Eye of the Storm

Chapter

Thirty-six

DAR GLANCED AT herself in the mirror, adjusting the collar of her silk shirt and brushing a speck of dust from the shoulder of her jacket.

The interview had been set up faster than she’d expected, and she’d just had time to take a quick nap and get a shower before she had to get ready for it.

Kerry was on her way to the Senate chambers already, with Andrew as an escort. Dar hoped her father would behave himself and not do something irreversible.

Like slug Senator Stuart, for instance, something Dar herself dearly wished she could do. She wished the hearings were over, or at least Kerry’s part in them, so they could go home and regroup and get things back into a more normal order.

Maybe we could take a few days off. Dar regarded the tired blue eyes looking back at her. Long weekend? Maybe take a Friday, and a Monday, and drive down to the Keys, stay at one of the little places out near the beach…hey.

Dar blinked. Yeah. Maybe for Kerry’s birthday, which was coming up.

Which reminded her. Presents were in order, if she could shake Kerry off long enough to go shopping on her own.

Or figure out what to get. With a sigh, she looked at her reflection one more time, then turned as she caught her mother’s image in the glass watching her. They looked at each other for a moment in awkward silence. “Thought you went with Dad,” Dar finally said, turning and folding her arms over her chest self-consciously.

Cecilia looked like she wished that were the case. “He thought I should stay here, and um…help out if you needed anything.”

Dar’s brow arched. “He did, did he?” She sensed an ulterior motive.

“Mmm.” Her mother folded her arms. “So. What do you do in a news interview?”

“I have no idea,” Dar replied honestly. “I generally work behind the scenes. This’ll be a first.” She glanced around the room, which had been tidied by the housekeeping staff. “Guess they’ll have to make do with the space in here.” She straightened her sleeve cuff nervously.

Ceci regarded her, approving of the creamy silk shirt against Dar’s tan, and the trim cut of the suit that outlined her athletic body. “You look 338 Melissa Good very nice,” she offered with hesitant sincerity, catching Dar by surprise.

The blue eyes lifted and met hers uncertainly. “That must sound pretty strange coming from me, huh?”

Dar nodded. She let the silence go for a minute, then scratched her eyebrow. “I think the best you could have managed before was ‘gee, that’s a nice new spiked collar,’” she admitted. “Looking nice wasn’t a priority of mine.”

Hey, she’s talking. Encouraged, Ceci perched on the arm of the couch and leaned on its back. “Oh, I don’t know. Some of those vests and things were sort of cute.” She smiled a little. “And I wasn’t a very good example.” Sweatpants and painter’s overalls, to be exact. “I always did sort of want to borrow that leather jacket of yours, though.”

Dar relaxed slightly. “Sleeves would have been a little long.” She took a seat opposite her mother and extended her legs, crossing them at the ankles. “Thanks for sticking by Kerry yesterday, incidentally.”

“It was no problem.”

“I know she really appreciated it,” Dar went on. “Being there with her family is tough on her.”

“Mmm. I know. Almost as hard as you and I being here.” Ceci managed a wry smile, which her daughter mirrored. Now, I guess we start the tough stuff. She took a breath. “For some of the same reasons.”

Dar focused inward for a bit, then laced her fingers together. “Not really.” She hadn’t been ready for this talk, but here they were. She collected herself and sorted her thoughts. “I know you like Kerry. Everyone does. She’s sweet, honest, smart, loyal. A dozen other things besides that.”

“That’s true,” Ceci murmured. “She’s a remarkable person.”

“Most of the things I’m not,” Dar continued. “I didn’t give you any reason to like me.” She gazed evenly at her mother. “Her parents turned their backs on her because of something she did. Not for who she was.”

Ceci exhaled. “That’s not entirely true.” She considered her words carefully. “There were times I didn’t much like you, Dar.”

Even knowing, even after all this time, it stung. Dar glanced away, refusing to even swallow. “No news there,” she enunciated precisely.

Ceci felt like crying, wanting to take the conversation back, and go down another path, but knowing it was too late. She took a careful breath. “But there never was a time I didn’t love you.” Dar went very still, her eyes widening, suddenly vulnerable. Ceci felt her way carefully.

“When…I lost Andrew, all that I could feel was pain, Dar. I couldn’t take it. I wasn’t strong enough.” She met the quiet gaze across from her. “I’m sorry.”

Dar slowly shook her head. “I wish…” She closed her eyes. “You’d have told me that before now.”

Ceci felt the pain all the way down to the bottom of her soul. “Me too,” she whispered.

Dar remained still, and Ceci rose slowly and moved the short distance over the thick rug, knelt in front of her daughter and put a hesitant Eye of the Storm 339

hand on her leg. “What I did to you was wrong, Dar.” She could feel the muscles under her fingers move slightly, then go still. “If I could take it back, I would.”

“I wanted to help you.” It was hard to talk. “I wanted to do the right thing.”

“I know,” Ceci acknowledged. “I drove you away.” Her eyes dropped. “And you repaid that by giving me my life back.”

“I did it for Daddy,” Dar uttered. “Not for you.”

“I know.” Ceci felt a bittersweet twinge. “But you also did it because it was the right thing to do.” She paused. “I felt, when I saw you, there was something you wanted to say to me, but you didn’t. Now I know what that was.”

Dar closed her eyes again, her way of gaining space to think in.

Finally she sighed. “I had to make sure it would be all right for him. I didn’t want him to get hurt any more.”

“Did you think it wouldn’t be?”

She shook her head. “No. But he did, and I had to be sure.” The blue eyes appeared, a sparkle of anger in them. “How could you tell him you wouldn’t be there?” Now there was true pain in Dar’s voice, but not on her behalf.

So typical. Ceci’s jaw tensed and she took a breath. “I made a mistake,” she replied honestly. “And I paid for it, believe me, Dar.” Her lips trembled a little. “For every minute of those seven years, knowing we parted with…angry words between us and I’d never had a chance to…”

She had to stop and take several deep breaths. “I was just so desperate not to lose him.”

The anger eased and gentled. “I told him that,” Dar murmured.

“Because if there was one thing I believed in, it was the two of you.”

Ceci had no idea what to say to that. After a moment’s reflection, she let out a held breath. “I wish you’d told me that before.” She breathed. “I thought you just resented our being so close.”

“I envied you,” Dar replied, in a low, but precise voice. “I tried to find that for myself and I failed so miserably, I just finally gave up on it.”

Incredible. She’d learned more about her child in the past thirty seconds than in the past thirty years. “Until it found you.” Dar considered that, then nodded slightly. Ceci sighed. “I’m sorry, Dar. I didn’t know. I don’t think I ever really understood where you were coming from.”

Dar felt the truth of that, as she looked into the eyes of someone she hardly knew.

Someone, if she was honest with herself, that she had never had much desire to know, who had mainly been viewed as either an obstacle or an annoyance to her for a very long time.

Now it was different. She wasn’t sure she wanted or needed a mother back, but another friend was something she could consider having, especially one who was willing to accept Kerry and who Kerry liked.

So. They’d both made a lifetime’s worth of mistakes, and she could either let that poison their relationship now or put that behind her and just go 340 Melissa Good forward.

Who knew? Maybe they’d even end up liking each other after a while. Stranger things had happened. Dar gave her nerves a moment to settle and forced herself to cover her mother’s hand with her own. “I don’t think I much understood you either.” She kept her voice low. “But I’m glad we’re getting a second chance at this.”

It was far and away more than she expected. Ceci smiled in surprise and relief and seeing a twinkle of that reflected in the blue eyes watching her. Dar’s fingers were warm and strong and she felt the gentle pressure as her daughter squeezed, then released her hand. It made her feel twenty pounds lighter, almost dizzy, and she was glad she was still holding on to Dar to steady herself. “I am too,” she finally answered.

Dar exhaled in relief. She’d been half anticipating and half dreading this conversation and now that it was over, she felt little giddy. Her father would be pleased, though. He’d nudged her again gently this morning to try and spend a few minutes talking with her mom.

Hey. Dar’s brows knitted. Wait a minute. She looked up at her mother, who cocked her head in puzzled inquiry. “Did Kerry say anything to you this morning?”

Ceci was taken aback at the question. She eased up off her knees and sat down on the couch next to Dar, lacing her fingers together. “Well, sort of, I suppose,” she murmured. “She did happen to mention—why, did she say something to you?”

“No. Daddy did.” Dar folded her arms and gave her mother a wry look.

“Ah.” Ceci almost laughed. “Sneaky little schemers, aren’t they?”

“Mmm.” Dar smiled, then glanced up as a knock came at the door.

“Guess it’s showtime.” And if nothing else, talking to her mother had taken her mind right off the impending interview, though scenes of frying pans and hot flames seemed to circle that notion.

“Right. I’ll duck on out of here.” Ceci rose.

“No. Stay.” Dar got up and went for the door, not giving her a chance to answer.

Ceci selected a corner of the couch and curled up in it, tucking her feet up and resting her arm along the back. She watched Dar pause just before she opened the door and straighten her shoulders, pulling the jacket taut over bone and muscle and adjusting the drape over her trimly muscular form.

She opened the door. A stocky man of middling height stood there with a crowd of people and equipment behind him. “Hi,” Dar drawled, glad if nothing else for the fact that her mother had neatly taken her mind completely off the interview.

“Oh, hello. Sorry, I was looking for Dar Roberts?” the man responded briskly. “I’m John McAdams, from CNN Business News?”

Dar extended a hand to him. “You’ve found me.”

He returned her grip reflexively as he stared at her. “You’re kidding, right?”

Eye of the Storm 341

“Nope.”

“But…you’re not a middle aged Anglo conservative guy.”

Dar glanced down at herself. “Not the last time I checked, no.” She stepped back. “Would you like to come in or would you rather I find you a middle aged Anglo conservative guy to interview? I’m sure there are a few around here somewhere.”

“No way.” The man held up a hand and grinned broadly. “Lead on, Lady McByte. I’m all yours.”

IT WAS ODD, Kerry mused as she stood in line to get in the door to the chambers, to hear everyone else talking about the disaster they’d spent all night trying to fix. The change in time and the general chaos had thrown off the crowds of supporters and there were only a few around so far, waving signs and getting organized.

They were probably still mobbing the ATM machines. She allowed herself an uncharitable thought. Or raiding the discount beer stores.

Now now, Kerry. She gave herself a quiet scold. You know better than to make those generalizations. Not all white supremacists drink beer. She peered at the milling crowd. Some of them probably like Boones Farm. She sighed.

Bad Kerry. Obnoxious, stuck up, WASP Kerry. Cut it out.

“Likely lookin’ bunch of pansy ass rednecks, ain’t they?” Andrew drawled from behind her, his arms crossed over his chest. “They give my Southern Baptist butt a hive and a half.”

Kerry bit her lip to keep from laughing, then exhaled, trying to relieve a little of the tension building up inside her. No sign of her family, of course, since they were probably inside already, but she was getting sideways looks from the people standing around her, which made her realize she was being recognized from the previous day.

People were giving Andrew little glances too, and she half turned, giving her companion a little smile. He really was a distinctive looking person, she realized, with his height and muscular body and the sense of presence he carried himself with. And of course, the patchwork of scars across his face, which she didn’t really even see anymore. At least the two worst were gone, replaced by the slightly rough covering of synthetic skin that restored his face to something approaching normality. She’d understood his need to remain hidden before, but she had a feeling that now, since the one opinion that really mattered to him was secured, he’d have discarded the hood even without the surgery.

And the eyes. Dar’s pale, electric blue, set off by the tan skin creased in wrinkles on either side of them. Right now they were roaming everywhere, drinking in the crowd, the guards, the protestors—alive with interest and curiosity.

She was glad he was here. It made her feel utterly safe to be standing next to him. “Hope this doesn’t last long.” Kerry sighed. “I think I’d rather be getting dental work.” She walked forward at the guard’s request and edged through the detector, then turned and waited for 342 Melissa Good Andrew to follow.

“Ahm gonna set that off,” the tall man drawled to the guard as he ambled through, sure enough making the machine react. He stopped on the other side of it, watching the nervous reactions. “Don’t get yer britches in a square knot. I got me two plates here.” He tapped his upper thigh. “And a couple odd shells tucked up inside me somewhere.”

The guard approached cautiously and ran a hand held device over him, getting readings near his leg, and stomach. “Um…”

“Ain’t nothing up mah sleeve.” Andy lifted his shirt and displayed a scarred, but still muscular abdomen. “Here.” He pulled his identification wallet from the back pocket of his jeans and flipped out a card. The guard took it and examined it, then handed it back respectfully.

“Go ahead, sir.” He lifted his wand in a little salute as Andrew moved past him and joined Kerry at the door to the chambers.

“Jest goes to show you, stay in the damn Navy long enough, something’ll salute you,” he muttered, half under his breath.

Kerry grinned and tucked her hand inside his elbow as they walked inside. “You didn’t make the airport one go off,” she commented curiously. “And those catch my car keys, for heaven’s sake.”

“Looking fer different things,” Andy replied cryptically. He paused as they reached the threshold of the inner chamber and looked around, since the people in front of them were deciding where to sit. A cluster of people were around the defense area and heads turned as they entered.

“C’mon.” Kerry wanted to sit down and be out of the spotlight.

“That yer folks?”

She nodded as they walked down the center aisle, chose seats, and watched the room fill up around them. Michael, she noted, wasn’t there and neither was Angie this time. Just her mother, father, and the lawyers.

She felt a little nervous at that, since it appeared she was being singled out. Kerry folded her hands in her lap and regarded them, her fingers twisting her joining ring idly.

I wish this were over. She silently sounded the words. I wish it was over, and I was out of here, and we were home. Her stomach was tied up in knots, having rejected breakfast, and her head hurt from not sleeping.

A hand touched her arm and she looked up. “Kinda loud in here.”

Andy gazed at her. “You all right, kumquat?”

Kerry sighed. “I’m tired, I’m cranky, and I don’t want to be here.”

She hesitated. “And I’m a little scared of why they want me back to testify.”

The room quieted then, as the session got under way. First, there were some meetings, then they talked about procedure.

Then they called her up. Kerry stood and took a deep breath, then carefully made her way out of their row and towards the table, getting a comforting pat on the leg from Andy as she went past him. She took her seat and folded her hands as her father’s lawyer came over to face her.

It was a very lonely feeling. She knew the man, and had for years, but it was as though he considered her nothing but some trash off the Eye of the Storm 343

street, given his expression. Not to mention her parent’s faces. Cameras flashed, and her peripheral vision caught the round, black single eyes of the television crews.

“Ms. Stuart,” the man hardly looked up from his papers, “you work for a company called ILS, is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“For how long?”

“Almost a year.”

He scribbled a note. “When was the last time you spoke with your parents, Ms. Stuart?”

Kerry felt the heightened interest almost beating against her skin.

“Thanksgiving of last year,” she answered quietly and heared a faint murmur rise.

“Why is that?” The man looked up.

“Why do you want to know?”

“Excuse me?”

Kerry shifted. “I asked, why do you want to know? What does something personal between my parents and myself have to do with anything here?”

He tapped his pen on his pad. “Because, Ms. Stuart, there was some very damaging and potentially libelous material released to the press last year, coincidentally,” he put a sting on it, “a day after the last time you spoke to your parents.” He paused. “So I ask you again, Ms. Stuart.

Why?”

Oh shit. Kerry caught Andrew sitting forward, gazing at her in concern. I am in such deep trouble. She sucked in a breath though and collected her thoughts. Don’t let them rattle you, Dar’s voice intoned in her mind.

Think.

“We had a disagreement about the direction my life was taking,”

Kerry answered carefully. “It happens all the time, in families.” She paused. “Or so I’m told.”

He nodded. “A disagreement so severe, it caused you to break off contact with your family entirely?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I speak with my brother and sister and our extended family.”

He made another mark. “Several years back, your uncle was fired by ILS.”

“That’s true,” Kerry agreed.

“And yet, you chose to go work for them.” He paused and looked at her. “Why?”

That, at least, was an easy question. “I’m an information services professional. They’re one of the largest IS companies in the world and they offered me a promotion, with a thirty percent pay hike.” Kerry cocked her head. “It wasn’t exactly rocket science.” Several of the senators behind her laughed.

“Even though your father was actively campaigning against them and was working to have them thrown out of government contracts in 344 Melissa Good Michigan?”

“Because he held a grudge due to Uncle Al. Yes,” Kerry answered back, a trifle sharply. “I investigated the files regarding that when I became an employee of ILS and I was satisfied that the company acted fairly.” She folded her hands.

“As a matter of fact, your current…supervisor…fired him. Is that right, Ms. Stuart?”

Uh oh, take two. “Given the information we had on him, sir, I would have fired him,” Kerry answered quietly. “But yes, in answer to your question, it was Ms. Roberts who did it.”

The lawyer nodded. “Exactly.” He leafed through a few sheets of paper. “It was the first step, in fact, in a plan to discredit your father.” He looked up. “And you played right into it.”

Kerry blinked. “What?”

He leaned on the table. “We know where that libelous information came from, Ms. Stuart.”

She didn’t answer him, her pulse racing against her skin.

“It’s been a careful, underhanded campaign to discredit your father and turn you against him and it’s resulted in this hearing, where these gentlemen are forced to question your father’s very morals.” The man turned, making sure the cameras had a good shot at him. “I put it to you, gentlemen. The company who stood to lose by the senator’s investiga-tions, who duped his daughter into working for them, who had the ability, and the resources to manufacture this information…it’s so obvious.”

Kerry could hear the murmurs of agreement. “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” she pronounced carefully. “ILS didn’t manufacture anything.”

“They could have, though. What about that problem this morning?”

One of the senators behind her leaned back. “Damn computers are too powerful nowadays.”

The lawyer circled her. “Don’t you see, Ms. Stuart? You’ve been tricked by your boss. It’s obvious that she made this stuff,” he slapped the dossiers on the desk, “up and sent it out, to stop Senator Stuart from canceling those contracts.”

Kerry took a deep breath. “No, she didn’t. And ILS had nothing to do with this.”

“You can’t be sure of that, Ms. Stuart.” The man now gave her a pity-ing look. “Or should I say, you’ve got a vested interest in denying it, since she seduced you in the process.”

A shocked silence occurred, then low whispers. Kerry’s nervousness faded and was replaced by anger. “Oh, I most certainly can be sure of that.”

“You’re not denying the seduction then? We know you two live together.”

The whispers were getting ugly and Kerry could feel the hostile eyes now on her. “That information was not manufactured by anyone and Dar Roberts did not release it.”

Eye of the Storm 345

The man crossed to her and leaned on the table. “Oh really? And how do you know that?”

Crunch time. Kerry met his eyes. “Because I did.”

Dead silence.

“I validated the source, I confirmed the contents, and I released that information to the press and to the FBI.” Kerry spoke into all that frozen quiet. “And, sir, it’s the bribes, and the malfeasance, and the buying of votes, and the moral decrepitude that’s at issue here. Not me, or my relationship with my family, or who in the hell I sleep with.” Her last sentence was spoken in a rapid crescendo.

He stared at her in total disgust.

Kerry just sat there, breathing hard.

“That will be all for now, Ms. Stuart,” one of the senators said, carefully adjusting a pile of papers in his hands. “I motion for a brief adjourn-ment.”

Somewhere, she found the strength to stand up with quiet dignity and face the explosion of flashbulbs. She stared through them to find her way back through the muttering crowd to a safe haven outlined by a tall, angry looking form who put an arm around her and visited the surrounding crowd with a lethal glare.

She sat down, shaking.

Andrew sat next to her and hissed out a long, aggravated breath.

“That boy is going to have his pecker pulled out his damn nostrils fore I’m done with him.”

Kerry swallowed, not daring to look up, knowing everyone was looking at her. Then a warm hand dropped onto her other shoulder and a graceful body lifted itself over the row of chairs and settled into the one next to her, feeling and smelling and sounding like Dar. She peeked over and saw a wry, compassionate gaze looking back. “Can I go home now?”

she managed to whisper.

Dar pulled her closer, ignoring the press, having gotten to the chambers just in time to hear Kerry’s admission. “Don’t worry about it, Ker.

You did what you had to. Whatever happens, you and I will deal with it.”

She exchanged looks with her father. “Take it easy. I’ve got you.”

Kerry closed her eyes, momentarily safe in her warm haven. Surely, it couldn’t get any worse, right?

She sighed.