She chuckled. “You fucking well should be,” she said.
They went inside and Jenny declined the bedroom and instead sat on the living room sofa. They all sat down on the sofa, the love seat, and various comfy chairs.
“Kimmy, can you go to your room and watch TV or play games, or out by the pool? We need a little time for adult talk,” Johnny said.
Kimmy glared at him.
“Part of it is probably going to be about you,” he said.
The glare.
“Okay, you can stay.”
The glare went away.
“So do you have any idea why you were attacked?” Meyer asked.
“All I can guess is that it was a standard mugging,” Johnny said. “With Jenny’s help, those three got more than they had bargained for.”
“I’m going to say this for the last time,” Jenny said. “I watched you fight them until that one guy pulled a knife. You could have taken them all down. I did NOT save your ass.”
“And I will say THIS for the last time: you saved my ass. The guy with the knife was behind me at the time.”
“We’re all very grateful to you, Jenny” Mary Beth said. “We all love Johnny and would really hate to see him wind up with a knife in his back.”
“I have a question. Do all three of you girls live here with Johnny?”
“Yes,” Dawn said.
“I have another question,” Jenny said. She looked at Kimmy. “But I’ll save it for another time.”
“Yes, he sleeps with all three,” Kimmy said.
Jenny’s mouth opened into a perfect little ‘O’ at that.
“And you know that? And you’re okay with it?”
“More than okay. I love them all. I have a story to tell you.” And she did. About how Johnny found her running naked away from a rape cabin, brought her in, took care of her, took a different kind of care of the rapists, and let her live in his home.
“Johnny saved me. I’m an orphan, and now Johnny and Mary Beth are adopting me. I couldn’t be in a better place right now.”
“Johnny, how did you wind up with three women to love?”
“Another long story, maybe best for another time,” he said.
“Okay,” Jenny said. “So how did you get rich, Johnny?”
“Yet another long story, but I’ll give you the short version.” He quickly told her about Dawn inheriting the money from her father the drug cartel accountant, and her giving him and Mary Beth each a third of it, which was a lot in both cases. And then about rescuing the Morrisons, and how Richard Morrison had quickly grown their combined money into… a lot.
“There’s a lot more to the story,” Dawn said. And she quickly recounted how Johnny had saved her life from the local cartel guys and had taken down a pedophile government assassin.
“And this was all while you were a cop?” Jenny asked.
“Well… yeah. But I’m not really a cop anymore. The credentials I showed you were crafted for me by the LAPD chief. Meyer and I are now kind of…” He was lost for a description.
“The last resort,” Meyer said. “If the chief needs something done that the department can’t or shouldn’t do, he calls us. Meanwhile we sit around pretending we’re a security firm and get the occasional job that way. But we don’t really need to work. Johnny has made me and Buddy Magellas both rich enough to lie on the beach the rest of our lives.”
“I’m going to want to talk to you more about our little company and what you might do for it, if you want to,” Johnny said. “But first, do you feel well enough to bartend? You could start with that Perfect Manhattan…”
Jenny hopped up, then started to sway. Everyone was on her in an instant, holding her up.
“Get her into bed, please,” Johnny said. “The bartending will have to wait.”
——
Jenny slept until a little after 5:00 AM. She woke up feeling fine except for some pain in her abdomen when she moved. The house was quiet, so she figured everyone else was still asleep. She got up, used the bathroom, then walked downstairs towards the smell of coffee. She found the cabinet with cups and poured herself one. Black, no sugar, as it should be. She wandered around, wondering what to do until everyone woke up. She thought about trying to figure out the big screen TV, but abandoned the idea so as not to disturb anyone. She decided to check out the backyard and the pool. She went to the sliding glass door and looked out.
Johnny Rand was out there. He was naked. He was doing some sort of kata, although she didn’t recognize it from the karate she had taken. She marveled at his form, and at his flexibility, and at the ease of his movement transitions. And, she admitted to herself, she marveled at his body. He was in great shape. Everywhere. She quietly opened the sliding glass door and the screen door, and walked closer to Johnny, and sat down in an outdoor chair to watch.
It became clear that he was concentrating hard, fighting an opponent or opponents. He didn’t notice her until he finished his form, bowed to an unseen foe, and walked towards Jenny to get a bottle of water from the table next to her. He was dripping sweat.
“Good morning,” she said.
“Good morning. Sorry about the nudity,” he said.
“I’m good with it,” she said. “I enjoyed watching. Everything.”
She could swear that he blushed.
“Here’s the deal,” he said as he sat down in the chair next to her. “I’m a nudist. Have been since I was 15. I wear clothes when I have to but not often at my home. Neither do my girls. I’m safe, I’m not going to attack you or anything, I just like to be naked.”
“My girls? That’s a story that you promised to tell me. Meanwhile, I’m okay with your nudity. You have a great body. And stuff. And I do trust that you’re not going to go all pervert on me.” She proceeded to lose her t-shirt and sleep shorts. “There, we’re even.”
Johnny gazed at her body, once again amazed by how beautiful she was, and he told her so. He focused on her wound. It was kind of reddish. He touched it lightly.
“We’re going to a doctor to make sure there’s no infection. Did they give you a prescription for antibiotics at the hospital?”
“No,” she said. “I’m guessing they figured that I’d get one from my primary care physician, of which I have none, of course.”
“I know a guy,” Rand said. He walked inside and got his cell phone, went back outside, and started to call.
“Johnny, it’s 5:30 in the morning!”
“It’s okay. He won’t mind. Much. I hope.” He put the phone on speaker.
It took a bit of time. Then… “Barker. Oh… hi Johnny. What’s up?”