“About time,” her friend told her firmly. “G’wan and enjoy the party.” Colleen gave her a little bump.

A buzz of voices surrounded her and Kerry just shook her head, moving further into the room and murmuring thank yous to people who came up to wish her a happy birthday. She wandered over near the cake and glanced at it, then laughed uncontrollably. “Oh my god. Who did that?”

The frosting was ocean blue and green and someone had, somehow, crafted an entire darn tropical reef, complete with little fish and what looked like a lobster. It was gorgeous. “I can’t eat this,” she yelped. “Look at that angel fish. It’s almost real.”

A soft throat clearing caught her ear and she turned to see Dar standing behind her, reviewing the cake diffidently. “My mother is gonna be really ticked off if you don’t at least try it.”

“Your…” Kerry glanced at the cake, then back at Dar. “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it.”

Dar chuckled.

“Can’t believe what? That she has a mother?” Eleanor gave Dar a sweet smile. “We couldn’t either.”

“No, no. I’ve met her mother. But…” Kerry laughed and just shook her head. “Thanks, guys. This is incredible.” She stole a tortilla, scooped up some salsa, and munched on it as everyone mingled and grabbed food and drinks. “And you,” she muttered in a very low voice to Dar, “are so busted.”

“Ah, ah. Not me.” Dar shook her head solemnly. “I found out about it when I got back to Miami. I had nothing to do with this.”

Kerry pointed mutely at the cake and lifted her brows.

Dar shrugged. “Apparently they found out this was going on and Mom offered.”

“Ahem. Excuse me folks.” Maríana had taken control of the mike at the nearby podium. She tapped the mike for effect, making a squeal as her nails hit the screen grid. “Whoops.”

“Hey Mari, maybe we can find a geek somewhere around here to help you with that.”

The Personnel VP shaded her eyes with one hand and made a production of scanning the audience intently. “Don’t see any here.”

A round of laughter echoed.

“Anyway,” Maríana cleared her throat, “as a representative of com-Eye of the Storm 453

pany management I just wanted to wish Kerry a happy birthday.”

Cheers. “And to welcome her back after her vacation.”

“Thanks,” Kerry said from where she’d just cornered a Corona and taken a sip of it. “This is really nice and I’m amazed at the effort you guys put into it.”

Cheers.

“Ahem.” Mari regained control of the audience. “As long as we’re all hanging around here, I might as well take the opportunity to give Kerry her official birthday present from ILS.” She held up a small, thin item wrapped in gold paper, with a blue bow, and tiny, embossed company logos all over it.

Everyone quieted and turned to watch as Kerry, visibly blushing again, put her drink down and walked forward to take it gingerly from Mari’s hands. “Um…thanks. I didn’t expect anything from the company.”

“Well, sometimes we just have these things lying around. So…” Mari shrugged and leaned on the podium. “Go on and open it.”

Dar moved silently up behind Kerry and stood there watching, her hands folded in front of her.

“Well,” Kerry peered around, obviously embarrassed, “I mean, okay, sure.” She cleared her throat and carefully removed the ribbon. “Oh, isn’t that cute?” She admired the embossed logos, then tucked the ribbon under her arm and continued opening the wrapping.

It was a very flat, heavy something, whatever it was, and she found her curiosity piqued, trying to imagine what it was. A base for her PC? A paperweight for her desk? A bookend? She peeled the tape off and eased the wrapping back, very aware of the expectant silence around her. A hint of brassy metal appeared and she opened the other side of the paper, then flipped it over and exposed the front.

She blinked three times.

Vice President of Operations, Kerrison Stuart.

“Urk.” Kerry uttered a tiny noise, then her knees unlocked and she almost went crashing to the ground in pure surprise. A powerful hand gripped her arm and held her up, and she just swayed, glad of Dar’s close presence. “Oh boy,” she whispered, “I wasn’t expecting this.”

José cleared his throat and stepped forward, sticking a hand out to her. “Congratulations, Kerry. I am glad you will be on the team with us.”

Kerry returned his grip, as a rush of blood returned to her head after her heart seemingly stopped for a minute. “Thank you.” Holy bleep. She and Dar had discussed the possibility, sure. When Dar had given her that damn evaluation, and she’d agreed that it looked like she felt comfortable with it but…

After what she’d gone through in Washington, she’d figured that was on indefinite hold.

“Yes, congratulations, Kerry, for a purely selfish reason, of course.”

Eleanor also shook her hand. “You have no idea how much more pleasant you’ve made my work here.” She gave Dar a smile over Kerry’s shoulder.

“Not to mention you freed up the uber-nerd here to finish our new net-454 Melissa Good work.”

“Um, thanks, I think,” Kerry murmured.

Duks was next, studiously patting her shoulder. “Do not worry that you have big shoes to fill, Kerry.”

“I wasn’t.” Kerry chuckled. “Thanks. I’m glad I’ll get a chance to work more with you guys.”

“Congratulations.” Maríana now smiled at her. “It was well deserved.”

“Hey Kerry.” Mark snapped yet another picture. “This is gonna look great on the front page of the department newsletter.”

Kerry winced. “C’mon. I must be as red as a lobster.”

“We’ll just tell ’em it’s sunburn,” the MIS Chief replied cheerfully.

“Hold the plaque up, huh?”

Dar settled back against the wall, enjoying her partner’s position in the very center of the spotlight. Kerry’s smile just kept getting bigger and bigger, and Dar felt a distinct sense of pleasure as she listened to the crowd’s comments and watched them cluster around the new VP, chattering and congratulating.

Yeah. It was a pretty damn good day after all. She snagged a Frito and scooped up some chili dip.


Chapter

Forty-nine

KERRY WAS CURLED in the passenger seat of the Lexus, watching both Dar’s profile and the city lights flash by as they headed over the causeway towards home. Dar kept smirking to herself, a little tensing motion of her lips, and Kerry suspected she was remembering the high points of her party.

That was okay. Kerry was too. It had lasted longer than she’d thought it would. “Hey, Dar?”

“Hmm?” Dar glanced at her, then returned her eyes to the road.

“Did you really not know anything about the party?”

Dar’s nose twitched. “Well,” she chuckled softly, “I got this phone call two weeks back asking me what your favorite foods were. Figuring there wasn’t a Kerrison Stuart Cooks! videotape in the works, I pinned the caller to the wall and tortured the details out of them.”

Kerry muffled a laugh. “That explains the Snowballs. I was wondering about that, because I’m damn sure I never told anyone but you that I liked them.” There had also been chafing dishes full of Thai foods and a conspicuous presence of chocolate scattered around. “God, I’m stuffed.”

“Did you have fun?”

“Yeah. It was really nice. I was surprised at how many people were there.” Kerry mused. “I can’t believe they brought gifts and stuff.”

Dar turned into the ferry terminal and pulled onto the boat. “Why?

Kerry, people really like you, for one thing, and for another, they’re damn grateful they have you to deal with and not me.”

“Dar, that’s not true,” Kerry protested, but her partner didn’t look distressed at her statement.

“Would they hate to lose me? Sure,” Dar agreed readily. “Everybody knows the company is better off with me doing what I do. But they’d rather work with you. Which is fine, Kerry. That’s exactly what I intended when I made you my assistant. In fact, I commented to Mari at the time that it might reduce her personnel complaints.”

“Just so I could generate other kinds of personnel complaints,” Kerry remarked wryly.

“No one complains about you.” Dar shook her head.

“Well, not many people complain about you anymore, either,” Kerry shot back. “So there.”


456 Melissa Good Dar was quiet for a moment, deep in thought. “Yeah,” she finally said, sounding surprised. “You’re right. They haven’t been.”

Kerry settled back in her seat, satisfied. She was quiet for a minute, then looked at Dar. “I don’t have any other surprises waiting for me, do I?”

“At home?” Dar smiled. “No…well…” She chuckled. “I don’t know.

Maybe a box or two.” She squeezed Kerry’s knee. “I saved mine for tomorrow, but I think my folks might have dropped by something.”

Kerry wrinkled up her nose in a smile. “This is so cool,” she admitted. “At home, after about…age eight or so, I guess, we got gift certificates to various department stores, which my mother took and used to get things she thought we needed.”

“That’s no fun.”

“No,” Kerry agreed. “I used to save up my allowance and go out and get myself one thing, a toy or whatever, that I wanted.” She considered.

“I remember the year I got myself an Erector Set. My mother was so pissed off at me. She took it away and gave it to Mike, who turned around and gave it back to me, of course. I kept it under my bed and played with it when she was out shopping.”

“An Erector Set? What problem did she have with that?” Dar asked in a puzzled tone.