A Better Life Read online

  Her eyes burned with fury. Did he just tell her he’d left her kids, alone and afraid, in an unsecured section? With her good hand, she held her hand at the height of Stevie and Tommy, then cradled an invisible baby.

  He rolled his eyes. “I’ve never been good at charades, and given the anger in your eyes, I don’t plan to start now. You can wait until we reach our destination and ask your regular handler.”

  Handler? Had they brought her back inside to work on Carnivore? Against her will? Had they taken her children somewhere else?

  She ignored his advice and frantically ripped at her duct tape.

  “I am advising you to wait until we can apply the solution. The scarring you are about to cause will be permanent.”

  She stopped pulling. Was that the truth or just a trick to make her stop? Hell, this man had a hundred ways he could stop her. It must be the truth. Even her slight tugs were painful as hell. She stopped pulling and collapsed to the floor. All out of fight.

  She had lost her kids, but they were alive. That was all she’d asked of God. But now…she needed more. It wasn’t enough to know they lived and thrived outside the facility—

  She stopped as fear filled her. Her gut told her she wasn’t anywhere near the facility. Where the hell were they taking her?

  He reached down and grabbed her up by her left arm, not gripping this one so tight, but firm enough to let her know if she tried to sit back down, his grip would tighten.

  Why the hell couldn’t she sit on the floor? She glared at him with resentment. She really didn’t like this jerk. If he told her a damn thing, that would be nice! But no! He puts duct tape over her mouth then goes silent.

  The same steel door pulled back and she stared at the same damn corridor. What the hell had they been doing for the last hour?

  She glared at him again, determined he would explain, but he just tightened his grip and led her out of the damn four by six concrete block they’d been sitting—no—standing in for no apparent reason.

  Honest to God, if she had Anna’s martial art skills, she’d drop this jerk to the ground here and now.

  Anna…

  God, please let Anna have survived this day. She’s too young and too special to die. She has her whole life ahead of her.

  The first soldier had promised to save her. But people made promises all the time they didn’t keep.

  Chapter 3

  As Angel and the soldier continued down the corridor, she was certain something had changed, but she wasn’t certain why. The same dim lights appeared every ten feet, bare walls…

  Wait! That was it. The spider webs were gone.

  Seriously? Someone had cleaned the walls while they sat inside that tiny cube?

  That made no sense, so she searched for a better answer.

  Recalling the change of air pressure, she tried a new theory. What if that room had actually been an elevator, but one that moved either so slow or so smoothly that she hadn’t felt any movement, and they were now too far down for spiders to nest.

  Just then, they arrived at an inset that Angel knew hadn’t existed in the prior hall.

  He pulled her into this space that looked to be a dead-end. Upon opening a panel, he received another retinal scan. Once he entered a code, a shiny steel door closed behind them. This time she paid close attention to any hint the room was moving.

  Nothing

  God, are we going to stand here for another hour?

  Deciding they were, she pulled from his grip and sat on the floor. He glared at her but didn’t jerk her up. When the door opened five minutes later, he stepped around her and walked out. “She’s your problem now. Good luck.”

  Angel had been getting herself up, which turned out to be harder than she anticipated, with one numb arm, so she hadn’t noticed who Mr. Hard Voice had spoken to.

  She looked up to another hard soldier, but this one she knew and loved. Throwing her arms around his thick muscular neck, she pressed her head upon his chest.

  Davenport.

  He gave her a short hug then set her back, his eyes betraying a myriad of emotions. His fingers touched her duct tape. “We’ll get that off first thing. Then I’ll take you in for your doctor’s exam. Once that’s done, we’ll make a small detour, so you can see your kids. Since I had yet to see you with my own eyes, they wouldn’t take my word that you were fine.” He sighed as if having a bad day. “So unfortunately, they’re little terrors at the moment.”

  Angel responded by hugging him again.

  He sighed heavily and then gently set her back. “You’re welcome. Try to remember I’m on duty right now.”

  God! Those hugs could have gotten him fired! She scrunched her eyes, hoping he understood it to be an apology.

  Instead, Davenport studied the reddish bruise on her right arm. “Let’s get that tape off you.”

  She couldn’t be in more agreement, and thus hurried beside him.

  Davenport led Angel into an all too familiar exam room and pointed to a chair. He went to the cabinets and extracted a bottle with a tiny straw top and handed her the towel.

  “You may blot as often as you like. Keep your lips closed as tightly as you can. You do not want to drink this stuff. It’ll make you gag, which will be a serious problem if we don’t yet have the tape sufficiently off your mouth. If that happens, and you began to choke, I will slice the tape and clear your passageway. However, in doing so, I might slice into your lips…so try very hard to keep those beautiful lips closed.

  She nodded in agreement. The other jerk would have probably ordered her to keep her mouth shut and never mentioned why. Davenport had long ago learned she cooperated better if she knew why he wanted something done.

  She was so glad he was here.

  It took twenty minutes to remove the tape and another few minutes to wash the solvent off her face.

  Once Davenport declared it all gone, he chuckled. “You can safely open your mouth now.”

  “I’m so glad to see you. Why was I separated from my kids?”

  His eyes darkened. “You entered the secure zone. Your children haven’t been cleared yet.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because you will need to give permission for them to be brought in. The Director will explain everything when you visit him.”

  “Has Max been notified?”

  Davenport tensed. “I need to get you to the doctor, right now. The director will be able to answer your questions.”

  She gripped his hand. “I would rather hear what is to happen from you.”

  He reached up and massaged his neck. “I’m not privy to details. I’m only a handler here. Colonel Braddock is in charge of the facility.”

  Davenport was demoted? Impossible, he was the epitome of a great soldier. “What happened?”

  “I still have my rank. I’ve just been given the job to handle one valuable asset and ensure she remains productive for the rest of her life.”

  “Oh, Davenport, I’m sorry. I’ve destroyed your career.”

  “Not at all. I volunteered, declaring myself the closest thing to an expert they had.”

  She nodded in agreement, resisting her desire to hug him again.

  His large calloused hand fell on her back. “Let’s get you to the doctor.”

  As he led her from the room, he spoke softly. “The doctor will probably ask how you hurt your arm. Can you tell me what happened?”

  “The soldier who brought me in, duct taped me for loudly objecting when he separated me from my kids, and then he gripped my arm with a vise grip until I finally made him understand my hand was going numb.”

  “Once he understood, did he lessen his grip?”

  “Yes. He even massaged my arm trying to return proper blood flow to my hand.”

  “Be sure to mention that. The soldier was Colonel Braddock, and I enjoy reporting to him. I wouldn’t want him removed for this.”

  “I wouldn’t either. I don’t think he has any idea how strong he is.”

  Dav
enport chuckled. “Oh, he knows his strength. He’s just never had to contain someone so fragile before.”

  “I’m not fragile! I think he just hangs around people like you.”

  “Exactly…and in that community, you are fragile.”

  She sighed. She didn’t like the label, but compared to Davenport and Colonel Braddock, she was an entirely different species, a butterfly among dragons.

  When they entered the doctor’s office, she undressed and bent her head, so Davenport could shave her hair.

  He knelt down. “You don’t have to have your head shaved.”

  “Why not?”

  “The director will explain, but we have hopefully made this place easier to endure.”

  She smiled. “I bet you were their expert there too. God knows, you had to listen to enough of my grumblings.”

  Just then a thin, dark-haired man, wearing a white lab coat, entered and tried to dismiss Davenport. Only a doctor would have the arrogance to do that. Demoted or not, Davenport was still a force to be reckoned with.

  “Can he stay?” Angel asked, gripping Davenport’s hand.

  “This is going to be an intensive exam,” the doctor warned.

  “His presence gives me strength. I need that.”

  The doctor stared at her a long moment then smiled. “I have no issue, but I’ll need to clear it.”

  Davenport’s brow furrowed a bit.

  Angel noticed and recalled his lower position here. She met her friend’s worried gaze. “I don’t want to cause you any trouble, so if you don’t want to stay, I’ll understand.”

  Davenport gave a nod to the doctor. “Ask for clearance.”

  The doctor reached for the phone on the wall but stopped when a voice came from the speaker in the corner of the room.

  “Proceed, Dr. Hanson.”

  The voice reminded Angel that all rooms would be monitored. Privacy didn’t exist in a high security facility. Since that voice didn’t sound like Colonel Braddock, she assumed it was someone else with mega authority. “Was that the director?” she whispered.

  Davenport touched his nose as he sniffed. “Just pay attention to the doc.”

  She decided the new director must be one scary guy. She didn’t expect she’d be falling in love and marrying this one. Her effort to joke with herself made her think of her husband, and former director of the FBI, Max Straun.

  “Does Max know we’re here?”

  Davenport’s brow furrowed. “The director will discuss that matter.”

  She was evidently getting him in trouble, so she stopped asking questions and focused on answering the doctor’s questions.

  Sure enough, during his external examination, he questioned her about the bruises forming on her arm.

  For Davenport, she took the blame. “It was my fault. I wasn’t certain the person taking me from the van was truly rescuing me. When he pulled me away from my children, I resisted and verbally objected. That got me duct taped and caused him to grip my arm painfully. Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell him he was cutting off the blood supply to my hand. While we stood for an hour in the closed end of the hall, I pantomimed the problem and he released my arm at once and massaged it, trying to return the blood flow.”

  The doctor ran further tests on her still partly numb fingers. “Could be some slight nerve damage. We’ll get a better idea once you receive your full body MRI.”

  Nerve damage?

  Before a full-fledged panic could set in the doctor continued. “With your permission, I would like to remove these moles.”

  “Yes!” she almost yelped, remembering the pain of having the inspectors prodding and pulling at them to verify they were real. If they were cut out by a sane doctor, then there would be nothing to tear at during the daily inspections.

  There turned out to be eighteen moles, two of which she didn’t even know she had. She mentioned that fact.

  Her declaration didn’t alarm him. He just asked her to point out which two she didn’t recognize. As he removed them, the Director spoke from speaker in the corner. “Angel, we need a time frame on the arrival of these moles.”

  Davenport spoke softly. “When was the last time you recall examining your back?”

  She grimaced. She didn’t normally stare at her moles, but she could tell by his face, they needed an answer.

  So, she gave it some thought. She’d spent Monday making love to Tom. He was being recalled into the facility and she wanted to give him sufficient love to last a month. Then Tuesday, she and Max had a memorable farewell day. Yesterday the only person she’d made love to was Sahid…whom Anna had clearly mistrusted.

  “I think they appeared yesterday. Sahid and I made love upstairs, right before an intruder stepped out of my closet and tried to remove me from the house, only Anna shot him.”

  “What makes you think neither was put on before that?”

  “Because Max would have noticed two extra moles.” She frowned. “Unless he had put them on me. When he was the director of the facility, he would frequently use me to test his men’s ability to find small mics.”

  “Who did you make love to before Max?” the director asked

  She frowned at this man’s assumption there were more. He had never met her. Nevertheless, she answered him. “Tom.”

  Davenport spoke up. “That would be Agent Tom Culp, sir.”

  “Tom would have noticed and I’m positive he would not have put one on me,” Angel insisted.

  “Are you implying Max might have placed these on you?” the voice from the speaker asked.

  “Perhaps, but only to test the system and make certain people here were doing their job.”

  Davenport spoke up. “He frequently used Angel to test us in the prior facility, so Angel has history to support her possibility.”

  “Anyone else after Agent Culp?”

  “No, just Max and Sahid. I should mention, sir, I believe Anna Culp, Tom’s daughter, mistrusted Sahid during the attack.”

  “Explain please?” the voice said.

  She told him how Anna lied and claimed she needed to enter the library to remove the lockdown, when in fact they weren’t yet in lockdown, and she believed Anna wished to enter the library to initiate lockdown.

  “The fact that a guest would challenge Anna’s right to enter the library astounded me, but I honestly believe he would have stopped her from entering the room had she not lied to her purpose.”

  “We’ll discuss this matter later. Dr. Hanson, please proceed.”

  The exam was long, thorough, and exhausting. So much so, that Angel fell asleep.

  She woke to Davenport staring down at her with concern.

  “You passed out.”

  “No, I just fell asleep.”

  Davenport’s worried eyes told her he didn’t believe that.

  She pushed herself up to assure him she’d just been sleeping. Unfortunately, the attempt gave her vertigo and she collapsed back to the exam table. “What’s wrong with me?”

  Dr. Hanson rushed back into the room and injected something into her arm. A moment later, the angry voice of the director spoke from above.

  “Report!”

  “Something I did triggered a trap.”

  “I need a bit more precision than that, Hanson.”

  “And you’ll have it. Just let me assure the patient is stabilized.”

  “Proceed,” the voice replied, somewhat softer in tone.

  “Davenport, you have to leave the room now.”

  “No!” Angel cried.

  “Now!”

  Davenport squeezed her hand and stepped out of the room.

  “Davenport would never hurt me.”

  “Good, because I happen to think him a great fellow, but protocol required him to leave.”

  “Why? What happened?”

  “Someone placed a time bomb somewhere on you. If my stock room wasn’t blessed with antidotes for every possible poison, you’d be dead now.”

  “How did this happen?” Ang
el asked

  “That’s what I’m going to find out as soon as I have you stabilized.”

  “I’m feeling better. You can go on.”

  “Sorry, I have to have physical evidence that you are feeling better.”

  Angel nodded and fell back asleep.

  ***

  She woke to the doctor’s voice. “I’ve run my test against the constant flow blood analysis. I have determined ground zero. The spike began while the camera was examining her vagina. I’ve isolated the problem area. It appeared to be a scar. Given her extensive sexual history, I didn’t think it odd. However, it proved to be a skin patch hiding the toxin beneath.

  Even in her sleepy haze, shame managed to creep inside. Why couldn’t she be happy with one man like other women? Five years ago, she believed she could be contented with one man, if she could find a really good man. Yet within a half-year of marriage, her misery was more than her beloved husband could bear. He opened the marriage, encouraging her to take as many lovers as she needed to be happy.

  At the time, she’d been so grateful, so amazed that her husband could put her inexplicable need ahead of his pride. Yet now came the bill. Had he been her only lover, she would not be here now, barely hanging on to life.

  “Is this anything you can extract for proof?” The voice asked.

  “Yes, but this surgery is delicate, and Angel is pregnant. So, we need to bring in a specialist.”

  “Not possible.”

  “Sir, there is a good chance if I do this surgery, Angel will lose the baby.”

  “You are the doctor. It’s your job to step up and get the job done.”

  “May I contact the specialist and let them watch and advise me through the operation?”

  “If we can get clearance on him. And Angel’s face is never seen, I will grant you that much leeway.”

  Angel barely registered their words as a smile came to her lips. She was having another baby. She wondered who the father would be.

  She didn’t care. They were all wonderful men. Just as long as she didn’t lose her baby. Please God, save this baby.