Julia walked Seth to the door, and gave him a good solid kiss, with her arms in front of herself, to assure her that they were still ‘good’. If she had to guess, that was the most intimate kiss he had ever received. And she did it in front of Frank, so he would have boasting rights.
Then she walked back into the kitchen, where the team was cleaning up dinner. The upper cabinets were all open, with a dozen monitors showing scenes from their house and the house across the street. All over, including many interior rooms. The family, the parents anyway, knew which rooms were monitored and could turn them off (on a timer) if they wished.
“Well, I think it is going well,” ‘Mother’ said. “You have that boy drooling all over you, Darling.”
“I thought he was going to die when you put your hand on his thigh at dinner,” ‘Justice’ said. “He’s never going to sleep tonight.”
“He’s a nice boy,” she protested.
“No one said he wasn’t,” Father said. “Let them have their fun, you are doing a great job.”
Julia pulled off her sweatshirt and unstrapped her holster. “It would be a lot easier if I didn’t have to hide this,” she said.
“And a lot more dangerous,” Justice said. “We’re still in early days, but you have to train him that your stomach is ‘off limits’.”
“Not as easy as it sounds, coming on to a teenage boy and keeping your stomach ‘off limits’. Even with this super high holster rig I worry whenever he goes to hug me.”
“He’d have to be going for forbidden territory to find your gun, Darling,” “Mother” said.
“Not forbidden for long, the way they are going at it,” “Father’ said.
“Maybe I should use a backpack, like I did in the last job,” she said.
“In the last job ‘Justice’ was our close in man. Are you going to carry your backpack around his house? No, I think we will eventually have to either go for medical or the ‘ex boyfriend’ excuse.”
“The question is, will he be more turned on by a girlfriend that’s packing, or turned off by one that has a murderous ex boyfriend?”
“Well, I’m sure he will be totally turned off if we pretend I have a colostomy bag!” Julia said. “That just won’t work if we are going for boyfriend. He will never even imagine going to bed with me if I have one of those.”
“Are you going to?”
“Justice!” ‘Father’ said. “You know that is entirely her choice, and I won’t have you teasing her.”
“He is a very nice boy,” Julia said.
“Ah, so close in protection is in the works!”
“Probably,” Julia said. “But not until things get hot and we want me sleeping over. I can arrange it with Sue easily enough. I’m sure she would jump at the idea of a ‘slumber party’, either here or at her house. But If I’m going to spend the night at Seth’s house it will have to be in his bed.”
“While Justice and I crouch in the bushes at the other two boys’ house,” Father agreed. He seemed more comfortable now that the decision was made. He hated to pressure her.
“Do we have more news on the guild?”
“Three more just last week. One bought off, one scared, and the third was kidnapped IRL for an hour or so. The company is getting very anxious for us to produce results.”
“But it knows we can’t right away,” Mother said. “It will take time to naturally develop our team enough to serve as bait. And team two is taking some direct action. They were authorized to act with prejudice against the rapist.”
“Really?”
“Unfortunately for him he lives in a third world country with a very limited justice system. Rape will no longer be an option for him, and the company has banned his biometrics.”
“They keep doing that, but the real work happens out here,” Justice said.
“Which is where we come in. Good job, everyone, I think the Chargers are definitely seeing us as their home away from home. It will be easy to get them here if there is an attack.”
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Von