A Better Life

by Liza O'Connor

She laughed. “If you have a five-star chef, then by all means, let him cook.” She grimaced as she looked at the guys. “While no one has actually died from my cooking, it is universally declared to be lacking.”

  “Then why did you want to cook for us?”

  “Because I wanted my kids to be there, and I thought it would be easier to keep them contained in their new home.”

  “Bring them along!” Leon insisted. “Can’t be sillier than these boys.”

  She looked at Tom. “Is that allowed?”

  He glanced at Davenport, who had just entered. Her protector nodded “Since the cook is going to need time to prepare, and the kids will need to be moved into the dining area first, I would like everyone to return to your stations and log all the deviations you made into the system. Be sure to state I approved each one.”

  Leon glared. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No, I am serious. Hopefully, before tomorrow morning, the protocols will be revised to reflect what we really need to do, so tomorrow’s list of deviations will not be nearly as long. But in order to get them removed, we need to state clearly what protocol we broke and why we broke it. Otherwise, we will remain in paperwork hell for the rest of our lives.”

  Leon sighed heavily. “But we’re going to fix this so I’m not writing the same shit tomorrow.”

  “That is my intention. While you guys are celebrating a great victory, I will be processing paperwork.”

  Leon’s eyes narrowed. “You do realize that we’re talking over a thousand deviations, don’t you?”

  Tom flinched, then nodded.

  Sinclair spoke up. “You know, I could probably write up a program that will speed the process.”

  Tom gave him a pained smile. “I appreciate the thought, but I need you to write up everything you and Angel did.”

  “I know, which by the way, is over two thousand deviations. But I noted them as we went along, so I really have time to write a program that will grab the deviation log and do whatever you need done, if you’ll just show me the document you need to fill out to change our old protocol.”

  “All right then. Let me make a call and verify the forms I need to do this.”

  The whole process took almost an hour, but the moment the deviations were filed within the system, Tom’s form updated so when the last deviation was listed Tom read over his forms, electronically signed them, and sent them to Colonel Braddock.

  “Does that mean you can join us?” Angel asked.

  “Yes, it does! Thanks to Sinclair.”

  Sinclair chuckled. “Glad to help change bad protocol.”

  As they walked down the hall, Angel rushed ahead. Tom jogged to keep up with her. “Shit! You’re probably starving! Unfortunately, they don’t allow food in the lab.”

  “Actually, I’m more concerned about my kids. They’re probably worried sick about where I am.”

  “They’re fine.” Tom assured her. “Davenport always puts in a buffer where he can. He had Derrick tell the kids they were to help create a Welcome Home Celebration for you. So, if all is going well, they have been coloring large banners that will be hung across the lights.”

  “How many kids do you have?” Scott asked.

  “Well, if you include the two I adopted a couple days ago, I have five.”

  Tom rolled his eyes. “Oh, you better include those two. They are adamant they are your children.”

  “How old?” Sinclair asked.

  “They are one to fifteen. And I’m pregnant with number six.”

  Scott’s eyes rounded. “Damn! You must really like kids.”

  “I love mine, that’s for sure. But then, who wouldn’t love my precious boys and girl?”

  Chapter 7

  When they reached the dining room door, Davenport allowed the guys in, but Angel had to wait in the hall with him.

  “Am I supposed to be surprised?” she teased.

  His hand rubbed the small of her back. “Just be happy, and make sure you hug all five of your kids.”

  She bumped against him. “Hey, you don’t have to tell me how to treat my kids. That’s a job I’ve got down.”

  He chucked her under her chin. “Not the only one. One day on the job and you just made everyone here a happy camper.”

  “You must not be counting Team One then.”

  “That’s true, but as of now, we don’t have teams.”

  “You do realize that’s not going to change their attitudes, right?”

  He bumped her. “Don’t tell me how to manage my assets. The three problem employees are off the team.”

  “Your assets? Have you been given responsibility for us then?”

  His eyes twinkled. “Colonel Braddock has put this floor of the facility under my direct authority.”

  “This has been a really great day.”

  Tom stuck his head out. “You may come in now.”

  When she and Davenport entered, confetti filled the air and paper whistles squealed with delight. It was like New Years in September. But it was the first real day of her new life, so it seemed most appropriate as she was surrounded by her children, only they all hung back. “What? No hugs?”

  “You sound like mommy, but you don’t look like her.”

  “It’s me, I promise you.”

  Little Tommy rubbed his chin. “Sounds like her.”

  “But her eyes are brown,” Stevie stated.

  “They are. I was trying to remove the redness in my eyes, and the medicine drops turned my eyes brown. But I like brown eyes.” She gripped Stevie’s hands. “Now we all have brown eyes.”

  Stevie grinned. “Hey, we all have brown eyes now!”

  “But we promised Tom we wouldn’t squeeze your tummy. So, can you kneel down?” Stevie asked.

  As Angel started to kneel, Kelly insisted she wait. A moment later the sweet girl returned with a chair cushion for her knees to rest upon. Now ready to hug her children, she greeted them one by one, covering each of their faces with kisses while she squeezed her kids tight.

  Realizing all her teammates were gathered around watching, she laughed. “You guys don’t have to wait for me. Go on and start celebrating our success today.”

  “Without you, there would have been no celebration today,” Sinclair said. “We don’t mind waiting. Seeing how much you love your kids is a pleasure to behold.”

  The others nodded in agreement.

  Once everyone, including her baby boy, welcomed her home, she rose and accepted congratulations from her teammates. She kept insisting they had done as much as she had, but they declared her the catalyst for their success.

  Honestly, she couldn’t remember a day better than this. All her needs were being met, as a mother, a woman, and a professional.

  Never had she felt better about herself than now.

  ***

  The five-star meal lived up to its claim. Never had she tasted a more succulent glazed salmon in her life. And her kids thought their turkey burgers and yam fries delicious as well.

  Then came desserts: blueberry pie, apple torts, wiggly gelatin action figures, and ice cream tanks for the kids.

  “May I thank the chef?” she asked Davenport.

  He set down his fork and stood. “Watch over my pie. I expect it to be here when I get back.”

  He returned a moment later with a happy chef in tow. Upon sight of the chef, Angel stood and applauded. Within a few seconds, the rest of her team and children did the same. The man seemed overwhelmed by their praise.

  He took several bows and returned to his kitchen. Davenport returned to his chair and frowned.

  Angel looked down to see what had his attention. Stevie was sitting in his chair, eating his blueberry pie.

  “Stevie, that wasn’t yours!”

  He looked up at her with blue berries covering most of his face, even the tip of his nose. “Nobody was eating it and it’s too good to waste.”

  He then focused on Davenport and his eyes rounded. “Was it yours?”

&nbs
p; Davenport nodded.

  Stevie gulped and scampered off.

  Angel shook her head. “Be mad at me, not him. I was supposed to be watching over your dessert.”

  He sighed. “There is no chance of me being mad at either of you. But next time, I’m taking my dessert with me.”

  “Or you could just ask someone more reliable to watch over it.”

  “Coming through,” Stevie’s voice warned.

  They both backed up and let the boy in between them. He placed a bowl of blueberry pie on the table. “It’s a bit messy, but the cook says it will still taste good.”

  Angel knelt and hugged her boy. “That was so sweet of you to get Davenport a new serving.”

  Davenport ruffled his black curly hair. “I’m very impressed, Stevie. Keep this up, and you’ll be an outstanding young man.”

  Stevie’s chest swelled out. “I’m trying, cause I’m the man of the house now...sort of.” He bit his bottom lip. “I know you, Tom, and Derrick live with us right now, but when you guys leave, I’ll still be there for my mom.”

  Davenport chucked him under the chin. “I like that attitude, soldier. But just for the record, Tom, Derrick, and I are in for the long haul. We aren’t going anywhere.”

  “Yes, sir,” he muttered, clearly not believing it true. How could he? Every man in his life had left, either by choice or circumstance. His father was shot, his step-father killed himself, and Max…he’d never see him again.

  She knelt and hugged him. “Stevie, I believe this time we’ll get to keep our guys, but I’m so proud of you…” She was about to say for stepping up, but she didn’t want to commit him to her future. There would come a time when he would need to leave her, and she knew her boy too well. If he felt he’d made a promise to stay forever, he would do it. “…but people don’t have to stay forever to be wonderful loves of my life.”

  “Like my real dad?”

  She nodded. “I will love him always.”

  Stevie smiled. “Me too, and I never even met him.”

  “And he loves you too. Now go play with your brothers. They look as if they need your creative guidance.”

  Steve rolled his eyes and blew out a breath of air as if this was a troublesome burden to bear, then happily ran to join them.

  Davenport caressed her cheek. “You are one hell of a mother.”

  “And forensic auditor,” Sinclair declared from his seat across the table. He stood up and raised his glass. “To Angel! May she make us all rich beyond our imaginations!”

  The men all rose. “Here! Here!”

  She looked at Davenport to explain that toast. He leaned in and whispered in her ear. “They get a one hundredth of a percentage of all money collected. That doesn’t mean much until you locate billions of dollars.”

  She nodded. Fifty billion recovered would mean a fifty-thousand-dollar bonus for each. Not bad for a day’s work.

  “Do I get a bonus?”

  He frowned. “Whatever you need will be provided.”

  “I have five kids that will someday want to leave and have a life outside. I’d like to be able to send them to college and help them buy homes.”

  “Of course. I’ll bring the matter up to Colonel Braddock.”

  His furrowed brow indicated that he thought there might be a problem. Perhaps he would tell her later when they were alone.

  Only when it came time to return home did she realize Tom had slipped out sometime during the party, and once they had the kids put to bed, Davenport did the same. That left her with Derrick.

  “Are you running out too?” she pouted as she leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes.

  “Nope, I’m in for the long haul. All those lawyers have received the very sad news that I am dead.” He smiled. “I wish I could have seen their faces.”

  “Being technically dead does have a few advantages for you.” For herself as well. No one would try to kill her if they believed her dead. And even if they didn’t believe it, her new look was far different than her past look. Also, they would have a hell of a time getting in here…at least she hoped so. “This facility is really secure, right?”

  “Incredibly. If there is a nuclear war, you may have to relinquish your home to the President and his family.”

  She chuckled and yawned. “I can do that.”

  The next thing she knew, she was being carried to her bedroom. “Hey, I was watching TV.”

  “You’re exhausted,” Derrick said. “You need lots of sleep, so you’ll be just as magnificent tomorrow.”

  After helping her undress, he tried to leave, but she tugged on his arm. “You know, I sleep better when I’m held.”

  “You sure? Tom should be back in an hour or two.”

  “I’m sure.”

  “Dr. Hanson said no sex.”

  She sighed heavily. “That’s why I asked to be held.”

  He undressed to his boxers and joined her in her king size bed.

  Chapter 8

  Something woke her.

  A soft familiar voice. “Mind if I switch spots with you?”

  Derrick eased from the bed and the man Angel loved most eased in beside her. She wiggled against him.

  “Not fair to tease, when we can’t have sex,” Tom softly scolded.

  She rolled over to face him. “You disappeared on me.”

  “I had to get the paperwork to Hamilton. I had hoped he’d just sign off, but he wanted to go through every one of the protocols and understand why they weren’t good before he’d sign off.”

  She chuckled. “It wasn’t enough that I didn’t like them.”

  “Oddly, no.”

  “I like Hamilton. He seems a very rational and logical man.”

  “I agree.”

  “So how did you know the reasons they weren’t good protocol?”

  “Team Three has been complaining about them being time wasters since the day I arrived. Only thing is, I didn’t have the faith in their ability to use a silver bullet if I gave the clearance to break protocol. And the paperwork was a nightmare to do so. Thank God Sinclair created that program for me or I’d still be doing paperwork.”

  “Did Hamilton not approve the changes?”

  “He wishes to discuss them with you first. So, go to sleep, because Davenport will be waking you in a few hours to take you to Hamilton.”

  Satisfied with his answer and secure in his arms, she succumbed to the oblivion of sleep.

  A moment later, she was being shaken awake.

  She groaned and opened her eyes to the dim silhouette of Davenport. He tugged her from the bed and led her to the shower.

  “Five minutes,” he reminded her.

  She leaned against the tile wall. “I can’t remember what I’m supposed to do.”

  He chuckled and turned on the water, wetting her down then turned it off. “Soap up.”

  She stopped him when he reached in again. “Just tell me. Otherwise, you’re going to be wet all day.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “Well, I do. Every time I look at you it will remind me that just because I’m not exactly coherent when woken in the middle of the night, you have to endure the consequences.”

  “Turn on the water and rinse off as quickly as possible, starting with the head.”

  She was out in three. Davenport insisted upon drying her off. She didn’t argue, because she knew if the situation were reversed, she’d enjoy drying off his muscular body.

  Davenport took the two minutes she saved to blow dry her hair. Having his fingers and warm air running through her hair felt wonderful enough she dozed off.

  She woke when the blow dryer shut down and he kissed her temple. “Time to rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty.”

  Thus, she arrived at the conference room in a very good mood. Before her sat Hamilton and Colonel Braddock. She nodded to the Colonel and smiled at Hamilton.

  Hamilton returned the smile as he indicated the chair beside him, but across from Braddock. “Sit here. I saw great po
tential in what happened yesterday, and I want to support that, but I do need to understand why so many of our protocols got in the way.”

  She nodded, thinking it a very reasonable request. “I’ll do my best to explain. However, just for the record, I wasn’t the only one requesting protocol deviations yesterday, so we might need to bring in some of my team to explain their requests.”

  “So, some of them might not have been necessary?” Braddock challenged.

  “I didn’t say that. I just said I might not know why it caused them trouble, but I believe I can speak clearly about 95% and speculate on another 3%.”

  “We need facts, not speculations,” he snapped.

  “Then I will only speak to the 95% I know.” She then smiled at Hamilton. “I’m ready when you are.”

  Upon answering the first three with the same reason, she suggested a means to speed the process. She went through the list and placed an ‘A’ next to half of the deviations. “These are all basically the same issue. Whoever wrote the protocol must not have taken any probability courses. The problem with the current protocol is that they want the hacker to start at the top and systemically try to break past every password.”

  “Why is that not a logical approach?” Braddock challenged.

  “Because it’s an extraordinary waste of time, and so mind-numbingly boring, that when they do open an account with something off, they probably miss it because their brain is fatigued with useless searching.” She returned to Hamilton. “You asked me to teach this team how I find money, and the best I could do is promise to try. After yesterday, I can promise better than that. I can teach Team Two and Three. They have good intuitions, only they’ve been squashed by this search protocol.”

  “You still haven’t explained why it’s not the best approach,” Braddock grumbled.

  “If you had twelve men to search a three hundred room mansion and you were looking for a room with a pool. Would you start at the top and work your way down?”

  “No. A pool is more than likely to be on the ground floor.”

  “Exactly. And if you knew the gardener’s shed had the easiest access into the house, would you still attempt to enter through the front door first, followed by the windows.”