Kerry obligingly put her pastry down and captured Dar’s fingers, lifting them and nibbling on a thumb instead. ”Okay.”

”Ms. Roberts, we just don’t know what caused it yet,” the hapless voice came through the phone. ”It could have been a false heat reading, it could have been a mechanical error. There’s no sense in speculating since we don’t really have any data. My team is on their way there. As soon as they get there and figure out what happened, believe me, I’ll call you.”

Dar felt an enjoyable tickle as the neat white teeth scraped lightly across the sensitive skin on the side of her finger. ”All right,” she agreed. ”But I have an entire data center down, and they can’t even get in there to start cleaning up. So they’d better move their asses.” She hung up, then noticed the other line was still lit. She punched it.

”Mari?”

A loud argument filtered through. ”Oh, what? Dar, yes.” Mari cleared her throat. ”Listen, you said you were going to handle a certain situation...well, I think...” Steven's loud voice was heard in the background, demanding something.

”Send him up here,” Dar spoke quietly, but forcefully into the phone.

”What?” Mariana asked.

”I'll take care of it. Send him up here,” Dar repeated, a slow, dangerous smile crossing her face. ”After this morning, I’ll enjoy it.”


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Melissa Good

A hesitation. ”All right,” the Personnel VP agreed, reluctantly.

”But— ”

”Dar.” Kerry regarded her quietly. ”What are you going to do?”

Pale blue eyes lanced into her. ”Fire him,” Dar answered, coolly.

”And watch him squirm his little ass right out of this office between two nice, big security guards.”

Kerry exhaled, as she studied her lover in silence for a moment.

”Dar listen to me a minute.” She slipped off the desk and knelt, resting her hand on Dar's thigh for balance. ”He still holds a grudge from ten years ago, right?” she asked. ”That’s what started this whole stupid thing.”

Dar’s brows knit. ”Yeah, so?” She leaned closer to the phone.

“Mari, hang on a minute, okay?”

“Sure,” the Personnal VP sighed as she was put on hold.

Kerry gently traced an idle pattern against the cotton fabric. ”Isn’t there some way you could do this so it didn’t perpetuate the hatefulness?”

”What?” Dar stared at her.

A sigh. ”He hates you because of a thing that happened half a lifetime ago, that’s a long time to keep that anger inside. Now this. It’s just more anger, and more hate, and more need for revenge.”

”Who cares?” Dar asked. ”Kerry, there’s no way we’re going to ever not hate each other, and frankly, I don’t give a damn if he does. I just want him out of here,” she told Kerry. ”You’d better scoot before he shows up. No sense in getting you involved in it.”

Kerry took a breath. ”Dar, I am involved in it,” she told her lover firmly. ”If he hates you, then he hates me.” She looked right up into Dar’s eyes. ”And I don’t like being hated.” A pause. ”Even by someone like him. My family’s enough for me to handle right now.”

Dar blinked at her.

”You’re so smart, can’t you find a way to get him out without escalating this?” The green eyes gazed sadly at her, reading the stunned look on Dar’s face. ”So it doesn’t come back at us someday?”

“Kerry, that’s how business works,” Dar said. “You can’t be everyone’s friend.”

Kerry rubbed her temples. “I know that,” she said. “But what’s he going to do if you fire him, Dar? He’s going to do his best to get back at you, and at us. Do you really want those pictures in the Miami Herald because you know he’s going to do it.”

Dar crossed her arms over her chest and frowned.

“Besides, didn’t Alastair say he wanted it done so he couldn’t sue us, at least?” Kerry went on, gently. “Dar, I’m not trying to be a jerk, I just want things not to get worse here.”

“Goddamn it,” Dar muttered. “Alastair was right.” She relaxed her posture and leaned an elbow on her desk, resting her head on her hand.

“I should have taken a few days off and let this defuse.” She reached Hurricane Watch

173

over and punched the hold button. “Mari?”

“I’m here,” Mariana answered.

“It’s going to have to wait. I’ve got an operational crisis here. That takes precedence,” Dar told her. “Just tell the stupid bastard to go do what we pay him to do and leave you alone for right now.”

“Right.” Surprisingly, Mariana sounded more relieved than upset.

“I stonewalled him and told him if he had an issue with personnel policies he could go talk to Alastair,” she said. “And I warned him he should walk softly, since it was very obviously Alastair who was involved yesterday.” She hesitated. “But I thought you—”

“Has to be done right,” Dar cut her off. “That needs some time to arrange, and right now I don’t have any.”

“Gotcha,” Mariana’s voice turned brisk. “I’ll get off your line now.

Thanks, Dar.”

“Yeah.” Dar cut the phone off and turned to regard Kerry.

Kerry gently brushed the side of Dar’s head, where a slight bump could still be felt, then she got up off the desk and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I love you,” she whispered in the perfect, curved ear, then turned and left quietly.

Dar sat in a puddle of filtered sunlight, the slanted rays dusting her cotton pants in warm ochre panels as she stared at the empty place where Kerry had knelt mere moments before. Her cheek tingled with the soft pressure, and she could still smell Kerry’s distinctive scent lingering in the air that surrounded her.

Her savage resolve of just five minutes prior was gone, dissipated into a somber confusion that knitted her brow as she slowly turned in her chair, resting her elbows on her desk and surrounding her coffee cup with a pair of loosely interlaced sets of fingers. It had been so easy.

So cut and dried. What did she care what he thought about it?

She didn’t, Dar sighed and shook her head. She didn’t give a rat’s ass what he thought or what he’d do about it. “But I do care what she thinks,” she spoke aloud to the sunlight. “And I do have better things to do.” The phone lit up again and she put aside the issue to deal with this far more urgent one. “Probably easier to solve anyway.”

KERRY FOUND HER way out to the back balcony, around the back behind the copier room where there was a tiny patio that overlooked the water. She liked to come out here sometimes and just think in the quiet peace the altitude afforded.

It was a beautiful day out, and she

wistfully realized that the current crisis was probably going to take precedence over leaving early, which was kind of depressing.

She’d been looking forward to some quiet time out on the water, where they could just watch the sunset together, and get in some twilight diving in the shallow, warm waters.


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Melissa Good

Only a few minutes, she promised, knowing she had to go back inside and resume dealing with the problem. Just a few minutes to lean against the heated metal of the railing, and feel the warm, fresh sea air against her face, and drink in the sunlight.

She wished Dar was beside her, and she wondered what her lover had thought about her request. The stunned look hadn’t really indicated if she’d considered it, or if the idea was palatable or not, but Kerry had the feeling she’d at least gotten her to think about it. That had to be good, right? With a sigh, she closed her eyes, and turned her face up to the sun, feeling the brightness against her eyelids.

The door opened behind her, and she turned, blinking in surprise as she recognized Steven’s slim figure sauntering out towards her.

Warily, she leaned against the railing and watched him approach.

”So.” He studied her. ”Here we have the Queen bitch’s little collared pet. Is this your private space?” He walked to the railing and leaned on it.

Kerry regarded him thoughtfully. ”Sorry about your nose,” she remarked.

He stared at her. ”So, what’s it like screwing the boss?”

She felt a deep jolt of anger erupt in her gut. ”Wouldn’t you like to know?” she responded. ”But she wouldn’t give your ugly butt a second glance.” Inwardly, she sighed. What was that you were saying to Dar, about not liking being hated? Smooth, Kerry, very smooth. What is it about this dork that brings out the hyperbitch from hell in you anyway?

”And I take that back; I’m not sorry at all,” she added. ”Excuse me.” She turned and headed for the door.

”I should have guessed it before,” he yelled after her. ”But Dick McMasters is a buddy of mine. He told me you didn’t put out.”

Kerry turned, with her hand on the doorknob, and looked back at him, the ugly memories flooding over her.

”Ah, I see you remember him,” Steven’s voice took on a savage satisfaction. ”Yeah, he told me all about you, the straight laced, stuck up aristocrat. He’s gonna laugh his ass off when I tell him what a pathetic little loser you turned out to be.”

It took several breaths, to force the nausea down, and shove aside the familiar sensation of sickening dread she’d felt for those long, dark months. ”You’re the one without a life, morals, or integrity, ”she told him finally. ”So which one of us is the loser?”

“Listen, you—”

Kerry cut him off, ”I hope someday you start taking responsibility for what happens to you, and not just blame everyone else. Maybe you’ll end up a happier person.” She opened the door and got through it, closing it behind her and moving away from it as quickly as she could, blindly finding her way towards the break room. She ducked inside, and leaned against the counter, looking up as a hand touched her arm. ”Wh— oh, hi Duks.”