by Melissa Good
Ceci felt absurdly like crying. “I’d really like that, too,” she said. “I know it sounds ridiculous, but you don’t realize all the good things about being a mother until you aren’t one anymore.”
Now it was Dar’s turn to be caught off guard. She blinked and felt a surge of juvenile memory as she stared at her mother’s face. “That’s all right,” she finally said, a touch of hoarseness in her voice. “When you’re a kid, you never appreciate your parents until you don’t have them.”
Ceci felt the sting of tears, and she reached out instinctively, laying a hand along Dar’s cheek. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m sorry I abandoned you.”
Dar sucked in a breath that was almost painful, so tight was the pressure against her chest. She was caught by her mother’s gaze, unable to look away. “I’m sorry I didn’t understand the pain you were in.”
306 Melissa Good The tension lessened. Ceci rubbed a thumb against her daughter’s skin. “I’m glad we’re getting a second chance at this.”
The surface under her fingers moved as Dar smiled. “So am I,” she answered softly, glancing away, then returning her eyes to her mother’s. “I think I like you.”
Ceci bit her lip, a surge of improbable, ridiculous relief almost making her burst out laughing. “Yeah, I think I like you, too.”
It was turning out to be an interesting day after all, Dar decided happily.
KERRY SAT BEHIND her desk, one hand propping up her head as she scrolled through screens of data. She paused to make another sticky note, punching out the letters with one finger, then continued her task.
“Ms. Kerry?” Mayte’s voice broke into her concentration. “I have the Navy officer here to see you.”
Ah. Kerry straightened and took a sip of her herbal tea. “Great.
Send him in.” She leaned back in her chair as the door opened and Captain Taylor came in. He was dressed in his Navy uniform, and he tucked his hat under his arm as he crossed the carpeted floor to her desk. “Afternoon, Captain.”
“Ms. Stuart.” The officer inclined his head politely. “May I sit down?”
Kerry gestured toward the chair. “Of course. How’s it going down there?”
Captain Taylor shook his head gravely. “I’m afraid we’re going to come up empty-handed, Ms. Stuart. My team’s been in there for hours, and they haven’t come up with anything other than the mess that was left of the computer center.” He paused. “And we have six people who swear it was just a botched exercise. They even submitted the docs for the setup and showed me the dummy rounds. Apparently some live ones got mixed in.”
“Uh-huh.” Kerry took another sip of tea. “Do you believe them?”
The captain gave her a direct look. “Ms. Stuart, it doesn’t matter a hill of beans what I believe. All that matters is what I can prove. I can’t prove anything beyond some colossal screw-ups, and some of them involve your personnel.”
Kerry’s eyebrows lifted. “My personnel?” she asked sharply. “We didn’t make any mistakes.”
The captain shifted uncomfortably. “The fact is, ma’am, you were there without the permission of the base commander.”
“Cut the BS.” Kerry smiled kindly at him. “We were there because General Easton asked us to go there and cover his butt because you couldn’t get a team on the plane fast enough.”
Captain Taylor made a face, seemingly unconscious of it. “The general asked that you protect the data. You didn’t. In fact, because of Red Sky At Morning 307
your presence, its destruction was pretty much guaranteed.”
Kerry pointed a finger at him. “Captain, if you seriously think you’re going to shift blame to me or to anyone else at ILS for your inability to maintain military and administrative control of your own base, think again.” She stood up behind her desk and fixed him with a resolute stare. “We did the best we could, and you don’t know just what that best is yet.”
“Ms. Stuart, you don’t seem to re—” The naval officer stopped and regarded her warily. “What exactly do you mean by that?”
Kerry opened her mouth to explain, then slowly closed it again.
Some instinct was telling her to keep the lock box under wraps, and she’d learned over the last year that this instinct of hers was usually right. “We have a lot of data. We’re not finished analyzing it yet,” she temporized. “We may not have a smoking gun, but we may have enough to nail the people there most responsible.”
The captain relaxed a notch. “It’s just administrative stuff, though.
The base is clean.”
“For now,” Kerry agreed quietly. “Doesn’t it bother you that stuff was going on?”
Taylor dusted a bit of lint off his shoulder. “Do we know it really was?” he countered. “That informant of yours could have been lying.”
Kerry shrugged. “Why?”
“To get someone in trouble. Maybe they’re the ones involved in some funny business, and they thought bringing in drugs would shift the attention,” the JAG officer replied reasonably. “C’mon, Ms. Stuart—
do you honestly think we’ve got an entire smuggling operation going on at a Navy base? Low-grade black market, yeah, I can buy that. But drugs?”
Well. Kerry thought about it. It was possible, she guessed. They hadn’t seen any of the smuggling, just the evidence the chief had brought over. “What about that telecommunications gear that was ripped out?”
The captain chuckled. “You know, I was thinking about that. You know what I bet happened? I bet someone in some office somewhere had a requisition to yank it out, or some wire got crossed, and an order was cut, and that’s why no one knew about it. Doesn’t that happen in your company sometimes?”
True. “Sometimes,” Kerry agreed, “but not often.”
“Well,” Taylor stood up, “I’m going to file my preliminary report to the general. I think we overreacted a little bit here. Comes from putting civilians into a situation they don’t really understand, I think.”
Kerry’s eyes took on a perceptibly cold glint. “You do that,” she told the captain with deceptive pleasantness. “By the way, Captain?”
He had turned to leave, but now he paused and glanced back.
“Yes?”
“Where did you go hide Saturday?” Kerry inquired. “I had count of 308 Melissa Good everyone who was with us, and I lost you after we went into the computer center.” She held up a clipboard. “I need to know for my...report.”
His face became a mask. “You must be mistaken, Ms. Stuart. I was there the whole time.” He turned and walked out, settling his hat squarely on the top of his head as he went through the door.
“Ooh.” Kerry slowly let out a breath, and crossed her arms. “You little pinheaded starch-butt.”
“Ms. Kerry?” Mayte asked uncertainly, as she stuck her head around the corner of the door. “Did you say something?”
“Not to you.” Kerry sat down and sucked down a big mouthful of her tea. “Mayte, do you have a number for General Easton? If you don’t, I bet María does.”
“I will get it,” her assistant promised, disappearing quickly.
Kerry chewed her lip, then put her cup down and punched the speakerphone button, hitting the top speed dial on her console. It rang twice, then was answered. “Hey.”
“Hey.” Dar’s voice sounded alert and faintly amused. “I was just thinking of you.”
Kerry felt her train of thought gently derail and move off onto a siding somewhere. “Were you? How come?”
“Underwear,” Dar replied succinctly.
It wasn’t the response Kerry was expecting. “Excuse me?”
“I’m doing laundry.”
“Oh.” Kerry’s brow creased. “You didn’t have to, Dar. I’d have done it tonight.” She knew her lover hated doing laundry and avoided it whenever possible, sending everything she could get her hands on to the island’s cleaners.
Except things like underwear, of course. Kerry smiled to herself as she took a sip of tea
.
“Mom thinks yours are cute.”
The mouthful of tea was expelled across the desk’s surface, narrowly missing her keyboard. “What?” Kerry wiped her forearm across her mouth. “Paladar! Why are you showing your mother my underwear?”
Dar chuckled softly. “You sound so cute when you’re flustered.”
“I’m not flustered! I’m flabbergasted! Two very different emotions!” Kerry said. “And you didn’t answer me!”
“Relax,” her lover replied. “She’s just helping me do laundry. It’s tough with one arm.”
Kerry covered her eyes with one hand. “Oh.” She exhaled, then paused in thought. “So Mom came by, huh?”
“Mm,” Dar answered.
“Everything okay?” Kerry asked guardedly.
“Very much so,” the surprising answer came back. “We had a talk.”
The pleasure was evident in Dar’s tone. “It’s great.”
Red Sky At Morning 309
“Oh yeah?” Kerry felt a smile cross her face. “Wow. That’s really good to hear, Dar.”
“Yeah.” Dar let out a happy little sigh. “So, what’s up there?”
Plans suddenly got sidetracked, and Kerry concentrated on the job at hand. “Ah. I had a visit from Captain Butter-wouldn’t-melt-between-my-butt-cheeks.”
Dar snorted in laughter.
“He’s already putting together his version of a story to make everything look like nothing,” Kerry said seriously. “If we don’t have something in that box, Dar, we really don’t have much.”
“Mm.” Dar sounded serious now, too. “Open it up, then.”
Kerry took a deep breath and carefully asked the question she’d been avoiding. “I’ll need the algorithm codes. Do you have them?” She crossed her fingers and toes and bit her lower lip as she waited for the answer.
“Sure,” Dar replied easily. “My birthday, offset, your birthday.” A pause. “In hex.”
Kerry’s eyes popped open and she stared across her office with a look of chagrin. “Oh, you’re kidding.”
“No,” her lover replied. “Those are a bitch to memorize, Kerry, and it’s not like I had a pad and pencil handy. I picked something I knew I’d remember.”
Duh. Kerry almost laughed. I should have known. She gazed up at her ceiling. “Okay, listen, I think I’d rather wait until you got back here to do it. We can hold them off that long.”
“You sure?” Dar asked. “Yeah, on second thought, let’s give them a chance to think they’re home free. Then they’ll relax a little.”
“Right,” Kerry said. “Is Mom staying for dinner?”
There was a muffled noise, a low buzz of conversation, then Dar’s voice came back. “If you pick up Captain Crab’s Takeaway Seal.”
“You got it,” Kerry snickered. “One bucket, coming up.” She hung up and leaned back, a dozen thoughts zooming through her head.
One remained. “Oh, crap.” Kerry winced. “I hope it wasn’t the pink ones.”
THE BOAT WAS rocking gently on the tide as Kerry made her way along the dock. It was very quiet, and she didn’t see anyone around, even after she stepped up onto the gangway and crossed onto the boat’s white deck. “Hello?” she called out, looking around for Andrew.
“Dad?”
Silence. Kerry ducked down and stuck her head inside the cabin. It was quiet down there as well; the worktable, covered in painting supplies, sitting mutely near the windows. “Dad?”
Still nothing. Kerry stood up and walked across the stern deck, which had comfortable looking bench seats on either side and a storage 310 Melissa Good locker in the center that doubled as a table.
“Huh.” She walked over and leaned on the railing, peering down into the dark blue-green water. “Maybe he went to the dock shop.” She watched a sea grape float by, lulled by its peaceful bobbing.
Then the water heaved and a hand surged up to grab the railing between hers, scaring the living daylights out of her.
“Yah!” Kerry squealed, jerking back and scrambling away from the railing. “Jesus!”
Andrew peered through the metal bars at her and the curious expression on her face. “Hold on t’yer shorts, kumquat. I sure ain’t the good Lord.”
Kerry sat down on the center console, and put a hand on her chest.
“Wow,” she laughed weakly. “You got me.”
The ex-SEAL pulled himself up and climbed over the railing, the boat’s deck rocking a little under his weight. He was dressed in a half wetsuit and his minimal diving rig, which he shed as he ambled over to where Kerry was sitting. “Didn’t mean to scare you, Kerry,” he apologized. “Just wasn’t sure what that shadow was looking over my rail.” He knelt beside her and put a damp hand on her knee. “You all right?”
Kerry felt her heart rate start to slow, and she ran a hand through her hair. “Yeah,” she said. “Boy, a dolphin’s got nothing on you.”
Andrew chuckled. “Long as you don’t smack me in the snout with no mackerel.” He cocked his head at her. “Didn’t ’spect visitors t’day.”
Kerry abruptly remembered her task. “Ah.” She folded her arms, holding her news close and cherishing it. “Do you know where your wife is?”
Andrew’s grizzled brows creased in puzzlement, and he glanced around at the empty deck. “Figgered she went down to the shops,” he hazarded. “Why? You know different?”
“Mm-hmm,” Kerry nodded. “She’s at our place.”
“Ah see.” Andrew seemed to relax as he stood up and walked over to the padded bench, picking up a towel and tousling his short-cropped hair dry. “Dar need something?” He peeked at her from behind a corner of the terrycloth.
“No. They were just spending some time together.” A gentle twinkle entered Kerry’s eyes.
A big grin spread across the ex-SEAL’s face. “For real?”
Kerry nodded.
“Hot damn!” A chortle of joy escaped. “C’mere!”
He held out his arms and Kerry scrambled over and threw herself into them, not minding the wetness one tiny bit. She felt the laughter as they hugged each other. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said as they released each other. “I called Dar, and she sounded so happy.”
Andrew shook his head in amazement. “Damn, that’s good to hear,” he breathed. “I knew things were getting easier, but I never Red Sky At Morning 311
figured it would go this fast.”
“Me, either,” Kerry admitted. “They’re both pretty stubborn.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” he chuckled. “You just stop by to tell me that? Y’coulda just used the land line, kumquat.” He went back to drying himself off.
Kerry shook her head. “No,” she said. “They asked me to stop and pick you up for a family dinner.”
Andrew stopped in mid-motion and let the towel fall, his eyes fastening on Kerry and his eyebrows lifting up. “’Scuse me, young lady?” he asked in a surprised tone.
Kerry reviewed her statement, then blushed. “Oh crap.” She started laughing. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Uh-huh.” Andrew snorted. “Damn straight.”
“Speak for yourself.” A slim finger pointed at Andrew. “That got me in enough trouble the other week.”
Andrew cocked his head at her. “Trouble? I thought them folks were all right with you and mah kid?”
Kerry smiled briefly. “They are, but a couple of nosybodies saw you pick me up the other night and thought I was cheating on Dar.” She chuckled, shaking her head. “What a morning.”
Her father-in-law’s jaw dropped. Then it shut with a click. “That is not funny.”
“It wasn’t then,” Kerry admitted. “But we laughed about it later on that night. Dar’s secretary María chewed everyone a new...um...” She paused. “Anyway...”
Andrew frowned. “Ah do not like that,” he said. “Them people got no sense at all.” He dried one ear. “Ain’t they got better things to do than spread all kinds of foolishness?”
Kerry regarded
the horizon. “Well,” she pursed her lips, “there’s a lot of folks there who aren’t really comfortable with Dar and me, and...”
Her eyes narrowed slightly. “A few with personal agendas, too, I guess.”
“Uh-huh.”
“The guy who saw us was kind of, um,” Kerry blushed slightly.
“He liked me.”
“Ah.” Andrew snorted softly. “Figgers.”
“And the other person doing the most talking kind of used to like Dar,” she concluded. “But we got it all settled, so...” But she frowned, Clarice’s continued aggressiveness coming into memory. “I suppose people will be people.”
“Jerks’ll be jerks,” Andrew amended succinctly. “Ain’t no changing
’em. Like a few we bumped heads with down south.” He shook his head. “Mah wife ain’t doing no cooking for us, is she?”
Kerry found herself glad of the change of subject. “Actually, I was told to pick up a bucket of Captain Crab’s Takeaway Seal.” She grinned at him.
312 Melissa Good Andrew put his hands on his hips. “Mah wife say that?” He watched Kerry nod. “Uh-huh. All right then, we’ll just go get us exactly that.” He draped his towel over the railing and headed for the cabin.
“Y’all just stay put, kumquat. We’ll give ’em some crabs.”
Uh-oh. Kerry sat down on the center console. Is that good or bad? She nibbled her lower lip as she thought about her father-in-law’s sometimes peculiar sense of humor. “Dad?” she called down the hatch.
“Yep?” Andrew answered.
“You’re not talking about live crabs, are you?”
“Nope.”
“Or the icky kind, right?”
“’Scuse me?”
“The ones that require medication?”
“What?”
Kerry sighed. “Never mind.” She swung her feet back and forth idly. Guess I’ll just have to wait and see for myself.
DAR STRETCHED HER legs out along the couch, the cool leather warming to her bare skin. She settled her arm in its sling and exhaled in satisfaction. It had ended up being a nice day after all. Laundry had gotten done, a set of cookies had been dubiously prepared, and she’d even managed to spend a lot of the day lying down as she’d promised she would.