"The Geek had slipped away, which was fine with me. I did not need to worry about taking care of him I had to find just the right amount of force to u...e on the two thugs.When the kid moved toward me quickly, I moved to the side and hit him with a stream of pepper spray. The canister was empty with that one shot. I did have the stun gun ready for the second one who decided quickly that his momma was calling him."Nene, you need to get somewhere and wash your eyes out. I will be around keeping an. But when my boss the King had a violent episode with his new wife and ended up going to the hospital, I ended up a casualty of circumstance as well." Why do you think that was?" asked the chubby bureaucrat, an intelligent question I expected."I'm not sure to tell you the truth. I knew his new wife. We worked together on rape cases at the crisis center he funded. My wife was her secretary. Of course we knew each other at the office and Beth and I often joined the boss at lunch. He seemed to love. Great," I choked. I had been priming myself for a once-only live modeling session ... Now Kelly was talking about modeling nude for months."How long will you need us?" Jill questioned."Quite a bit," beamed Kelly, "my patron wants several different pieces. I've worked for her before. It will be like full-time job for the next couple of months."When we finished our tea, Kelly said "We should probably get right to work. I hope that you two didn't make any other plans for today?" Um, no," said Jill. The ritual began as the Craxill equivalent of a majordomo announced my arrival.Despite the formality, it was clear the Ritmurt Local Eldest had it in for me. Ritual demanded that he downplay the value of his 'gift', and he did so in full measure, 'regretfully' mentioning that Larwint was a twin, and therefore less than worthy of my august statue. He also managed to mention that she was Nilwint's twin, spreading the 'smear' in hopes of highlighting my 'lack of judgment.'I, on the other hand, was.