Chapter 535 - Pebble test for bodyguards

~ Seattle, Villa of soon-to-be Martin family ~

Sarah and Aiden are in the backyard, looking at 23 people lined up in front of them. 17 men and 6 women, casually dressed in clothes appropriate for a warm summer day. All of them appear to be physically in good shape.

"What do you want us to do?", Sarah asked Sophia.

"We did background checks and verified their experience. But we want to make sure they are capable of taking correct actions when needed. It's easy to follow us around or to keep watch over some area when nothing is happening. But we need to make sure they will not flop in case of emergency. That is why we are hiring them.", Sophia explained.

"How many do you want to hire?", Aiden asked.

"At least 12. If more are qualified, we are open to get more.", Sophia said.

Aiden nodded in understanding. "Do you have a maximum?"

Sophia glanced at Felix. "Twenty?"

Felix agreed.

"It would be better to bring them to Cabin.", Sarah suggested.

"Yes, but there must be something we can do here, right?" Sophia thought that they are already here. She is confident that her sister can find some type of test they can do on the spot.

Sarah understood Sophia's intention and looked at Felix. "Big sis told me you are good at rock climbing."

"I'm OK." Felix's smug expression didn't match his modest words. He liked that Sophia praised him.

"Can you climb that?", Sarah pointed at the house.

Felix raised his eyebrows.

Sarah continued talking without waiting for his response. "We can place twenty…" Sarah looked around and her eyes stopped at white decorative pebbles around the flowers. "Twenty pebbles on the roof. They need to get them. If they can't be faster than their master, then they will not be of much use. Do you want to have everyone who gets a pebble pass? Or they need to be faster than Felix? This will help eliminate at least three which are least physically capable. And we can make appropriate arrangements at the cabin for the ones who pass, to test them further. As bodyguards, they will use weapons also, right? In three days, Anna will be back, so she can arrange some test as well… What do you think?" Sarah looked at Sophia and Felix.

Sophia nodded. "This is definitely more than what I thought… but it's good." Sophia looked at Felix and saw that he is still eyeing their three-story high villa. "What do you think?" She prodded him with her elbow.

Felix nodded. Is there any other option?

Twenty three potential candidates observed this exchange and they were all mimicking Felix, staring toward the roof of the three-story villa and wondering what they got themselves into.

Sarah collected twenty pebbles and Aiden stopped her from advancing forward, "I will do it."

Sarah frowned. "I want to do it."

"Let me…"

"No, I…"

"Just both of you do it!", Sophia lost her patience. Due to hormones, she has sudden outbursts, but no one dared to mention that it's because of hormones.

Sarah didn't object. She obediently gave 10 pebbles to Aiden.

"Do you want me to time you?", Felix asked while getting his phone with intention to start the stopwatch.

Sarah shook her head. "We will time you."

"What goes to the winner?", Aiden asked. It is already known that it will be a competition between two of them.

Sarah smiled. "A wish."

"You always say 'a wish', but you never claim it.", Aiden observed.

"This time I have one." She grinned. "Felix, do the countdown!"

"OK… 3… 2…"

Both Sarah and Aiden leaped on the roof of the covered patio and pulled themselves up at the same time.

"What is the point of a countdown if you don't wait for me to say 'go'?", Felix mumbled.

Felix was sure that no more than few seconds passed, and Sarah and Aiden were already back and bickering who won. It was close, so they decided that Sophia will be the judge.

"Sarah won", Sophia said without thinking.

"Are you sure you saw it right?", Aiden objected.

"Honey…" Sarah wrapped her arms around his neck. "Is it a problem to grant me a wish?"

Aiden smiled and leaned in for a kiss. He didn't care about the wish. This was about bragging rights that he won. But she called him 'honey', and she is so beautiful, and her kiss is intoxicating, and he forgot why he was arguing a second ago.

Sophia could not look at them acting all lovey-dovey. She faced Felix. "You can climb that, right?"

He gave a confident nod and in one move removed his t-shirt revealing his muscular torso.

Sophia immediately looked at the candidates. Just as she suspected, and all six women as well as few men stared at Felix, almost drooling.

"Do you need to remove your t-shirt?", Sophia frowned.

"It's my favorite. What if it gets dirty?", Felix innocently said.

"Just put it back on!", Sophia said through her teeth. "It can be washed."

Felix smiled when he understood the reason why Sophia wants him to cover up. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer and his lips found hers. After a long deep kiss, he let go of her and put the t-shirt back on.

Sophia was dazed.

Felix liked that. It took a while for his smug smile to fade away.

"OK. Time me." Felix glanced at Aiden and stretched his arms.

Twenty three bodyguard candidates thought that those two people who climbed the house like they are on a kid's playground are not normal. Their future boss must be a regular person, right? They were wrong. Felix was slower than Sarah and Aiden, but he didn't stumble while pulling himself up the building. His movements were fluid and even through that t-shirt Sophia was able to see all the muscles that make her heart race.

"42 seconds." Aiden gave nod of approval to Felix when he got back down.

Sophia was already next to Felix, pulling him down for a kiss.

Felix was happy with Sophia's reaction. He lifted her up and carried inside.

Sarah shook her head seeing her serious sister getting carried away. It was obvious that testing and filtering of candidates is now left to her and Aiden. Sarah looked at the 23 people. "You need to go up and return with one pebble in 42 seconds or less. Who is first?"

About two hours later, Sophia and Felix got out of the house and observed that it's only Sarah and Aiden in the backyard. They were on the lounging chair. Sarah was holding a laptop while sitting between Aiden's legs and leaning her back on his chest. Two of them were looking at some data and discussing it.

Sophia cleared her throat to get their attention. "Where are candidates?"

Sarah ignored the question. It was obvious that they left. "If you want to hire only the ones who are faster than Felix, then you are out of candidates. If you want to hire the ones who are capable of getting a pebble down, here is a list of nine people." Sarah pointed at the names displayed on the screen of her laptop.

"Oh, and they broke your gutter." Sarah pointed up.

Felix looked at the dangling gutter and frowned.

"Only nine?" Sophia was not happy.

"You can call them back and we do some lighter testing, or you get another batch and we repeat this.", Sarah explained.

"It's better that we hire capable ones. We will keep on looking.", Felix voiced his opinion. Sophia agreed.

"Thank you for doing this.", Sophia looked at Sarah and Aiden. "Do you have dinner plans?"

"We want to go and talk to Stella.", Aiden responded.

Sophia smiled. "To tell them about your engagement?"

"That also.", Sarah confirmed.

Sarah's response told Sophia that there is more to it and it was obvious that Sarah's mood is off.

"What happened?"

Sarah decided to tell Sophia. They are all impacted, she has the right to know. "Do you remember the photo that Anna got from gran? The one with the man in the back?"

"Yes, seasonal worker…", Sophia remembered.

"It's more complicated than that." Sarah and Aiden told Sophia and Felix what they found about mystery man who goes by name 'King' and 'Ray'. "We didn't find him in Orion Enterprise. But we definitely saw him in all these places..." Sarah showed a list of properties, dates and pictures showing the man.

Sophia listened carefully and concluded: "You want to talk to mom because you believe that it has connection to her side of the family."

"Correct." Sarah confirmed. "I know we said that we will do our investigation without mom's knowledge. But we are working on it for months, without making any progress. And we are at the point where we can't just sit and wait to see what will happen. He is our neighbor in Fairfield, and we saw him on two locations during our recent stay in Las Vegas. He is close, too close. And who knows how many more like him are nearby. We need more information if we want to stay safe."

"I will go with you.", Sophia looked at Felix and corrected herself. "We will go with you."