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M orrison shifted in his vehicle, the front seat uncomfortable, as he studied the jewelry store.

He’d been at it since five this morning, watching to see what happened, who was around, and just checking out the general area.

He didn’t know for sure that this would be the next place where the jewel thieves would strike, but his instincts, his senses,…

insisted. He kept coming back here, not even sure how it was connected to his current cases.

A little nudge inside him forewarned that maybe the heist crew were also casing out this same location.

So he opened his senses wider to see if he caught the energy of someone nearby.

Still nothing. Yet he knew this place was under surveillance. And this heist crew may even have abilities—which meant, for all he knew, they could be in the ethers right now, staring down at him. With a shake of his head, he muttered, “This case will be a bigger mess than expected.”

He checked his phone for the time, as he was supposed to meet Sadie in two hours.

From his current intel, she was a witness to the robbery, the sister of a guard at one of the three latest jewelry store hits.

Sadie may have recognized something about one of the members of this jewelry heist gang.

Yet as soon as Morrison woke this morning, he found himself right back here at this jewelry store, a potential for the robbers, so Morrison continued to look for answers.

The fact that this location hadn’t been hit yet was interesting because it was one of the largest jewelry stores in town, so why not?

It did have state-of-the-art security, and it was certainly one of the higher-end places, a step above the jewelry stores the gang had been hitting recently, but that didn’t give this store a free pass.

Morrison suspected that the robbers were just working their way up to it, as if the other robberies were just building up to this one, which might be a real haul.

It was Morrison’s job and his passion to stop them before they had a chance. The fact that they were killing as they ran rampant made it doubly important to stop them as fast as he could.

He shifted again in his car seat, watching the area while opening his senses wider, waiting for something, anything that would tell him what the hell this group was up to.

The fact that he couldn’t get anything was all the more disturbing because it made him fear the thieves had actual knowledge as to how energy worked, as if they had found a way to somehow—he didn’t want to say camouflage their steps —but they remained slippery, maybe due to some extra skills that he didn’t want the bad guys to have, for sure.

He now felt also this fated sense of waiting, this sense of a shift in the energy around him that something was about to blow.

Not today, maybe not even tomorrow, but soon.

His senses were screaming that it had to do with this jewelry store, that this jewelry store in particular wanted to be at the heart of it.

He stayed for several more minutes, but nothing was happening here.

Finally he turned on his engine and pulled away from the curb, checking the mirrors to see if anybody watched him as he left, and again found nothing. The place was dead. It was only six in the morning after all, yet he couldn’t quite escape that feeling of someone watching him.

As he drove toward the restaurant, his phone rang. He glanced down at it and frowned, not recognizing the number. Yet he still answered it. The voice that came through the phone was not one he expected. “Levi?” he asked in astonishment.

Levi laughed. “Yeah, it’s me,” he replied pleasantly.

“What the hell, and how did you get my number?”

“Let’s just say it’s been passed through a few departments.”

“Son of a bitch. It shouldn’t have been passed at all,” he muttered, still in shock as he listened to his old friend. “What the hell happened to you? I heard you and Ice finally got married.”

“Married and reproducing,… like rabbits apparently,” he added. “It’s all good. We’ve got three, and that’s more than enough, right?”

“Good God,” he murmured. “You know that’s not something I ever saw coming in your life.”

“Yeah, I didn’t see it coming either.” Levi chuckled. “And I should have. I mean, I really should have, but, hey, life has been fairly challenging for the last few years, but it’s been good.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Morrison said, as he cautiously drove toward the restaurant. “Yet I’m guessing you didn’t call just to catch up, so what’s up?”

“I’m sure you’ll understand fairly quickly,” he muttered. “Remember Merk?”

“Sure, I do. He’s kind of unforgettable. What about him? Still a tough badass like always, I assume,” he added with a hint of laughter.

“Pretty much. He’s also married and has kids too, twins.”

“Good God.” At that, he pulled off to the side of the road and stared at the phone. “I’m struggling with this whole homespun family bliss thing.”

“Yeah, we all took the plunge and still can’t quite believe it happened. One by one we found partners, then life changed in a big way for all of us,” he shared. “Now it seems to be the most natural thing in the world.”

“That’s all good for you guys, but you haven’t got me convinced, that’s for sure,” he muttered.

“Meaning you’re still single?”

“Do you really have to ask? Who the hell would take an old reprobate like me?”

At that, Levi snorted. “We all thought the same thing too.”

“Oh hell, you always had Ice,” he muttered. “She was always there, looking after you, watching your back, flying you in and out of trouble.”

“I know,” Levi agreed, his voice thickening with emotion. “Believe me that I know just how lucky I am.”

“Yeah, she never spent a single minute looking at the rest of us.”

“I finally married her, and she’s quite content right now.”

“Are you sure?” he teased. “You never know. Maybe she’s had a little too much domestic tranquility, and somebody needs to come in and shake up your lives a little.”

Levi burst out laughing. “I think all of us wouldn’t mind if it calmed down around here,” he admitted, still chuckling.

“We’ve got a lot going on in our world. Lots of marriages, lots of babies, and plenty of work.

It’s all good though. I’m sure no one else could have managed any better than we’ve done for ourselves. ”

“So, that’s all good, but it brings me back to my original question. Why have you called me?”

“So, Merk has a twin brother.”

“Terkel?”

“Yeah, that’s him.”

“That’s one scary dude.” Morrison smiled because he did know Terk, at least a little, but still, Morrison remained uncertain as to what Terk could actually do.

Levi muttered, “In one way, yes, Terk’s one scary dude, but he saved our backs time and time again.”

“I don’t know him that well, so I doubt he’s into saving my ass.”

“No, but MI6 has passed his name to MI5, apparently related to somebody you are due to meet this morning.”

He shook his head. “Good God,” he muttered, “how the hell did this come around to this morning’s appointment?”

“She mentioned the name Terk, and that immediately triggers all kinds of other issues,” Levi noted.

“And, of course, nobody told me that.”

“I’m telling you now,” Levi stated, his voice cheerful on the phone. “And expect to hear from Terk sometime soon.”

“So, whether I like it or not, I’ll be dealing with the infamous Terkel?”

“Don’t know about infamous , but he’s been brought into this because there’s no way not to.”

“Meaning?” Morrison hated that his tone sounded so cautious, but he’d heard a lot about Terkel. All of it was good, but it also made Terk seem way more powerful than an ordinary man. So maybe too good .

Levi laughed. “You’ll see. You’ll be meeting somebody else this morning too, one of Terkel’s team.”

“Why?” he asked bluntly.

“Your witness asked for one of Terk’s men to be assigned to her case, as I was involved in setting up the meeting.”

“Crap,” Morrison muttered. “I really don’t want to deal with anybody else.”

“That’s because you’ve been allowed to run the whole lone ranger thing for a long time,” Levi pointed out. “You’re an independent agent, aren’t you?”

“Kind of, the relationship is complicated. I tried to retire, and they wouldn’t let me, but I wouldn’t go back to work under the same bosses. So independent is a good way to put it.”

“Oh, I understand that totally,” Levi replied, and indeed understanding filled his tone.

“It’s one of the reasons why we are where we are, independent and private.

If you ever want to hook up with the group, let me know,” he offered, “though I’m not so sure that you don’t rightly belong with Terkel’s group. ”

Morrison frowned at that, unsure what he was supposed to say and worried that a little more knowledge about him and his own abilities was out there than he cared to admit.

Levi laughed. “What? No comment?”

“Not sure what I’m supposed to say to that,” he muttered.

“You don’t have to say anything, but you should know that attempting to hide your abilities won’t work with Terkel,” Levi pointed out. “Just letting you know that upfront.” And, with that, Levi rang off.

And his cell rang again almost immediately. He answered it cautiously, again not recognizing the number.

“We’re not shitting on your parade,” the caller greeted him, “but when an energy worker is in trouble, I tend to get brought in. So, yes, you’ll be dealing with me too.” And without giving him a chance to say anything in response, Terk ended the call.