Guarded Hearts

Chapter 2

"You're not a man."

"No, and my father had that same disappointment when I was born. Sorry my gender is an inconvenience, Mr. Walia." Bani crossed her arms. "I'm Bani Dixit, co-owner of Guarded Serenity Inc, and I've been sent here to take on your case. You need a bodyguard."

"No offense, but a woman can't be a bodyguard," Jai laughed tensely and sat on the arm of the couch Keero had earlier sat on. "Men are bodyguards. They carry guns and scare people with their immense size. You don't exactly evoke fear."

"I'm sorry I'm not the gun toting, muscle headed buffoon you've associated with bodyguard services, Mr. Walia. But considering you have a wanna-be Andy Griffith in the main gate booth, I'm sure you'll understand that we come in many different shapes and sizes and some of that includes females. Don't think I haven't heard your complaints before. The FBI men weren't fond of the girl that was hired on and neither was the LAPD, but I got the jobs and I did them right. I'm a law enforcer as well as a professional private bodyguard. If you want GSI to help you catch the person or persons behind this letter and keep you safe, then you're stuck with me."

"In all honesty," Jai crossed his arms. "I didn't want to hire your company anyway. It was Keero's idea that I hire someone after the note arrived and I'm only doing this to get her off my case. I'm more interested in living my life, Ms. Dixit, and that doesn't necessarily involve having someone following me all the time."

"If you don't want to hire GSI, I'll be more than happy to leave," Bani removed her briefcase from his table. "I'm sorry to have wasted your precious time, Mr. Walia."

"Jai!" Keero finally had enough. "Ms. Dixit, Jai is going to hire GSI to take over his protection. He's just being the biggest jerk on the planet right now. I didn't exactly prepare him for your arrival and led him to assume that Mrs. Summers was sending over his stereotypical security officer."

"I see," Bani frowned. "Look, Mr. Walia..."

"Please, it's Jai," he sighed. "Keero's right. I wasn't expecting a female but I suppose that Mrs. Summer would only send the best, at least that's what Keero promised. I'm not overwhelmingly happy about the situation but I made a deal with her that I would get someone to look into this and help me take this seriously," he removed the letter from an end table drawer and handed it to Bani. "If you'll forgive my stupidity, I would like to hire you and GSI."

Bani looked down at the letters that formed the intimidating words. Already her trained mind was taking in every piece of evidence: the way the letters were cut out exactly along the bolded lines that created them and the cheap clear liquid glue that was used to stick them onto the recycled white paper. "Do you have the envelope this came in?"

Jai nodded. "But it wasn't sealed. They only folded the lip in."

Bani chewed on her bottom lip, mulling over everything. "I'll take your case, Mr. Walia," she removed a contract from her briefcase. "But this won't be easy and it may take some time before this person makes a mistake that gives us a solid lead. I'll review all of the security tapes of the complex for the last twenty-four hours and look for anyone that could be considered suspicious. In the mean time, I need you to sign this contract agreeing to GSI normal fees and giving me permission to move myself onto your property and take over complete control of your security systems."

Jai didn't even read the papers over before he signed them, pushing them back at her. He didn't like this one bit but at least it would get Keero off his back. Finally taking a moment to look Bani over, he noted that it could be worse. The straight-to-the-point, beautiful long black haired, brown eyed goddess in front of him was going to be a lot easier to live with than some man that beat him to the ladies at the clubs. "Done. When can you start?"