Eye of the Storm

Chapter

Thirty

DAR TUCKED THE edge of the towel more firmly under her arm as she poured two tall glasses of peach ice tea. Chino waited patiently at her heels, giving her leg an occasional lick. “Watch your tail, Chino,” the tall woman warned, as she returned the carafe to the refrigerator and picked up the glasses. “C’mon. Let’s go get mommy Kerry.”

“Gruff.” Chino trotted out the open glass doors and stood up on the lower step of the hot tub, looking up expectantly.

“Hey. Don’t fall asleep in there,” Dar warned as she shed her towel and entered the tub. Kerry was sprawled out in the warm water, her damp head resting against the tub back and her arms outstretched on the sides.

“Uh?” She opened one eye to regard Dar. “Oh, it’s you.”

“You were expecting…”

Kerry lifted her head and scooted up a little, reaching for her glass.

“Sorry. I am so wiped. You ran my butt ragged tonight, Dar.” She gave her lover a pathetic look. “Can I get Colleen to come over when we do that so we can double team you?”

“Mmm.” Dar wasn’t displeased at the compliment, though. They’d left the gym and Kerry’s class earlier, then taken up the routines in the workout room on the island. She felt a little sore, a little tired, but in a good way. “You did great, though. I think we’re going to have to move you up a belt.”

“Yeah?” Kerry perked up visibly. “And here I thought I was really bombing out. Thanks, Dar.” She felt happier about the bouts and pretty satisfied with herself in general after sitting through a surprisingly candid and objective review administered by her boss just that afternoon.

Criticism, she’d found, was much easier to take from someone you knew liked you, than from someone you knew didn’t. Dar’s variety was calm and impersonal and very direct—addressing specific, fixable items and staying away from the broad generalities that were intimidating to hear and almost impossible to change. Your attitude is an issue, for instance. She’d heard one of the girls in the breakroom repeating that bit of feedback from a superior. What exactly were you supposed to do about it?

276 Melissa Good Besides, she’d found that Dar had a delightful habit of doing all the bad stuff first. To sort of get it out of the way. Then she’d list off all the good stuff, so by the time the review was finished, she felt pretty good even if the start was kind of painful. Her’s hadn’t been that painful either, since she knew her own faults, and was able to discuss them with her supervisor in fairly frank honesty. “Did I thank you for my review?”

“Three times now,” Dar remarked dryly, sipping her tea. “No one’s ever done that before.” She stretched her legs out in the swirling water and sighed, tipping her head back and regarding the stars.

Kerry felt the mood change and slid a little closer, where she could feel Dar’s warmth. “Are you worried about tomorrow?”

Dar nodded.

“Me too.”

Dar studied the sky, then turned her head. “Listen. I’ve been thinking about this.” Her face was very serious. “Whatever happens tomorrow—don’t feel like you have to do anything about it, okay?”

Kerry looked puzzled. “Huh?”

“You’re really good at what you do, Ker. I think you should keep doing it, no matter what happens with me.”

“Oh.” Kerry exhaled, ruffling the surface of the water. “I don’t want to stay there without you, Dar. I’d feel really bad about that, and besides, who’d say they’d let me?”

“They need you.” It was the truth.

“They need you too,” the blonde woman shot back. “It’s so unfair.

Look at the job you do for them, Dar. How could they even think about removing you just for something as…” She shook her head. “It’s just not fair.”

Dar shrugged. “Can’t say it’s their fault. I made the decision, Kerry. I knew what I was doing.”

Kerry stared at her. “You said you hired me for my skills. Are you saying now that’s not true?”

“No.”

“That is what you just said.”

“No, it’s not,” Dar replied fiercely. “I knew I was hiring the best candidate for the job, then or now, and that, Kerrison, was never an issue.”

“Then what did you mean by that?”

Dar slid down in the water. “I meant that…I knew, when I brought you on that I was attracted to you.” She paused. “And I knew that wasn’t going to stop after you were hired.”

The turmoil subsided next to her. “Oh.” Kerry’s face eased into a sheepish smile. “Well, I’m guilty of that too, so there.” She reflected a bit, then looked up. “Dar, I want you to know how lousy I feel about the fact that it’s us that’s causing this.”

“It’s not. It’s just the excuse.”

“It’s a lousy excuse.” Kerry scowled. “I mean, Jesus, Dar, I understand why they have the rule, okay? Because it would be easy for someone to use their position to take advantage of someone, or to insinuate Eye of the Storm 277

that promotions or pay raises were contingent on you making that person happy in some way.” She shook her head. “But that isn’t the case here, and we both know it.”

“I know.”

“I should go talk to them.” Determination squared the slightly rounded jaw line.

Dar pictured Kerry storming the boardroom, facing off against the rest of her peers, and smiled in frank reflex. “Tell you what. Let’s trade.

You come talk to the board and I’ll go testify against your father. Deal?”

“In a frigging heartbeat,” Kerry blurted. “I am so there.” Then her shoulders slumped and she went very quiet. “I don’t want to go there tomorrow, Dar.”

“Maybe they won’t ask too many questions.”

“It’s not the questions. It’s not the panel.”

Dar looked at her. “Your family?”

Kerry nodded.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can, I promise.” Tell the board to shove their job, and fly back out on the next flight. Yeah. To hell with it. Maybe I could just call Alastair and tell him to... Dar sighed. No, she really did have to be there and speak for herself, that much had been made clear regardless of what the outcome was. “I don’t think it’ll take long.”

“Are they going to fire you?”

“I think so, yes.” Strange, after all the nonsense, how much that hurt.

“Actually, what they’ll do is ask me to resign. At this level, you don’t usually get outright fired. It looks bad and does strange things to the stock. They’ll make it seem like it was a voluntary thing.”

“Dar…”

“I know, it sucks. I agree, but what they’re looking at is perception.

Perception has nothing to do with reality, Kerry. And if Ankow goes public with his trial, then they have all that perception out there that I’ve gotten involved with a subordinate and maybe made decisions that were influenced by doing so.”

Kerry sighed.

“It’s the perception they’re worried about. I know not one of them, on a personal level, gives two craps about my love life, understand?”

“No.”

Now it was Dar’s turn to sigh. “It’s a matter of trust, Kerry. When you’re in a position like I am, solely in charge of billions of stockholder dollars, and making decisions for the company on a daily basis, the inference that I might not make the right decisions scares the hell out of them and also out of the stockholders.”

“That’s stupid, Dar. You’ve been making decisions for them for years.”

“Yes.” Dar gave a tiny smile. “But they never suspected I had a personal side that might possibly interfere with that before.” She paused.

“And they’d be right. In all the years I’ve worked for them, I’ve never had something in my life I’d put before my job.”

278 Melissa Good

“Until now.”

“Until now,” Dar replied in wry agreement. “But it’s not your fault, Kerry.”

“Yes, it is.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Dar, it most certainly is my fault.” Pale brows knitted. “Saying it isn’t is like pretending I’m this witless child who just toddled along after you when you called me.” Kerry put her glass down. “An equal case could be made that I manipulated you strictly to achieve my position and that I’m milking you along, hoping I’ll get your job when you leave.” She folded her arms. “Maybe you’re an innocent victim.”

Dar simply stared at her.

“It’s all just so—” Kerry turned and saw the look in her lover’s eyes and reached out and cupped her cheek. “That was a facetious statement,”

she stated. “Or I would have taken that VP position you dangled out a couple of months back, remember?”

“I remember.” The skin shifted as Dar smiled. “And even if you had, I trust you, Kerry.”

It was like holding a piece of precious crystal. “Thank you.” It came out in a whisper. “That means everything to me.” She smiled back. “I still think you should let me go talk to them.”

The phone rang and Dar forced herself to look away from Kerry’s intense gaze to answer it. She lifted the portable receiver up. “Hello?”

“Hello, Dar.”

Her eyebrow quirked. “Hi, Dr. Steve. What’s up?”

The physician cleared his throat. “Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner, Dar, but I made the lab run all the tests three or four times, because I didn’t want to give you the wrong information.”

A chill went down Dar’s spine that even the warm water of the Jacuzzi couldn’t dispel. “Information about what?” Her alarm must have shown, because Kerry sat up and put a hand on her shoulder. “What’s going on?” She felt her heart speed up.

“Remember that blood I took from you, when you were sick?”

“Yes.”

“We found some toxins in there, Dar. I sent them out to a bigger lab to have them check what they were.” Steve hesitated. “The results came back positive for some seriously poisonous chemicals that I won’t bore you with the names of.”

Dar’s brows creased as she considered the information. “Steve, are you saying I was poisoned?” She paused. “Accidentally?”

There was a long silence. “Dar, the type of stuff this is, you absorbed through your skin. You didn’t swallow it, or nothing like that.” An awkward pause. “Had to be touching you.”

“Touching me,” Dar murmured, then cocked her head at Kerry. “Dr.

Steve says it was some kind of poison that got me sick the other day.”

Kerry’s eyes widened in shock. “Something I got by touching the stuff.

God, it could have been anything.” The phone shifted. “Steve, other than Eye of the Storm 279

the office and the house, I was in a couple of odd places that day. What are the odds it was on something there? Like the airport, for instance?”

“Dar, this stuff,” Steve hesitated, “it’s not very common.” He seemed uncomfortable. “I’d like you to come in tomorrow, let me take more blood and make sure you got rid of it all. You haven’t been sick since then, have you?”

“No. Not at all. In fact, I feel great. We just got back from the gym and Kerry was giving me grief about running her ragged,” she replied. “I was a little queasy the day after that, but even the morning after you came I was able to get some breakfast down fine.”

“Good.” Steve sounded relieved. “It’s probably all right then, but I’d like to run some blood anyway,” he insisted. “Stop by in the morning.

Won’t take but a minute.”

“Okay.” Dar exhaled. “I’ve got a plane to catch, but I’ll swing by the office first.”

“Great. See you then, Dar.” Steve hung up, leaving an echoing click behind him.

Dar set the phone down and regarded her friend. “Damn.” She wasn’t sure how to react. “I wasn’t expecting that. I thought it was just a damn bug.”

“What was it?’ Kerry asked. “Does he know how it got in you? I heard you say by touch. You mean it’s absorbed through the skin?”

Dar nodded thoughtfully. “Well, only two people touched me that day, so that blows that theory out.” She tugged on a lock of wet blonde hair. “You and Dad.” She looked up as a soft knock clearly sounded through the open door. Leaning over, she pressed the intercom button.

“Yes?”

“Hey, Dardar.”

“Hey, Dad. C’mon in.”

“Dar!” Kerry gave her a look. “In case you forgot, we’re naked.”

“He’s seen me naked,” Dar protested mildly, as the door opened and ambling footsteps crossed the tile. She glanced down. “Course, I was a little smaller then.” She looked up. “Hi, Dad.”

“’Lo there—Jesus H. Christ!” Andrew turned his head. “Paladar Roberts. Get yer clothes on.”

“Does that mean I can stay naked?” Kerry inquired innocently.

“Cool.”

“No, young lady, you most certainly can not.”

“C’mon, Dad. They’d get all wet in here.” Dar chuckled. “We’re under the bubbles, look.”

“No.”

“Really, we are. You can only see our heads.”

Andrew peeked, spotting two sets of sparkling eyes very close to the water. Dar had turned the jets up and the whirlpool provided a frothy, but effective screen otherwise. “You two little barnacles are gonna get scraped one of these fine days,” he growled.

“We love you too, Dad.” Kerry grinned cheekily, splashing him a lit-280 Melissa Good tle. His face was visibly sunburned, the color obscuring the worst of the scars and heightening the contrast of his pale eyes, and the tense lines had relaxed considerably in the past week. A corner of his mouth quirked, uncannily like his daughter’s often did and he stuck a hand in to splash her back. “Have you been having fun?”

The quirk edged into a smile. “We’ve been busy, if that’s what you mean,” he remarked. “Found us a new home.”

“Oh yeah?” Dar forgot her concerns for a moment. “Where?”

“South Beach Marina.”

Twin puzzled looks peered back at him. “South B—” Dar started to say.

“Where?” Kerry asked simultaneously.

“Yer mother liked that damn boat so much, we figgered maybe we’d get us one and live on that,” Andrew answered placidly, rocking back and forth on his heels. “So we did. Went down and ordered me one the other day. Be ready in about a week or two.”

“You ordered a boat?” Dar blinked. “Like…as in one like ours?”

“Bigger.” Her father smirked. “Some sixty damn feet long and ah had ’em put a pair of the biggest damn engines I could find in the back end of it.”

Dar just gaped, totally stunned by the news. “I…” She tried to come up with something to respond with. “But…”

“Wow.” Kerry leaned her chin on Dar’s shoulder. “I can’t wait to see it. I bet Mrs. Roberts is going to make the inside so cool.” She smiled.

“Can we have a boatwarming?” She managed to push the knowledge of her trip tomorrow out of her mind, replacing it with the excitement of seeing her friend’s new home. “I wish it were next week already.”

Dar sighed. “Me too.”

Andrew cocked his head and regarded them from under grizzled eyebrows. “What’s yer troubles?” He glanced at Kerry. “I know you got to go north tomorrow.”

Kerry nodded, then looked up at Dar. “Dar has to go to Houston.”

Dar found herself under a very familiar scrutiny and she felt years younger all of a sudden. “That guy I told you was causing me trouble?”

“Yeap.”

“He did,” she admitted. “I don’t think I’ll be working for ILS after tomorrow.”

Andrew looked truly stunned. “Why?”

Dar glanced at Kerry, then shrugged. “Scandal. They’ve got a BS

lawsuit pending, and I think they’re going to ask me to resign, to keep all that from going public.” She couldn’t meet his eyes anymore and looked at the roiling water instead. “I…um…broke the rules with Kerry.”

Her father snorted. “After all this damn time, they’re gonna ask you to bail out fer that? C’mon now. Gimme a Christly break. They need t’get their heads out of their keesters.” He paused. “Ye’re not seriously gonna do it, are you?”

She gave her head a tiny shake. “I don’t know.”

Eye of the Storm 281

Andrew leaned over and took her chin, forcing her eyes up. “You listen to me, Paladar. You’ve been givin’ them people two hundred percent since you was fifteen years old. Don’t you walk away from them with your tail tucked.”

Kerry could, in that moment, have easily kissed him. It was exactly what she’d wanted to tell Dar, but had been reluctant to, since she was so close and so involved in the whole situation. Besides, that kind of thing sounded better coming from her daddy. Her instinct was to fight what she saw was an intolerably unfair situation and she was glad to see Andy was on her side. She slipped an arm across Dar’s stomach under the water, and ran her fingers over the toned surface.

“I don’t know if they’re worth the fight,” Dar objected quietly.

“Maybe they ain’t, but your pride is,” her father responded. “Losing’s one thing—we all gotta do that sometimes. But quittin’s something else.” His jaw bunched. “You’re my kid and I didn’t raise you to run from nothin’.”

Her lips tensed into a grim smile. “No, you didn’t,” Dar allowed.

“And I never have.” She closed her eyes and tilted her head in tacit agreement and felt her jaw released and patted gently.

“That’s my girl.”

Yeah. Dar exhaled, accepting it. So she’d go out swinging. It would make a good story anyway, right? “Wish I had something to throw in his face, though.” She shifted a little. “Mark couldn’t find a damn thing on him.”

“You’ll think of something, Dardar,” her father predicted. “This that same guy that came after you that night?”

That night. “Yes.”

“Lucky he turned you loose, munchkin. He ’bout had mah boot up his hinder quarters there.”

Turned me loose... Dar straightened up and stared out at the horizon.

She touched a spot on her upper arm, as she stirred her memories of that night. “He did grab me, didn’t he?”

Kerry’s eyes widened. “Ankow?” She sat up as well. “He touched you? That night? That little piece of slimy…”

Andy blinked. “Possessive little thing, ain’t you?” he remarked.

“No, no. Dr. Steve just called. He found out some poison stuff was what got Dar sick last week. He said she got it through her skin,” Kerry blurted. “I bet that son of a bitch did it. I bet he did. That slime bag. Boy, if I get my hands on him I’ll—” She started to stand up.

Dar grabbed her and pulled her down as Andrew yelped and covered his eyes. “Calm down.” She found herself tangled with her friend, eyes meeting at a distance of inches. “Let’s not jump to conclusions.” The angrily coiled body in her arms slowly relaxed as Kerry slid back under the water.

“What’s she talking about?” Andy asked, still with his hands over his eyes. “What’d Steve find?”

“It’s safe, you can turn around,” Dar told him. “He found some kind 282 Melissa Good of toxin. Didn’t say what it was. Just that it was something you absorbed through your skin, and it was nasty. He wants me to drop by tomorrow so he can make sure it’s all gone.”

Blue eyes peeked out, then the ex-SEAL blinked. “T’morrow huh?

Mind if I tag along?” His gaze had sharpened and his whole attitude shifted subtly. “I’d like to hear about this.” He cleared his throat. “Might as well say hello to the old dog too.”

Dar nodded absently. “Sure.” Her brows creased. “You don’t really think he...” She forced a laugh. “C’mon. This isn’t some trashy thriller novel.”

“Ah don’t know.” Andrew touched the skin on her arm where Ankow’s hand had clutched. “But ah aim to find out.” His voice had lowered and deepened into a throaty rumble that was more purr than speech.

For a moment, there was danger there. Then Andy straightened and thumped the edge of the Jacuzzi. “Came t’see if you two’d like to join us for a cup of something down yonder.”

“We have to get dressed then, huh?” Kerry murmured, from her warm spot nestled against Dar.

Andy raised one brow.

“Sure,” Dar agreed. “We’ll join you in a few minutes.” She watched him leave, hearing the faint clang of the gate as he exited the garden and headed towards the beach.

DAR PUT HER sunglasses on, as she pulled off the ferry and turned right on the causeway. Her father was sprawled in the seat next to her, wearing a pair of, for him, festive dark green shorts and a sweatshirt with its sleeves pushed all the way up. “It was nice of Mother to take Kerry to the airport.”

Andrew turned from his review of the streets. “She likes the little kumquat.”

“So I gathered.” Dar smiled wryly. “The feeling’s mutual.” She turned onto the beach road that held Dr. Steve’s practice and headed south. She had a bag packed in the back of the Lexus and had agreed to her father’s offer to take the SUV back from the airport rather than leave it there overnight.

She had shared breakfast with Kerry, out on the patio as they’d watched the sun rise together, and she’d spent an extra few minutes just hugging her lover before she’d gotten dressed and started off, wishing she were going to Washington instead of Texas.

“You know, the two of them together could be dangerous,” Dar remarked, darting a sidewise glance at her father, who grunted and gave her a half nod. She turned into the parking lot of the doctor’s office and parked, then got out and waited for him to join her as they walked towards the entrance. “Maybe we should have called him first. I’m not sure it’s really fair to spring you on him this early in the morning.”

“He’ll live.” Andrew pulled the door open and gestured for her to go Eye of the Storm 283

inside. “B’sides, if he’s gonna keel over, least it’s in a doctor’s office.”

“Dad, he’s the doctor.”

“Got nurses, don’t he?”

Dar chuckled and went to the sliding glass windows, ignoring the buzzer and tapping on them lightly. The panel slid aside, revealing a young girl in jeans and a T-shirt. “Morning, Aliene.”

Dr. Steve’s daughter waved. “Hi, Dar. He’s in back. G’wan in, he’s exp—” Aliene’s jaw sagged in shock as she looked up and over Dar’s shoulder. Her eyes widened for a long moment as she leaned forward.

“Uncle Andy?”

“Hey there, squirt.”

“Holy shit! Hey, Dad!” The girl slid the panel all the way back, scrambled right through the window and hurled herself at Dar’s father with heedless abandon. Dar got out of the way and just watched with a smile on her face as Aliene enveloped the older man in a hug.

“Aliene, what in the world are you yelling? Hey, where are you?”

Dr. Steve’s voice came through the door. “Oh, hello Dar.” Dr. Steve poked his head through the window, looking for his daughter. “What’s going on…out…here?” His words just wound down as his eyes met the ice blue ones looking back at him from over his daughter’s shoulder.

“’Lo, Steven,” Andrew murmured, releasing Aliene with an awkward pat on the back.

Dr. Steve pulled his head in and shut the window, then came around the receptionist’s desk and out the door into the waiting room. He came right up to Dar’s father and stopped. “My god, it is you.”

“Pretty beat up, but yeah.” Andy held out a hand and it was slowly clasped and held. “Good t’see you.”

The doctor shook his head in wonder. “I can’t believe it,” he breathed, then turned briefly to Dar, who leaned against the wall with a quiet smile on her face. “I can’t believe it.”

“Believe it.” Dar pushed off the wall. “Listen, I’ve got a plane to catch. You two can spend the rest of the day swapping tales, but Dad’s got to take me to the airport first.”

“Pushy little thing, ain’t she?” Andy drawled, sticking his hands in his pockets.

Steve just laughed softly. “My god. All right. C’mon back, the both of you. Aliene, call your mama and tell her who just walked in my door.”

He guided them into an exam room and turned his back, visibly collecting himself before he turned around and came at Dar with a hypodermic needle the size of New Jersey.

Dar backed up, her eyes widening in alarm. “What the hell is that for?”

“I told you I needed to take blood,” the doctor scolded.

“With a harpoon? What do I look like, a fur seal?”

Andrew snickered. “Y’ere such a big baby.”

“You don’t like them either,” Dar accused, pointing a finger at him.

Then she took in the amused looks and sighed. She backed up and 284 Melissa Good hoisted herself up onto the exam table with a distinct glower. “Fine.” She presented her forearm and watched nervously as the doctor swabbed her arm with alcohol and iodine. “So. What is it you found?”

“Hang on.” Dr. Steve pulled off the cap of the needle with his teeth and probed her skin, putting pressure on a vein expertly before he very gently inserted the sharp point. “There.” He looked up at Dar. “Not so bad, hmm?”

“Mmm.” Dar peered at her father, who was studiously examining the tongue depressors. Then she looked back up into Dr. Steve’s face, surprised to see a look of gentle compassion there. The doctor removed the needle, having gotten his blood sample, then patted her cheek and put the cap back on.

“Okay, Andy, you can turn around now.” Steve chuckled. “All right.

Let me tell you what the lab said.” He put the needle down, opened a drawer, pulled out a file and opened it. “I can’t say I’ve seen this before, because I haven’t, Dar, but from what they tell me, it’s pretty nasty stuff.”

Andy circled him and peered at the paper.

“I asked the lab if it could have been on something like a chair,” the doctor continued. “They didn’t seem to think so, but they didn’t have any really good ideas on how you came into contact with it.” He paused. “Or where it came from, for that matter.”

“I kin tell you that,” Andrew said softly, but with utter seriousness.

“That there came out of a United States Gov’ment laboratory.”

They stared at him. “What?” Dr. Steve murmured.

Andrew took the file out of his hands, walked to the window, and tilted it to the light and studied it. The sun came in and splashed across his uneven, scarred features which had gone quite still and cold. Dar got up off the table and walked to him, rubbing her arm. “What is it, Dad?”

Andrew cocked his head and regarded her with steady intent.

“Someone,” he said with unusual clarity, “done meant you harm, Paladar.”

She felt a definite chill. “Are you sure? Maybe it was just something I picked up at that alley.”

“Finding this at a bowling alley is about as possible as you sprouting wings and flying to the moon,” her father stated flatly. He handed the folder back to Dr. Steve. “It is kept in a small packet and held on yer fingers with a wax paper.” He held up two fingers. “One hit will make you sick as a dog. Two will do worse.”

Dar felt like she’d been hit with a baseball bat. “C’mon, Dad. That’s too melodramatic. I’m not a character in a supermarket thriller.” She tried to shrug it off. “Can’t I just have had a damn bug? Or food poisoning?

Granted I’m not the most liked person on earth, but I can’t believe someone would try to slap poison on me.”

“Dar,” Dr. Steve put a hand on her shoulder, “this stuff was in you, like it or not. I don’t know how it got there, but the fact is, it made you sick. If you don’t think there’s anything to worry about, that’s great. I’m glad to hear it.” He picked up the needle. “I’ll make sure there’s no scrap Eye of the Storm 285

of it left, though if you’ve been feeling all right, I doubt it.” He paused.

“When we spoke, you said two people had touched you that day.”

“Kerry and my father,” Dar replied. “Except I was wrong. There was one other person.”

“Well,” Steve patted her cheek, “you think about it, okay? Watch yourself.” He eyed Andrew. “And you, my old friend, better not move an inch until I get back here with a camera.” He bustled out, leaving father and daughter alone.

Andrew glowered at her. “That man gonna be where you’re going to?”

Dar hesitated, then grudgingly nodded. “I really don’t think he’d…he’s an asshole, Dad, but…”

“He been in the military?”

Dar gave another grudging nod. “Two hitches as a Ranger.”

“Wall, don’t that just figure.” Andrew made a face. “That’ll settle it.

Ah am gonna go with you.”

“Dad.” Dar snorted. “Now, come on. This is a business trip, not an undercover game.”

“Ah do not like that man and ah am going with you,” her father repeated stolidly.

She put her hands on her hips. “I can take care of myself, you know,”

she objected. “I’ve been doing it for quite a while.”

“This ain’t your kind of fight, Paladar,” he shot right back. “And besides, I have t’go.” He straightened and put his hands on his hips, mimicking her stance. “I made me a promise.”

“A promise? To who?” Dar asked in exasperation. “Dad, I can handle myself on a business trip for crying out loud. This is my job and my life, damn it.”

A finger tapped her chest as he leaned closer and went eye to eye with her. “And you are mah only kid, and the apple of that green eyed gal’s eye, and I swore to her I’d make sure you stayed outta trouble.”

Dar glared at him.

Andy tweaked her nose. “C’mon, Dardar. I always wanted to get me one of them cowboy hats.”

“Dad.”

“Maybe I’ll take you on one of them pony rides.”

“I’m big enough to carry the pony.” Dar gave up. “All right, fine.

Waste your time and ride over there with me, if you have to. What are you going to tell Mom?”

“Um.” Andrew scratched his ear. “We kinda talked about all ready.”

Dar sighed.

“’Sides, she’s got her own little covert mission.” Andrew patted her on the shoulder. “C’mon. That there plane’s waiting.”

“Ah ah.” Dr. Steve came back in with a digital camera. “You just hold on one minute, Andrew B. Roberts.” He pointed. “I want a shot of the both of you.” He waved them closer. “G’wan.”

Dar shook her head, but turned and slid an arm around her father’s 286 Melissa Good waist, as he circled her shoulders. A pose that brought a wholly unconscious smile to her face.

Steve snapped the picture, then another for good measure. He lowered the camera. “Two of a kind.”

They eyed each other, then Dar finally laughed. “Yeah.” She shook her head. “He still out stubborns me, though.”

“Damn straight,” Andrew agreed instantly. “Had me lots more practice.”

Impulsively, Dar leaned over and kissed him on the head, making him snort.

“You have been hanging around that green eyed gal some, tell you that.”

Dr. Steve was busy snapping away, chortling with glee. “Want to come back and have dinner with us, Andy?”

“Can’t,” the ex-SEAL stated shortly. “Got me a plane to catch too.

Rain check?”

Steve nodded.

“I know Ceci’d love t’see you.”

Dr. Steve blinked. “She here?”

“Yeap.”

The doctor shook his head. “Unbelievable.” He sighed. “All right.

Give me a call when you get back. It’s a great excuse for a party.” He watched them leave together and then walked out to find his daughter sitting on the counter. “How’d you like that?”

“Wow,” Aliene replied. “That was like, way too cool.”

“Mmhm,” her father agreed.