The Bodyguard

"Right now we have six full-time clients," he says, "and they all signed a one-year contract with us. Then we have other [people] we work for when they need us." He declined to discuss fees, company earnings, or names of clients — for obvious reasons. Most of those who have hired Z7, he explains, are in Europe and South America.

"We have about twenty or so operatives we can call on," adds Fike, noting that they, too, are scattered across the globe. All are ex-military or former law enforcement officers. Eighteen months after its launch, the company is doing well enough to maintain six private jets (initially financed by Skrzycki's parents), Plevnik says.

Mike R. Miller, director of marketing for Equiflor, a Miami-based flower company, met Plevnik last year at a celebrity-studded affair thrown for a luxury yacht company. "He was handling security at the event, [which included] the likes of Don Johnson and Pam Anderson," Miller says. "Even though he works with celebrities, he's a very humble guy, and he seems to understand that people want to be made to feel important, and he's good at that."

For Fike, this kind of scene is a welcome change. "The people we've worked with in the past were really bad guys," he says.

Skrzycki is even happier. "I don't want him doing these dangerous jobs anymore," she says. "I don't know what I'd do if something happened to him."

Now the partners are turning their attention to Hollywood.

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Standing in front of a 145-foot yacht perched on the moonlit waters of Biscayne Bay, Plevnik raises his right arm and waves to a friend.

To his left is a bar, complete with a black-clad bartender who's busy mixing a variety of specialty cocktails for the thirsty onlookers lined up at his makeshift station. Milling on the lavishly decorated deck are approximately 50 guests. They're chattering among themselves as they munch hors d'oeuvre. To Plevnik's right, muffled laughter erupts from invitees strolling around a second, smaller vessel.

It's March 8 and the launch party for his newly published 46-page diet book, The Bodyguard Diet: The Life You Save May Be Your Own.

"It took me so long to do because of my English," Plevnik jokes. "It was actually published last April but I wanted to wait until the spring to release it, because that's when everyone starts thinking about getting into shape, ready for the summer."

The book offers suggestions on exercise and nutrition. Among other things, it takes a shot at the many low-carb diets. "There are so many diets out there that come and go and nobody can follow them," he says. "That's why people are getting fatter, because no one can stick them. I tried to come up with a small book that's not 200 pages long, but one that people can flip through easily and learn something."

Charles Holland, a Los Angeles-based writer whose credits include New York Undercover, Third Watch, and CSI: Miami, flew out from California for the event. "He's an amazing guy with an amazing story," he says, "a man I genuinely admire and respect. We've actually been working together on telling his story. We might have a TV show, we might have a movie, we might have nothing."

Indeed if all goes according to plan, this fall Plevnik may become a household name. He hopes to sell a reality TV show: "It would be a series of episodes that follow me on various missions," he says. He recently pitched the idea to Discovery Channel. "I want to show what bodyguarding is all about. It's a dangerous job, but in a kind of glamorous way, because you are protecting glamorous people, important people."

Judging by the rest of his professional life, it seems whatever Plevnik touches, even if for a brief moment, turns to gold.