LITMIR.BIZ

       Chapter 2

      Francine walked into the conference room where she found Mary Walker, their office manager, and Robert Gold, the head of the field security agents and Meeks’s right-hand man, waiting for her to arrive.

      Robert had folded his six-foot frame into a chair at the ten-seat mahogany conference table. He was reading over a client’s preliminary information. His mirrored Armani sunglasses covered his piercing blue eyes. The fair skin of his square jaw was covered by a five-o’clock shadow.

      “Another long night, Robert?” Francine asked mockingly.

      Robert simply nodded his response. “But not as long as yours. And by the looks of these pictures, not quite as fun either,” Robert said, flipping through pages on his tablet.

      “Don’t!” Francine warned. “You’d swear you’d never seen a woman in a minidress and heels before. It was perfectly appropriate for the occasion.”

      Robert raised his hands in surrender.

      “Robert and I only have twenty minutes before we have another meeting, so shall we get started?” Meeks asked, looking around the room.

      Francine and her sister took their seats next to Mary. Francine always found it difficult to sit across from Meeks. His take-charge attitude, handsome face and sexy smile were distracting—at least until he opened his arrogant mouth.

      “First order of business, we’re going to pass on this client. We don’t need to deal with a celebrity of this magnitude,” Meeks said with a note of finality in his voice as he glared at Francine.

      Francine met his glare before saying, “Seriously? You’re going to take it there?”

      Farrah’s brow creased, and she looked back and forth between Meeks and Francine before asking, “What’s going on, Cine?”

      Francine pushed out a slow breath before responding. “Meeks is tripping about my stepping in to cover for Karen last night,” Francine explained to her sister.

      “What...why? Did something happen? Cine, you know what the doctor said!”

      “Not you, too, Farrah,” she said, reaching for one of the bottles of water that sat in the center of the table. “I’m fine and no, nothing happened. Besides, it was just a party.”

      “Yeah, a party that went all night,” Meeks said. His hand brushed against Francine’s retreating arm as he too reached for a bottle of water, their eyes meeting instantly. “And one where you had to physically remove two people by yourself, which is why I suspect you were hurting so bad when you got in this morning.”

      Francine glared at Meeks through narrowed eyes, which she hoped expressed just how mad she was about his oversharing as she took a sip of her water. She was trying to extinguish the fire his touch had ignited in the lower half of her body. He had obviously read the required incident report, but he’d failed to mention that she had handled things smoothly and hadn’t triggered any alerts on her tracking device. Anyone working in the field was required to wear a tracking watch. If necessary, all the agent had to do was push a button, should they need assistance.

      “Did you really have to tell all that?” she challenged.

      “Maybe your sister can talk some sense into you, since I obviously can’t.”

      The room was quiet for several moments as the sisters stared at each other.

      “It really wasn’t...” Francine said.

      Farrah nodded. “...that serious, I get it, but—”

      “You’re right, it could have been worse, but it wasn’t,” Francine declared.

      “But...” Farrah stared at her sister.

      “They’re doing that weird twin-triplet communication thing again,” Robert whispered to Mary.

      “Hush up,” she replied, smacking Robert on his arm.

      “All right, I might have overdone it a little last night,” Francine conceded.

      Farrah tilted her head and raised her left eyebrow.

      “All right, I overdid it a lot, but I wasn’t in any danger. Happy now?” she asked her sister.

      “And?” Farrah nudged.

      “And I won’t do it again. Can we move on? We do have a client coming,” she said, glaring at Meeks as she flipped through the pages on her tablet with far more gusto then she intended. Francine hated to feel like she was being scolded by anyone, but especially by one of her sisters. She was just thankful that Felicia was on the other side of the world; otherwise, as the doctor in the family, she’d demand to give her a physical exam.

      “As I said, I think we should pass on this one,” Meeks reiterated. “Surely there are other less notable celebrities we could use for this...test.”

      Like hell, buster! Keep it professional, Francine. After Francine gave herself a quick pep talk on the best way to handle the situation, her eyes searched the room before landing on Meeks. “While I appreciate your concern and input, we won’t be passing. I’ve already advised Mr. Morgan of that fact and accepted his very large retainer, so unless Robert’s found something in his background check...” Francine paused long enough to give Robert time to respond.

      Robert looked at Meeks, then back at Francine before he reluctantly said, “Nothing that sends up any red flags. Daniel’s team is available, so if we’re taking the job, we’re ready to go.”

      “That’s great. Let’s move forward.” Francine shot Meeks another look that challenged him to say anything.

      He didn’t.

      “Now, I know Daniel and his team are some of the best guys we have, but I promised Mr. Morgan that I’d stay close to things, so I’m taking the lead on this one.”

      “Hell, no!” Meeks declared, slamming both hands of the table.

      Everyone froze and stared at him. “Excuse me?” Francine said, her eyebrows standing at attention.

      “How many times do you need to be shot to get it through that beautiful stubborn head of yours that—”

      “That what?” she asked, thrusting her chin forward. “We’re not kids that need your protection anymore. You do know that, right?”

      Before he could say anything else, there was a knock on the conference

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