“A week?” Dar protested, leaning over her work and writing a long paragraph in her strong, but confusing handwriting. “Jesus, Byron. I got twenty of the damn things programmed in one night. What do you mean, a week?”

“Dar…”

Another scribble, and a pause for thought. “Shows exceptional grasp of business cases and acts with solid responsibility,” she muttered.

“Excuse me?”

“Not you, Byron.” Dar chewed the end of her pen. “All right. I’m tired of arguing and I gotta go. You’ve got a week but when that’s over, I want a clearance to bring the system up.”

A grumble. “Okay. I think I can do that.”

“You think?” Dar’s voice dropped.

“We’ll do it.”

“Night, Byron. Tell Sandra I said hello.”

“Tell her yourself,” Byron grumbled. “She’s right here laughing her ass off. She loves watching me squirm.”

Dar smiled. “Hey, Sandy.”

A low, melodic voice answered, full of the musical quality common in the East. “Hello, Dar, long time. I’ve been enjoying every minute of this.” Sandra chuckled. “I keep picturing this eighteen-year-old punk sitting in the CIO’s office though. It’s making my brain hurt.”

Sandra Weing had been Dar’s first supervisor after the company had bought out the tiny programming group she’d joined as a summer job.

Dar was fairly certain she’d driven the lovely, talented, patient, and serene Dr. Weing to banging her head against the wall and she was always surprised the woman remembered her fondly.

She’d also been Dar’s first crush and a medium of startling revelation. Sandra had married Byron, a well thought of systems engineer, and 136 Melissa Good decided to settle down at home and have kids, though, and Dar had always wondered how that’d worked out for her. “Well, I’m certainly not eighteen anymore,” she remarked, filling in another line on her form.

“But I’m glad you’re having fun.”

“No. I realized that when they posted those pictures of you online.”

Sandra chuckled. “Well, dinner’s calling. Nice talking to you, Dar.”

“Same here. Next week, Byron,” Dar warned.

“Yeah, yeah.” He sighed. “You’ll have it.”

“Night.” Dar hit the phone button with her pen and finished a last entry, her real reason for staying late.

Kerry’s evaluation, which would be a touch difficult to do during the chaotic day, or at home with the very tangible reminder of her lover’s presence so close by. She glanced at her watch. “Only eight-thirty. Not bad.” She added her recommendations for Kerry’s future and signed the review, with a strong scribbling, smiling as she sat back and let the pen drop on the desk.

The sound of footsteps didn’t surprise her. She’d known Ankow was still in the building, based on little security pop-ups that had been helpfully tracking him for her for the last few hours. “Well,” she stood up and locked her PC, then slid Kerry’s evaluation into her top desk drawer and locked that, too, “it’s not going to be a repeat of last night, that’s for sure.”

She already had her gym bag over her shoulder as he walked in and she peered briefly and uninterestedly at him as she picked up her keys.

“Just leaving.” She paused. “Sorry.”

He leaned against the doorframe, regarding her sourly. Maybe he doesn’t like parrots. She had two of them in a snuggly pose on her left breast, embroidered into a faded blue denim shirt tucked into natural stone washed jeans.

“Slumming tonight?”

Dar moved towards the door. “Disco bowling,” she answered, with strict truthfulness, as she stopped in front of him and gestured towards the outer office. “Bar’s closed.”

For a minute, she thought he was going to remain standing there, then he eased out ahead of her. “I’m surprised. Someone who lives out on a ritzy island spends her evenings bowling?”

Dar didn’t react. “Better than spending my time digging through public records in the Dade County Courthouse.”

He got to the door first and leaned against it, holding it shut and smiling at her. “But you find out such fascinating things leafing through those microfilmed titles.” He paused. “I’ve got you, Roberts.”

“With an inherited condo?” Dar glanced at her watch. “Get out of my way, I’ve got a lot more important things to do than this.”

“With your co-owner.”

Uh oh. Dar exhaled inwardly, but kept her composure. “Who?

Kerry?” She managed a completely bland look. “Why? She pays her half of the taxes.”


Eye of the Storm 137

A moment’s doubt shone in his eyes. “You live together.” He’d obviously expected a different reaction from her.

“Yep. Sure do,” Dar agreed amiably. “Best roommate I ever had.

Now, is there a point to this conversation? Because otherwise, I’m leaving.” She shouldered the gym bag and moved several steps closer.

Slowly, he moved away from the door and opened it, watching her face intently. “Roommate, hmm?”

Dar felt like punching him. She really, really did, and maybe he realized that, and it excited him. “Yeah.” Then she smiled with feral intensity. “What’d you think? We were screwing like squirrels on the coffee table?” She almost laughed at the look on his face. “Get your head out of your groin, Ankow, and your ass out of my office.” Dar brushed by him and strode towards the elevator, leaving him behind her in dangerous silence.

At the last minute as the doors opened and she stepped inside, he joined her, the elevator doors closing them both into a charged stillness.

They stared at each other in the oppressive atmosphere, the floors seeming to crawl by. At last the trip was over, and Dar escaped into the cool peace of the lobby, trying to ignore the stalking figure at her side.

He waited until they were past the doors and past the security guard, before he reached out and grabbed her arm.

Dar stopped.

And turned ice cold eyes on him. “Take your hands off me.” She kept her voice down, but it rumbled with intent.

He let go of her biceps, then pointed a finger at her chest. “I’m going to find out the truth,” he promised softly, “and bury you with it.”

Then he turned and headed for his rental car that was parked near the front of the building.

Dar took a deep breath and turned, then almost yelped when she came close to crashing headlong into a tall, menacing figure. “Hey!”

“Easy thar, Dardar.” Andrew peered over her shoulder, his eyes mere slits in the lamplight. “Whointhehell was that?”

“An asshole.” Dar felt like hugging him in pathetic gratitude. “Just a real asshole, who’s got it out for me.” A hand patted her arm awkwardly.

“What brings you here?” She nodded her head towards the Lexus. “Don’t worry about him.”

Andrew turned his attention from the car Ankow was driving back to his daughter. “I need yer help,” he muttered, embarrassed. “Got a minute?”

“Are you kidding?” Dar unlocked the car and motioned him into the passenger side. “What is it?”

Andrew climbed in and shut the door, waiting for her to start up the engine before he blew a breath out and peered sideways at her. “Been trying to figure out…good Lord, all the clock round the past few days how I could get…get my butt in a place where I could…um…”

“Contact Mom?” Dar paused at the stoplight, then turned when it changed.


138 Melissa Good

“Yeah.” Her father blinked and rubbed his eyes. Dar recognized the gesture with a faint smile. “And I want to. Damn, I do. But I can’t figger a way.” He studied his scarred hands. “Picked up the phone a dozen hundred times, started to dial…just couldn’t.” He looked up at her. “What do I say? What kin I say?”

“Hello?” Dar joked faintly, as she drove. “I know what you mean, though. I remember how shocked I was. She’s gonna lose it.”

He remained silent, just twisting his fingers.

Dar thought, turning her mind to the puzzle as she did throughout the day on less personal, less vital matters. Her father was counting on her. Finally, she exhaled. “Let the Navy do it.”

He looked up. “What?”

“Let the Navy do it. Have them contact her, say there was a mistake.

You know it happens,” Dar responded quietly. “It’s damn close to the truth.”

Andrew considered the words. “Doesn’t explain the months I been here.”

Dar had stopped at a red light, and now she turned. “No.” She searched his face. “That’s gonna be the tough part. Your tough part.”

The light turned green and she drove on, trying not to hear the audible sounds as he swallowed a few times.

“Damn it,” Andrew finally whispered. “I want to have the guts to just call up and do this and I don’t, Dardar. That’s a damn tough thing for someone’s stared down death as many times as I have and not cared.” He dropped his head against one hand. “Don’t wanta get the Navy into it.”

Dar pulled into the parking lot and turned off the Lexus, then pulled her cell phone out and checked the charge. “I understand being scared.”

She leaned her forearms against the wheel. “It’s like being in a dark pit and there’s no way out and you only go deeper into it, the longer you stay.”

They looked somberly at each other.

Dar keyed in her phone’s memory, and dialed a number, then held the instrument to her ear, until it was answered. “It’s Dar.” Hesitation, then a quiet response. “I’ve got someone here that wants to talk to you.”

She handed the phone to her father, who took it purely by reflex. “Here, say hello to Mom.”

Then she opened the door and tossed him the keys, closed it, and walked towards the building, without looking back.