Damian's Assassin

"Oh my God. This is a nightmare waiting to happen," she said with a sigh and a hot glare at Toni.

"We all carry," Toni said. "You want one?"

"Of course not," she replied and crossed her arms. "I really don't approve of this."

"I'm a man, now, B," Jonny argued. "I'm old enough, and I'm going to protect you from bad guys."

Toni gave him an amused look. She couldn't bear the thought of him returning to the troubled teen he'd been and tried to think of something to say to straddle the line between mothering him and letting him be his own person.

"Man or not, I still worry about you," she returned. "And I'll be the first person to yell at you if you do something stupid."

"No, B, Dusty will kick my ass first," Jonny said, a haunted look crossing his face.

"You got that right," Toni agreed.

She didn't doubt it and felt somewhat satisfied her brother at least knew there would be consequences to any stupidity. Jonny wouldn't listen to his nagging sister, but he'd darned well listen to a man as terrifying as Dusty could be.

"Can I see your phone?" Toni asked, breaking their tense silence.

She handed it to him.

"Not one of ours," he said, examining it. "I'm gonna put a tag in it. Where'd you get it?"

"A friend," she replied. She watched as he pulled a small pouch from his pocket and unzipped it.

"What friend?"

"None of your business."

"As long as it's not tagged by anyone else, I don't give a shit," he said with a faint smile and took the battery out. "Looks clean."

He messed with it for a few minutes then reassembled it and placed it on the table. Jonny took it before she could and looked through her addresses.

"Watcher?" he asked. "Who's that?"

She snatched it from him and tucked it in her pocket.

"Is this code? Are you seeing someone?" Jonny demanded.

"Better not be," Toni seconded.

"I don't think not dating was one of my rules," she retorted.

"Oh, it is," Toni replied with a wink. "Boss put you on the top three to evac when shit hits the fan. It's not because of your cookies."

She shook her head, not sure what to think of his words.

"Anyway, I'm going to practice shooting things," Jonny said, rolling his eyes at the look Toni gave her. He grabbed a handful of cookies and left.

The oven timer buzzed, and she turned away from Toni, not wanting to deal with him any longer. He left, and she gazed at the plates full of cookies around the kitchen.