“Put me down for two,” Zack spoke up. “Song and MiKi have been nagging Mei to let them have a cat. I figure, the more the merrier.”
“With your two Pitbulls?” Mother asked snarkily.
“Sure,” Harley chimed in. “Introduce them carefully, and they’ll be friends for life.”
“Hmmpf,” Mother grumped. “I doubt that.”
“That’s because you haven’t seen Fluffy and Moo Moo recently. They sleep with LiLi, in her bed,” Zack emphasized, “which is why my other girls want cats. They want something to cuddle, too.”
Fluffy, a brindle, and Moo Moo, a black and white, were the Pitbulls in question. He’d gotten them after LiLi’s abduction, more for Mei’s peace of mind than his girls’ protection. Alex didn’t doubt they would take down anyone stupid enough to go after one of Zack’s girls, but they were the sappiest protectors Alex had ever seen. Well, except for his TEAM. The men sitting around this table could be pretty damned sappy, too.
Alex continued. “The smallest outbuilding…” He used a laser pointer again. “…is the on-site TEAM clinic. Doctors McKenna Fitzgerald-Villanueva and Libby Houston, along with registered nurse Judy Mortimer, have agreed to operate the clinic, part-time at first, full-time as needed.”
“Hey, Boss, we got a decent offer on our old colonial last night,” Mark announced. “Libby’s really looking forward to working with The TEAM. DC life has worn her down.”
“I’m damned glad she opted to join us,” Alex remarked.
“I can’t wait to work with her again,” Doc Fitz added. “With Judy, too. I adore those women.”
“Judy’s just as thrilled,” Harley said.
Beau Villanueva and his wife, Doc Fitz, already lived in the vicinity of the new TEAM HQ, as did Alex, Maverick, and Renner Graves. But for others, the move would be a major disruption to their lives. With Taylor Armstrong’s help, Mark and Libby had recently finished restoring one of Northern Virginia’s old colonials. With five kids and a practicing physician for a wife, this move wouldn’t be easy for Mark. Yet he and Libby had wholeheartedly concurred with the need for TEAM expansion when Alex broached the idea to them months ago. He’d admitted the root of the move was his need to spend more time with his family. Like everyone else’s, his two children were growing up too fast, not to mention that his father’s mental faculties deteriorated more every day. From now on, Alex intended to maintain a lighter touch on his TEAM. He wasn’t retiring, but it was time he became the family man he’d always wanted to be.
All major directors were now selected and on board with his dream. This meeting was where the few remaining delegations would be made and hopefully, accepted. He wanted his people to be as excited as he was about their future. After a few minutes of silence, Alex divided the screen, like Beau had shown him to do earlier, and brought up another window beside the first. This one listed each new department he was creating, along with the director who would manage it.
For the most part, he’d maintained his current chain of command. His senior agents were still Mark, Harley, and David. But he recognized his aging workforce. Married men with families had different needs, and active ops were for youngsters. He’d assigned responsibilities according to those individual strengths.
Mark would now manage International Operations, not including East Asia. Zack would oversee those, while David managed The TEAM safe house there. Harley would handle the newly established K-9 program, and it hadn’t taken much for Maverick to agree to manage the Equine Therapy program.
Lee Hart had agreed to stay on as full-time Physical Fitness Director. When he wasn’t on active missions, Jameson Tenney would teach parkour and Krav Maga, his specialties. Ember Dennison, when she returned from family leave, would manage the new on-site shooting ranges, all weaponry, certifications, and The TEAM armory. Alex had purposefully removed her from Mother’s oversight. Ember deserved a change.
“What’s Technology supposed to mean?” Mother asked, an edge to her question.
And here we go…
Alex used the laser pointer to circle one of the few unfilled directorships. “It means I want you as my Director of Technology. You’re the genius. You know what it takes for us to get our jobs done.”
She huffed, her fake fingernails clattering on the tabletop. “Sure. Yeah.”
Clenching his jaw at her indifference, he kept going. “At the moment, it’s an empty design lab, Sasha. As Director, you’ll select your team of technicians, and you’ll determine what equipment you need. You’ll be able to—”
“You nixed all my TEAMwear concepts.”
“Just the nanny-cam items. They were redundant.”
TEAMwear was an integrated collection of spec ops outerwear she’d designed. It came with networks of monitors hidden within the fabric and heads-up displays of the goggles. The original objects had been to monitor heartrates, temperatures, etcetera, much like the high-tech suits astronauts wore. But Alex refused the daily workload that much minutia had dumped in his lap every day. Bottom line, he didn’t micro-manage. Mother had yet to appreciate that concept.
“They could’ve saved lives,” she bit out with a slight head swagger.
“A smart man delegates responsibility, then gets out of his people’s way and lets them work. I trust my people.”
“Them. Not me.”
Son of a bitch, she was determined to make this all about her. So be it. Alex stared Mother down for all of two seconds before he asked, “Where’s Justice?” The man she’d said she’d married.
That shut her up. And there, staring him in the face, was the reason for his current lack of complete trust in the woman he’d known for years. Alex wanted the old, bossy, nosey Mother back. Not this snarly reminder of subterfuge and deceit.
Justice
