Page 19

K ing and West walked up to the door of the Velvet Lounge on Tuesday late afternoon.

“How are we going to play this?” West whispered.

“You’re looking for a job,” King reminded the man and gripped the back of West’s neck to push him forward through the inner door that separated the place from the outer door.

A man behind the bar gave them a smile when they approached. The guy’s name tag said Jim.

“Hi, we saw your advertisement online. Can we fill out applications?” West said with a grin and a sly glance King’s way.

“ He’s looking for a job.” King sent West a narrowed look, but the younger man wasn’t fazed.

“You got any experience?” Jim asked, running a white towel slowly over the bar.

“Yeah, I can email you my resume.”

“All right,” Jim said and placed two waters on the bar for them as he rattled off the email address. “Have a seat over there and I’ll print it out. You fill out this and I’ll take both to the boss.” Jim gestured to a nearby table.

“Cool.” West gave a wide smile, pouring it on thick before grabbing the application.

They walked over and sat at the table.

“Do I look like the waiter type?” West asked with a cheeky grin.

It was all King could do not to roll his eyes.

It wasn’t the first time West had gone in first on a mission. The younger man had a way about him that left people disarmed. West looked innocent yet was anything but. The man appeared slender, but he topped over six feet and every inch of West was ripped hard muscle beneath the loose-fitting clothes.

Because of his quick smile and constant chatter, most people didn’t realize that West was lethal. He was the perfect weapon.

“I should have let you come in alone,” King muttered.

“Why?” West glanced up from the application he was filling out, looked around the place, and then turned to him.

“Because they’re going to wonder who I am.”

“Can’t you just be a buddy?”

“Who takes their buddy job hunting?”

West grinned. “I do.” The man wrote something on the application and then lifted it up.

Under emergency contact, West wrote King’s name and number.

“Dork.” King snorted and took a sip of water.

The bartender, Jim, came and took the application and disappeared into the back room.

A waiter came over with menus and King ordered a burger and fries while West did the same.

It was a good hour later that Kevin Wilson came out of the back room, followed by none other than Chester Miller.

Well, shit. King would have preferred to keep his face hidden from Miller, but that was not going to happen.

Kevin Wilson came right to their table and stuck his hand out to him.

King squinted, stood, and shook the guy’s hand, and then jerked a thumb at West. “He’s the one hunting for a job.”

“You guys look like you can handle yourself,” Kevin said and shook West’s hand before waving the resume.

“We do okay,” West said, and Kevin and Chester both took a seat at the table.

“It says here that you’ve done some bouncing,” Kevin said to West.

“I have,” West said, but King knew that was a lie. It sounded good on the resume, so West had left it in the resume and used one of his numerous backgrounds to go along with it.

King would bet that both Chester and Kevin had looked into West’s background and found that he was a former mercenary. Of course that was total bullshit, but it had worked in their favor.

“Former mercenary,” Kevin added.

West stared at him. “You checked me out.”

“We did. Who’s your friend?”

“A former colleague,” West said, and Kevin’s gaze locked in on King.

“You looking for work too?”

“No,” King drawled. If he bit on too quickly, then they’d be suspicious.

“Why here?”

“I don’t understand the question,” West said, feigning confusion. “Don’t you have several job openings posted on the net?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Kevin gave a huff and laughed. “Yeah, we do. I need both waitstaff and a few bouncers for the front door. The summer season is coming and it’s one of our busiest times of the year.

“Well, where do you need me?” West asked, and Kevin looked him over.

King kept his eyes on Chester mostly because the guy hadn’t looked away from him once. King knew the look. Chester was sizing him up. They hadn’t been able to run a full background check on his fake identity because West had only listed his name as a personal contact. So, if they ran him, then they would have found limited information, if any at all.

“How about a waiter? Unless you think you can handle the front door,” Kevin said.

“What do you think, King? The waiter job?” West asked him, as if being a bouncer wasn’t something he was capable of.

Kevin Miller frowned as if confused because of West’s mercenary background.

“I bet…King could handle the door,” Chester interjected before Kevin could protest.

They all turned to him.

Kevin ran his eyes over the guy West had called King. He could see the military tattoo of the Army on the man’s forearm, and Kevin would bet on the fact that the guy was former military. If this King guy had also worked as a mercenary, then he might be interested in making some money.

King sat with one ankle crossed over the top of his knee, one arm stretched along the back of the leather booth behind West. The man’s cool blue gaze never gave anything away.

King didn’t give off a law enforcement vibe at all. In fact, it was more of a hired gun feeling. Kevin had run into these types before, and only money did the talking. If he had King at the door and West at the bar, then the money coming through this place could increase. Hell, he might start moving some of the drugs through here.

Although Sara would need to be kept in the dark, he couldn’t part with her. Now that she was here, he wanted to keep her around permanently.

The idea grew. He loved having Sara with him, and even though she said she didn’t want him, he hoped that over time she would grow to love him again.

“If you pass the background check, I can give you a hefty incentive,” Kevin said and named a sum that had West’s eyes widening.

King didn’t move a muscle. Nothing showed in his eyes or on his face.