Eye of the Storm

Chapter

Twenty-five

DAR PARKED THE bike near the condo and carefully put the cover they’d been provided with on top of it. Kerry helped her and they both stepped back and regarded the machine. “You think?”

“Oh yeah.” Kerry stifled a yawn, and leaned against her. “C’mon.

Chino heard us.”

They walked up the stairs and Kerry keyed the lock, pulled the door open and released the excited Labrador. “Easy, Chino. Easy.” She knelt and hugged the puppy, then picked her up and followed Dar into the living room.

“Hey, Dar?”

“Hmm?” The taller woman dropped her jacket over the back of the loveseat and unlaced her vest.

“I know you sort of just came into this, but if you had a choice, where would you live?”

Interesting question. Dar loosened the laces and wandered into her room, tugged the leather off and replaced it with a worn heavy cotton Tshirt. She rubbed her arms as she regarded her reflection, then glanced over at the blonde in the doorway. “Honestly? A place that doesn’t exist.”

She chuckled a little. “A nice, rustic cabin on the beach, not too close to everyone else, with a little dock.”

Kerry considered that. “I’m sure there’re places like that.”

“Umm. With ISDN fast access lines and a shopping mall next door?”

The blue eyes twinkled with wry self deprecation. “Not to mention cable TV?”

“Hmm. I get it. Microsoft rustic.”

“Something like that.” Dar shrugged. “A way to mix my preferences with my vocation. I think you have to trade off one for the other.” She looked around. “I don’t need the marble and silk, but I do love the technology. It’s always intrigued me.”

Kerry nodded slowly. “Yeah, me too.” She paused reflectively. “It would be kind of fun to pick a new place out with you, though. I mean…”

An awkward hesitation. “I don’t know what I mean.” She wandered forward and pulled a faded blue T-shirt from Dar’s drawer. “Mind if I borrow this?”

“Since when do you ask?” Dar kidded her, then was quiet for a Eye of the Storm 229

minute. “I wouldn’t mind picking a place out with you either.” They regarded each other. “Let’s see what happens with this whole thing.

Maybe we won’t have a choice.” She circled her finger in the air, then unfastened Kerry’s top as the blonde woman turned around.

“Are you worried about it?”

Dar eased past her and headed for the back door, with Chino dancing beside her. “Worried?” She opened the door for the puppy and watched her scamper out into the dark garden. “No. I know I’m employ-able, Kerry, and that’s the bottom line.” She glanced up. “Even if I end up getting a quarter of my salary, it’s still livable, but,” she shrugged, “I feel like I’ve put so much into the company, after all this time, it hurts a little to have to face this.”

Kerry rubbed her arms, warming them in the chill of the air conditioning, and glad of Dar’s shirt. “It doesn’t make sense, though, Dar,” she mused. “Why now? You’ve never had a problem with the board before, and you’ve got a solid history with the company. What’s Ankow’s agenda, I wonder?”

Puzzled, Dar waited for Chino to come back in and shut the door, then walked into the kitchen and started fiddling with the coffee maker.

“I thought we knew it. He wants to take control, to oust Alastair. This is going to be damn embarrassing for him, since any disclosure of records will show he processed the overrides on our personnel records.”

“No.” Kerry shook her head, retrieved the coffee container, and handed it to her. “He knew something was up between us before he started all this. There’s something more going on, Dar, and I can’t help but notice the timing on this is awfully convenient.” She moved closer and leaned on the counter, watching Dar’s thoughtful face. “Something he said tonight, about us. I know he has a bad attitude about immigrants, because he made snide comments in the lunchroom.”

“So he’s prejudiced.” She shrugged. “He’s in the majority, Ker. You saw the looks we were getting tonight. We’re just lucky in that most of the people close to us have accepted our relationship.”

“I just have a feeling there’s something more to it,” Kerry objected stubbornly. “Because you know as well as I do, that lawsuit of his is bullshit, Dar. In the entire time you’ve been at an executive level at ILS, they’ve shown a healthy profit. The only thing proving we’re involved with each other gets him is grounds for termination.”

“Mmm.”

“And it makes everyone who supported us, Alastair, Duks, Mari, look bad.”

“True.”

“So, it gives him the leverage to put his own people in, if it all goes his way.”

“Yes, it does.” Dar poured two cups of coffee and added cream and sugar, then handed one to Kerry and guided her out into the living room.

“Why?” Kerry sat down on the couch and put her feet up on the table, crossing them at the ankles. “Why this company? Why does he give 230 Melissa Good a damn? I don’t get it.”

Dar settled back and took a sip of her coffee, thinking. Chino scrambled up on the couch and curled up next to her, putting her muzzle on Dar’s thigh. “His scan came up pretty clean,” she mused. “He was in the Army for eight years, discharged as a captain, nothing out of the ordinary in his records. Family lives in Oregon. Father’s a lumber magnate, pretty well off. He went to school in Washington, got a degree, went to law school. Came out and worked for the father as a corporate lawyer.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. No criminal background, good credit, Mark couldn’t find a thing on him, except that he’d been an Eagle Scout, something Mark found really funny, for some reason.”

“Hmm.” Kerry exhaled. “That doesn’t help. What does he want from us? Or from ILS?”

Dar sat absolutely still for a long moment, then she put her cup down and turned towards Kerry. “Data.”

“Huh?”

“Data. It’s what we do, Kerry. We carry more data for more companies and governments than any other company in the world.”

“Well, sure, I know but—”

“Eighty percent of the interbank transfers. Military signal processing. The corporate network.” Dar rubbed her temple. “I never thought of it this way, but if you wanted to get information on anyone and anything, we’re the kind of company that could do it, easily.”

“But that data doesn’t belong to us, Dar.”

“I know. But what would stop someone from passing all that through a filter in one of the big backbones and siphoning it off into a data storage for sifting?” The blue eyes glinted. “Someone inside the company, I mean. Someone like Mark.”

Kerry thought, then she shook her head slowly. “Nothing.” She tried to grasp the enormity of it. “Do you really think that’s what he’s after, Dar? It sounds so…so…melodramatic.” She gave her lover a wry look.

“Like we’re in a spy novel.”

“I don’t know.” Dar settled back and picked her cup up again.

“You’re the one who thinks there’s more going on. I just came up with a possibility.” She got up and strolled to the sliding glass doors then opened one and stepped through it into the warm breeze.

Kerry got up and joined her, leaning on the railing as they looked out over the Atlantic. The moon lit a path through the water and turned the landscape to a silver and dark monochrome that outlined things on the shore in stark detail. “What should we do?”

The dark head shook back and forth. “I don’t know. I mean, you’re right, it’s pretty outlandish. Maybe I can talk to Mark, see if he can dig in places we haven’t looked yet.” She rested her elbows on the balcony, then straightened a little and nudged Kerry.

“Hmm? What’s—oh.” Kerry smiled, spotting the two figures coming down the beach hand in hand. “They’re so cute.” She fitted her hand Eye of the Storm 231

around Dar’s biceps. “I’m so glad things are working out for them.”

“Me too,” Dar answered softly.

As though sensing their eyes, the two walkers angled their steps up from the water towards the condo, and Dar reached over to key the electronic lock on the garden door for them to enter.

“Hey,” Kerry greeted. “It’s pretty out, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is,” Cecilia agreed. “How was your party?”

“Different.”

“Interesting.” Dar and Kerry spoke at once, then laughed. “There’s some coffee inside, if you’re interested,” Dar added. “Did you have a nice night?”

“Very nice. Right, Andy?” Ceci nudged the tall, dark haired man next to her, who was sucking on something.

“Yeap,” he agreed. “Ah found out something I would never have knowed otherwise tonight. I surely did.”

“Really? What?” Kerry asked, as they walked inside and she slid the door shut.

“Knocking a bottle of that there soap into one of them hot tubs makes one hell of a lotta bubbles,” Andrew drawled. “I ain’t been this clean since I was in diapers.”

Dar laughed in pure reflex.

“Oh my god.” Kerry clapped a hand over her mouth.

“It was…spectacular,” Ceci agreed ruefully. “But not nearly as spectacular as watching your father bolt outside to save a mating peacock in nothing but courage and bubbles.” She gave Dar a wry look. “I hope we didn’t get you in trouble.”

Dar slowly slid down the wall, holding her sides from laughing, as Kerry tried not to snort up her coffee.

“Ah do not consider this that funny,” Andrew remarked gruffly. “It is not my fault that bird was yellin’ help.”

Kerry lost it and ended up on the tile, trying to fend off a busily licking Chino.

“Try to do a good deed, and lookit what happens.”

Even Ceci started laughing.

IT WAS THE smell of bacon that woke her up. That and coffee, and the soft sounds from the kitchen that indicated activity of a cooking nature. Mmm. Kerry sniffed appreciatively then she frowned, as she recognized the warm hold around her as Dar’s. Both eyes opened and she glanced around. Sure enough, Dar was snuggled up behind her, one arm tucked around her stomach, peacefully asleep. “Dar?”

“Ungh?”

“Dar?”

A blue eyeball appeared partially. “Huh?”

“You haven’t taught Chino to turn on the range, have you?”

That woke her up. “No.” Dar lifted her head a little, then let it drop.

232 Melissa Good

“Must be Dad.”

“Oh.” Kerry yawned. “That’s a relief.” She stretched, then disengaged herself from Dar’s hold and rolled out of bed. “Better go give him a hand. We wanted to get out early on the boat today.”

“Ker?”

She stopped midway to the door and turned. “Yeah?”

“Might want to put a shirt on.” Dar had her eyes closed again, but she was smiling.

Kerry looked down. “Oh.” She trudged to Dar’s dresser and removed a T-shirt. “Right.” She tugged it on over her head and disappeared into the bathroom for a minute, then came back out with a damp face and made her way into the living room. “Dad?” She peered around the doorway and spotted him. “Morning.” Chino was fastened to his kneecap, waiting hopefully.

“Yeap.” Andrew stood in front of the stove, with a pair of shorts on and one of his sleeveless sweatshirts. “Been that way for a hell of a long time, young lady.” He glanced at her. “You might want to be putting that thing on right side up.”

Kerry peeked at herself. “Um…I like it this way.” She wandered over and peered at the frying pan. “That smells great. But you didn’t have to do that.” She paused. “We usually do muffins or something for breakfast.” She bumped him gently and got a sideways look back. “Mr. Bubbles.”

“Do not start, young lady.” Andy pointed a spatula at her.

Kerry grinned, then impulsively put her arms around him and gave him a hug. “Okay.” She released her hold, went to the cupboard and took out some plates. “Where’s Mrs. Roberts?” She had her back turned and missed the look she was getting.

“Scribbling,” Andy replied. “Out by the seawall. Be back in shortly.”

He studiously pushed a mass of scrambled eggs around.

“Sketching, you mean? Oh, how cool.” Kerry put the plates down on the dining room table, then came back in for cups. “I love watching Dar draw.”

Andrew paused and half turned, giving her a surprised and quizzical look. “’Scuse me?”

Kerry took the pan he had and scooped its contents into a bowl. “I sit next to her in meetings. She draws these amazing little animals and things all over her pad. Bears, horses, boats, you name it. They’re so cute.” She cocked her head. “You didn’t know?”

Dar’s father looked very thoughtful. “Nawp. I sure did not.” He turned his attention back to the stove and flipped some bacon and sausages, which were sizzling there. “I sure did not. Hey, where is my kid anyhow?”

“Present and accounted for,” Dar replied, entering as she pulled her hair back and knotted it. “You showing off your cooking?”

“Ah do not cook,” her father corrected her sternly. “This is yer basic chow.”

Eye of the Storm 233

“You know, there’s nothing wrong with guys cooking,” Kerry teased. “I watch the cooking channel all the time and most of those chefs are guys.”

“You listen here, kumquat…”

“No, really. They are. Not just little wimpy guys either, okay?

They’re nice, big burly guys, with deep voices, and beards and—mmffp.”

Kerry chewed and swallowed the piece of sausage that had been stuffed into her mouth. “Mmm. Spicy. I like that.” She winked at him, then trotted towards the door. “I’ll go do breakfast call. C’mon, Chino.”

It was very quiet after she and the Lab left. Father and daughter eyed each other, then Dar chuckled softly. “She’s something else, isn’t she?”

Andy went back to removing the meat from the skillet. “Yeap.” He put a cover over the plate, turned around, and leaned against the counter to peer at her. “And you’re stuck like glue on her ain’t ya?”

Dar exhaled lightly. “Looks like it.” She picked up the dish and moved into the living room with it. “We’re going to have good weather, I think.” She walked over and leaned against the glass windows, watching Kerry make her way down to the beach. “We could go out to the island.

Picnic there.” Her eyes lifted, to see identical ones reflected back to her in the window’s glare. “Do some fishing?”

“Sure,” her father agreed amiably. “I’ll drive the boat.”

Dar looked at him.

“Hey, I got my license,” Andy protested. “I ain’t never crashed nothing into no dock, unlike someone else I could name but will not.”

Dar scowled. “I did not hit that dock.”

“All right. Pulled it over. Knocked it over. Same damn thing,” her father teased.

“Give me a break. I was ten,” Dar reminded him. “And I wasn’t supposed to be driving those double diesels. I could barely see over the console.”

“Yeah, yeah. A likely story.”

THE SAND CRUNCHED between Kerry’s toes as she left the path, and headed towards the water. She could see Cecilia’s slight figure down on the jetty and she angled her steps towards the rocks where Dar liked to sit as well. The wash of the waves masked her approach until she was almost there, then she smiled a little hesitantly as the silver blonde woman looked up from her work. “Morning.”

“Morning,” Cecilia responded cordially.

Kerry sat down on the rocks, turning her face towards the light spray and the early morning sky. “It’s pretty out here.”

The older woman appeared to consider the statement seriously.

“Yes, it is,” she finally agreed, after some moments of quiet. “I missed it.”

“It grows on you.” Kerry smiled. “When I first moved here, I hardly ever went to the beach. It was so busy and you don’t think of it down in Kendall.” Kerry inhaled a lung full of salty air. “Then I found a few 234 Melissa Good places where it was quiet and I used to go there when I needed to think.”

She paused. “Or when things were bothering me. Sometimes looking out at all that vastness helped, because you realize you’re such a small part of what the world is, and you have so much less to worry about than surviv-ing like the crabs.”

Ceci gave a slow nod. “That’s true.” She cocked her head slightly “So you’re a deep thinker, hmm?”

Kerry smiled. “Kind of.” She waggled her hand. “Sometimes.” Her eyes went to the sketch pad. “Ooo, that’s nice.” It was the end of the rock jetty, with a seagull in close-up, its feathers ruffled in the wind. “I feed them crackers when I come by here in the morning.”

“Thanks.” Ceci smiled back, resting her hands on the top of the pad.

She watched Kerry close her eyes and absorb the sunlight for a moment, then cleared her throat. “Did you come down to dabble your toes in the pond, or...”

“Oh. Sorry.” Green eyes appeared, a little sheepish. “Breakfast’s ready.” She stood up and tugged her oversized shirt down. “It’s just such a nice morning.”

“Mmhm.” Ceci gathered her things and hopped off the rocks, then followed Kerry back up the beach. “It’ll be nice to get back in the water,”

she ventured. “Especially on a nice, sunny day like this. The colors are very vivid if you stay close to the surface.”

“Oh, yes.” Kerry turned, her eyes lighting up. “I was on a really shallow reef just across from here not long ago and an entire school of yellow and purple fish rolled right over me. I felt like I was inside a rainbow.”

She held her hands out. “Just beams of light coming down through the water and hitting everything and then these clown fish swam by. It was incredible.”

“Have you seen lobsters?”

“They’re green. I was surprised.” Kerry laughed. “And they’re strong, too. Dar handed me a puffer fish the last time we were down.

Scared the heck out of me for a minute.”

“Did you learn to dive here?” The silver gray eyes watched her curiously. “I guess you did. Not much to see up in the Great Lakes.”

“Dar taught me, yes.” She nodded. “They do have diving up in Michigan, but for one thing, you have to wear dry suits, and for another, I’d be kind of nervous to see what’s at the bottom of Lake Michigan.” They both laughed. “I spent a lot of time sailing on top of it, though.” They entered the back garden and headed up the stairs.

“Me too.” Ceci reached for the door. “We spent summers up there.”

She pulled the door open. “We’ll have to compare notes.”

Kerry smiled. “All right. Let’s do that.” She entered, almost crashing into Dar who was standing right there. “Whoa!” Chino scrambled past her and crouched at Dar’s feet, depositing a piece of driftwood. “Oh, look, she brought you a present.”

“Thanks, Chino.” Dar bent down and picked the wood up. She juggled it as they all walked into the dining room where Andrew was Eye of the Storm 235

sprawled, examining a bit of machinery. Chairs scraped as they took their seats, then the soft clinking of dishes as they served themselves.

Then an awkward little silence fell. Kerry could see the discomfort on Dar’s face and she sighed, having spent her share of meals across a less than cordial table. It wasn’t, she was glad to realize, her problem this time. “Dar, do you think we can dive the shallow reef off the island? I want to try out my new camera.”

“Sure.” Dar gave her a pathetically grateful look as she buttered her toast. “Did you get film? I have a light you can use.”

“With the sun, I hope I won’t need it,” Kerry replied, busying herself with her eggs.

“Should always carry a light. You kin get lost real easy down there,”

Andrew commented around a mouthful. “Get people thinking you’re a fish.”

Dar almost snorted her coffee. “Nah. Long as I’ve been diving, I’ve yet to see a phosphorescent pink and yellow fish with blue gear and a bright red tank.”

Andrew looked at Kerry in aghast shock, then at his daughter. “Ye’re joking.”

The dark head shook back and forth. “Nope. Wait till you see the flippers. Trust me. I can spot her at forty fathoms.”

“Lord.”

“I was going to get those neat neon tracer lights around my BC, but Dar convinced me the weight of the power pack wasn’t worth it,” Kerry added, with a straight face.

Andrew covered his eyes, getting a chuckle from his wife. “Oh mah god.” He peeked at Kerry. “Pink?”

“Hey.” Kerry waved a fork at him. “I’m a girl. I’m allowed to wear pink if I want to.” She glanced at Dar. “At least it’s better than my karate gi. That got pink because I accidentally washed Chino’s collar with it.”

Ceci covered her mouth, as her shoulders shook.

Dar cleared her throat, then took a sip of coffee, feeling the atmosphere relax considerably. Okay. She let her thoughts settle. Maybe this was doable after all. They were okay. Kerry was doing fine, and Mom’s... She got caught looking across the table, meeting gray eyes that locked with hers for a split second, then dropped.

Mmm.

I can do this. She felt a hand reach for hers under the table, and met it, tangling her fingers with Kerry.

We can do this.

THEY WENT TO the marina in Dar’s golf cart, which she only barely wrested from her father’s clutches. Their gear was already stowed on board, so they had only the fresh food from the market and their beach bags to bring over the gangplank, as the sturdy boat rocked gently in the morning air.

236 Melissa Good Andrew picked up the bags and edged down into the cabin with them, as Ceci gazed around curiously at the well appointed Bertram.

“Nice.” Her eyes flicked briefly to Dar, who was checking the various things on the console.

“It’s a little much,” Dar commented absently. “We fit the back there with a fold down ladder and a hook for diving.” She peered down. “You untying us?”

“Got it.” Kerry had loosened the front rope and was climbing around to the second, unlashing it and jumping on board. “Go for it, Dar.”

Dar started the engines and trimmed them, cocking her head to listen as she adjusted the throttles. She liked the big boat, actually. It had power to spare and enough luxury that she could appreciate the on board shower and the refrigerator after a long day of diving. She and Kerry often took advantage of the compact bed, then brought out a few candles, and ate a cold dinner by their light, under the blanket of stars overhead.

She backed slowly out, then swung the bow around and edged her way through the marina, which was starting to stir as other boat owners got the same idea from the beautiful, almost cloudless weather. A light breeze picked up and pushed her hair back and she exhaled, determined to enjoy the day as much as possible.