by Melissa Good
“Yeah.” Kerry nodded. “I would love a couple of beers.” Kerry closed her eyes and her head dropped back against the seat. “And dinner sounds great. Dar said they’re going to pick up something there, then catch the late flight out here.”
“You’re a beer fan?” Ceci chuckled. “And here I go, right after I say not to assume things, I do. I figured you for margaritas.”
“Nu uh,” Kerry shook her head, “I developed a taste for beer in college and it stuck with me.” She considered. “We had a little microbrew-ery near the campus. I spent a lot of time there, studying and tasting.”
Living on campus had given her the first real opportunity to see a life other than the one her parents had planned for her. When she looked back on it, those long afternoons in the pub curled up on a nice padded bench mapping out circuits and sipping her choice of beverage were one of the nicest memories she had of school.
Mostly because she knew it would shock them, as much as demonstrating her finely honed and well developed talent of belching would.
Kerry chuckled to herself, remembering Michael’s face the first time he’d heard her do it.
“Well, from what I read in the lobby, the hotel’s got a nice looking eat-in bar they seem pretty proud of. We could give it a try,” Cecilia commented, sorting through the possible menus and deciding that, at worst, they’d have a stuffed baked potato she could order.
Or maybe some stuffed mushrooms.
“Sounds good to me,” Kerry agreed. “But I gotta get out of this mon-314 Melissa Good key suit. It’s driving me nuts.” She rolled her head to one side, idly watching the buildings go past in all their marble monstrosity. On the corner just before the hotel she spotted what looked like three of her father’s supporters, with cropped heads sporting shaved, colored sigils in the back, and black leather jackets and boots. They appeared to be just standing around talking and she almost dismissed them, before she saw one of them turn, and watch the entrance to the hotel intently for a minute, then return to his conversation.
She thought about that as they pulled up.
Hmm.
Just because you’re paranoid, Ker, doesn’t mean someone’s not out to get you.
She glanced at her watch and wondered.
DAR LEANED AGAINST the plate glass of the window, watching the sun go down over the flat landscape. The meeting was over, and now…now all she had to do was wait for Alastair to come back in and wrap things up.
It could have been worse.
It could, of course, have also been better.
Despite what she thought of Ankow, the board could no more remove him for being a bigoted, sneaky asshole than they could remove her for being gay. It was almost annoyingly fair, but she had to admit they had nothing really significant to use to dismiss him with. Certainly, given that she’d admitted to her living with Kerry—they had less on him than what they had on Dar.
So.
An uneasy truce was the best they could manage. Ankow very reluctantly agreed to drop his stupid lawsuit and Dar agreed to keep her revelations quiet as well. It came down to consumer confidence, as always.
Revealing either scandal would hurt the company and since Ankow’s background had been revealed, there was no chance of him getting what he wanted to out of the bargain, so he decided to back off and find another way.
Which meant they’d still have to deal with each other. He’d still demanded that Alastair’s and her positions be put up for a general vote of the stockholders and, on that, the majority of the board had agreed.
None of them managed to look either of them in the eye, though.
Dar sighed and pressed her aching forehead against the cool glass.
The board was uneasy about her and Kerry. She could sense that, in their words and speech, but most of them were too polite to say so to her face.
It wasn’t surprising, really. Most of them were older and conservative and had enough trouble with her being a woman in the first place, not even go into the fact that she was gay.
It shouldn’t goddamn matter. She’d said so and Alastair had agreed, noting that it hadn’t mattered to him for fifteen years, and here he was a Eye of the Storm 315
family man, a grandfather, as conservative as you could get right down to his black socks and patent leather shoes.
The door opened and footsteps approached, scuffing across the tightly woven carpet. Dar heard a faint creak as Alastair perched on the edge of his desk and she turned, regarding him with quiet, serious blue eyes. “Not a good day, Alastair.”
He tilted his head a little. “Coulda been worse, Dar. Could have been worse.”
“True.”
“I know you think I abandoned you in there.”
Dar shrugged, and regarded the pale stripes of sunlight coming in the window. “No sense in both of us going down.”
“That’s not true, Dar.” Alastair got up and walked to her, putting his hands in his gray flannel pockets and tipping his head back just a little to meet her eyes. “The truth is, I was out of my league. I had no idea what to say or what to do when he pulled that picture out. I was just hoping you did.” He paused. “And, as usual, you handled the worst possible situation with ease and grace and you reminded me all over again why you are where you are and why I put you there.”
“I doubt the board agrees with you.”
The CEO shrugged. “They don’t know you. I’ve had fifteen years to get used to you, Dar. Give them a chance. Eventually—”
“Eventually they’ll forget I’m an evil gay woman with an agenda?”
“Well,” her boss chuckled a bit, “they’ll forget you’re gay. I think it’s going to be a really long time before they forget you’re a woman.” He watched the dark, well shaped eyebrows lift. “C’mon, Dar. We’re a bunch of horny old goats in there, you don’t think half the resentment floating around that room isn’t because not one of us has a chance with you?”
Dar had to laugh. “Alastair, you’re such a bastard sometimes.”
“Sometimes,” he agreed. “Listen, Dar, the fact is that you are very low profile in the company and that’s hurting you, because some of these guys don’t hear anything but the bad stuff about you. I’d really like you to be at the quarterly stockholders meeting and I’d love you to do the presentation this time.”
“Me?”
Alastair nodded. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately and it just seems like a good idea to me. Get you out there and get you exposed to all these people who have no idea who you are, but have heard stories.”
He smiled. “Besides, it’s a great quarter for it, Dar. The new network’s up and it’s paid for already. I can’t think of a better scenario for you to have to present.” He paused delicately. “Besides, with that vote in question, it won’t hurt to let them see what they’re voting on.”
“Hmm.” Dar felt very off balance. She hadn’t expected the conversation to go this way and after the session they’d just been in, her brain was still wandering off track somewhere. “All right. I’ll see what I can work up.”
“Good.” Her boss smiled. “Have you got plans for tonight?”
316 Melissa Good
“Dinner with Dad,” Dar replied. “You’re welcome to join us if you want. We’re heading down the road to the steakhouse.”
Alastair sighed. “Dar, I’m gonna have to kill you. I have to go to my nephew’s restaurant opening tonight.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“It’s called Tofu Gardens.”
Dar cleared her throat. “I have a chocolate bar in my briefcase if that’ll help.” She held a hand out. “Have fun. I’ll be in touch later, Alastair. We’ve got a lot to work out for that new contract.”
“Will do.” The CEO watched her leave, then sat down slowly on his leather chair and laced his fingers around one gray clad knee, as the sunset colored the room around him.
Chapter
Thirty-four
“I THINK AH’M gonna like this.�
� Andrew nodded approvingly as they mounted the two wooden steps onto the porch outside the large steakhouse. He opened the door and gestured for Dar to go in, then followed her into an atmosphere rich with protein, alcohol, and the inimita-ble dust from peanut shells. “Yep. Slab of beef and a beer and a pretty lady with me. I do like this.”
“Two,” Dar told the hostess, as she shook her head. They followed the young girl down a wide aisle and slid into a booth, its table complete with bowls of packet sugar and bottles of hot sauce. Dar examined one.
“Nice.” She put it back and rested her arm on the table, then slid sideways and leaned against the booth wall. “Glad that’s over with.”
“Ah bet.” Andrew investigated the peanuts, cracking open the shells with powerful fingers, then offering exactly one half of the contents to his daughter. Dar had changed from her business suit into a pair of jeans and a crisply ironed cotton shirt and tied her hair back to keep it out of her eyes in the windy weather. “Things go all right up in DC?”
“Hard to say.” Dar paused as the waitress arrived, a very perky young woman with tiny sparkles in her blue eye shadow. “Irish coffee, please.” She glanced at her father. “Beer?”
“Yeap. One of them dark things, if you got it,” Andrew confirmed.
“And I’d like a rare steak and a tater and some ice cream.”
The girl blinked. “All at once, sir?”
Dar chuckled. “Make it two, and no, the ice cream can come later.”
She nibbled on a peanut as the girl finished writing and took their unused menus back. “Mmph.” She stifled a yawn and tilted her head back, idly watching the silent television above the bar. “Hey,” she nudged her father’s arm and pointed, “that’s the hearing.”
Andrew turned around to watch. “That her pa?”
“Yes.” Dar nodded. “That’s her mother, her sister Angie, and her brother Michael in back of them.” They watched as the camera showed the investigators and then a shot of Kerry’s brother on the stand, looking very ill at ease and embarrassed.
Then came a shot of a very familiar face. “Hey.” Dar smiled in reflex.
“Look. It’s Kerry and Mom.”
318 Melissa Good
“Darn if it ain’t.” Andrew chuckled.
Dar pulled her cell phone out and speed dialed a number. “Hey.”
“Hey.” Kerry’s voice sounded muffled against a fair amount of noise.
“I just saw you on television.”
“Yikes.”
“No, you look great,” Dar reassured her. “You and Mom both.
Though the look you were giving the cameraman could have killed a peacock at twenty paces.”
“I forgot how much I hated that.” Kerry grumbled. “I have no idea how they recognized me. I certainly don’t look like I did five years ago.”
She muffled the receiver then returned. “It’s getting sort of weird here, Dar. I guess those people who’ve been paying off my father decided to come out and support him. They’re giving me the creeps.”
Dar frowned. “Are they bothering you?” She noticed her father had caught her tone and was listening alertly.
“No,” Kerry reassured her. “I’m sure it’s just my conscience, you know what I mean?”
“Well, try to stay out of trouble until we get there.”
“Does that mean we can get into trouble then?” Kerry lightened her tone. “Seriously, it’s fine, Dar. I have to go back to the chambers tomorrow, but after that, I think they’re going to let us go and concentrate on the clerks and police who investigated and all that.”
Dar relaxed and leaned back. “Okay. Well, we’re having dinner, then heading to the airport. I think the flight’s due in around ten.” She took a sip of her coffee and let the Irish Whiskey burn its way down. “Where are you?”
“In the hotel bar,” Kerry replied. “Trying to figure out what a fuzzy navel is.”
Dar grinned. “I’ll show you when I get there,” she offered, with a low chuckle. “’Cause you have one.”
Momentary silence. “Oh, for pe—Dar!” A groan came through the line. “I’m gonna hurt you.”
“Heh. It’s peach schnapps and orange juice, I think,” Dar supplied helpfully. “Get it? Peach, fuzzy…navel, oranges?”
“I got it. Thanks.” Kerry’s voice sounded mildly exasperated. “I’m going to eat my cheeseburger. No, excuse me, my ‘cheddar topped grilled chopped sirloin steak over delicately sliced and toasted potatoes’ now.
I’ll see you in a few hours.”
“Eat a French fry for me.” Dar grinned. “See you soon.” She hung up and tucked the phone away, suddenly wishing the flight was done and over with and she was explaining fuzzy navels up close and personal.
“KERRY.”
She stood, resting her elbows on the balcony railing and looking out at the brightly lit city, and she turned at the sound of her name. “It’s Eye of the Storm 319
pretty, with all the monuments and stuff and the lights.”
Ceci came out to join her, having entered the room through the connecting door between their two rooms. “Yes, it is,” she agreed. “Would you like to take a walk down to some of them? It’s a nice night out.”
“Anything to walk off that collection of animal protein floating in solid grease,” Kerry told her, making a face. “I could have used the excess to lube my car.”
Ceci laughed. “Well, I’d suggest vegetarianism, except that my mushrooms were just as greasy and I think those artichokes were older than I am.”
Kerry chuckled and they exchanged looks. She noticed they were getting more comfortable with each other and she found herself liking Dar’s mother very much. She had a dry, wicked sense of humor that came out around blind corners, much like her daughter’s did, but was based in a totally different mindset from her vastly different experiences. “Sure,”
she agreed amiably. “You can explain paganism to me while we walk.
I’ve been wondering about that since Dar mentioned it.”
“Dar mentioned it?” Ceci scratched her jaw at that, as she led the way out of the hotel room and headed for the elevator. “Dare I ask in what context?”
Kerry thought about the question. “Oh. Right. We were in this Thai restaurant…”
“And that spawned a discussion of paganism,” Ceci mused. “Was it those little Buddha statues?”
They exited the hotel and walked down the steps, turned to the right and headed down the street towards a well lit monument. “No. Duks and I were discussing believing in God.”
“Food that bad?”
Kerry laughed. “No.” She shook her head. “He’s an atheist, so we were comparing belief systems. Maríana told us what her religion was, then Duks asked Dar for her viewpoint.”
“Ah.”
“She said that her father was a Southern Baptist and that you were a pagan and that she always knew you both believed in something.” Kerry scrunched her brow. “Let me see. She said, you both believed in something, not necessarily the same something, but something, and she sort of patterned herself after that.”
Ceci thought about that as they walked. “And what did you think about that?”
“What did I think? I thought holidays at your house must have been interesting,” Kerry replied and chuckled. “But what really impressed me was that Dar was free to make her own choice.”
“That’s very true.”
“It gave me a different slant on religion. I went to Christian school right up until the time I went to college and even then, it was in the same area, pretty much. So I didn’t get exposed to…” Kerry hesitated.
“Heathens?” Ceci arched a brow.
320 Melissa Good
“People with different value structures,” she corrected gently. “I mean, we studied different cultures in school, but it’s not the same thing as seeing it face to face.”
“Mmm. That’s true.” Ceci nodded. “It was like that for me, after I married Andy and went to live on
a navy base.”
Kerry glanced at her, the smaller woman’s profile outlined in the moonlight. “That must have been a tough transition.”
“It was,” Ceci murmured with a slow nod. “Andy was gone so much and we were so young.”
They walked in silence for a little while. “Miami must have been a shock for you,” the older woman said, as they turned into a well manicured park and started down a path covered in cedar chips, which crunched lightly under their feet.
“Oh yeah,” Kerry agreed. “I had the opportunity to get a management position at Associated Synergenics and I’d said yes, before I’d really thought about what I was doing. My parents were livid.” She sighed.
“But off I went. I found an apartment in Kendall, got all settled in. Found some friends…” She paused with a faint smile.
“And?” Ceci heard the unsaid words.
“Went to South Beach and figured out I was gay.” She gave a light laugh. “You know, the usual stuff. I remember the night it all became clear to me. I went out onto the beach and sat there looking at the stars, convinced I was going to Hell.”
Ceci made a light hissing noise. “That’s something I never understood about the Christian religion. Its founder is one of the few, genuine icons of love the world has ever known, yet more violence and hatred has been done in his name than just about anything else ever.” She lifted her hands. “I don’t understand it. I never have and that’s why I could never accept its teachings.”
Kerry fell silent and let those words penetrate. “I guess,” she exhaled softly, “I guess my real problem with it came when I tried to reconcile the words that called me a sinner with the joy love brought me.”
“Mmm.” Ceci nodded as she walked, reaching out an idle hand to brush the thick marble walls as they passed. “When Dar first told us she was gay, I swear, both Andy and I really believed she was doing it just to add one more bit of rebelliousness to what was already a very shook up adolescence.” She laughed softly. “I think I remember saying. ‘Well, honey, it could have been worse. She could have joined a cult.’”