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"Guys like that get a bad wrap," Austin assured her. "Seriously, there's a lot of strict rules governing this type of underground. Look, I knew a guy once in the special forces...he had this thing and he got teased about it until someone laid a hand on his girlfriend. It was just a joke--a light slap on the a** like she was a horse or something--and he beat the living hell out of the offender. He got reprimanded--almost court-marshaled--but he was unrepentant. He kept shouting that no one touched his property. No one teased him after that, and we all treated his girlfriend like she was the queen mum. Sure, there's scumbags out there. The worst you'll get are a few looks.But you know I won't let anyone hurt you. Someone so much as brushes against you and I'll skin them. Then you can have what's left of them. Deal?"

Austin placed a comforting hand on her arm. "Hey-hey-hey, nothing like that is going to happen again. It'll be a quick job. In and out. It'll take an hour tops. Nothing will happen while you're with me." He tried to think of the right words to comfort her. "You know how much Nixie hates being objectified. But she trusts me. Can you trust me or do you need to stay in the car?"

"Water or whiskey?" he asked, leaping up to serve her.

Nixie looked on with a small smile curling the corners of her lips. Austin was protective but professional with her, their relationship built on years of trust under difficult circumstances. It was...adorable to watch him work to gain Kaori's trust and admiration. And unless her eyes were playing tricks on her, there was a softness in the crinkles at the corners of his eyes she'd never seen before.

"I'll take a whiskey," she called raising one finger as if she were in a bar.

"But...you don't drink," Austin replied, taken aback.

"I don't feel like being left out," she explained with a shrug.

Austin quickly put together the drinks and served them to the women. He also arranged a larger platter of cheese and meat and set it on the coffee table next to the deed.

"So would it be completely unprofessional for me to ask what I have to wear" he asked, a little awkwardly.

"Something with bullet-belts," Nixie teased as she took a sip of whiskey. It burned her throat as it went down, but it was also wonderfully warming and numbing. She could get used to this.

"And chaps!" Nixie cried, taking another large swig of whiskey. "And a big ten-gallon hat! And you should use your Texan accent. You'd be so badass!"

"I was thinking more along the lines of a Neo-coat," Austin mumbled into his glass. "Although that might be a good outfit for Kaori. What do you say, Sticky Fingers? How do you like the idea of a neck to wrist to ankle coat, with a leather bodice underneath where you can hide more knives than a shark hides teeth?"

"Frankly, you can wear whatever I want," he replied. "At least, that's what everyone will assume. Besides, if Nixie shows enough leg and cleavage, no one will be looking at the rest of us."

"Hey, thass not nice," Nixie protested, slurring her words a little.

"You are incredibly beautiful, Miss Prince-Hughes," Austin insisted, toasting her. "And so are you, Kaori. I'll have my work cut out for me, defending two such attractive women, but I think I can manage it."

"This little charade must be swelling your balls," Nixie teased as she threw back the last of her whiskey and held up the cup for Austin to refill.

Nixie wrapped one arm around Kaori's waist. "Should we call him Master?"

"Sir is just fine," Austin interjected, unsure where this was going. He took Nixie's glass and poured a little whiskey over a lot of water, before giving it back to her.

"Oh no, Master Austin," Nixie protested dramatically. "Master sounds so much more official. What do you command of us, Master Austin?"