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F rom his spot across from the Velvet Lounge, Levi watched the people coming and going through the front door.

With access to a database holding information, it had been easy to find a Sara Jones who worked at the Velvet Lounge in San Francisco. Her home address had been unknown.

When his cell phone rang with a well-known number, Levi frowned as he answered.

“Huxley.”

“You’re on the radar,” Nash Gibson said.

“Shit.”

“Don’t curse yet until you hear what I have to say,” Nash said.

Levi squeezed the phone and took a slow, quiet breath.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“A few days ago, you searched for an employee who works at the Velvet Lounge in San Francisco.”

“I did…” Levi said slowly.

“Aries and the local DEA have had that place staked out for months.”

“No fuckin’ way,” Levi groaned. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”

Damn it, this was just his luck.

“Yes way. Is this Sara Jones clean?”

“As a whistle,” he growled.

“Why’d you search for her?”

“She’s a missing person in a case I’m working.”

“Are bodyguards searching for missing people now?” Nash asked with a snort.

“This is a special case. A friend of mine asked me for help.” Levi ran a hand through his hair.

His gut clenched. There could be a few reasons Nash was calling and he knew without a doubt none of them were good. It wasn’t that he wouldn’t go back if they called him in, but he liked his life the way it was at the moment. The only problem was that he wasn’t officially retired from Aries.

“Talk to me. What’s going on in the Velvet Lounge?” Levi said.

“Mainly drugs and money laundering, but there have been suspicions of human trafficking.”

“Fuck…” Levi muttered, running a hand down his face.

“Yeah. We’ve been trying to get to the head of the organization for the past year. His name is Edward Stewart.”

“What’s that got to do with the lounge?” Levi frowned.

“Through sheer luck, we found out that Stewart’s right-hand man, Chester Miller, stops by the Velvet Lounge on a regular basis,” Nash said.

“You’ve gotta have more than that,” Levi pointed out.

“Two months ago, the DEA sent in undercover officer Brenda Webb.”

When Nash went silent, Levi rubbed at his chin. Okay, he’d bite. “What happened?”

“Brenda was killed in a car accident,” Nash said.

“That happens.”

“Hit and run,” Nash added.

“Well, that’s just fucking great,” Levi muttered. “You think this Edward Stewart took her out?”

“According to our sources, it was a hit, but we can’t prove it.”

“You know… I want to retire,” Levi muttered.

He’d become a bodyguard so he could eventually get completely out of covert ops.

“Aries needs you in on this one, buddy.”

That puzzled Levi. Aries was a black ops unit that worked beyond the law. Why were they involved in a DEA case?

“Since when does Aries collaborate with law enforcement?”

The black ops unit didn’t do this kind of thing. The members of Aries were ghosts with one main objective—eliminating high powered people who did some very bad shit.

“Since a few months ago. It was after you started bodyguarding,” Nash said.

“I’m trying to retire,” Levi said firmly.

“Yeah, but you’re still active Aries,” Nash said. “Plus, you used the Aries database to put a trace and ping Sara’s phone. Not to mention, you recently searched for her work address…and that alerted Aries, who was working on the joint task force.”

“I’m a bodyguard now.”

“You are so far from retired.” Nash gave a bark of laughter. “You just did a job with us. Remember the yellow file? You handled that with us five months ago without blinking.”

Levi closed his eyes. The yellow file had been an exception, and he’d only taken the job because the SecDef had personally called him for help. The mission—take out a house official who had been caught molesting young children.

“Right, I helped on that because Will called me beforehand,” Levi said. “Besides, things like the yellow file fit what we do. Aries doesn’t handle human trafficking and drugs.”

“ Suspected human trafficking,” Nash said.

“Yeah, okay, but dirty politicians are our specialty, not drug crime lords,” Levi pointed out.

“Like I said…We’ve been handling those types of cases over the past few months,” Nash informed him.

Levi groaned. “Isn’t that what the cops are for?”

“Let me cut to the chase here,” Nash said. “King says…you will be working this case because you opened the file using our database. And let’s not forget you are still part of Aries.”

King was one of the commanders within Aries, and his word was law. Although Levi could say no, it would be easier to just agree.

“Shit,” he muttered.

Nash cackled. “I’m on my way to San Francisco. I should be there in twelve hours. Get Sara ready or wait until I get there and I’ll talk to her.”

“Wait. What?” Levi choked on his own spit.

“They’re calling my flight. I gotta go.”

Nash hung up and Levi threw his phone. It clattered onto the dashboard, slid across the surface, and clattered to the passenger side floorboard.

Great, just fucking great.

Monday evening, Sara stood up from where she’d taken over a booth seat to handle some of the books and stretched.

She felt a bit nauseous and rubbed her stomach. The pregnancy test she’d found beneath Mandy’s sink Sunday had come back negative.

The test had been expired, though, but she didn’t believe that would matter. Would it? Damn it, she grimaced. She should have researched about it being expired before taking the test.

Googling the answer, she groaned. Yes, they can expire, and expired tests are less likely to give accurate results. So that meant another trip to the pharmacy to get another kit.

She collected her laptop and papers from the table. Here at the Velvet Lounge, she didn’t have her own office, but Kevin had told her that they could share his.

However, the thought of sitting in the small room with Kevin didn’t sit well with her. He had been pestering her for an answer about making them permanent, but so far, she had dodged him.

Tonight was the night. She was going into that office, have a heart-to-heart, and take the rest of the evening off. She glanced at her watch. It was just past nine and she had finished the bookkeeping entries for the day. Not bad for a day’s work.

Knocking on the closed door, she entered when Kevin called out.

“Hey, you.” He smiled and rolled back from his desk a bit.

Sara placed the laptop with the entries on the desk and gave him a slight smile. She didn’t have any hard or bad feelings for the guy at all. In truth, they made better friends than they had lovers.

“Hey back.” Sara sank into one of the two chairs that sat in front of Kevin’s desk. “So, I’ve been thinking.”

“Okay, but before you finish that thought…I have an event to go to Friday night and I’d like you to come with me.” Kevin looked down and adjusted his shirt cuffs, then glanced up and smiled. It seemed a bit forced to her. The man’s brown hair was sprayed so the strands swept back from his forehead and stayed glued in place.

He really was good-looking in a smooth, polished sort of way. Although not rugged and sexy like Levi.

And why the hell she was comparing Levi to Kevin was anyone’s guess.

Clearing her throat, she clasped her hands together and held his gaze.

“I can go, but only as a friend.”

He frowned. “Why?”

“I think we make much better friends than anything else,” she said with a rueful smile.

Kevin’s lips twisted and his eyes squinted and she couldn’t tell if he was pissed or not.

“I think we work well together,” he said.

“We do. We always have, but there’s no spark.”

“On your part,” he countered.

“Yes. I just…don’t have those kinds of feelings for you. I don’t want to hurt you, you have to know that.”

Kevin sighed and rested his arms on the desk. He gave a wry smile and nodded. “Yeah, I know. Even when we broke up in college, you ended it nicely.”

She grinned. “I’m not normally nice.”

“Yes, you are. Of course, you do have a temper.” He ruefully rubbed at his cleanly shaven jaw, and she was reminded of the time she had slapped him in the face.

Back in college, they’d been at the movies and Kevin had commented on the size of her friend Cindi’s breasts. Everyone heard Kevin’s remark.

Sara had whirled around, called him a pig, and slapped him so hard that her palm had stung.

That had been a week before she ended it with him. Kevin had apologized to both her and Cindi, and that was the only reason Sara had forgiven him. Two weeks later, Kevin and Cindi had hooked up.

Go figure…

“So, does this mean you’re quitting?” Kevin broke into her trip down memory lane.

“What? Me? No.” She squinted at him. “Do you want me to?”

“No way. I need a date on Friday.”

They shared a laugh, and Sara was glad she’d taken the time to talk with him.

It turned out that Kevin was an okay guy despite being a former pig.