Page 80 of Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad World

“Well, thank fuck for that!” Dwight adjusted his tie and straightened his shoulders. “The trial is a week today. How about you focus on keeping our witness safe? Although why she hasn’t fired your asses yet, I have no idea.”

Now Noah was pissed. They’d apologized, explained their reasoning, and accepted the consequences of their actions—after all, the team was being disbanded—but they sure as hell hadn’t been unsuccessful.

He stood slowly, his attention on the DA. “If we’re your investigators, then we just handed you enough evidence to shut down the Demons for good. Evidence you can use in court. In an election year. Not to mention twenty-one young women who wouldn’t be here without us. Our team may have acted a little too independently for your liking, but we got a result that you’rehappy to run with. I’d say it’s time to stop berating us, wouldn’t you?”

As the DA’s head turned an interesting shade of purple, Noah sensed Rodrigo stand beside him. “We handed you evidence of a human trafficking operation when your police department couldn’t find any. I’ve been an undercover agent for most of my adult life. I knowallagencies bend the rules when it comes to getting the information they need to prosecute criminals. We didn’t cross the line as far as you want us to believe.”

Abasi stood and slipped his hands into the pockets of his designer suit pants. “We didn’t kill anyone. And, trust me, I wanted to. You’re a smart man with political savvy, and you know we did you a favor. We don’t want any credit. You can stand in front of voters come election day and explain how you—and your invisible team—cleaned up the city, making it a whole lot safer for women everywhere. We handed you the election.”

Violet pushed back her chair. “If we’re working for you in an official capacity as investigators, then there isn’t an issue here.” She turned and left the room.

“You know,” Harris said, “I think that rather than ranting, you should be thanking us. Without Benson Security, you wouldn’t have a witnessora slew of new cases against the Demons. A little respect wouldn’t go amiss here.”

“What he said,” Logan agreed. “And Rochelle might be our boss for only a wee while longer, but she’s done a damn good job with us and for you.”

Evan stood with them. “You should also know that I’m this close”—he held up his index finger and thumb with barely any space between them—”to tracking payments made to the mole who sold out Annabelle’s location. If we’reyourinvestigators, then I guess our boss would expect me to hand over that information to you as well. Isn’t that right, Rochelle?”

Rochelle nodded slowly.

Noah took a step closer to the DA. “We didn’t do things the right way. But we did the right things. This discussion is over.” He turned to Rochelle, dismissing the DA. “Is there anything else you need from us?”

Something softened in her eyes. “No. Go do your job.”

“Yes, Boss,” he said before heading for the door, followed by the rest of the team.

“This is preposterous!” the DA exploded, making Noah and everyone else turn to him.

“No,” Noah said to the DA. “We’re done here.” He turned to speak to Rochelle. “If you don’t have anything else to discuss with the DA, would you like us to escort him from the building?”

ADA Margaret Grant lowered her head, desperately trying to hide her grin from her boss.

“That’s okay, Noah,” Rochelle said, taking a seat at her desk. “I’m sure Dwight can find his own way out.” She smiled at the DA. “Thank you for dropping by with an update.” Then she pulled her laptop toward her and focused on the screen, dismissing him.

The DA looked like his head might explode, but he cast one more censuring look at them all before signaling to the officers accompanying him that it was time to leave.

“I’ll expect a detailed report on your investigation into the mole,” he snapped at Rochelle.

“Of course,” she said not looking up from her laptop.

The team stepped aside as the DA, ADA, and the two officers with them headed down the stairs and through the front door. When Noah glanced back at Rochelle, she was smiling.

Noah had barely seen Annabelle all morning. Between apologizing to Rochelle and dealing with the DA, there hadn’t been much time to catch up with her. So he went upstairs to relieve Katrina of guard duty, smiling when he saw Annabelle so deep in concentration at her drawing board that she didn’t notice he’d entered the loft.

“How’s it going?” he whispered to Katrina, who was working on her laptop at the dining table.

She smiled up at him. “She’s a natural teacher. The boys are loving their lesson. So much so that they’ll probably want to grow up to be artists themselves, or worse, become so addicted to comic books that you go broke buying them.”

“I guess there are worse obsessions for them to develop,” he said, sitting beside her. “You can go if you want. I’ve got this now.”

Her smile was teasing. “Ibetyou do.”

“Not you too,” he groaned. Half the team had hassled him about getting caught on camera, kissing Annabelle. The other half, led by Violet, had no interest at all.

Katrina gathered up her laptop and indicated the cameras with a twirling motion of her hand. “Remember, Big Brother is watching.” She checked her watch. “Or in this case, Evan.”

The last thing he wanted was the triplets perving over any unintentional on-camera antics. “I’ll behave,” he vowed.

“How did the meeting with the DA go?” she asked.