Free Aligned by Jaci Wheeler Page A

and hips swaying, followed by a grinning George.
    “Please tell me you didn’t answer Masters’s question to the whole Ministry?” he says. He is going for disbelief although he looks proud of her guts.
    “Of course I did.”
    He shakes his head. “She-devils, the lot of you.”
    I grab his hand and he twirls me around. More people come to join us and I am worried Masters won’t show up when I see him leaning against the wall glaring at us.
    I wave him over and he slowly walks our way. He points at me. “You are a bad influence.” Then his face softens when he looks at Natasha. “Did you mean it?”
    She giggles. “Yep. Now you better get moving, we have a wedding to practice for.” He picks her up so fast I almost miss it and twirls her around, then sets her on her feet and plants a huge kiss on her mouth. This is the most I’ve ever seen of him with his guard down and from the looks on everyone else’s faces I’m not the only one. Green comes up next to me. “Ya did good, kid.”
    I smile. “So did you, although my way hurt a lot less.”
    “Meh, what’s another war wound? Look at his face. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him that happy.”
    “Being in love can do that I hear. You should try it out. You never know, you might like it.”
    He shudders. “That’s the thing with women; they always think they can change a guy. They think he just hasn’t met the right girl yet, and once he does it will be all wedding bells and bliss. Of course they always think they are the right one. Nah, I’m happy being a bachelor and you know it.”
    “You never get lonely? Never want to fall in love?”
    “I’ve thought about it. I’m happy with where I am right now. I date, I have a ton of female friends, I am my job, as you are yours. You know better than anyone you can’t split your focus when you are doing work as important as ours. I’m not saying you can’t be good at your job once you settle down, but your focus splits. You think Masters is going to be big, bad and scary once he has a tiny little girl wrapped around his finger? Never gonna happen.”
    What he says makes perfect sense, although it sounds like a lonely life to me. I want the happiness that comes with kids and a family. I want the consistency of loving and fighting with only one person. Of course, I am way too young to be thinking of that now, and I refuse to let anything derail my focus from the country right now.
    Once the dance party dies down and everyone goes back to their offices, Masters comes up and surprises me by giving me a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks, little one,” he whispers in my ear, then leaves with Green to go back to work.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER SEVEN
     
     
    The rest of the week is spent trying to finalize the speech I will give the rest of the Ministry, and getting the heads of the departments up to speed and trained on how to deal with any fallout that might occur. In the meantime, Wes is working in the Career Department trying to find the best most unobtrusive ways to monitor, and Molly and I are working closely with George trying to find the best areas in which to put the new compounds. Since there are about four Zones per region, I think one compound per region should be enough to make a good sized compound and not be overcrowded. I am going to have to go to the head of the Agriculture Department to get a feel for the best places to put each compound.
    The original compound instituted by former President Vaughn, also lovingly dubbed the OC, was designed purely to be as far and out of the way as it could get. I, on the other hand, want to make sure citizens in the compounds will have good food sources nearby and favorable weather conditions, which means I am going to have to tour the Ag Departments and the Zoning board.
    My phone rings and I pick it up on the first ring.
    “Hi, Miss Thatcher, this is Karl. The Council requests your presence. Are you available to meet with them?”
    How nice of