Red Sky At Morning - DK4

by Melissa Good

“Don’t tell me you watch this,” Ceci commented from the loveseat.

  Dar glanced at the television. “Sure. All the time,” she replied. “We love the croc guy.”

  “Dar, he’s a lunatic,” her mother complained. “His brains have all dribbled out, and he uses cat food stuffed through his ears as a replacement.” She was curled up in the smaller couch’s confines, a visible smudge of chocolate present on the knee of her white cotton pants.

  Dar had known better. She had put on a pair of ragged denim cutoffs and an old gym shirt, so of course she hadn’t gotten a drop of anything on her. “Nah, he’s not that bad. I like the way he respects animals.”

  Ceci’s silver-blonde eyebrow lifted. “Dar, he doesn’t respect animals, he sleeps with them.”

  Dar pointed. “No, that’s his wife,” she said mildly. “She’s not an animal.”

  “Dar, that’s not his wife. That’s a chimpanzee.”

  Dar looked closer. “Oh. Sorry.” She tilted her head. “I saw the hat and thought it was Terry. It’s hard to tell up in that tree.” She leaned back against the soft cushion and let her eyes close, more tired than she’d expected to be. For a while, she’d tried to do a little work in her office, but after a few minutes her head was pounding, and using only Red Sky At Morning 313

  one hand was driving her nuts.

  Oh well. Dr. Steve had warned her about that, right? She’d gotten off pretty lucky, he’d told her, showing her the scans of her head. The swelling inside her skull hadn’t really put much pressure on her brain, but still, it was there.

  Expect some blurred vision, he’d said. And the headaches. Maybe a little dizziness. Dar sighed silently. At least he’d promised it would be temporary, which was a damn good thing, because it was going to take a lot of concentration and long hours in front of a keyboard to produce the analysis everyone and their uncle was waiting for.

  Dar felt her breathing slow, and the sounds of the condo faded a little. She could feel Chino’s warmth pressed against her legs, and if she concentrated, hear the faint sounds of movement from her mother.

  Her mother. Dar freed herself for a moment of thought about that.

  She felt a little off balance, thinking about the talk they’d had and the hours they’d spent together afterward. It had been a curious, almost weird feeling as they’d both let down barriers and simply gotten along as two people who had more in common than either of them had ever realized.

  Dar took a deep breath and released it. She frowned as her brain analyzed the intake of air and detected something unusual on it.

  Garlic. Lots of it, and spices, too. Dar opened one eye and peered around in surprise, almost jumping when the expected empty air was suddenly filled with a very solid-looking Kerry. “Hey. Where did you come from?”

  “Saugatuck,” Kerry replied with a grin. “Glad to see you’re behaving and taking a nap.”

  Dar frowned. “I wasn’t napping.” She glanced over at her mother, who muffled a smile. “Was I?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “What the heck is that smell?”

  “Ah.” Kerry turned and pointed toward the dining room table, which had sprouted some mysterious-looking buckets and assorted bags. “Crabs.”

  “Crabs?” Dar looked over at them, then up at her father. “Crabs?”

  Her voice perked up considerably.

  “Oh no,” Ceci groaned. “Not those damn things.”

  Andrew chuckled. “Yes, ma’am. You did send this here young lady out for takeaway, and we done did that.” He looked quite pleased with himself. “Got us three kinds, too, and them taters you like, Dardar.”

  “Heh.” Dar eased upright. “All right.”

  Kerry winced. “Honey, you’re not going to tell me you actually eat those things, are you?”

  Ceci sighed and covered her eyes. “Hope you got some corn. Kerry and I can at least share that.” She got up and walked around the couch to the table to investigate the packages. “Oh, goddess, Andrew. Did you have to get the hot pepper ones?”

  314 Melissa Good

  “Heh.” Andrew chuckled, moving across the tile floor to join his wife at the table. “Yep, I surely did.”

  Dar swung her legs off the couch and sat up. “You have to try them, Ker. They’re great.”

  Her lover crouched down between her knees, resting a hand on either one, and grimaced. “Dar, they look like big old bugs,” she whispered. “I can’t eat those.”

  “Sure you can,” Dar whispered back, leaning forward. “C’mon, I’ll show ya.”

  “Daaaarrrr...” Kerry bit her lip. “Eeeeewwww.”

  “Don’t be a chicken,” Dar chided her. “Trust me.”

  Easy for her to say. Kerry sighed and gave her partner a hand up, keeping hold of it as she joined Dar and they walked over to where Andrew and Ceci were unpacking the bags and buckets.

  “Ooh.” Dar pried the cover off one and peered inside. “Yum.”

  Kerry peeked over her shoulder at the pile of red-hued, spice-speckled marine insects, complete with beady little eyes looking back at her. “Oh,” she moaned softly, and leaned against Dar’s arm. “I’m going to have nightmares.”

  Dar picked up a crab and examined it. “Sure you are.” She deftly removed a claw, exposing some white flesh. “Here. Suck on this.”

  Big round pale green eyes looked up past the curve of her breast. A tiny squeak issued from Kerry’s throat.

  “Go on,” Dar laughed.

  Kerry glanced over at her in-laws, who were bent almost double with silent laughter. “Dar, I can’t suck on that leg. It looks like a grasshopper leg. I’m going to throw up.”

  Dar sighed, removed a bit of the crabmeat, and held it out. “There.

  Can you suck on my fingers?”

  A sigh. “Oh, God, if you insist.” Kerry closed her eyes and leaned forward, opening her mouth and closing her teeth gingerly on the bit of white substance. She closed her lips and carefully tasted it, then opened her eyes. “Hmm.” It wasn’t at all like lobster or shrimp. It was much more tender, and... Kerry licked her lips. “Mm.” The spices stung her tongue pleasantly. “Okay, that’s not bad.”

  “See?” Dar sounded triumphant. “Told you.” She sat down and pulled out a chair for Kerry next to her. “Now, c’mon. Grab a hammer.”

  Her lover, who had been heading for the kitchen for a pitcher of something cold, stopped dead in her tracks. “Hammer?”

  Chapter

  Nineteen

  ANDREW RELAXED, STRETCHING his long frame as he settled more comfortably in the large leather chair. “So, that’s what that old bag of wind told me,” he drawled. “All ’bout how he’d been gotten to some years back, and he just didn’t want to say no.”

  The television played softly in the background as the two couples shared coffee and each other’s company.

  Dar shook her head sadly. She was lying on the couch with Kerry curled up against her, and she had her injured arm draped over her lover’s body. “Hard to believe.”

  Ceci snorted from her perch on the loveseat. “No, it isn’t. He always was a pompous asshole.” She ignored her husband’s round-eyed look. “You know it’s true, Andy. He was always wanting to be in charge. Remember that bowling team he hornswoggled you on to? He had to be the captain.”

  Andrew grunted.

  “Bowling?” Kerry opened one eye lazily, so completely stuffed she wouldn’t have moved even for a fire drill. “I didn’t know you bowled, Dad.”

  “Ah most certainly do not,” Andrew replied. “Damn fool just would not listen.”

  “Andy is so good at everything, Jeff just assumed he’d be a good bowler,” Ceci told, blithely ignoring another outraged look.

  “Unfortunately, Jeff loved to stand behind his team and make comments.”

  “Ah,” Kerry noted sagely.

  “That lasted all of one time.” Ceci gave her husband a look. “Until Andy threw the ball backward.”

  “Heh.” Andrew produced a rakish grin, amazingly like his daughter’s
. “Never did hear a man make a sound like that one before.”

  “Ow,” Kerry winced. “So you guys were rivals?” she asked curiously.

  Andrew shrugged. “Naw.”

  “Yes,” Ceci corrected him. “Don’t look at me like that, Andrew.

  You know you were.” She picked up her cup of coffee and sipped it.

  “Jeff always had to be first. His family had to be first. His kid had to be 316 Melissa Good first,” she said. “I think that’s what busted his chops so bad. He tried so hard, and pushed Chuck so hard, and neither one of you ever had to try hardly at all.”

  Andrew and Dar exchanged glances. “Now, Cec,” Andrew rumbled, “wasn’t really like that.”

  Ceci rolled her eyes. “Yes, it was. The two of you just never noticed,” she informed her husband and child. “Andy, you made your grades before he did, got the jobs he wanted, and copped the medals he coveted, and you never gave two whoops about it.”

  Andrew folded his arms across his chest and gave her a sober look.

  “And you,” Ceci gazed over at Dar with a half smile. “I’ll never forget the night Jeff and Sue were over, talking about how Chuck was going to enlist so he could save some cash for vocational school, remember?”

  Dar nodded. “I remember.”

  Kerry turned her head and looked at her. “What happened?”

  Dark lashes fluttered as Dar blinked. “It was just a coincidence,”

  she murmured. “I’d gotten my acceptance letters that day.”

  Kerry studied her profile. “For college?”

  Dar nodded silently.

  “How many?”

  She shrugged. “A couple.”

  “Seven,” Ceci corrected her.

  Dar rolled her eyes.

  Kerry returned her attention to Dar’s mother. “Seven?”

  “Mm-hmm,” Ceci agreed. “All full scholarship.” She folded her hands across her stomach and gazed at her child.

  “That was a damn proud day for me,” Andrew said suddenly.

  Everyone now looked at Dar, who looked back pensively. “I didn’t even think about it,” she admitted honestly. “That’s why I dropped them on the dinner table while they were there and told you.” Her thumb rubbed idly against Kerry’s side. “I thought it was pretty cool.”

  “So did we.” Ceci smiled. “But you didn’t see Jeff’s face,” she sighed. “He and Sue were so jealous. I’m not surprised, Andy, if he went along with whatever those crooks wanted, if it finally got him the good life he’d always craved.”

  Andrew shook his head a little. “Don’t make sense. He never did that poorly, Cec,” he protested. “Collected him plenty of rank, and pretty good jobs, I figure. He just never wanted to have to work hard for it.” It was a long sentence for him. “Dardar, you figure you got something on them people? Jeff thinks there ain’t much chance you do.”

  Dar shifted a little, her eyes unfocused in thought. She felt Kerry twine her fingers around the hand she had draped over her partner’s body, and she breathed in Kerry’s distinctive scent as the thoughts tumbled over in her head. “I don’t know,” she replied truthfully. “If we got everything, and I can reconstruct it, yes.” Her eyes flicked up and Red Sky At Morning 317

  met her father’s. “I’ll have it.”

  Ceci leaned forward. “Have what, Dar? What the heck were they doing?”

  An almost introspective look crossed Dar’s face. “Laundering money,” she answered simply. “Millions and millions of dollars, funneled from the sale of contraband and government property.”

  Jaws dropped.

  “You mean to tell me,” Kerry finally said, “they used the government’s own computer systems to do that?”

  Dar nodded. “Feel better about your tax refund?”

  Kerry covered her eyes with one hand and groaned.

  “Jesus P. Fish,” Andrew blurted.

  “Well,” Ceci murmured. “And here I thought maybe you’d found the truth about Roswell.”

  Dar shrugged modestly. “Want me to audit there next?”

  KERRY PUT THE piece of paper down on her desk and dropped into her chair, leaning forward and resting her head in her hands.

  What a day. She scrubbed her face wearily. It was Thursday, Dar’s first day back; and her lover had spent the entire time since seven that morning holed up in the MIS command center, sequestered in a quiet, plain office around the corner from Mark’s, refusing to take a break even though Kerry could plainly see she badly needed one. She’d taken off her arm sling, and by the very messiness of the dark locks framing her face, it was obvious she’d been running her fingers through her hair.

  Always a sign of frustration, Kerry knew.

  So here she was, about to order in a pile of Thai food in hopes that, at least, would get her boss to kick back for a few minutes and relax.

  Kerry reread the order, making sure she’d gotten everything down, and quickly typed it into a fax form, which she sent on its way.

  To be fair, Dar had been exceedingly good for three days. She’d kept her promise and remained resting at home, though by halfway through Wednesday, she was already prowling around the island and spending a couple of hours swimming in the heated pool.

  Her headaches had disappeared, and she’d started to use her arm, careful not to overstress the shoulder joint. They’d gone out on the boat the night before and had dinner under the stars, and Dar had remained alert the entire time; in fact, she’d ended up driving the boat back after Kerry had fallen asleep on the bow.

  The pressure from Washington was getting critical, though.

  General Easton had called twice, each time reporting the minor issues the security team had found and the fact that he was under a lot of pressure to back off the project entirely.

  Someone had gotten annoyed, it seemed, that a private company 318 Melissa Good was prying into military affairs. If they didn’t come up with something more significant than fouled-up accounting and some black-market supplies, the entire contract was in jeopardy.

  So, despite the fact that Kerry thought the enforced rest was doing her partner a lot of good, she had to admit she’d been glad to have that tall form pacing at her side when she’d entered the building that morning.

  When the phone rang, Kerry glared at it for a moment, then hit the answer button. “Operations. Kerry Stuart speaking.”

  “Good evening, Ms. Stuart.” Alastair’s voice was cordial.

  “Evening, sir,” Kerry replied. “How’s Texas doing?”

  “About the same as it usually is, this time of year,” Alastair replied.

  “Getting on to Christmas.”

  “Yeah.” Kerry perked up a little. “And close to Dar’s birthday.” She leaned forward. “You’re going to send her a card, right?”

  A little chuckle came down the line. “Oh, I’m sure she’ll get a few of those. So, how are things there?”

  Kerry sighed. “Slow going,” she admitted. “Dar’s been at it all day, and to be honest, what she’s doing looks like so much hex gibberish to me.”

  Alastair sighed as well. “Kerrison, Dar’s been hex gibberish to 90

  percent of this company for fifteen years, so don’t feel bad.” He paused.

  “I’m getting a lot of pressure on this.”

  “Mm.”

  “It’s not that anyone doubts what we did, but I got a call from the JAG’s office today. They’re considering filing a reckless endangerment lawsuit against us.”

  Kerry glared at the phone. “Those pissants.”

  The CEO chuckled dryly.

  “I mean it,” Kerry replied. “They know something’s wrong there, and they’re just covering their friends’ starched olive very drab butts.”

  “Y’know, I think some of your shyness is disappearing,” Alastair commented. “Must be Dar rubbing off on you.”

  “I’m not shy,” Kerry reminded him. “I told Dar to kiss my ass, remember?”

  “And she certainly did tak—” Alastair st
opped abruptly. “Good heavens! I beg your pardon, Ms. Stuart.”

  Kerry blinked, also a little startled at the retort. “Uh, that’s okay,”

  she told him. “I kind of opened myself up for that, didn’t I?”

  Alastair chuckled. “I try to be good,” he said. “Anyway, as I said, I’m under a lot of pressure, here, Kerry.” He turned serious again.

  “They want a meeting tomorrow in Washington. I’m going to have Hamilton get hold of that JAG officer and shake him up a little, but I’d really rather not go into the meeting, ah...”

  “In nothing but your boxers?” Kerry asked.

  “He wears briefs,” Dar’s voice burred. “White cotton ones.” She Red Sky At Morning 319

  closed the door to Kerry’s office and walked over to the desk, hitching up the leg on her khaki cargo pants before she sat down on the edge.

  “Hello, Alastair.”

  “Ah. Hello, Dar,” the CEO replied. “Good to hear your voice.”

  One of Dar’s dark brows lifted. “Why, you been listening to Eleanor again?”

  “The Navy wants to sue us for reckless endangerment,” Kerry told her.

  A chuckle. “Oh, really?” Dar leaned on her good arm and addressed the phone. “Who did a bunch of unarmed IS workers endanger, Alastair?”

  “I don’t know. I’m having Ham handle it,” her boss said. “Listen, Dar, I know you’ve been on this all day, but what’s the word? Do we have something or not?”

  “Alastair, this isn’t an Internet search,” Dar answered, a touch testily. “It’s a fifty-gigabyte drive array that I’m having to reconstruct in hex, sector by sector.”

  There was a reverent silence following this pronouncement, as everyone gave the information its due respect.

  “And?” Alastair asked briskly.

  Dar sighed, and rubbed her eyes. “I’m not done,” she said. “But so far, so good.”

  Kerry got up and walked around the desk. She put her arms around Dar and gave her a gentle hug and a kiss on the cheek. “You are so my hero,” she whispered in her lover’s ear. “Can I be you when I grow up?”

  Dar blushed, her tanned skin darkening appreciably. “I can’t promise anything,” she muttered.

  Alastair chortled. “Will you let me know tomorrow? They want me on the carpet first thing Friday morning in DC.”