Code Name: Genesis (Jameson Force Security #1)
Sawyer Bennett
CHAPTER 1
Kynan
I normally wouldn’t answer my phone while a gorgeous redhead was performing a strip tease in my bedroom, but it’s Rachel Hart-Wright calling. As my second in charge at Jameson Force Security, she wouldn’t call unless it was important. Besides, I’m just cocky enough to take a business call while receiving personal pleasure.
“This better be good, Hart,” I say curtly after connecting. My gaze drifts ever so briefly to the almost-empty glass of scotch in my hand before going to the woman dry humping my bedpost to some rock song I don’t recognize. She watches me through heavy-lidded eyes, knowing I’ll reward her.
“I don’t know if good is the word,” she drawls. “There’s a lot of money involved, but you’re not going to like who it’s from.”
“If it’s that bloody congressman who hired us to babysit his duffer son, the answer is no.” That job had taught me there are some things money can’t buy.
“What the hell is a ‘duffer’?” Rachel asks.
“Someone who’s useless,” I say distractedly as the woman in front of me peels off her bra, exposing gloriously perky tits.
“You Brits have a funny way of talking,” Rachel replies. “Why couldn’t you just have said ‘useless’?”
I feel the corners of my mouth turn upward into an amused smile, but she’ll never know. My tone is one of impatience when I mutter, “Just tell me what the job is, and I’ll approve or deny it.”
“It’s Joslyn Meyers.”
My blood pressure instantly spikes, and I tighten my fingers so hard on my glass I’m surprised it doesn’t shatter. It’s difficult not to yell into the phone, but there’s no mistaking the force of my words. “Not only no, but hell no. Whatever she needs, the answer is a bloody fucking no.”
“I think you should listen—”
“I said ‘no’,” I bark into the phone but then immediately lower my voice. “Now is there anything else we need to discuss that doesn’t have to do with Joslyn Meyers, or can I get back to what I was doing before you tried to ruin my night?”
“She’s in serious trouble,” Rachel snaps.
“Don’t care,” I snarl.
“Her life is in danger.”
Every muscle in my body goes rigid. A slight sweat breaks out on my forehead that has nothing to do with the redhead shimmying out of her panties. I give a hard shake of my head, wondering why Joslyn still has the power to affect me after all these years. Still, I manage to grit out between my teeth, “Don’t. Care.”
“That’s what you want me to tell her?” Rachel asks calmly.
“I don’t give a shit what you tell her, as long as the word ‘no’ is somewhere in your sentence.” I push away every bit of the concern for Joslyn that’s starting to rear its ugly head. “Refer her over to Miller’s agency. They do protection detail just fine.”
There’s a long moment of silence as Rachel digests what I’m saying. She’s well aware of my enmity toward the world-famous Joslyn Meyers, and I can’t understand why she wants to fight me on this. I let my eyes roam all over the now fully naked woman—who is indeed a natural redhead—hoping it will distract me from this distasteful conversation.
“Fine,” Rachel says with a sigh.
I feel elated to have this matter resolved, but I choose to ignore the fact I’m also strangely unsettled because it isn’t—not for Joslyn anyway.
“I understand and respect your decision. But you can tell her yourself.”
It doesn’t quite penetrate what happens next because before I know it, Joslyn’s soft voice comes over the line. “Kynan,” she says hesitantly.
I bolt upward in my chair, my spine stiff and unrelenting. Setting my glass on the table beside me, I see nothing even though I’m staring at the dancing woman who is now touching herself in the naughtiest way.
“Kynan,” Joslyn says again. Her voice quavers with emotion. “I could really use your help.”
Fuck.
I scrub a hand over my face, blinking stupidly at the woman across my bedroom as her hand works between her legs. She moans softly, but it doesn’t touch me at all.
My jaw locks hard for a moment, and I tell myself to stay strong. “We’re not taking on celebrity detail anymore. We can refer you to a good agency to fit your needs.”
Not the full truth, but she doesn’t need to know that.
The Jameson Group has expanded greatly over the last two years since I bought it from Jerico Jameson in a seven-million-dollar deal. The first thing I did was change the name to Jameson Force Security to better reflect my new business model. While the biggest chunk of our business is mainstream work—protecting celebrities and installing top-of-the-line security systems—our most lucrative contracts still came from the United States government and other foreign allies for “specialized” work that can be hard to come by.
Or more accurately… hard to get approval for. Jameson Force Security has become the go-to private security contractor. We offer the type of “off-the-books invisibility” a government might need when doing top-secret covert work.