Page 15

S unday morning, Levi stood in front of the hotel waiting for Nash to pick him up.

He’d changed into a comfortable black suit and white dress shirt that was his go-to when he had a meeting. He made sure he dressed the part of a bodyguard.

As he waited, he couldn’t get Sara out of his mind. Nor the bruises on her body. The marks…that someone else had violently put there.

His rage built the more he thought about what she’d been through.

Nash pulled up and Levi slid into the man’s SUV.

“Did you find Sara?”

“I did,” he croaked.

“What did you guys do?” Nash asked curiously, and Levi had to give Nash something because he knew the guy wouldn’t quit asking.

“Went to the beach.” Levi turned and gazed out the window and Nash got the hint.

“When does she work next?” Nash asked.

“Tomorrow.”

“So, we’ll talk to her tomorrow before her shift,” Nash said.

“No.”

Nash glanced over quickly at his hard tone.

“What happened?”

“She was attacked last Tuesday night after work,” he said.

“By whom?” Nash looked shocked.

“I don’t know, but I’m going to find the fuck out.”

“Okay…” Nash said. “Then let’s go meet the guys.”

Levi shot Nash a startled look. “The guys are here?”

“Yup.” Nash gave him a tight smile and peeled out.

The exclusive club they met at was downtown and members only.

When they both entered, Levi was glad he had worn one of his more expensive suits. Nash also wore a black suit.

The hostess led them through the dimly lit room, past the booths with candles glowing on table tops, and through a side door.

Levi stepped inside the room and Nash followed.

“About damned time you got here.”

Levi snorted and walked forward when Rowan Morgan stood and held out his hand and pulled him into a short clench.

“Damn good to see you, man,” Rowan finished, releasing him.

“Coming through, coming through,” a smart-ass voice teased with a laugh, and Levi chuckled when West Dawson stepped around the bigger frame of Rowan.

“West,” Levi said, and the slender man slapped him on the shoulder and gave him the same quick hug.

Lastly, Roman King slid out of the booth and looked him over.

“You’ve aged,” King said with a smirk.

“You’re older than me,” Levi reminded the man, and then King pulled him into a brief hug.

They all hugged Nash the same way.

These were his comrades, his brothers-in-arms. Levi had served in the military with all of them. After leaving the service, they all had gone to work for one of the Secretary of Defense’s covert teams.

Of course, there were many more members of Aries than just the five of them, but these were the men Levi was closest to, and King was one of several Aries leaders.

As far as Levi knew, he was the only one of the five of them who wanted to retire from Aries.

The men retook their seats, and Levi sat in one of the vacant chairs and Nash in the other.

The waiter came and took their orders for drinks and hors d’oeuvres since it was close to noon.

“How long has it been?” West asked.

“What, five months? Not since the yellow file,” Levi said.

“Wait, what?” Rowan frowned. “Yellow file?”

“You were on vacation,” King told Rowan.

“Forced vacation,” Rowan grumbled.

“That’s because you hadn’t taken one in years,” West chided and dodged the hand Rowan swung at his head.

“Where did you go?” Levi asked Rowan.

“To Prague,” Rowan said.

“Oh man, that sounds a hell of a lot more fun than the yellow file,” Levi said.

“We took down a councilman,” West said, taking a sip of water, informing Rowan of the yellow file mission.

“Did you get the bastard?” Rowan asked.

The waiter returned with the tray of drinks, preventing any of them from responding.

It was a busy five minutes more as the finger foods were delivered in large trays with chicken wings and cheesy potato wedges.

Once all the food and drinks were on the table and the staff were gone, Levi grabbed a chicken wing and tore into it.

“Yeah, we got him,” he said around a bite of chicken.

“You know, it’s kind of upsetting that we have to use taxpayers’ money to feed someone like that,” Rowan said, taking a bite of potato.

“Not this time,” Levi returned flatly. “He’s pushing up daisies.”

“Well, that works,” Rowan snorted, and West joined in.

King hadn’t joined in the conversation yet, but he wasn’t the chatty type. King was their leader, West knew explosives and was the one with the endless chatter, and Rowan was their brainiac and techie. Levi and Nash were enforcers. They worked like a well-oiled machine when on missions together, and in truth, it would have gone much smoother if Rowan had been there when they’d taken on the yellow file.

“I have a problem,” Levi said.

That got the attention of the whole table. They didn’t ask, instead, they gave him their full attention, and without any doubts, he knew they would help him.

“Sara was attacked.” The food suddenly tasted like dust, and Levi tossed the half-eaten chicken onto his plate.

“By whom?” King narrowed his eyes, his face going hard.

“I don’t know, but I need to get my hands on the surveillance behind the Velvet Lounge from Tuesday night.”

“That’s easy, give me an hour,” Rowan said and pulled out his laptop.

“So, what do you have on the Velvet Lounge?” Levi asked King after Rowan got busy locating the video.

“I have some good news,” King said. “The suspicion of human trafficking is bogus. The girl was seventeen and dating one of the Velvet Lounge’s waiters.”

“How did that get turned into human trafficking?” Levi shook his head.

“My source overheard some talk about the teenager and made an assumption,” King said and lifted his glass of water to sip.

“I hope you ripped your source a new one,” Levi said.

King smirked.

“So that leaves us with money laundering and drug distribution.” King took a small bite of food. “When I noticed you looking into Sara Jones, I thought maybe you were doing your own recon.”

“No, it’s a huge coincidence. I’m only helping out a friend and needed to know where Sara had relocated to,” Levi said.

“Is the friend Max?” King asked, and Levi was reminded that he, King, and Max had worked a joint mission together back when they’d all been active military.

On that mission, Levi had gone by the handle of Crash, and Max had gone by Red Dog. And King? They called him King, and that was that.

“Lily, his girlfriend mainly, but yeah, Max too,” Levi answered.

“How are you liking the bodyguard business?” Rowan interrupted with a murmur, his fingers flying over the keyboard.

Levi was amazed Rowan could listen and take part in their conversation while working some database, but then again, Rowan’s intelligence was off the Richter scale.

“I love it. Why?” Levi gazed at Rowan and asked, “You thinking of retiring too?”

“Yeah,” Rowan admitted, but didn’t look up from the laptop.

“What?” West turned on Rowan, his mouth slightly open.

Rowan glanced up then.

“I don’t want to see your food.” Rowan put a finger beneath West’s chin and snapped the man’s mouth closed.

“Screw you. Are you leaving?” West asked. It was clear he was upset.

“I’m thinking about it, yes.”

“Well, I know for a fact we could use your expertise at Deckman Defense and Security,” Levi said. “If you’re serious.”

“I’m serious. It sounds…I don’t know. Peaceful.” Rowan turned back to tap a few more keys.

“It can be a bit peaceful, but we just took out a stalker who had a knife to my friend Lily’s throat. That wasn’t pretty,” Levi said.

“So, enough action to keep it interesting, but no sickos?” Rowan asked.

“I would say yes to the action, but no to the sickos. Who do you think we protect our clients from?” Levi said.

“Oh yeah.” Rowan glanced up with a grimace when the information sank in and then went back to the laptop.

“The only thing we don’t do is take down drug lords or sex trafficking mob bosses…unless they get in our way. We protect people when others want to do them harm.”

“Well, damn it,” West said, cutting in. “Now I’m sold.”

King gave a heavy sigh and squinted at Levi. “Nobody’s fuckin’ retiring.”

“Why not?” Levi challenged.

“You trying to break up our team?”

“Not intentionally, but there’re plenty more Aries than just us five.” Levi smirked around a bite of food. “Besides, you could always come with them and keep the team together.”

Levi could see the wheels turning in King’s head. He was also certain that Max wouldn’t have a problem with three more bodyguards and would love having King around.

“What about me?” Nash grumbled.

Make that four more guys.

“Of course you.”

If the five of them retired, Aries should still function. Right now, Levi only handled a few jobs.

There was only one problem he could foresee, and he would bet money on it.

The Secretary of Defense would have a coronary if all five of them retired.

“We can still be Aries and do bodyguard work like Levi,” King pointed out.

The three men broke into an argument about what it would really take to do that, but not Rowan, his eyes stayed glued to the laptop.

Levi took a moment to check his phone. It had been six hours since he’d left Sara’s bed and still no contact from her. Gazing at the phone wasn’t going to make a message appear.

In no way, shape, or form did he want to crowd her, but they had started something.

Now, he had to figure out where to go from here because his track record wasn’t all that great. And he wasn’t sure he was cut out for a relationship. So, he still had his doubts, but in the face of not seeing Sara again, they were fading fast.

“I found it,” Rowan announced and flipped the laptop around to show the video of Sara’s attack.

With his heart pounding, Levi reached out and tapped the start button on the video.