When we got up in the morning, we cleaned up quickly in the separate men's and women's latrines, then met John and the driver for breakfast. We walked over to the officer's open mess and bought some great military breakfasts. I stuffed, having the opportunity to have good biscuits and sausage gravy, along with a bunch of eggs and potatoes. The coffee was bad as always, but it was hot, black, and strong.
John looked at me and said, "Now what?"
"If what you told me is true, we should be free and clear today. If intelligence says there's still a threat, I'll just stay right here. I'll make the hospital measure me for another leg or something. Bobby can go to work and I'll go to the library."
Our driver said, "You're too comfortable. It isn't cool to tease death."
John about cracked up, "Son, this Marine has seen so much death and been confronted so many times with the decision to save his men and die, or save himself, he doesn't even think about it. Be in real combat for a week or two at a time, then tell me about comfort factors. This man can eat using a guy he just gutted for a table. He can sleep, not necessarily soundly, but still sleep with mortars falling around him at the rate of two a minute. What he did last night wasn't for show; it was to protect all of us as he felt he was the only target. He was, and he proved it."
The driver still looked at me warily. John used his cell phone and called DC for intelligence. He heard from them that several people had been picked up last night as a result of the sniper fire. He asked for their opinion, then nodded.
He smiled, "Let's get our shit, thank our hosts, and go to work. We'll go to the hotel to change clothes and you, Chuck, can start taking duty. You still have some accrued incident time so if you have other things to do, go do them."
I told John that I would discuss it with Howard and that I needed to make some decisions about my employment. John looked at me in understanding and said, "I hope you stay with us." He looked at Bobby and said, "I would like you to stay with us as well. There isn't too much duty where you two can work together, but if you find something you can do together and need help with the transfer, call me."
Bobby smiled, "We didn't put anything over on anyone, did we?"
"Something clicked with you two. You both exhibited all the signs. I think you're a good match. Be sure before you make it permanent. This is a crazy way to make a living. Bobby, you already know that."
Bobby nodded but smiled.
We drove back to the hotel, with John saying he was going to sign out of our service office, and take his crew home. He said they all had enough good stories for the rest of the office and cubicle rats back in DC.
Bobby and I went up to the room, saying hi to some relaxed duty people, and changed clothes. I told Bobby, I think we'll be staying in our new place tonight. I have to close my other apartment and pick up my bike, but that shouldn't be a big deal. Let's go to the office.
We walked to the office and were greeted by everyone. Howard said, "After worrying about you two so much. Last night was anti-climatic. Good idea, Chuck. Not cool doing the stunt you did with the steel plate though. You're forgiven because it worked. We picked up all the shooters, plus we profiled a bunch out at the airport, and have about twenty more in custody. They're bemoaning that the big shots who offered the reward are all dead. Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda, you know the story."
Howard looked right at Bobby, "So Bobby, you ready for your new place?"
Then he looked at me and said, "Decision time, my young friend, I've done everything I can to convince you to stay. If you do, there's a good future here for you. Have any idea yet?"
Bobby looked at Howard and said, "There's one more inducement we can use, Howard. I'd want to make this guy, Safe Two. We're supposed to have a two-person team at the safe house anyway. He can still pull duty a lot of the time when we're not hosting, and what better cover than a service couple. How about it?"
Howard and John waved at both of us to follow them as they headed toward Howard's office. Once we were all sitting, relaxed, Howard said, "Bobby, Danny's been gone a long time now and you've become a valuable member of our team. When needed, you've pulled duty for sick guys, you've even pulled some air duty. Up until Wild Bill showed up, you've never exhibited any sign of interest in anyone. The guys that have been at the office since Danny left, have all looked after you closely, hoping you would have this opportunity."
"I guess something I want you to think about is, do you really want to have another relationship with someone in the service. Hell, even the bureau can be hairy sometimes. There's always that chance that either or both of you could be lost. Bobby, you know what that's like."
"The brief courtship you two have had has been unusual to say the least. This is what I'd like to do. If you stay on, Chuck, I'll assign you as Safe Two with Bobby as leader. Your temporary Lieutenant's position will probably go away, but you haven't had any special office yet anyway. While you are working out of the safe unit, I want you to go back to the employment office and work there temporarily. I want you to observe the transition of supervision and be watchful of any new schemes that might surface. You'll work closely with the bureau, who will pick up half your tab while this undercover is going on. You don't get to double dip on salaries. Your employment office salary will be diverted to the Marshal's service budget while you take care of this assignment. If the safe unit has to host, you might have to take a leave of absence from the employment people, but Ms. White will understand. She's happy with this arrangement and is actually the one to suggest it."
"So, this will give you a chance to be a Deputy Marshal as well as see how you like the employment division. Give all of it a trial and decide in a month or so."
Bobby was very excited saying, "Come on, Chuck, let's get our stuff and go see the new unit. We can swing by your old apartment and get the stuff you had there. Let's see if there is still an attraction between us in a mundane, monotonous world."
I shook hands with Howard saying, "Thanks Howard, thank you for the opportunity. I'm leaning toward wanting to stay with the service, about ninety-eight percent sure. This is a hell of an organization. I like the camaraderie, the closeness between Deputy Marshals. This is a great place to work. Should I call in, in the morning?"
Don't call in until next Monday. I'll work on setting your schedule up with Ms. White. Both of you are off until then, enjoy.
We left the office and went back to the hotel to pick up our clothes. I stopped at the gift shop to purchase a suitcase before going up to the room. It only took ten minutes to pack our stuff and head to the garage. We were both still a little jumpy and overly cautious, checking all the sight lines constantly.
The garage attendant said, "We did a bomb check on your car this morning, Bobby. Everything is clean."
Bobby drove out of the garage and said, "Do you want to clean out your apartment now or later?"
"Let's do it now and get it over with. I need to pay off the girl that has been watching the place and who was doing my laundry."
Bobby looked at me and asked, "Is she any good?"
"Yeah, she does an excellent job. She does laundry to pay her bills. She has a guy, but he's pretty transient. He's not here a lot. Right now he is but she still needs the cash. I had an arrangement with her that if I bought the food, she would fix it. She would share meals with me, giving her a couple of healthy meals a day. When her guy showed up, he began eating with me too. I still thought it was a good deal to get a well-cooked meal and have my lunches made for me for the price of the raw materials."
"Sounds like it was a good deal. What will she do if you're gone?"
"Don't know, but she's a survivor."
Bobby said, "How about we both use her for our clothes. We can drop them off in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon a couple of times a week. We'll do our own towels and bedclothes, even our own underwear. For the rest of our clothes it would be nice to have someone else launder and iron them for us."
"We'll ask her to see what she thinks."
We pulled up to the apartment to find a service car parked in front of the apartment. Inside, a duty guy was watching TV.
"Hey, Chuck, looks like this one is winding down."
"I'm surprised you're still here. I figured they would have had you pulled by now."
The duty guy said, "Howard and the bureau have something they want to do out here so they're keeping the place. So far maintenance has been out changing around some things. Hey, that Shirley cooks up a storm. Bart is a little strange, but so far he's been a decent guy to be around. This is decent duty out here since you have the food deal. I bring whatever list Shirley makes and she cooks. Hell, she's even doing my laundry for me. She charges real fair. Tough little girl, isn't she?"
At that second, Shirley walked in the back door. The duty guy said, "Speak of the devil."
Shirley was excited to see me and gave me a hug. "I've missed you being around. You were kind of stabilizing around here. I think Bart even misses you. All these other guys that have been around are okay. Are you coming home now? Is everything okay now? Are you okay?"
I smiled at Shirley and said, "No, I'm here to clean out my clothes and stuff. The bad stuff that was going on seems to be over now, so I'm fine. These guys are going to stay on so the food deal is going to continue, at least for a while."
I took Bobby's hand and pulled her to me, "Shirley, this is Bobby, I've kinda fell for this lady and we're going to try living with each other for a while."
The duty guy exclaimed, "No shit, Bobby, really?"
Bobby just grinned and nodded.
Shirley said, "She sure is a big one, she reminds me of a bigger, sleeker version of Millie."
Bobby grinned and said, "Millie's my sister."
Shirley said, "Figures this guy would hook up with someone six or seven inches taller than he is and has over a hundred pounds on him. I don't know why, but I've always figured him as thinking bigger is better."
Bobby said, "I think he likes the idea that if his leg screws up, I can carry him."
Shirley laughed, "There is that."
I asked, "Shirley, would you consider still doing my laundry and also doing Bobby's washing and ironing of her outerwear?"
"Hell yes, the more the merrier. I'm getting a good bunch of customers. It'll change all the time, but I'll have enough to pay my bills and feed me if Bart takes off again. He's being pretty much a home body lately, and has been making me happy. But yes, just bring it by in the morning and I'll have them done up in the afternoon. I could use some extra hangers though. If you have any of those pants hangers, you know the ones with that cardboard round thing to hang the pants on, bring them. I need those."
"Let me get my stuff, there isn't much."
I put my clothes into my duffel bag and took the few toiletry things that were in the bathroom. Looking at the place, I realized how high on the hog I had been living since my sudden departure from here.
I loaded my stuff in the Expedition and came back in. "I'm going to take the bike. I've missed riding. This evening, I'm taking Bobby out for a spin. We might even stop in at Jonah's so the sisters can visit."
Bobby said, "Jonah says that I might not be all that welcome at the bar. A lot of guys are put off by the law."
I laughed, "Who's gonna tell them. The only person to know would be Jonah and your sister. We'll just be another couple with a big lady."
The duty guy said, "A real big lady."
I put in, "A beautiful, big lady."
"Okay you two, don't make me out to be a freak. Come on, Chuck, get your bike and let's go see our new place.
I said goodbye to Shirley, promising to stop by and see her. The bike was dirty but started easily. I wiggled the bike back and forth with the gas caps off to see how much gas was in the tanks. Luckily they were still pretty full.
In short order, I was following Bobby out to the old Carolwood area where the new place was. When we came up to it, workers were coming out of the house, and a couple of duty people were standing in the garage. Bobby pulled straight in and I pulled the bike in all the way to the rear of the large garage. There was still room to fit a long car inside. The duty guys came over to check out the bike, but I told them to wait till I had it cleaned up so it would at least be pretty.
The two guys gave us a tour of the house. It had four guest suites that contained a sitting area or living room, a bedroom, and a large bath. If a guest or couple didn't feel like associating with others, they would be comfortable in their suite. The sitting area had a small table for meals or games.
The house had a large living room, a large family room off the kitchen, similar to the last house and included a security video wall. There were two additional bedrooms that could be used for additional guards or duty people if necessary, a large room with all of the gym equipment, and a large storage room, this time with hangers and shelves for extra clothes, towels, and toiletries. Then there was the host suite, which included a huge bedroom that included a sitting area and a large bathroom. There was a large video wall that was easily seen from the bed, as well as the sitting area.
The backyard was enclosed in a ten-foot high concrete block wall. It was very decorative, having large pillars with a decorative cap every twelve feet. The back of the house was similar to what Bobby had before. A large covered enclosed patio that included a nice size jacuzzi, and out from there was a very attractive pool in a screened cage. Beyond the large pool cage was a nice sized yard, much larger than what Bobby had before. The duty guys kept pointing out security measures, then took us out front.
Across the street there was grass for about fifty feet, then a dense wooded area. As we approached the tree line, one of the radios began to beep. We were shown the various radar sensor points that worked only on larger objects. The duty guy said that a wild pig had set it off already, but there wasn't a panic as they were able to pick it up on video right away. They also said, the security sensors began more than a hundred feet back into the woods.
Once back across the street, the guys helped us move our clothes into the big walk-in closet in the bedroom. The one guy said, "Glad you're not even pretending by having Chuck use one of the other bedrooms."
Bobby said, "No need to pretend, we've pretty much committed to each other. Part of that is to be sure to tell all our friends we had found each other. Both guys gave Bobby a hug, saying how happy they were for her. Both of them also shook my hand and warned me that I had best treat their Bobby very well. I told them they didn't have anything to worry about.
They had Bobby, then me, sign off on the house and all the equipment and arms stored in the bedroom. The only new furniture was the extra stuff used in the new suites.
As the guys left, we closed up the garage and secured the front. We checked out the new radios with the sensor warnings built in. They were a little smaller than the last ones, but had all of the regular and tactical frequencies.
Bobby looked through the refrigerator and was happy to see it already had a good selection of vegetables, along with a couple of nice steaks. I suggested we save the steaks for tomorrow and go out for an early ride. We could dine on junk food. I asked her if hamburgers and chili sounded good. Bobby nearly squealed with joy. I told her to hold that thought, as I was going to push the bike out the big double back door and wash it.
I couldn't figure why they had the big double door in the garage until I noticed a large garden tractor mower in the corner, nice. Once the bike was cleaned up, sparkling the way it ought to be, I pushed it back into the garage.
Inside the house, I found Bobby already in her jeans and T-shirt, wearing a large loose denim jacket. I put my rig back on then donned my denim jacket. We checked each other out to make sure our hardware wasn't obvious. If someone looked for it, they would see we were packing, but both of us were carrying our identification. We were not supposed to go anywhere unarmed.
When we first started out, it took me a little while to get used to the extra weight on the bike. To get used to it, we rode north a ways then doubled back to take the long way around to get to a Steak and Shake we wanted eat at. Great junk food, complete with a malted milkshake. Bobby commented that she might get fat. I commented that there would be more Bobby to love. I got a smile for that one.
Once we were riding again, I was able to feel comfortable riding two up with Bobby. We felt right riding together.
Walking into Jonah's was the cause of a lot of loud whistles and hollering. Jonah was the instigator, smiling happily, and coming to get a warm hug from his sister-in-law. He said that he had just left Millie in the back office and for us to go back to surprise her.
Millie almost came unglued. She was only partially undressed, putting her clothes back on. It was immediately obvious what had been going on. The room smelled like a whorehouse and Millie had that dreamy eyed look a woman gets after being well fucked. The two big girls still squealed and hugged, happy to see each other.
Jonah had come back in with us, and as he approached Millie she said, "No more, Jonah, I don't think I could handle any more. You've worn me out. Go get me a Coke or something, I need the caffeine.
We had a couple of beers with them out in the bar, gave them our new address, and they promised to visit soon, especially after hearing we demanded nudity within the Jacuzzi and the pool.
It took us a long while to ride home since we intentionally went the wrong way, then took a wide arc to feel the wind in our faces. No fast starts, no loud noises to disturb our serenity. At home, Bobby used her remote to open the garage door, and I pulled the bike way up to the front. We went inside setting up the front alarms, checking the back and perimeter alarms.
After taking a warm shower, we crawled in bed where we made love, long and slow. I used my limited knowledge to bring Bobby to many crescendos, until with a loud groan, we both drifted off to sleep.
The phone rang. I looked at the clock and saw it was right at two thirty in the morning. I reached for the phone and saw it was line two, the host line. I said, "Safe two."
The voice on the other end said, "We have a couple that will be transported either tomorrow or the next day. They need to be secure tonight until at least noon tomorrow. They're on the way. When the car approaches, they will radio."
Bobby was already dressing and I dressed, as well. We were out in the family room watching the video wall when the radio voice asked us to open up. Bobby assumed a position that allowed her a view of the garage through one of those big security mirrors stores have. I had not noticed it before. All I could do was wait for her to tell me what to do.
She said to me, "I know that call by heart from your side of the conversation that I heard. Is this a single or more than one?"
"The voice said it was a couple. They'll be here till tomorrow or today, that is, at noon, or it could be as long as another day while they await transport."
The car pulled in and I heard the big door close behind it. Bobby watched intently until I saw the driver reach up and pat the top of the car. Bobby visibly relaxed and opened the door, waving me to come along.
We brought the couple in with their limited baggage. The two duty people with them went through their luggage again, but this time with some kind of radio sensor. He said to me, "We always check them once we get to a host, even though we checked them out really good earlier. A beacon could have had a time delay on it and it's always best to be sure."
The couple was young, but obviously had been a couple for a long time. The girl closely followed the guy's lead. We got them settled into a suite and asked them all if they were hungry. The looks we got said, "Oh boy, food."
Bobby asked, "How about breakfast, some steak and eggs, some biscuits and gravy. We'll have it ready in a jiffy. Bobby handed me a box of Bisquick and said, "Make the biscuits; I'll start on thawing the steaks."
I had biscuits in the oven in no time at all, and Bobby was grilling steaks in a pan while warming up another for eggs. I made a package of some instant sausage gravy and met her while she was loading the table with steaks and a dozen and a half fried eggs without one broken yoke.
We fed the couple milk and the duty guys, milk and coffee. The two guys chatted while we ate and the couple was quiet. When one of the guys questioned how we were getting along since we had just gotten together, the couple became more interested.
They asked us how we got together, then told us of their relationship. The girl was the daughter of a mobster father and the boy was the son of a rival mobster. Both parents were looking for them with anger in their hearts. The service offered to give them new identities in exchange for a bunch of information that wouldn't tell any of the mobsters that their kids had ratted them out.
The duty guys said, "We'll just stay. We'll bunk in one of the new rooms. One of us will stay up until morning, then we can both rest while you two are up. Good night and thanks for the warm meal.
We stacked the dishes in the sink and went to bed. Once in bed Bobby said, "So how do you like our new life. We didn't even get the first night free. That's the way it goes in the service. Do you think you'll want to stay?"
I rolled to her, meeting her as she rolled to meet me face to face. "You bet Bobby, we have to find out if we're a team. I think we are a set."
We drifted off to sleep holding each other, dreaming of possibly
spending the rest of our lives together.