Chapter 185

WINTER PARK

Greg McMasters, head of procurement at the hospital where Caitlin was employed, hit a speed-dial number on his cell phone.

Two rings later. "Yeah? What do you want on a Sunday afternoon?" Aaron Solomon, McMasters' assistant, answered, knowing it was McMasters by the number shown on the phone.

"We need to talk."

"So talk. I'm just..."

"Not on the phone. Meet me downtown at the park," McMasters curtly interrupted, hanging up before Solomon could answer.

A few minutes later, Solomon parked and walked over to where McMasters was sitting on a bench. "Anybody tell you it's too cold to be sitting out here?" Solomon snarled as he sat on the icy bench by his boss.

McMasters stood. "Stand back up. You wearing a wire or some type of recording device?" McMasters asked, even as he began to pat Solomon down.

"What? What the fuck are you doing?" Solomon said as McMasters' hand cupped Solomon's groin. "Have you gone gay or something?" he said, trying to push his boss away.

"Shut the fuck up and sit down," McMasters snarled as he finished with his search and motioned toward the bench.

"What did you do that for?" Solomon asked, sitting, nevertheless.

McMasters didn't directly answer the question, but instead said, "I went by the office to pick up something I forgot. Someone has been in my computer. Since that bitch(Caitlin) came to work for us, I've been watching for something like this. Someone had opened some of my vendor files – files that could help to hang our asses. I'm just about positive it's that bitch. Fuck, I never thought anybody could get by my passwords, but she, or someone, certainly did."

"You mean that someone knows?" Solomon hissed out, beginning to panic. "I'm not going to jail for the paltry amount of money I've gotten out of this. I know you've been getting kickbacks for a long time. A hell of a lot more money than what you've given me. I told you it was a bad idea as soon as I found out what you were doing. I let you talk me into being involved in this, and now I'm going to jail."

"Oh, shut the fuck up. It's too late to whine now – you took the money. You're in this just as deep as I am."

McMasters sat quietly for a moment. Just as Solomon started to say something, McMasters continued, "I saw that Sheriff come by the office Friday morning."

"Friday?" Solomon hissed out. "And you didn't tell me?"

"Oh, shut up. He didn't say anything to me, just glanced in the open door of the office while you were out running down whatever the fuck that nurse wanted. He acted as though he had something on his mind. He might have been visiting a patient and parked in the back lot, then come through the nurses' entrance to save time. Cops park wherever they want to, and besides, anyone can park in the back. The only difference in that entrance and any other is the sign that says it's the nurses' entrance. No big deal, but... it might be that Adair (Administrator of the hospital) has found out something from that bitch and called the Sheriff in. The only time I've seen a Deputy come in that entrance was when he was answering a call to the hospital. If they're here to visit someone, they come in the front door."

Solomon jumped to his feet. "I told you this was a bad idea. I don't want to go to jail; have Bubba fuck me in the ass."

"Hush. Now isn't the time for whining. And sit down before someone notices you acting like a fool. Nobody is going to jail. It will take more than that bitch just looking at some of my files for us to go to jail. Figuring out that I've let some vendors bill more than they shipped won't be an overnight thing, even if she did see the files, besides, the kickbacks on the big items are a lot harder to decipher. But ... that fucking Sheriff coming by our office worries me. He could well have turned right at the end of the hall to go to the Administrator's office."

"You said 'Sheriff.' You mean Deputy, don't you?"

"No, I fucking don't mean a Deputy came by. He's the damn Sheriff. The one who got the DA a while back. I'm pretty sure he went into the Administrator's office. I was going to follow him, but some nurses came through pushing a patient bed just as I got to the door of our office. By the time I could get past them and to the end of the hall, he could have gone either way. I didn't want to call attention to myself, so I just went on about my business."

"But why didn't you tell me this Friday?"

"Because I didn't want you overreacting in front of everybody, like you're doing right now. At least there's nobody out here but us," he said, glancing casually around. "Besides, I really didn't think too much about the Sheriff until I found out that someone had been in my files."

"Oh, shit. Oh, shit," Solomon said, jumping up again. "I knew this was a bad idea. I should have told you to stick it up your ass instead of taking that money from you. That fucker is not dumb. If he gets on to us, we'll be in jail forever."

"Oh, sit back down. We just need to make some changes in the things we do. Muddy the waters a bit."

Solomon finally resumed his seat. "If I get arrested, I'm going to tell them everything. I'm not going to jail," he muttered.

"Nobody is going to jail. And if you squeal on me, you're a dead man. You just remember that. It's time for you to start helping me fix this instead of crying about it. We need to make sure the withdrawals from Central Supply match up to the numbers we've been billed from the vendors. I think I know how to get into their files. We need to make some changes. If the shit hits the fan, we'll have a plan ready to show it was one of the nurses that was stealing from Central. It will look like she's been selling the stuff on the net. It's happened at other hospitals; it could happen at this one. If it looks like he's getting too close, I'll tell Adair we think someone is stealing from Central. The nurses have to get their own shit at night, even personally log out what they take. It should be easy to put the blame on one of them. I'm not giving up my gravy train, yet. We just need to make some fake withdrawals from Central. Hell, come to think of it, we can make it look like two of them are stealing. That would be a lot more believable with the number of items involved. Yeah, that'll work."

THE RETREAT

Jeff, Diana and Paulette sat on the couch, the Prime and his Queen holding hands while Van sat in a chair near Adriana, who had Little One on her chest.

Little One beeped as the blue beams winked out. Jeff reached over to retrieve the Healer as Adriana opened her eyes. After a moment, "That's it?" she questioned while stifling a yawn.

Jeff held the collar of his shirt open as Little One flowed inside. He hesitated as his eyes lost focus for a few seconds. "She says she's done. In a few days you will ovulate. You're still sure about this, right?"

Van knelt beside his wife, taking her hand in his. "Most definitely sure," Adriana said, but her answer was to her husband instead of Jeff.

Adriana turned to her daughter, "Come here, Sweet. This affects all of us."

Van stood, reached down and picked Adriana up as if she weighed nothing. Sitting back down with her in his lap, he touched his lips to hers for a second, his love for her obvious from the look on his face and the tender kiss.

"What do you think, Baby?" Adriana asked as their daughter knelt by their chair. "You did give your permission. You had a say in this. We even asked Jeremy about it."

"I'm proud for you, Mom. Uh, both of you. I just wish it could be me getting ready to get pregnant by Jeremy."

"You're way too young to be talking about having babies," Van said. "Way too young."

Paulette started to argue, but remembered what her mother had said about staying on the good side of her father.

"But I can dream," she said, instead, trying to sound lighthearted about the subject. With the hormones of a fourteen-year-old coursing through her veins, not to mention the enhancement that had revved up her sexuality, the discussion about babies had affected her almost more than she could stand.

"Congratulations," Jeff and Diana offered almost simultaneously.

"A little early, isn't it?" Van replied with an accompanying chuckle.

Jeff shrugged. "I have no idea how long it takes for an egg to mature after Little One does her thing, but I can pretty much guarantee that Adriana is soon to be fertile – very fertile."

Paulette sat back on the couch with Diana, the teenager trying desperately to not blush, knowing they were treating her as an adult to even let her hear the conversation. "This will be good for me," she said. "I want to help every day while you're pregnant, Mom, and when the baby comes, I want you to teach me how to take proper care of a newborn." There was a moment of silence, then Paulette added, "I'll wear my player tonight so you two can make all the noise you want." The last few words came out in a rush with Paulette's face turning crimson in the process.

While they all laughed, Diana stood and pulled the blushing teenager up to hug her. "Your mom and dad say you'll be old enough soon. It's obvious that Jeremy loves you, just as you do him. He won't forget you – he's an Alpha. So don't worry about that."

Van stood and put Adriana on her feet. "I guess we should be going. It will be feeding time shortly after we get home, and Paulette probably has some homework."

"Did it in school. My science project is ready, too. But I'll help with feeding so you two will have more time together."

Adriana caught her husband's eye and grinned at him.

Dave came jogging down the hall. "Wait up, Jeff," the Alpha called out. "I need to speak with you for a moment."

"Sure. Meet you in the living room in a minute. I'll get us a pot of coffee."

Dave waved his acknowledgment and turned into the living room, while Jeff went on into the kitchen. Eventually, the men sat looking out the big window, Jeff in his favorite recliner, although he didn't have the seat pushed back, and Dave in another seat nearby.

As Jeff poured the coffee for both of them, "Did you have Little One fix Adriana up?"

Jeff blew on his coffee, but answered before taking a sip. "Yeah. But it was a scary thing."

Dave frowned and looked at his Prime. "Scary? How could it be scary?"

"Diana was there."

"But I don't see..." Then, "Oh," he added as he did see. "The baby bug."

"Yeah, if one of my women has a baby, all of them will want their own, and I could see that look in Diana's eye. The operative word about my wives is all. Fourteen wives – fourteen. That's a lot of babies, and a load of bad diapers. I can change a wet one, no trouble, but I've puked more than once when changing a shitty one. Diana acts like there's nothing to it, but the smell makes me want to hang over a commode. Now that Little One has enhanced us, I don't even want to imagine how bad a shitty diaper will smell."

Dave chuckled and remarked, "At least a girl baby can't piss in your face while you're changing her. My guys were kidding one of my electricians the other day. Seems like he made the mistake of telling them that his baby boy pissed right in his face while he was changing the kid. He just said it would happen to them sooner or later if they ever had a boy."

But Dave suddenly got quiet as another thought hit. "I have three wives. Do you suppose they'll all decide to have babies at the same time?" Then answering himself, "Surely they wouldn't do that – would they?" he asked, looking at Jeff while trying to not show his (Dave's) lurking terror.

"You expect to get sympathy from me?" Jeff asked with a sick laugh. "Think about fourteen kids, all two-year-olds, running around here."

The men sat staring out the window, their coffee forgotten for the moment.

Finally, Jeff wrenched his mind to the present. "What did you want to see me about?"

"Well, number one is the move to the new classrooms. Helen says tomorrow will be a good time, so I'm having four of my guys coming in to help..."

"We could do it," Jeff started.

Dave sighed, "Jeff, you have a zillion dollars in the bank. I have some unskilled people who could use the time. Let's let them do the scut work, okay?"

"Uh, sure. I didn't think about that."

"Anyway, that wasn't what I came to discuss, but I do have an idea about something else. Well, Evie and I have an idea. I've had your accountant and the lawyer look into this, and I think it might be a good deal, but after you bought the steel erection company – well, I don't know how you might feel about this right behind the other."

Jeff drained the last of his lukewarm coffee and poured himself another cup, motioning to Dave with the pot.

"No thanks. Uh, I hope I haven't overstepped my..."

"'Overstepped?'" Jeff laughed. "You and Evie are my project managers. That covers a broad field. So what have the two of you found this time?"

"Well, in your words, it's a chunk of change – probably a big chunk, but I think it's a deal we shouldn't pass up. I mentioned it once before, but I didn't have any information then. Evie and I just don't have the cash to invest right now. As you know, we've spent the last several years expanding our company and buying all the equipment we could squeeze out of the company budget – heck, even our personal budget, most of the time. But the big crane was the last large purchase we should have to make for several years, even so, we can't swing this much money."