Ankow was a little surprised. “You’re drunk.”

“You’re a moron,” Kerry shot right back. “I can always sober up.”

“You little…” Ankow reached for her arm. “I’ll—”

Without warning, Kerry lashed out a fist and caught him right in the nose with all the power she could muster.

“Son of a bitch! Don’t you touch me!” A splatter of blood sprayed in the garish lamplight, and Ankow stumbled backwards.

He wiped the blood onto the back of one hand and looked up at her, his eyes narrowing. Then they slid past Kerry’s shoulder, and he froze for a long moment. “You’ll regret doing that,” he finally said, in a very quiet voice. “Believe me.” Then he turned and walked rapidly away, disappearing between two parked vans and into the darkness beyond.

They were quiet for a moment, then Dar let out a low, whistling breath. “Did that make you feel better?” she asked her lover wryly.

“Ow.” Kerry examined her hand. “I forgot to mention I get feisty when you get me tanked, didn’t I?”

Dar took her hand and rubbed a thumb over the skin. Then she lifted the hand up and kissed it. “I’ll have to remember that.”

Kerry sighed. “We’re seriously screwed, aren’t we?”

Dar made a faint noise.

“They’re going to fire us and sue us for a ton of money, right?”

“Probably,” Dar acknowledged. “Well, me, anyway. You didn’t do anything. The corporate responsibility for the rule falls on the supervisor.” She gazed at Kerry. “And I certainly did know what I was doing.”

“Can they put us in jail?”

“No.” Dar shook her head. “We’re not criminals, just lovers.” Her lips twitched faintly. “Though, I don’t know—he might have you for assault and battery now.”

“Nah. He’d never admit to a cop he let a girl punch him.” Kerry smiled, then leaned against the Lincoln. She felt curiously free, in a strange way. “You know something, Dar?”

“What?”

“I don’t care.”


Eye of the Storm 227

“You don’t?”

“No,” she answered very softly. “If all I have in the world is you, no matter what we do, or where we end up, that’s okay with me.” She rubbed her arm. “Worst comes to worst, we can go on the road and I’ll sell my poems for food, how about that?”

Dar chuckled. “C’mon.” She held a hand out. “You still in the mood for sushi?”

Kerry went willingly, allowing Dar to lead her over to the bike and settling behind her. “It’s a little late for that, but boy, could I ever use some ice cream,” she mumbled into the leather covered back. “A nice big double scoop sundae with lots of fudge.”

“Your wish is my command.” Dar started the engine and revved it.

“Hang on.”

“Don’t worry.” Kerry tightened her grip. “I’m never letting go of you.”

They pulled out into the street, under a crisply starred sky with a peaceful full moon to light the way.


Chapter

Twenty-five

DAR PARKED THE bike near the condo and carefully put the cover they’d been provided with on top of it. Kerry helped her and they both stepped back and regarded the machine. “You think?”

“Oh yeah.” Kerry stifled a yawn, and leaned against her. “C’mon.

Chino heard us.”

They walked up the stairs and Kerry keyed the lock, pulled the door open and released the excited Labrador. “Easy, Chino. Easy.” She knelt and hugged the puppy, then picked her up and followed Dar into the living room.

“Hey, Dar?”

“Hmm?” The taller woman dropped her jacket over the back of the loveseat and unlaced her vest.

“I know you sort of just came into this, but if you had a choice, where would you live?”

Interesting question. Dar loosened the laces and wandered into her room, tugged the leather off and replaced it with a worn heavy cotton Tshirt. She rubbed her arms as she regarded her reflection, then glanced over at the blonde in the doorway. “Honestly? A place that doesn’t exist.”

She chuckled a little. “A nice, rustic cabin on the beach, not too close to everyone else, with a little dock.”

Kerry considered that. “I’m sure there’re places like that.”

“Umm. With ISDN fast access lines and a shopping mall next door?”

The blue eyes twinkled with wry self deprecation. “Not to mention cable TV?”

“Hmm. I get it. Microsoft rustic.”

“Something like that.” Dar shrugged. “A way to mix my preferences with my vocation. I think you have to trade off one for the other.” She looked around. “I don’t need the marble and silk, but I do love the technology. It’s always intrigued me.”

Kerry nodded slowly. “Yeah, me too.” She paused reflectively. “It would be kind of fun to pick a new place out with you, though. I mean…”

An awkward hesitation. “I don’t know what I mean.” She wandered forward and pulled a faded blue T-shirt from Dar’s drawer. “Mind if I borrow this?”

“Since when do you ask?” Dar kidded her, then was quiet for a Eye of the Storm 229

minute. “I wouldn’t mind picking a place out with you either.” They regarded each other. “Let’s see what happens with this whole thing.

Maybe we won’t have a choice.” She circled her finger in the air, then unfastened Kerry’s top as the blonde woman turned around.

“Are you worried about it?”

Dar eased past her and headed for the back door, with Chino dancing beside her. “Worried?” She opened the door for the puppy and watched her scamper out into the dark garden. “No. I know I’m employ-able, Kerry, and that’s the bottom line.” She glanced up. “Even if I end up getting a quarter of my salary, it’s still livable, but,” she shrugged, “I feel like I’ve put so much into the company, after all this time, it hurts a little to have to face this.”

Kerry rubbed her arms, warming them in the chill of the air conditioning, and glad of Dar’s shirt. “It doesn’t make sense, though, Dar,” she mused. “Why now? You’ve never had a problem with the board before, and you’ve got a solid history with the company. What’s Ankow’s agenda, I wonder?”

Puzzled, Dar waited for Chino to come back in and shut the door, then walked into the kitchen and started fiddling with the coffee maker.

“I thought we knew it. He wants to take control, to oust Alastair. This is going to be damn embarrassing for him, since any disclosure of records will show he processed the overrides on our personnel records.”

“No.” Kerry shook her head, retrieved the coffee container, and handed it to her. “He knew something was up between us before he started all this. There’s something more going on, Dar, and I can’t help but notice the timing on this is awfully convenient.” She moved closer and leaned on the counter, watching Dar’s thoughtful face. “Something he said tonight, about us. I know he has a bad attitude about immigrants, because he made snide comments in the lunchroom.”

“So he’s prejudiced.” She shrugged. “He’s in the majority, Ker. You saw the looks we were getting tonight. We’re just lucky in that most of the people close to us have accepted our relationship.”

“I just have a feeling there’s something more to it,” Kerry objected stubbornly. “Because you know as well as I do, that lawsuit of his is bullshit, Dar. In the entire time you’ve been at an executive level at ILS, they’ve shown a healthy profit. The only thing proving we’re involved with each other gets him is grounds for termination.”

“Mmm.”

“And it makes everyone who supported us, Alastair, Duks, Mari, look bad.”

“True.”

“So, it gives him the leverage to put his own people in, if it all goes his way.”

“Yes, it does.” Dar poured two cups of coffee and added cream and sugar, then handed one to Kerry and guided her out into the living room.

“Why?” Kerry sat down on the couch and put her feet up on the table, crossing them at the ankles. “Why this company? Why does he give 230 Melissa Good a damn? I don’t get it.”

Dar settled back and took a sip of her coffee, thinking. Chino scrambled up on the couch and curled up next to her, putting her muzzle on Dar’s thigh. “His scan came up pretty clean,” she mused. “He was in the Army for eight years, discharged as a captain, nothing out of the ordinary in his records. Family lives in Oregon. Father’s a lumber magnate, pretty well off. He went to school in Washington, got a degree, went to law school. Came out and worked for the father as a corporate lawyer.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. No criminal background, good credit, Mark couldn’t find a thing on him, except that he’d been an Eagle Scout, something Mark found really funny, for some reason.”

“Hmm.” Kerry exhaled. “That doesn’t help. What does he want from us? Or from ILS?”

Dar sat absolutely still for a long moment, then she put her cup down and turned towards Kerry. “Data.”

“Huh?”

“Data. It’s what we do, Kerry. We carry more data for more companies and governments than any other company in the world.”

“Well, sure, I know but—”

“Eighty percent of the interbank transfers. Military signal processing. The corporate network.” Dar rubbed her temple. “I never thought of it this way, but if you wanted to get information on anyone and anything, we’re the kind of company that could do it, easily.”

“But that data doesn’t belong to us, Dar.”

“I know. But what would stop someone from passing all that through a filter in one of the big backbones and siphoning it off into a data storage for sifting?” The blue eyes glinted. “Someone inside the company, I mean. Someone like Mark.”

Kerry thought, then she shook her head slowly. “Nothing.” She tried to grasp the enormity of it. “Do you really think that’s what he’s after, Dar? It sounds so…so…melodramatic.” She gave her lover a wry look.