Kerry sighed. “I’m tired, I’m cranky, and I don’t want to be here.”

She hesitated. “And I’m a little scared of why they want me back to testify.”

The room quieted then, as the session got under way. First, there were some meetings, then they talked about procedure.

Then they called her up. Kerry stood and took a deep breath, then carefully made her way out of their row and towards the table, getting a comforting pat on the leg from Andy as she went past him. She took her seat and folded her hands as her father’s lawyer came over to face her.

It was a very lonely feeling. She knew the man, and had for years, but it was as though he considered her nothing but some trash off the Eye of the Storm 343

street, given his expression. Not to mention her parent’s faces. Cameras flashed, and her peripheral vision caught the round, black single eyes of the television crews.

“Ms. Stuart,” the man hardly looked up from his papers, “you work for a company called ILS, is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“For how long?”

“Almost a year.”

He scribbled a note. “When was the last time you spoke with your parents, Ms. Stuart?”

Kerry felt the heightened interest almost beating against her skin.

“Thanksgiving of last year,” she answered quietly and heared a faint murmur rise.

“Why is that?” The man looked up.

“Why do you want to know?”

“Excuse me?”

Kerry shifted. “I asked, why do you want to know? What does something personal between my parents and myself have to do with anything here?”

He tapped his pen on his pad. “Because, Ms. Stuart, there was some very damaging and potentially libelous material released to the press last year, coincidentally,” he put a sting on it, “a day after the last time you spoke to your parents.” He paused. “So I ask you again, Ms. Stuart.

Why?”

Oh shit. Kerry caught Andrew sitting forward, gazing at her in concern. I am in such deep trouble. She sucked in a breath though and collected her thoughts. Don’t let them rattle you, Dar’s voice intoned in her mind.

Think.

“We had a disagreement about the direction my life was taking,”

Kerry answered carefully. “It happens all the time, in families.” She paused. “Or so I’m told.”

He nodded. “A disagreement so severe, it caused you to break off contact with your family entirely?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I speak with my brother and sister and our extended family.”

He made another mark. “Several years back, your uncle was fired by ILS.”

“That’s true,” Kerry agreed.

“And yet, you chose to go work for them.” He paused and looked at her. “Why?”

That, at least, was an easy question. “I’m an information services professional. They’re one of the largest IS companies in the world and they offered me a promotion, with a thirty percent pay hike.” Kerry cocked her head. “It wasn’t exactly rocket science.” Several of the senators behind her laughed.

“Even though your father was actively campaigning against them and was working to have them thrown out of government contracts in 344 Melissa Good Michigan?”

“Because he held a grudge due to Uncle Al. Yes,” Kerry answered back, a trifle sharply. “I investigated the files regarding that when I became an employee of ILS and I was satisfied that the company acted fairly.” She folded her hands.

“As a matter of fact, your current…supervisor…fired him. Is that right, Ms. Stuart?”

Uh oh, take two. “Given the information we had on him, sir, I would have fired him,” Kerry answered quietly. “But yes, in answer to your question, it was Ms. Roberts who did it.”

The lawyer nodded. “Exactly.” He leafed through a few sheets of paper. “It was the first step, in fact, in a plan to discredit your father.” He looked up. “And you played right into it.”

Kerry blinked. “What?”

He leaned on the table. “We know where that libelous information came from, Ms. Stuart.”

She didn’t answer him, her pulse racing against her skin.

“It’s been a careful, underhanded campaign to discredit your father and turn you against him and it’s resulted in this hearing, where these gentlemen are forced to question your father’s very morals.” The man turned, making sure the cameras had a good shot at him. “I put it to you, gentlemen. The company who stood to lose by the senator’s investiga-tions, who duped his daughter into working for them, who had the ability, and the resources to manufacture this information…it’s so obvious.”

Kerry could hear the murmurs of agreement. “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” she pronounced carefully. “ILS didn’t manufacture anything.”

“They could have, though. What about that problem this morning?”

One of the senators behind her leaned back. “Damn computers are too powerful nowadays.”

The lawyer circled her. “Don’t you see, Ms. Stuart? You’ve been tricked by your boss. It’s obvious that she made this stuff,” he slapped the dossiers on the desk, “up and sent it out, to stop Senator Stuart from canceling those contracts.”

Kerry took a deep breath. “No, she didn’t. And ILS had nothing to do with this.”

“You can’t be sure of that, Ms. Stuart.” The man now gave her a pity-ing look. “Or should I say, you’ve got a vested interest in denying it, since she seduced you in the process.”

A shocked silence occurred, then low whispers. Kerry’s nervousness faded and was replaced by anger. “Oh, I most certainly can be sure of that.”

“You’re not denying the seduction then? We know you two live together.”

The whispers were getting ugly and Kerry could feel the hostile eyes now on her. “That information was not manufactured by anyone and Dar Roberts did not release it.”


Eye of the Storm 345

The man crossed to her and leaned on the table. “Oh really? And how do you know that?”

Crunch time. Kerry met his eyes. “Because I did.”

Dead silence.

“I validated the source, I confirmed the contents, and I released that information to the press and to the FBI.” Kerry spoke into all that frozen quiet. “And, sir, it’s the bribes, and the malfeasance, and the buying of votes, and the moral decrepitude that’s at issue here. Not me, or my relationship with my family, or who in the hell I sleep with.” Her last sentence was spoken in a rapid crescendo.

He stared at her in total disgust.

Kerry just sat there, breathing hard.

“That will be all for now, Ms. Stuart,” one of the senators said, carefully adjusting a pile of papers in his hands. “I motion for a brief adjourn-ment.”

Somewhere, she found the strength to stand up with quiet dignity and face the explosion of flashbulbs. She stared through them to find her way back through the muttering crowd to a safe haven outlined by a tall, angry looking form who put an arm around her and visited the surrounding crowd with a lethal glare.

She sat down, shaking.

Andrew sat next to her and hissed out a long, aggravated breath.

“That boy is going to have his pecker pulled out his damn nostrils fore I’m done with him.”

Kerry swallowed, not daring to look up, knowing everyone was looking at her. Then a warm hand dropped onto her other shoulder and a graceful body lifted itself over the row of chairs and settled into the one next to her, feeling and smelling and sounding like Dar. She peeked over and saw a wry, compassionate gaze looking back. “Can I go home now?”

she managed to whisper.

Dar pulled her closer, ignoring the press, having gotten to the chambers just in time to hear Kerry’s admission. “Don’t worry about it, Ker.

You did what you had to. Whatever happens, you and I will deal with it.”

She exchanged looks with her father. “Take it easy. I’ve got you.”

Kerry closed her eyes, momentarily safe in her warm haven. Surely, it couldn’t get any worse, right?

She sighed.


Chapter

Thirty-seven

THEY PUSHED THEIR way out of the hastily recessed chambers, surrounded by people who were grabbing and shoving and plucking at Kerry’s sleeve. “Ms. Stuart. Ms. Stuart, a moment with you please!”

Kerry kept her head down and kept walking, relying on Dar’s guidance to keep her from slamming into the press crews and other impedi-ments. A hand grabbed her arm and she looked up to see her microphone shoved in her face. “I’m sorry.” She took a breath. “I think I’ve said enough for now.”

“Wait!”

“Ms. Stuart!”

“Is it true?”

“Excuse us.” Dar put an arm around Kerry and put a hand out, shoving hard and making some space in the crush of bodies. Andrew came up on the other side and tucked Ceci between them, slipping an arm behind Dar’s and clasping her above the elbow.

“You all right?” Ceci murmured, patting Kerry’s arm.

“No,” Kerry whispered.

“Take it easy. We’ll get out of here.” Ceci glanced up at the two determined, serious faces above her head. She and Dar had gone down to the crowded building after Dar had finished her interview, doing a more than creditable job so far as Ceci could tell and fending off the repeated passes from the reporter with a wry good grace. They’d gotten to the stairs just as Kerry was speaking and stopped in the very doorway just as she’d admitted to releasing the information.

Gutsy kid. Ceci had followed Dar closely through the chaos, almost swallowed up by Andy’s welcoming grip as she reached the seats.

She’d been out of life for so long, Ceci suspected this was the Goddess’ little revenge.