“Ready?” he whispered in her ear. She nodded, still quivering. He tilted her head up gently and tore off three strips of duct tape off the roll t...hat was sitting on the bed stand. After wiping off any spit that might have been on her lips, he put the first one on; the other two went on the sides, insuring it wouldn’t fall off. “Can you breath?” She nodded mutely. Kneeling with her head between his legs, he bent forward to tie her hands to the rope already connected to the bedposts. He made. The council gave me three years, and I’m going to need every minute of it.”He grunted in acknowledgement. “You going to hire on the open market?”“I might not have any choice. Even if I could find some new recruits, it’s going to take me some time to train them up right. I don’t even know if the TOs and sergeants are any good. I might have to train the trainers,” I replied.“Grim, you know what to do. Just do it.”It was my turn to grunt. “Hey, quick question. Do I have to wear a vest all the. What a crock, especially in our production. Our Turandot tipped the scales at what had to be pretty close to three hundred pounds. I knew too, from having worked with her before, that she had the personality of a rasp; the only reason she was up there was that she also had a voice like a trumpet, which is what the role calls for. Meantime Calaf has Camilla St. John, our Gilda in Rigoletto who's now singing a slave girl named Liu, absolutely drooling for him and he doesn't give her a second. I bet it doesn't take 10 minutes from your place." A little less," Mike admitted, somewhat chagrined that Rachelle had figured out at least one of the underlying reasons he was so generous. "So that will be good. I mean, I don't expect you to show up for dinner every night. But it will be easier than driving an hour one-way to spend 20 minutes visiting."Although Mike could well afford an ostentatious house in an affluent neighborhood – and his ex-wife had insisted upon one – he had moved to a.