Chapter Thirty-Eight

July 19 ^th, 2021

The last few days, the family had been busy, trying to figure out what the summons was all about and how they were going to respond in kind. Andy had been surprised that Jade had taken her father's death in stride so far, but he reminded himself that she'd basically disowned him in every way possible when she'd joined Andy's family. And Jade's father had been an older man to begin with, Jade was the younger of the two Dillon siblings by quite some number of years, and their mother had passed away from cancer over a decade ago.

Cormack Dillon, the family patriarch, had died on July 10^th, something that the news attributed to him taking below the number of recommended partners (dying with only six partners, according to the news story), and as a result, he'd died from DuoHalo related complications. While six partners were generally considered enough to keep the average man healthy enough if they were sensible, Cormack Dillon had been neither average nor healthy, nor had he hit a regeneration. Reports were that his daughter's rejection had left the man apathetic to his own condition, and he'd just sort of given up. His partners were in the process of being reassigned, none of them having been added to the family will.

That just left Jade and her older brother Stone splitting the entire family fortune.

The summons that had been sent were questioning the validity of the will, stating that Jade, by turning her back on her father and her family, had voluntarily chosen to give up all claims to everything in the estate, which would leave everything to Stone's control instead.

Her first reaction had been not to contest that, but the longer she'd let it sit with her, the angrier the idea of it had made Jade. She and her brother Stone had never gotten along, and the one time Andy had asked her about him, she'd said she thought he was the worst human being she'd ever met, and was glad they were so far apart in ages, as he was rarely home while she was growing up. He was fourteen years her senior, and the more Andy learned about him, the less he liked him.

Stone Dillon had a reputation of being the sort of asshole businessman that investors loved and everyone else hated. His companies had always been profitable, but they had exploited their workers as much as they possibly could. He'd been an early entrant into the 'gig economy,' his company GluttonWheels being a fledgling competitor to DoorDash and GrubHub before it had been acquired and folded into UberEats. His next company was WorkLand, a co-location workspace, that had been in the middle of litigation about predatory rental practices when the pandemic had come in and shut the company down for good anyway. His latest startup was WorkUnchained, a 'gig support' company that was essentially allowing people to 'temp' from their own homes, at piss poor salaries, naturally, with the real profits going to the companies. No benefits, no health insurance, no paid breaks. It was just shy of self-inflicted slave labor.

During the past few days, Jade had talked herself into keeping her half of the inheritance, mostly because she didn't trust what Stone would do with the money. He was already exploiting everyone he could get his hands on with just what investments he could raise on his own right now. With the might of the family fortune behind him, he'd be both insufferable and unstoppable.

That said, Team Rook was going to need legal representation. Andy's only lawyer on retainer was focused on intellectual property and entertainment law, and this was something entirely different. Andy didn't know at all where to look. But, of all people, Melody said she knew someone who could probably help the family out and had set up a meeting for Jade and Andy today, on Monday.

Andy knew nothing about law firms, but did at least a little bit of homework beforehand, and found out the company they were meeting with, "Winters & Associates," had a very consistent record of leaving their clients happy and satisfied after their intervention.

Their offices were in downtown Oakland, near the top of one of the skyscrapers, and they hadn't spent any time in the waiting area. As soon as Andy and crew had arrived, they'd been ushered into a conference room, where they were told someone would be with them soon.

Andy's entourage that day included Jade, naturally, with Melody and Lexi on security detail, and Piper, Fiona and Sarah accompanying them. Andy had told everyone it was just a first meeting with new possible legal representation, but the look on Fi's face had told him it might be something more than that, although she told Andy not to worry.

Less than ten minutes after they arrived, an impeccably dressed black woman in a very expensive-looking suit strode confidently into the room. She appeared to be in her late thirties or early forties, and rather than looking at Andy, she glanced over at Melody with a smile. She was certainly attractive enough, although she looked more than a little exhausted, as if stress had been taking its toll on her. She had a roundish face with the laugh lines giving her cheeks both warmth and aged experience, and her eyes seemed laser focused, moving from person to person as if identifying targets, but that smile of hers seemed lived in, as if she tried to keep it on her face as much as possible. Her hair was cut very short, in a sort of pixie-ish trim. "Hey Melody, I didn't realize my morning appointment was with you," the woman said. "This tied to your emancipation from Covington?"

"Not really, but maybe indirectly," Melody said. "Ophelia Jackson, I wanted to present my principal and partner, Andy Rook, whom I'm sure you've seen on television."

"Among other places, obviously. But it's still a pleasure to actually meet you in person, Mister Rook," Ophelia said, reaching out to shake his hand. Andy wasn't sure why, but he felt like he recognized the woman from somewhere, although he couldn't place quite where. "What brings you to our offices today?"

"It's not me," Andy said, shaking her hand, finding her touch surprisingly soft. "My partner Jade here was recently served by her brother, who is contesting her late father's will."

"I've been estranged from Dad since last year and wanted nothing to do with him while he was alive. I made that very clear to him, but the idea of just leaving the entire family fortune up to the whims of my deranged brother turns my stomach. I can't, I just can't. I want to contest their claims that the will should be invalidated. We want to make sure my brother can't just do whatever he wants to with the family fortune. I can't say this summons of his comes as a complete surprise to me," Jade said, tossing the documents down in front of Ophelia on the table. "We didn't get along even before I was estranged from my father. But Dad didn't change the will, even after I walked away from the family. Hell, there wasn't even a contingency for his new partners. The will hasn't been updated in half a dozen years, according to what they provided to us."

"Sounds like a mostly open and shut case," Ophelia said, taking a seat at the table. "I mean, he can throw a bunch of delays into it, but if your father left a will and it was signed off on, getting around that's damn near impossible. Might take a while to get past all his challenges and whatnot, but it certainly seems like the sort of case this firm could handle for you without too much difficulty. He really doesn't have a leg to stand on, so it's just another case of some rich asshole expecting things to go his way because he says they should. Hell, his partners have a better case for getting some compensation for their time with him, but that's something we can look into as we go. If you're more than happy to throw them a bone, that might make it even easier. I'm a little surprised we're even bothering with a meeting for this kind of thing. This could've been an email."

"Feels?" Melody said with a slight smile, the only person in the room who hadn't sat down yet. "Can I talk to you privately for a moment?"

Ophelia tilted her head in surprise and nodded. "Sure, we'll step outside for a second."

"What's this about?" Andy asked his bodyguard as she placed her hand on top of his for a second, reassuringly.

"May be nothing, but may be something, boss," Melody said, a spritely expression on her face. "I'll be right back. Trust me. I know what I'm doing."

"You know, whenever people say stuff like that in my writing, it always blows up in their faces," Andy muttered.

"Good thing your life story's more unpredictable," Sarah teased him.

Melody and Ophelia stepped outside of the room and began having a conversation, and while Andy could see them through the glass, he couldn't make out what they were talking about, so he glanced over at Fiona, who also had a rather cryptic expression on her face. "What about you, Cheshire Cat? Any idea what this is about?"

"Yes, but it could turn out to be nothing, and nobody wanted to worry you if it does turn out to be nothing," Fiona said, batting her eyelashes at him, coyly.

Andy scowled a little. "I don't like it when you keep secrets from me, Fi."

Fiona offered him her kindest smile and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. "Andy. Dearest husband of mine. I love you to death, and if I thought this was going to turn out in any way bad, we wouldn't have kept it from you. Sometimes it's good to be surprised. And, like I said, it might turn out to be nothing. Of course, it might not turn out to be nothing, and if it is, well, nobody wants you to feel obligated one way or another. But we talked about it, and we're okay with it, whatever happens. So, you know, no pressure either way. From any of us."

"You worry too much, Andy," Sarah giggled. "It's fine. It'll be fine. Everything's fine."

It was at that point Andy realized that Ophelia had turned to look at him several times during her conversation with Melody, and Andy started to suspect what was going on. He laughed a little, sighing as he shook his head. "Hadn't we settled this already?"

"Maybe you thought you had, but we know better," Piper said, running her hand along the back of his neck. "We're still below what you can handle, and the Team still has some gaps in its skillsets. Besides, I could tell you think she's good looking."

"I'm surrounded by good looking women, Piper," Andy said, finding himself more amused than anything by the ambush. "Shit, I'm married to seven gorgeous women, and you're talking about adding more?"

"Maybe she's not interested?" Jade asked.

"Oh, she looks more than interested," Fiona said with a grin.

"I'm sure she's probably paired up with someone already," Andy said.

Piper tilted her head a little, looking at him like he'd just said possibly the dumbest thing she'd ever heard him say. It made him a little worried, not that it had hurt her opinion of him, but more that he'd let her down. "Are you really that bad with faces, Andy?"

Andy frowned a bit, but facial recognition was not one of his strong suits. He often needed to be reintroduced to people he'd met multiple times, simply because he was introduced to a lot of people all the time, and most names, he had to admit, fell out in the end. "I guess? She didn't seem to think we've met before, and I assumed she'd just seen me on TV."

The athlete laughed, shaking her head a little bit. "Un-fucking-believable. Looks like she'll explain for herself. They're coming back in."

Melody and Ophelia reentered the room from the hallway, and Ophelia looked a little bit flustered, but was smiling, although nowhere near as big as Melody was grinning. "So, Mr. Rook, it seems we've both been brought here under slightly false pretenses," the black woman said to him before starting to look directly at him, although he could feel her eyes giving him the once over before she locked eyes with him again.

"That's not fair," Melody said with a wink, as she made her way over to stand back behind Andy again. "It's beneficial for all parties involved. This is just a happy coincidence where needs, motives and opportunity all come together."

"You make it sound like a murder, Mel," Lexi joked.

"So, am I correct in believing you don't recognize me, Mister Rook?" Ophelia said, a coy look upon her face.

"I'd certainly say so," Andy said. "But that's probably on me. I thought you said we've never met before, so I assumed you'd seen the interview or something."

"I did, but I was also in the courtroom when you were testifying about the man I'm unfortunately partnered up with," Ophelia said, averting her eyes slightly, as if thinking about him made her feel sick to her stomach.

"Oh hell," Andy grumbled. "You weren't one of the people partnered up with Covington were you? I thought I knew all the New Daughters of the Revolution from his house."

"Right movement, wrong house," Ophelia said with a slight smile, placing her hands on top of the paperwork that Jade had brought her. "I'm part of House Vikovic."

"Gregor's house?" Andy asked, quizzically. "I mean, I know he's serving some time in prison for his part in circumventing the Oracle program, but I don't know a whole lot more about your situation than that, I'm afraid. Out of sight, out of mind. And I've been, ah, a bit busy."

"That's why Melody's brought us together, I'm afraid," Ophelia said as she sat back down in her chair. "We've been working to try and get those of us who no longer want to be partnered with Vikovic to other people, because he's currently being kept in Elmwood Correctional Facility, down in Milpitas, about 45 minutes south of both Oakland, where I work, and New Eden, where we're currently still living in the Vikovic mansion. Losing two hours once a week to go and keep my body's immunity running isn't exactly what I would describe as pleasant. I bumped into Melody at the grocery store a week or so ago and may have mentioned how exhausted I was by it all. Not just House Vikovic, but those from all the other problematic houses that were tied up in the Oracle Circumvention Scandal."

"Melody, are you suggesting I add all of the people from House Vikovic to Team Rook?" Andy asked with a sigh. That was far too big an ask, and he hoped his partners knew better. "'Cause I can't take on that many people."

"Not the whole house, Andy," Melody said, moving around the stable to stand across it from him. "Not even close."

"Just Ophelia then?"

"Me and one more," Ophelia said. "My best friend, Belladonna DuBois. The two of us are sort of a package deal, but I can assure you that we'd add a lot of value to your house, Mister Rook. That is, assuming you'd be open to the idea in the first place. I'm told you're in need of having a lawyer on demand, and I assure you, I'm very good at what I do, and that includes lots of different kinds of law."

"You have been talking about challenging the Men's Protection Act, Andy," Fiona said, her hand stroking the back of his hand comfortingly. "You're definitely going to want legal help, if it comes to that, and I think you and I both know it very well might. You're talking about trying to defy Congress, Andy. That's very serious and having someone around to help guide us through it seems like the smart play to me."

"And your friend, Ophelia? Belladonna, you said?"

"Most people just call her Bella or BD."

"She's a lawyer as well?"

"No, she's in enforcement."

"A cop?"

"California Highway Patrol. Specifically, their SWAT team."

Andy chuckled softly. "Another warrior woman. That's definitely a point in your favor, I'll confess. I do feel better knowing my safety's in good hands, although between Lexi and Melody, there's definitely times it feels like overkill."

"You can never have too much firepower guarding your back, boss," Lexi said to him.

"The bigger problem is finding someone who meshes well with our personalities," Ophelia said, rolling her eyes a bit. "Apparently I come across as too much of a 'cold fish' for a lot of men, and haven't scored good marks in pairing well with other people, and if I do mesh, then BD doesn't, because she runs very hot and spicy."

"Not a problem," Melody said, reaching into her pocket to pull out a sheet of paper that had been folded into quarters, reading off of it. "Ophelia Jackson and Team Rook compatibility: 84%. Belladonna DuBois and Team Rook compatibility: 97%." She looked up and realized the entire room was staring at her. "I had Niko run the numbers, just to make sure we wouldn't be wasting anybody's time." She turned to look at Andy and offered a slightly apologetic smile. "I wanted to be sure sure, boss. I didn't want to present something to you that didn't have high odds of working, just because I happened to be friends with two people who were also a good match for some needs our Team had for filling. We wanted to come to you only after we'd gone through the process of clearing it with all the stakeholders. And if you still say no, that'll be the end of it, and we won't talk any more about it, I promise. But I showed up after you let all the other girls pitch, and I feel like this is my shot to do that. And I truly do think you'll really like Feels and BD the more you take the time to get to know them."

In Andy's head, he could hear Phil's laughter ringing against the back of his skull. His friend had promised him that Andy would hit twenty-five partners before year's end, and if he agreed to these two additional people, the Team would hit that number exactly.

"You don't have to take us in if you don't want to, Mr. Rook," Ophelia said with a reluctant sigh, as if she'd been getting her hopes up, but was rapidly seeing them slip through her fingers. "But I have to admit, I have been quite impressed by your stand in making sure women's rights are first and foremost when it comes to this strange, new world we find ourselves in. And I've talked to Melody a bunch about you. Your willingness to give her a chance at redemption speaks volumes as to your patience and compassion. Melody hadn't even forgiven herself and you were willing to forgive her. Neither BD nor I were involved in any of the violence, but we still can't say we weren't pleased to be getting out from Vikovic. He wasn't as bad as, say, Haunton or Covington or, God help us, Jacobson, but he wasn't a particularly good man either. He was cold, harsh and frankly, a bore to talk to. Also being attached to a convicted criminal doesn't do either myself or BD any favors, professionally, as I'm sure you can imagine. So, we'd like to get out from under him, both figuratively and literally, and I do think we could be of mutual benefit to each other."

"This is no small ask, Ms. Jackson," Andy said. "But apparently, my family's done their homework on you and are trying to make the most compelling case possible."

"Just trying to help, babe," Piper said with a grin, massaging his shoulder.

"What are we thinking? Piper? Fiona? Sarah?"

"They seem cool to me," Sarah said with a shrug. "And the more the merrier, I say."

"I think we were talking about bringing a lawyer into the family a while ago, Andy, and now we have an opportunity to do just that," Fiona told him, intertwining the fingers of her right hand with his left. "Ms. Jackson's smart and sharp, and ethical to boot, which isn't something you see in enough lawyers. She's good looking, and you two seem to get along well enough. We talked about it this morning, your wives. If you're okay with it, then all of us, we're also okay with it."

Andy was about to speak, but Piper raised a hand, indicating she had something she wanted to add. "Andy, long ago, when we first met, I realized, you're always going to be the kind of guy who goes charging into a burning building if he thinks he stands even a little chance of getting somebody out, no matter what happens to himself," Piper said, rubbing one of her hands on the back of his neck. "We're mostly full up, but mostly full up isn't full full up, now, is it? And that means we're going to feel the pressure, just like you are, Andy, to make sure we as a Team don't have any needs going unfulfilled. And, y'know, Ophelia and her friend are a pair of very lovely women that fulfill needs."

He chuckled, rubbing his eyes. "I haven't even met Belladonna."

Piper giggled, licking her lips. "You know how I wasn't really into girls until early this year, Andy? Well, I took one look at BD, and I wanted to fuck her. You're gonna get hard just seeing a picture of her."

Andy chuckled, skeptically. "C'mon now, Piper. I'm surrounded by the most beautiful women on the planet. I'm not the kind of guy who--holy shit."

In the middle of his sentence, Melody had taken out her phone, opened it up to a photo and slid it across the table at him. When the image had popped into his view, his sentence had come to a screeching halt, and Sarah next to him let out a cool whistle of appreciation. "Damn, Mel, you didn't show us that one this morning," the redhead said, licking her lips.

On Melody's phone was a busty Latina woman in her late-twenties, dressed in a skimpy black bikini, her duty belt, combat boots and a pair of handcuffs dangling from one fingertip. She was breathtakingly gorgeous, her black hair hanging down to her neck, and the come-hither smile upon her lips almost made Andy cross his legs reflexively. He'd never felt a photograph coming on to him as much as he did in looking at this singular image.

"They did a 'Hotties Of California Law Enforcement' calendar a couple of years ago to raise funds to update a couple of local jails," Ophelia told them. "She was Miss March."

"I'd fuck her." Literally all of Andy's Team looked at Jade, who'd just spoken, and had a slightly shy grin on her face. "You know the serum's making us women all at least bi-curious! There's nothing 'curious' about that woman." She blushed a little deeper, then swallowed her pride and decided to double down, putting her 'goody-two-shoes' nature to one side as she looked deep into Andy's eyes and held the gaze, almost daring Andy to look away. "You hear me, Rook? I. Will. Help. You. Fuck. The. SHIT. Outta. That. Girl."

Andy tried to hold the look as long as he could, but he quickly realized it was six-on-one, assuming Ophelia wasn't also trying to stare him down. But he broke quickly enough and started to laugh, shaking his head with a wry smile. "I'm not winning this one, am I?"

"Rook. ANDY." Piper said to him, picking up the phone and putting it in front of his eyes so he couldn't look away. "This might be one of the most gorgeous women I've ever seen in my fucking life, and I realize by bringing her into our house, I will have to indirectly be compared to her forever, but pardon my lack of delicacy, are you out of your motherfucking mind?"

"You wouldn't be upset about us adding another Latina, chief?" Melody asked Lexi.

The head of his security offered a very confident smile and shrug. "Nah. I think we're all different flavors anyway. My father's family were Brazilian immigrants who came here in the fifties. Katie's family are from Mexico. My guess for that girl... Puerto Rican?"

Ophelia grinned, as if the sudden wave of attention on her friend had brightened her chances. "Cuban. BD grew up in Miami to first gen immigrants who arrived to this country in the eighties, although she's definitely still got a bit of that Cuban accent. Spent a lot of time around Calle Ocho growing up, in Little Havana. Don't worry, I'm not offended by you being more attracted to her than me, Mister Rook. BD's always had her pick of any man she wants, which leaves me the pick of everyone else left over. Sometimes I'd take two or three of them home, just for fun."

"And neither of you had a boyfriend or a husband before the DuoHalo pandemic set in?" Andy asked her, trying to escape the picture, although Piper was keeping it partly in his peripheral vision.

"Cops have a hard time dating, and BD had just broken up with her boyfriend about two months before the pandemic hit. He is... was... a nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital in Oakland. Died to DuoHalo in April of last year. And as for me, well, I was engaged about five years ago, only to find my fiancé banging some dental hygienist in the bed I bought and paid for. He died to DuoHalo as well, but that was long after we were through. After I sold that house, BD and I moved in together into a small rental in Pleasanton until DuoHalo hit, and when the offer to pair up with Vikovic came, and they told us we were such great matches for him, well, we thought we'd hit the jackpot. Moved to New Eden and it wasn't until a couple months in that we'd put two and two together and gotten six."

"I'm guessing they told you that you were both 98.7% compatible with Gregor, hm?" Andy said, shaking his head a little bit. "You'd think they'd have varied it up some. Made it much easier for Phil's team to track down all the erroneous results."

"When they ran the results through before Gregor's trial, I came up 45% and BD at 52%, which, yeah, if we'd had been told that, we would've held out for better options," Ophelia said, tapping her fingertips across the top of the paper. "I think you seem like a much better option to me, Mister Rook, if you'll have us."

Andy offered a very reserved smile, and he could tell even his own partners weren't sure which way he was going to come down on this. "I will," he said, as he felt the room collectively release a sigh of relief, "as long as it's clear you know what you're getting into."

"We understand the risks, Mister Rook."

"Do you?" Andy said. "Because I want to be certain of that. Nearly everybody in my family, well, they still have a parachute. If anyone other than Melody or Ming-Yue, who isn't here, wants out, they can all take the reassignment option. You do this, you two will be in the same boat as Melody, meaning you're stuck with me until there's another option, or I'm dead. That's a pretty big gamble to take, so I don't want you taking it lightly."

"Mel, can I see your sheet of paper?" Ophelia said, reaching into her pocket to pull out a pair of reading glasses, sliding them onto her face as Andy's bodyguard set the paper down in front of her. "I know you've looked into a lot of aspects of the Quaranteam process, Mister Rook, but have you ever seen the results women are seeing these days?"

"These days?" Andy asked, shaking his head. "Basically everyone in the country is paired up now, so they're only using it for re-pairings. Has it changed from what it was kicking back say a year ago?"

"Epically so," she said to him. "When they announced the re-pairing process to the public earlier this year, they wanted people to know what they were signing up for, since it's basically a one-way street at this point. So they show off three traits or interests that you're a high or perfect match for, and two that you're a low match for, unless you're below a 66% match, in which case they show you three you're a low match for and two you're high or perfect match for. That way, you know the big stuff you're going to mesh on and the things you're not going to. Let me read you my five notes and BD's five notes for you, okay?"

"Alright..."

"Things we're a high or perfect match for - social justice, intellectual and emotional balance, and finally, level of physical contact. Things we're a low match for - profanity and types of entertainment. That says to me that we're both going to like each other as people, we're going to have both mentally and spiritually fulfilling conversations and I'm not going to say fuck as much as you'd like when we're fucking," she said with a knowing smile.

"And your friend?"

"BD? Things you're a high match for - profanity, openness of communication and types of entertainment. Things you're a low match for - spice level and importance of birthdays," Ophelia said. "BD swears a lot more than I do, but if you forget her birthday, even once, you will never, ever, ever hear the end of it..."

"How would you want to be classified within the Team?" Fiona asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the Team's sort of broken up into four groups. There's the Wives, which, no offense, isn't something anyone really starts in. But there's Staff, which are people who are banging Andy but also are employed by him. That includes Melody and Lexi here, who are security staff, but also the gardener, the cook, the maid, his personal assistant... you get it. Then there's partners with partners, which only applies to a handful of people, but they're people who have a significant other with them. And the last are just sort of the free floaters, who are part of Andy's Team, but don't work for him, don't want to marry him and don't have somebody else they love more than Andy."

"Well, BD and I aren't significant others. In fact, neither of us had been with a woman before we were brought into House Vikovic."

"If you don't want to play with anyone other than Andy, that can be arranged," Piper said. "Although I have to tell you, you're going to probably start feeling eager to share the longer you're with him. A bunch of us came into this as completely straight girls, with no desire to have any other women around when we were fucking Andy, and the longer we're part of the Team, well, the more we like playing together."

"We know that. We've, well, we've actually gone to Vikovic together the last few times, for both mental and emotional support," Ophelia said. "We're not opposed to it if happens. But I guess I would be the Team's legal counsel starting point, although I couldn't represent anyone in court, generally. And BD, well, she'd just be happy to be away from Gregor. So, do we have a deal, Mister Rook?"

"We do, Ms. Jackson," Andy said. He glanced over at Fiona with a slight shake of his head. "You know this is going to put us up to 25, don't you?"

"Andy. My love. You know I will support you in any decision you make, right?"

"I do."

"Good. Then believe me when I say if you had said that you didn't want to fuck BD, I would've immediately scheduled you to have your fucking head examined," she giggled, patting him on the cheek. "How soon can you get the paperwork done, Ms. Jackson?"

"It's still got to go through government approval, but I believe we can have everything signed off and be ready for reimprinting and relocation to your home before the end of the month, if that's okay with you?"

"Sure," Andy said. "I'd like to meet BD and get a chance to talk to her one on one before she's reimprinted, but my schedule's pretty open, so whenever she wants to swing by this week, with a little notice, I can make it work. You should also come over, meet the rest of the Team before reimprinting, just to get the lay of the land."

"Alright then, Mr. Rook, I'll get in touch with your personal assistant about our fucking, and I'll start doing my homework for you, Jade, and see if we can get a friendly judge to stomp on your brother in particularly thick-soled boots."

"Cleats, if you can," Jade added.

"Yes ma'am."