Page 5

Roughly one month later…

A fter the sunshine in California, Seattle came across as dull and gray.

“We should open a bodyguard office in California,” Levi said and swiveled his office chair around.

Maxwell Deckman sat behind the other desk and shot him a look of disbelief.

“What?” Max said with a snort.

“I’m just sayin’…we can broaden our horizons.”

Max turned away from the laptop and gave him his full attention. “What’s got you so chatty this morning?”

“Nothin.” Levi scowled and rubbed behind the silky ears of his eleven-month-old dog, Bella. She proceeded to place her head in his lap and give kisses to his hand.

“Look, I know you wanted to bring Sara home, but at least you found her and she did call Lily.”

“Yeah,” Levi grunted and turned back to his laptop.

That had been a month ago, and Levi was getting antsy.

Beyond that, though, was his own guilt. He should have at least offered to use protection that night. He knew she was on birth control pills. When he’d been guarding Sara’s Seattle home against a stalker, he had noticed a half-empty pack of pills on the bathroom counter. The pack had listed her name and an OB/GYN’s name.

Sara was sensible that way. And he was thankful for it. God knows protection had been the last thing on his mind.

He continued searching on his computer. Shortly after returning to Seattle, he had put out feelers in San Francisco, but finding a Sara Jones in the area was like looking for a needle in a haystack. There were ninety Sara Jones’ listed and four times that many for S. Jones. Not to mention, she could be renting a room that wasn’t under her name.

He was only one guy, but he was working his way through the list. A few of the names seemed like possibilities, but he would need to make a trip back to California to check it out for sure.

When his cell phone rang, Levi shoved away from his desk and walked out of the office. He didn’t stop until he was in the parking lot.

“Huxley,” he said, answering the phone and leaning against his black SUV.

“Mr. Huxley, it’s Tom Markem.”

“What can I do for you, Mr. Markem?” Levi asked the Jones family attorney.

“We’re wondering how the search for Sara is going?”

“She is safe and sound in Northern California.”

“Like I told you over a month ago, I need her address,” Markem said.

“Sorry, but I lost her trail. Didn’t get an address,” he said, glaring at nothing across the parking lot.

“So, you’re still in Washington?”

He was, but he wasn’t going to tell this jack off shit. He didn’t answer to them. Nor did he answer to the mighty Jones family. They had hired him to do a job.

Find Sara.

He’d done that. She was fine. He wasn’t obligated to give them her address even if he did know it. Which he didn’t.

Something about this whole thing stank, and he was sorry he’d taken their money.

“Listen, tell Mr. Jones I’ll return the money since I’m not doing the job to his satisfaction,” Levi said.

“That won’t be necessary, but we would appreciate it if you could get her address.”

“Sara is an adult. If she wants her family to know where she is, then she’ll tell them.”

“She’s worth millions, Mr. Huxley. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of that.”

“So, she’s just a dollar sign to them?”

“Sara has a very important event to attend,” Markem said snidely.

Sara.

Just thinking of her made his pulse hum. Kissing her lips had been heaven. He was obsessed with her mouth. Okay, he was fixated on the whole package. She was fiery and smart and sexy. From what he knew of her, she was a successful business owner who took no shit from anyone. Of course, he could never forget that she was off limits.

“If the event is that important, I’m sure she’ll make time for it,” Levi replied.

“Mr. Hux—”

Levi ended the call and pulled up the Venmo app. He shot back the thirty grand Jack Jones Sr. had given him to find his wayward adopted daughter—along with a note. I found her, she’s fine. No payment necessary.

The rest of the day was uneventful and Levi did the norm, which was to assign guys to jobs that came in. It was a slow period for them, but it should pick up the closer they got to summer.

“See? It’s dead with only the four jobs.”

“We’ll make enough to pay the bills,” Max said.

Which was kind of crazy when you thought about it. Max was dating and living with an heiress. Not to mention, Levi himself had a buttload of money. But Levi knew Max would never ask Lily or anyone for funds. Levi was the same damned way. No way in hell would he ask the woman he loved for a dime, not that he would ever need to.

Maybe that made them old school? He snorted under his breath.

So what?

Closing time came and Levi shrugged into his suit jacket.

“You coming over to William’s for dinner tonight?” Max asked as they headed out the door together.

“I don’t know…” he hesitated.

The girls were too fucking chatty with their endless questions. He was worried that he’d let something slip.

“Come on, Lily has been asking you to stop by and I told her you would.” Max hit the fob on his keys, and the man’s jeep chirped.

“I’ll follow you, but I can’t stay long.”

The dinner was just as he expected it to be.

Lily kept giving him sad-eyed looks and Michelle kept clicking her tongue.

“You didn’t even get a phone number,” Lily complained over a plate of lasagna.

The guilt weighed heavily on Levi. He had only taken the job of finding Sara for Lily and Sara’s family because he had caved beneath Lily’s sadness.

“I didn’t have time to get her number. Our meeting was…brief,” he lied around the bite of garlic bread and kept his eyes on his plate. The bread threatened to choke him.

“Did she say where she lived? Or worked? Because when I talk to her over the phone, she won’t say anything other than she’s fine.” Lily sounded on the verge of tears.

Max curled an arm around her shoulders and gave Levi a death glare.

“No, she didn’t.” Levi gave Max a— you gotta be kidding me —glare right back.

“It was so noisy on the recording,” Michelle chimed in.

“What recording?” Levi frowned, and Lily handed him her phone. He thumbed through the list and found Sara’s message from a few weeks ago. Hitting the play button, he listened to the background along with her words.

“Doing my bi-weekly check-in. Love ya,” Sara had recorded and hung up.

It wasn’t much, but in the background was some type of bar. He’d bet money she was calling from a bar. And there were thousands of bars in San Francisco.

But how many had employees named Sara Jones?