Page 44 of Heartbreak Hero

They had arrived back at the rental house about half an hour ago, but Levi couldn’t sit still.

He paced.

What he’d done back in that warehouse was part of who he was as an Aries operative. No, he didn’t enjoy it, but he’d do it again to anyone who ever lifted a finger to Sara. And just thinking about the fact that they had tried to rape her started his blood boiling again.

He rubbed both hands on his face, trying to get his anger under control.

The smell of bacon drifted in from the kitchen, and the scent reminded him of being back at the Aries training camp in Arizona. He couldn’t stomach the thought of eating food right now, but he did smirk at the smell. Most of them were carnivores, so frying bacon in the middle of the day or night wasn’t an odd thing in their world.

“You find a local cleaning team?” Nash asked West.

“Nah, Aiden and Slade were already out here and said they’d handle it,” West said.

“Since when do they do cleaning jobs?” Nash looked puzzled.

“Since it was a rush and we needed to get the hell out of there,” Rowan cut in.

Rowan was tapping away on his laptop again, searching for a back door to tap into Sara’s new phone.

The screwed up part now was that one of the higher ups at Aries had put a nix on King’s database override access.

Even when Levi had previously used Spencer, another techie at Aries, Spencer still had to receive override access from his superior—Levi had left that part up to Spencer, and the man had come through.

However, this time, without King’s log in, Rowan wouldn’t be able to do what he does best and find people. That King was pissed was an understatement, hence the need for lots and lots of bacon right now.

Because of the bullshit access, it was taking too long to find Sara.

“I think we need to go question Mandy after all,” Rowan suggested.

“Let’s stick to the original plan then,” King said, coming out of the kitchen chomping on bacon. “You guys go question the friend, and West and I will go to the lounge to get him hired.”

“Good thing we have our fake backgrounds ready,” West muttered.

Rowan cackled and slid his laptop into its case.

It was a silent bunch who left the house.

King 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’slooking 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.

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