled open the conference room door for her.

She entered and sat gingerly.

I closed the door after Constance.

My partner asked the first question. “Why don’t you want us to talk to your father?”

“I just don’t,” Serena said, wringing her hands. There was a story there that we obviously weren’t getting today. “My nickel, my rules.”

There was that attitude again. He, or she, who has the gold makes the rules . It seemed I was stuck babysitting another spoiled brat from an insanely rich family.