Code Name Genesis (Jameson Force Security 1)

“I love you, Joslyn,” she practically moans, then falls into me where we hug long and hard.

“I love you, too.”

We stay that way for a moment, but then she gives a little jolt. Pulling back, she regards me with her head tilted to the side. “But what brought you and Kynan back together?”

She puts enough emphasis on the word “together,” I can see she’s totally misread the nature of our current relationship.

I also know, as my mother, she’s not going to like the reason why we reconnected.

“I needed some protection services,” I begin, but she knows too much about my career. She managed it for many years.

“Plenty of good companies are in Los Angeles for you to hire,” she says. “Why Kynan?”

“I needed the best,” I reply softly. “And I needed someone I could trust.”

“How could you trust him when you thought he’d cheated on you?”

It’s a fair question, and one I actually asked myself when I made the decision to reach out to him. It was part gut instinct but also part of it was our history. We’d spent a lot of time talking about his career in the Royal Marines and why he came to work for Jerico Jameson. It was his passion to protect others, and I knew how much it meant to him.

“My life was—is—in serious danger,” I start, ignoring her gasp of shock and the way her hand covers her mouth. “I knew Kynan very well, Mom. I know you think our connection was tenuous, but you forget how much time we spent together while he was assigned to be my guard. More time than most people spend together. We talked a lot. I knew he was the man for the job.”

“What is going on, Jos?” she whispers fearfully.

“I’ve got a stalker, and he managed to break into my house earlier this week. He attacked me—”

“Darren,” my mom yells as she bolts up from the couch. And then she yells louder, almost to the point of a screech. “Darren… get in here.”

I hear the study door open so hard it slams against the doorstop, and Darren comes stampeding into the living room with fear and fury on his face. It’s totally fueled by the panic in my mom’s cries, but I still jump up from the couch, wanting to put myself on equal footing.

Kynan is right behind Darren. Without having the benefit of knowing my mom and I worked out our issues regarding her deceit, he stands poised to take Darren down if need be until he can figure out what’s going on.

My mom points a shaky finger. “She’s in danger. Someone attacked her.”

Shoulders sagging in relief that something isn’t physically wrong with my mom, Darren nods. “Kynan was just starting to fill me in. But are you and your girl good?”

Mom nods and steps into me, an arm going around my waist. I thought it might be a little too much given how fresh off the anger I’ve just come, but I guess talking about my stalker has made me feel vulnerable, so it actually feels good.

“I think we’re good,” my mom says hesitantly.

I confirm it, so we can move on. “Yeah… we’re good.”

Not great, but I think we’re in a better place than we were before I showed up on her doorstep. We had never gotten back quite right after I released her as my manager. There was a void there, but I feel like that’s all been bridged now with our very painful but honest talk.

“I’d like to know what the hell is going on with my daughter, though,” my mom says with her eyes lasered onto Kynan.

“Here’s the deal,” Kynan says calmly, and we all swivel his way.

He then proceeds to tell my mom and stepfather all about my stalker and what he’s done so far, which causes my mom to cry. Darren moves to her, then pulls her down onto the couch where she can sink into his embrace. I move over to one of the overstuffed chairs, also in burgundy leather, as Kynan proceeds to tell them about our game plan to draw this man out.

“I don’t like this,” my mom proclaims. “You can’t use Joslyn as bait.”

“I won’t let anything happen to her,” Kynan replies. The deep rumble of commitment in his voice is reassuring to me. I can tell by the look on my mom’s face that it does nothing to ease her.

“Mom,” I say, and her gaze drifts to me. “If we don’t do this, then it’s just a wait-and-see game to him. It could be weeks. Months. I can’t go on that long looking around every corner waiting for him to spring out at me.”

My mom seems to consider this, and she gives her attention to Darren. He nods back as if this makes good sense.