“Admitted,” Adams said, shrugging. “And that makes you great in bed?”

“Believe it or not, it’s awful close,” Mike said, smiling thinly. “They’re both about power, trust me. When a woman is that much putty in my hands, it’s just like when the knife goes in on a target. There’s a reason they call orgasm the ‘little death.’ ”

“That’s sick,” Adams said, shaking his head.

“I never said I was a well man,” Mike replied, still smiling.

“Go ahead and try it on Flopsy, Bambi or Mopsy,” Mike continued, listing off three of the hookers by nickname. Cottontail’s impossible; cold as the Antarctic. Don’t even try.”

“She seems to have fun,” Adams said, frowning.

“She’s pretty good at faking, but not as good as she thinks,” Mike said, shrugging.

“How can you tell?” Adams asked.

“What, you want me to give up all my secrets?” Mike replied, grinning.

* * *

As soon as it was dark Mike donned combat gear and headed out to his personal Ford Expedition. He’d ordered various vehicles for the Keldara to get the farm on a more modern basis: When he bought the property the Keldara had still been using horse-drawn plows. Besides tractors he’d purchased trucks and SUVs for each of the Six Families. They doubled as transportation for the militia but were mostly used for farm work.

This was his personal Expedition, however, and although it seemed the same as the rest on the exterior, save for a spare antenna here and there, it was significantly modified on the interior. He’d given Vanner a bunch of money, and the electronics wiz had fitted it out with every conceivable bit of gear that he might need to control the militia. In effect, it was a roving command post.

He punched in a code on the dashboard-mounted computer and brought up current locations on all the training groups. Phase One of patrolling was about done and he’d hardly had a chance to go out and check them out. A group from Team Sawn was conveniently near the north road, while being well out of sight behind a ridge, so he put the SUV in gear and headed out.