Wild Shores

Chapter Three

“Wow,” Gem said as she pushed through the steamy revolving-glass doors and glanced the length of the diner. The counter was lined with mostly solitary men hunched over heaping plates of food and big ceramic mugs of coffee. The booths were filled with an assortment of people who looked as if they were desperate travelers like her and Austin, looking for some light, warmth, and food. A few families, scattered couples, and the occasional lone elderly individual, probably a local, filled the rest of the places. “This place is jammed. Where are all the cars?”

“I think they’re out there, you just can’t see them through the fog.” Austin pointed to a waitress clearing the table in the only empty booth and put her hand on Gem’s back. “Let’s grab that one.”

Gem tensed at the unexpected touch and headed down the aisle, imagining she could feel the heat of Austin’s palm on her skin. Which of course, she couldn’t possibly. All the same, when they reached the booth and Austin moved away, she missed the fleeting contact. She must have been imagining the proprietary nature of the gesture too. Dismissing the flight of fancy with a flicker of inward irritation, she pulled off her windbreaker and hung it on the curved iron hook attached to one of the wooden poles rising from the end of each bench. She slid onto the red vinyl seat, and Austin settled across from her. Austin had shed her jacket before she began driving and hadn’t bothered to put it on when they stopped. The shoulders of her shirt were damp from mist that was quickly turning to rain. “Do you think we’re going to be able to make it today?”

“I’m planning on it.” Austin pulled out her phone. She wasn’t just planning on it, she had to get to the coast and meet with Tatum. No matter what route she had to take. Well breaches were unpredictable. The whole scenario could change with every passing hour. The leak might already be contained, and she could turn around, once the weather cleared, and go home. That was the optimistic outlook. Or the breach could have widened and thousands of gallons of oil could be flooding the ocean right now. “If I can get a signal, I’ll check the weather. Maybe we can skirt around the front.”

Gem pulled out her own phone and started scrolling. “I don’t see a wireless connection in the diner—no surprise there, since I’m not altogether sure we haven’t wandered into Brigadoon—” Austin chuckled and the warm, deep peal touched off an unexpected thrill of pleasure Gem couldn’t quite define. Whatever the source of the heat unfurling in her middle, it was nice. Kind of scary nice. “My cell signal is pretty iffy too. Like, there and gone again. Mostly gone.”

“Same here,” Austin said grimly. Being out of contact had gotten to be a way of life. Some of the places she traveled for GOP, especially in Southeast Asia, did not have sophisticated broadband networks or any kind of cellular coverage. She was used to making decisions based on the info she had at hand, with or without input from the home front. That’s what they paid her for—to make decisions in the company’s interest. Their contract was a matter of trust, and her reputation, pride, and self-respect rested upon her upholding her duty to the company. Right now she was in the dark, and in the wind, and not a damn thing she could do about it. She slid her phone away. “Nothing to do but keep with the plan until we get some more intel. Then we’ll reassess.”

Gem regarded her thoughtfully. “I’m on board with that.”

A middle-aged brunette waitress appeared beside them in a tight black skirt, a low-cut silky white shirt that strained over full breasts, and a wraparound black nylon apron with deep pockets that held a pad, pens, a half dozen straws, and a handful of packets that were most likely sugar. “You two know what you’re having or do you want menus?”

Gem said, “Coffee.”

Her desperation must have showed because the waitress laughed, a deep earthy rumble that was unself-conscious and sexy all rolled into one. “Goes without saying.” She quirked an eyebrow at Austin. “You too?”

“Absolutely. And scrambled eggs and toast.”

“Got it. How about you, honey?” She directed her query to Gem, her eyes dancing and her generous mouth tilted into a teasing smile. “What have you got a hankering for?”

“Uh…blueberry pancakes and poached eggs. And coffee.” Gem hoped she didn’t sound like an infatuated teenager, which was how she felt. God, what was with her today—first an innocent, casual touch from Austin awakened her long-dormant libido, and now the waitress in a diner turned her into a gawking adolescent?

Still laughing, the waitress scrawled something on an old-fashioned order pad—no fancy computer terminals in sight—and headed toward the pass-through to the kitchen to hang their ticket on the line with half a dozen others.

Gem rubbed her eyes and muttered, “It must be the fog. It’s done something to my mind.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Austin remarked drily. “She’s pretty hot.”

“Stop.” Gem kept her eyes closed.

Now Austin laughed. “Your secret lust for sexy waitresses is safe with me.”

“Diners,” Gem said. “I love diners. Good plain food, lots of it, and fast service.”

“And don’t forget the waitresses,” Austin added.

“I won’t.” Opening her eyes, Gem grinned. “Now stop trying to divert my attention. Back to the small matter of graphic novels. I don’t recognize your name, so I’m guessing you use a pseudonym.”

“Twenty questions, huh?” Austin liked Gem’s persistence, and the spark in her eyes was captivating. She suspected whatever the object of Gem’s focus, she’d be relentless in her pursuit. For a heartbeat, she let herself imagine what that would be like—to have all of Gem’s contagious energy and intensity focused on her. As if she were all that mattered. That rarely happened to her—oh, she was used to being at the center of a woman’s attention, at least for the few moments when they played the game of chase and catch, but then she was always the chaser. Never the caught. Never, she suspected, the truly wanted.

“I bet you’re really good at what you do,” Austin said.

Gem’s brows rose. “I…I hope so. Why did you say that?”

“You don’t give up—and you enjoy discovery. That drive to know, to understand, must be important for someone doing research.”

“I can’t imagine why else anyone would do it,” Gem said. “Most of us spend years searching for an answer to a problem, and sometimes it never comes.”

“But you don’t quit.”

“Not yet,” Gem said lightly. “And you’re diverting again.”

“Like I said—you don’t quit.” Austin smiled ruefully. Considering what might be waiting for them on Rock Hill Island, Gem’s quick, inquisitive nature might be problematic. Gem would be watching the same reports of maritime wind and ocean currents as Austin, only Gem would be tracking the approach of the migratory birds while she would be charting the potential direction of spread of an oil spill. They’d probably be in an unknowing race against time to see who discovered it first, unless the spill was so large by the time she arrived, the company would be forced to go public. If Tatum’s first-response team could get containment lines in place and trap the oil or redirect it up the coast away from the sanctuary, she might have a chance to keep the whole thing under wraps. Then the world would never know—just another mechanical failure that happened and was handled all the time. And most importantly, Gem would never know she’d been lying to her almost since the start. Sins of omission, but sins all the same.

The storm was against her. Tatum and his crew were experts at containing spills, and Eloise was adept at managing the company’s official PR statements, but Tatum was blunt and oftentimes belligerent if challenged by those he considered to be opponents. He couldn’t be trusted to deal with the press on-site. If—more likely when—word got out, she needed to be on scene to defuse the situation. Otherwise they’d have environmentalists camping out onshore and a media storm the company paid her to prevent. She didn’t like thinking about Gem as one of those environmentalists who might be crying for blood, and it hadn’t happened yet. Right at that moment, there was nothing she could do to change what would happen. And she wanted to see the light in Gem’s eyes turned on her just a little while longer. “In the comics world, like it or not, testosterone rules. An androgynous name works better on the cover, so I went with a pen name.”

“Austin would probably fly in terms of being genderless,” Gem said musingly, “but it’s a little too sophisticated, and I see you as someone a little…hmm…flashier in your artist persona.”

“Flashier, huh?” Austin cocked her head. “Not sexier?”

Gem ignored the trickle of electricity down her spine and pretended she didn’t notice Austin flirting. But she noticed all right. Austin veered between serious and outrageously playful, and the constant back and forth was so unpredictable as to be enticing. Like intermittent reinforcement—and Lord, now she was analyzing her own behavioral responses as if she were a test subject. When had she forgotten how to simply enjoy herself? “So, are you mostly doing paranormal?”

“Pretty much any kind of sci-fi fantasy. I prefer action-adventure type stories. Easier to script. More exciting to draw.”

“Well, I know you’re not doing the Y: The Last Man series, which I love. I’ve seen Vaughan’s picture and I know that’s not you.”

“You weren’t kidding.” Austin nodded appreciatively. “You do know your comics.”

“I mostly read the graphic adaptations of authors I’m really fond of. I like to see the characters given form.” She laughed. “The women always look different than I imagined—but we’ve come a long way from the Wonder Woman years, not that I don’t still love those too.”

“You mean with the big breasts and tiny waists? I dunno about that.”

“Well, I’ll give you the big breasts. But at least now the female heroes have muscles and are a lot more into physical confrontation. I love a woman with a sword.”

Austin swallowed her coffee wrong and choked. “Really?”

Heat climbed into Gem’s face. What was she doing? She hadn’t been this open and unguarded since Christie, and that seemed like another lifetime. That was another lifetime ago. She’d sworn she’d keep a careful distance from people, and she hadn’t suffered for it. Why she was suddenly dropping all her barriers with a near stranger, especially a somewhat mysterious, if terribly charming stranger, was inexplicable. “I was being literal.”

Too bad. Austin almost spoke aloud but was glad she hadn’t. Gem looked uncomfortable, and maybe she should take that as a warning herself. Gem wasn’t the kind of woman she’d pick up for an hour or two in a hotel room on a long layover somewhere. She didn’t do it all that often, but when the constant travel, unrelenting pressure of defusing one crisis after another, and the endless self-questioning got to be too much, her choice was to drink until she slept or have sex until she didn’t think. When she’d found herself drinking a little too much four or five years before, she decided sex was a better antidote. She didn’t turn to it frequently, but when she did, she enjoyed the game, took pleasure in the flirtation and the seduction and ultimately in the final, if fleeting connection. She’d already gone beyond the point of flirtation with Gem. She liked her. Anything beyond that would only be complicating what was likely to become a very difficult situation. “Literally, then…you might have seen the Sisters of Revenge series. It’s about a cadre of—”

“Women warriors dedicated to protecting women on a planet where the captives of territorial wars are sold into slavery. I know that one. Did you—?”

“That would be mine.”

“You’re kidding. You’re Ace Grand?” Gem rocked back in her seat and laughed aloud, her face transformed by pleasure. “That’s amazing. You’re awesome!”

Austin just stared, stunned by a whirlwind of sensation, dizzy as if she’d stepped into a rainbow of color and heat. She’d never met a woman capable of such spontaneous delight. A tightly coiled tendril of hope, long lost and deeply hidden, stretched tentatively toward Gem, testing the possibility of connection. Everything else—the job, the constant pressure to excel, to succeed, to be better than—disappeared. The unrelenting need to measure up and not be left behind faded.

How would she ever hold on to this feeling? What could she possibly do to make Gem look at her this way again? A tight ball of regret filled her chest. Before very long she’d likely destroy any chance she had of being the benefactor of Gem’s favor. Knowing she would lose yet again, she determined to hold on to every glimmer of pleasure as long as she could. “That’s me. But you don’t have to call me Ace.”

“Ace. Yep. It suits.” Gem leaned forward, gripping the coffee cup the waitress had placed down a minute before. “I love your stuff. The characters are incredibly vivid, and the dialogue really jumps. The adaptation you did of Young’s Demon Darkness series was fabulous. Really true to the novels, and the physical depiction of Andromira was…Sorry, I know I’m being a fangirl, but—well, I’m a fan.”

“Hey,” Austin said, trying not to preen, “don’t apologize. I’m really glad you like comics. I don’t meet many people I can actually have a conversation with who do.”

“Do you do signings?”

“Not very often. My schedule is pretty jammed.” Austin couldn’t very well tell her that most of the time she had to squeeze her graphic work in between trips to one part of the world or another to neutralize a potential global disaster. “I don’t get much exposure to the audience.”

“There, you see? That’s why you don’t know there are lots of people like me who really enjoy comics.”

“You’re probably right. I’m very happy that you proved me wrong.”

“Well, I doubt proving you wrong could become a habit.” Gem smiled. “You strike me as being someone who knows what you’re about.”

“Thanks, I think.” Austin saw no point in telling her she was wrong. That she’d never entirely been able to shake her childhood, when she’d known she’d failed to meet her parents’ expectations, and she still carried the scars, not all of them physical, as reminders.

“So…” Gem paused as the waitress deposited their food, left a check, and hurried off. “Do I get a sneak preview of Ciri? I can’t wait to see how you see her.”

Austin grabbed the pen the waitress had left on the table by the check and folded over a corner of the paper placemat advertising local garages, contractors, and pet sitters. She quickly sketched Ciri holding her sword overhead with both hands, her long braid flying behind her, bolts of lightning shooting from the blade, and a banshee war cry enclosed in the balloon above her. She tore the paper in half and passed it to Gem. “There you go.”

She held her breath while Gem turned it back and forth, as if she could see beneath the flat page to the rest of the action. When she glanced up at Austin, her eyes glowed. “If I show up at your hotel room and demand to see more, will you think I’m a crazy stalker?”

Austin forced a grin, knowing that wouldn’t be the reason Gem hunted her down. “I think I’ll probably be safe.”

“Mmm.” Gem folded the paper carefully and tucked it into her pocket. “I’ll remind you you said that.”