“Mr. Jameson,” she says as she lifts her chin confidently even though I can tell she’s worried. Those eyes… so expressive. “I was wondering if I could have a word with you.”
Too bad she hadn’t shown up before Helena, because there’s no doubt I’d love to take this woman out for a spin. She’s a damn knockout with legs that go on for miles, an ass made to be slapped, and a husky, raspy voice that sounds like she’s been screaming in rapture for days.
Sadly though, I have committed to someone else right now.
“I’m sorry… but I’ve just made plans with this lovely lady,” I reply as I nod my head to Helena. “But perhaps after?”
The woman wrings her hands with worry, glances at the elevator and then back to me. Before she can respond, Helena adds, “Or… you could join us. Jerico loves some girl-on-girl action.”
The beauty’s eyes widen in shock.
“Um… no thank you,” she stammers to Helena before turning to me. “I apologize for interrupting you. I know this is incredibly rude, but this is important. I need a favor.”
“I don’t do favors,” I tell her truthfully, tightening my grip on Helena’s elbow. I’m immediately disappointed this woman isn’t going to end up in my bed. She’ll probably end up booted out the doors if she’s here to scam someone. “Now if you’ll excuse us—”
“My name is Trista Barnes,” she blurts out as we start to brush past her. “My brother is Jayce Barnes.”
I freeze in mid-step, the shock of hearing that name temporarily paralyzing me before it fills me with rage. Slowly, I look over my shoulder at her and I can’t withhold the menace in my voice when I say, “Why are you here?”
She’s takes a slight step back, indicating her wariness and yet I can’t do anything but glower at her simply because of who she’s related to.
Trista takes a deep breath and it comes out shaky, showing me her confidence level has dropped severely. “I’m in a bit of trouble, and Jayce said you could help me. He says you owe him a favor. That he wants to collect on it in the form of helping me. Please… I just spent five hundred dollars I didn’t have to spend to get in here to see you. I just need five minutes of your time.”
“Christ,” I mutter as I release Helena’s arm and scrub my fingers through my dark hair. I glare hard at the woman, hoping to perhaps frighten her into just leaving. I’ll even gladly refund her entrance fee. While I have no fucking desire to have anything to do with Jayce Barnes’ sister, I’m slightly impressed and maybe a little turned on when she lifts her chin up and holds my eyes. I love to watch a woman reach out for an inner confidence she’s not sure she has just yet.
Beyond pissed at myself because I’m actually a little intrigued, I turn my gaze to Helena and try to lighten my voice. “Rain check, okay?”
“Of course,” she says, laying a hand lightly on my forearm. I bend over and brush my lips against her cheek.
Helena is a classy woman. She even gives a small smile of encouragement to Trista before she turns back to the bar.
“Follow me,” I say to Trista tersely as I walk through The Social Room. I don’t even look behind me to see if she’s keeping up with my long strides, but she slips through the double wooden doors right behind me. We end up in a semicircle foyer that has the same paneled walls and Italian marble as the room we just came from. From here, there are five hallways branching off like spokes on a wheel, each closed off by an ornately carved wooden door. There are signs above each—The Waterfall Room, The Deck, The Orgy Room, The Silo—which is a nod to the original Wicked Horse in Wyoming. One is marked Private.
I veer to the right, taking the private hall that leads to my office. It’s the last door on the right, sitting adjacent to my apartment door. In fact, my office connects to my apartment by an interior door that leads right into the kitchen, so my home-to-work commute couldn’t be any shorter.
There’s a security pad on the wall. I punch in my five-digit code after angling my body so Trista can’t see, then I push the door open and step back to let her go in first.
I gave the designer free license to decorate my office and apartment however she saw fit as long as she didn’t use the colors pink or green. She did a superb job, going with an industrial design I really liked. The ceilings are exposed steel beams with air conditioning ductwork painted in black to match. The floors are done in light maple, and my simple desk has a roughly finished wooden top with iron legs. There’s a light blue rug with a wavy pattern in cream as well as two chairs done in gray leather. One wall houses a set of built-in cabinets that hold my records on The Wicked Horse, which aren’t all that interesting or secretive since this business is about as legit as they come. Only in Vegas, right?
As such, I don’t have any locks on the cabinets and I don’t use the safe built into my wall. The security pad outside the door is plenty for what’s in here.
Now my other business, The Jameson Group, is a different matter since I do contract work for the government, and by government, I mean CIA. That’s next-level top secret and remains secured at my other offices in the business district across town. But since I’ll soon be retiring from there at the ripe old age of thirty-five, I prefer to focus my attention on this new endeavor. Who would have thought Jerico Jameson, one of the most sought-after private security contractors, would end up leaving that business to open a sex club?
I know my parents—God rest their souls—would have never seen this coming.
“Take a seat,” I order Trista, pointing to one of the chairs. I round my desk to do the same. Placing my elbows on the tabletop and steepling my fingers in front of my mouth, I take a harder look at the woman who just turned what was promising to be a very good night into a really shitty one.
I don’t see any of Jayce in her. His hair and eyes were dark brown. Trista’s hair is lighter… almost a bronze color. She’s got high cheekbones and a slender nose. Jayce’s face was round with a wide nose. Trista’s eyebrows are perfectly arched while Jayce’s sat rather flat. I remember everything about that douche.
“You don’t look like your brother,” I observe as I lean back in my chair and place my hands on the armrests.
“Different mothers,” is all she says. “But we grew up together.”
“Why did he send you to me?” I ask the question again, expecting a better answer than a favor.
“I’m desperately in need of money,” she explains quickly. “I don’t know what favor he owes you, but he said you had money and you’d help me in exchange for wiping the slate clean between you two.”
I have to struggle not to snort my disbelief. The slate would never be clean between us. I hate that motherfucker so much he could be standing in front of me dying, with a drink of water the only thing to save him, and I’d pour it out on the ground beside him.
“He said he saved your life once,” she says quietly, as if she needs to remind me why she’s sitting here.
It’s true… and I hate the reminder.
That bastard saved my life from certain death, and I owe him big time. While pinned down in a firefight with insurgents from the Nazwad district of the Helmund Province, I took a bullet through my leg that nicked an artery. Jayce had thrown me over his shoulder, ran through a hail of bullets, and got me to a Humvee that held our field medic. The medic was able to hold the bleed and give me a unit of blood until the chopper came in to pick me up and take me to a field hospital. I was dangerously close to dying, but three more units of blood and stitching up my artery brought me back from the brink of death. Had Jayce not gotten me out of there, I wouldn’t have made it to the hospital. I was weak, disoriented, but completely grateful when I told him as he sat beside my bed, “Jayce… buddy… I’m not sure how I can ever repay you, but if you need anything at all, you come to me and it’s yours.”