“Well, well. Is this a party?” the petite executive inquired, with a smile. “Getting an early start, aren’t you, Ms. Stuart?”

“I’m not one for parties.” Kerry opened the door and waited for Ms.

Andrews to escape out in front of her. “Excuse me.”

“Funny.” Ann chuckled. “That’s not what I heard.”

Kerry watched her enter a stall and close the door, and she backed out, pausing in the hallway to consider the words.

Wondering what they’d meant.

Suspecting it was nothing good.

“SO.” SAM LEANED back in his chair. “What did you think?”

Kerry stood near his office window, gazing out. Now, she turned and leaned against the wall. “They seem very quiet.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, they’re nice enough folks, but not very lively.”

“I was a little surprised they didn’t question some of the outline, though.” Kerry watched him carefully.

“Really? Why?”

She folded her arms. “Because most of it was bullshit.” The words were spoken matter-of-fact. “You can’t deliver the services you sold them and they’re being left without any back up whatsoever.”

“Now, you look—” Sam’s face darkened.

“So either those clients were completely ignorant, or they were being quiet for a reason.” Kerry crossed her ankles. “I think you’d better level with me, Mr. Gershwin.”


Eye of the Storm 41

Hostility bristled across the desk at her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Kerry shrugged. “You can say that. But I need to tell you we’re going to eventually find out what’s going on and what it was that woman was so afraid would get out.”

Sam Gershwin went very still, as he studied her in silence. “You sure you want to do that, Ms. Stuart?” he finally asked. “If I were you, I’d just leave things alone. You’ll be a happier person for it, I promise you.”

Kerry chewed the inside of her lip, wondering how far she should push. “I’m not sure what you mean by that.”

He steepled his fingers. “Aren’t you? Perception is such a fluid thing, Ms. Stuart. I’m sure your company has a perception of you as a fine, upstanding woman, a credit to their reputation, don’t they?”

A chill ran up Kerry’s spine. “Is that a relevant question?”

“Well,” he stood up and strolled towards her, “it’s your job to use your judgment, isn’t it? To find a way to, oh, bring us in the fold, so to speak. They must think highly of your decision making skills, don’t they?”

“Yes, they do.”

Sam stopped and leaned against the wall next to her, his taller form throwing a shadow over her body. “Would it take much to change that?

Say…what if they found out their fine, upstanding operations director…oh, got drunk and had to be carried out of a bar? Hmm?”

Kerry’s eyebrow lifted. “The subject’s not likely to come up, so I have no idea how they’d react.”

“Really?” Sam smiled. “Well, I’ve got ten people who’ll swear that’s exactly what happened last night, little Ms. Kerry.”

The reaction wasn’t what he expected. Kerry burst into laughter.

“You’re not seriously threatening me with that, are you?”

He was a little disconcerted, but retained his slightly mocking attitude. “Is it so farfetched? You’re a pretty little thing and I bet you know how to have fun, don’t you?” Then he picked up a folder on his desk and flipped it open. “And they say a picture’s worth a thousand words.”

Kerry glanced at the folder, then blinked, startled to see an image of herself, very obviously out of control in an unfamiliar setting. “Nice piece of editing,” she finally stated, her voice taking on a harder edge. “What’s your point?”

“Ah.” He smiled. “Now we’re getting somewhere. Tell you what. It’s really easy, and no skin off your nose, Ms. Kerry. You just put in a nice report on us and go on your merry way, and we’ll just never have had this conversation.”

“And if I don’t?” Kerry asked.

“Then I’ve got no choice but to contact your boss and put in a formal protest. I can’t have my company being evaluated by someone who shows such…lapsed judgement.” He lifted the picture. “What would your boss say about that, hmm?”

Kerry rubbed her jaw. “I don’t know. I guess you’ll have to ask her,”


42 Melissa Good she told him, her chin lifting in challenge as she met his gaze. “But you’re putting your eggs in a flimsy basket, Mr. Gershwin.”

“Am I?”

“You’re assuming I was alone last night.” Kerry smiled.

He laughed in delight. “Oh, that’s even better. You’re going to pull out some flannel shirted bum you found in a bar to defend you?” He snapped the folder shut. “If that’s the way you want to play it, fine.” He looked up as the door opened and a tall, dark haired form slipped in.

“Excuse me, but this is a private meeting.”

Dar continued across the room, with every step shedding her casual persona and taking on the dynamic fierceness that was part and parcel of who she was. “Meeting’s over,” she enunciated sharply. “You’ve got six minutes to pick up your personal effects and be out of the building.”

“What?” Gershwin stared at her. “Have you lost your mind? Get the hell out of my office before I call security. Who in the hell do you think you are?”

Dar pointed a thumb at her own chest. “Me? I’m Dar Roberts.” She paused for delicious moment. “And you’re unemployed. Now get out.”

She got between the comptroller and his desk. “My people have all your accounting records and the client files and by the time they finish sifting it for chargeable offenses, you’re going to be more than out of a job.”

He was in shock. “You’re Dar Roberts?”

Dar pulled her wallet from her back pocket, fished her Florida driver’s license out, and showed it to him. “Three minutes.” She poked a finger at him. “Out.”

“You’re out of your mind. You can’t just walk in here and fire me,”

Gershwin rasped. “I’ll slap a lawsuit on you so fast…”

Kerry picked up the folder on the desk. “Hmm, yeah. This’ll make an interesting exhibit when I testify.” She showed the picture to Dar. “This is where I was last night.”

Dar took one look at the picture, then at Sam, putting two and two together and going from irritated rumpled executive to borderline murderous lover in the blink of an eye. “You stinking son of a…” She stepped forward and curled her hands in his lapels as she shoved him against the wall.

“Get your hands off me you…”

“Dar.” Kerry put a hand on her back, taking a nervous breath.

Dar stared into his eyes, her own ice cold. “Time’s up. You’re out of here right now, before I do something we’re both going to regret.” She released him and stepped back. “Now.”

He straightened his lapels, then gave her a hateful look. “You’ll hear from me. This isn’t the end of this, you can be sure of that.”

They watched him walk to the door and go through it, brushing by Charlie Efton on the way out. “Good bye, Charlie.”

The thin, bespectacled man stared after him puzzled, then looked inside the office, clearly at sea. “Ah, did I miss something? What’s going on?” His eyes went to Kerry and he was clearly surprised when whom he Eye of the Storm 43

considered a common field tech answered.

“Get your people in the conference room in five minutes,” Dar growled.

Charlie stared at her in bewilderment.

“Please,” Kerry added, folding her arms, “let’s get this over with.”

He walked out shaking his head, closing the door and leaving them alone.

Dar opened the folder and stared at the picture in disgust. “Pig.”

Kerry put out a hand and rubbed her back, feeling the warm tension under her fingers. “I thought it was sort of funny, Dar. I mean it’s so obviously doctored. You think this is how they got those accounts?”

“Pig.” Blue eyes narrowed intently as she studied the photo. “I should have kicked him in the nuts.”

“Um, Dar.” Kerry laughed a bit. “Take it easy, okay? Not that I don’t appreciate the noble protection of my honor, but…” She massaged Dar’s back. “What brought that on? What’d you find?”

Dar sat down on the desk, rubbing her temples and sighing. “Sorry. I um…he just hit me the wrong way, I guess. I was able to get Mark in to their system and he did a complete dump for me, then started parsing records and he found this dumb bastard’s damn online Filofax.”

Kerry’s jaw sagged. “You’re telling me he put illegal stuff he was doing in his computer?”

“No. Worse. He put it up on a network server, with multiple backups.”

“Oh, my god.” Kerry covered her eyes. “That’s worse than the illegal sales to China we found in that export company last month. At least they only kept those records on their Powership PC.”

Dar exhaled, as her body relaxed after its unexpected call to arms.

She’d been finishing up her inspection and the initial stages of conversion in the operations center when she’d gotten a cell phone call from Mark.

That had led to a guarded conference outside the office door, confirming Dar’s vague suspicions and marking the largest target of wrong-doing. She was sure that was what caused the sudden knot to form in her guts and sent her to Sam’s office, knowing she had to get him out of the building before he had a chance to cover any tracks.

That was what had caused it, right? The fact that the son of a bitch had been in here, threatening Kerry was just a coincidence.

Right?

“You all right?” Kerry’s voice held a note of concern.

Dar looked up, and allowed herself a very brief moment of drowning in those sea green eyes. “Yeah. This is going to be ugly, Ker. I don’t know who knows what right now. I think it would be better to call in a team and lock the management out of here until we get some answers.”