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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.”
Atfamily, I checked her hand. No ring, but that didn’t mean anything.
“Okay, not the safe house,” Lucas said.
