Stormy Waters: Book 10 in The Dar & Kerry Series

by Good, Melissa

  However, since Kerry wasn't here, and this was at least an opportunity to make an impression, Dar decided she'd make an exception. "Sure." She agreed. "You'll get out easy. The rest of your bunch has to spend whole days with my competition."

  The woman chuckled. "Now, as a professional journalist, I have to keep neutral, Ms. Roberts, so I certainly can't pass along to you any of the comments of my colleagues." She paused, and let the words simply saunter off with their meaning fully intact. "But I'm sure we can find something else to discuss."

  Dar checked the time on the computer screen. "Probably, but it needs to be now, because I've got conferences starting in an hour and a half." She got up, pausing only to type a quick message and send it. "What's your poison?"

  "Anything." The reporter responded promptly.

  Dar looked up, with a devilish grin and watched the woman wince.

  "Oh, I should not have said that." Cruicshank mourned. "I just know I'm going to end up regretting it. The one thing everyone agrees on is that you have a very twisted sense of humor."

  "Nah." Dar gestured toward the door. "Most people think I don't have one at all." She locked her PC and came around the desk. "There's a sushi place next door that's fast and something less than noisy."

  "Phew." The reporter followed her out. "I decided to try a little place near my hotel yesterday and boy did I end up regretting it. I think the grease inside was older than I am."

  Dar held the door then went out after her. "Sounds like a place I'd love." She cheerfully stated giving Maria a brief wave. "Lunch."

  Maria waved back, then cleared her throat a bit. "Dar, by any chance did you speak with..."

  "Yes, she's fine, she doesn't need anything, she wishes she were here, and I sent my mother over to keep her company." Dar rattled off on her way to the outer door. "But if you want to send her chocolate ice cream, go for it."

  Maria covered her mouth to stifle a laugh, as she watched them leave. She shook her head, then turned to flip through her phone directory until she found the number she was looking for. Just as she was about to dial, the outer door opened again and Mayte slipped inside. "Bueno. I am glad you are here. Please pay attention, so you know the next time what to do, yes?"

  Mayte came around the desk and knelt down, watching obediently. "Mama, Kerry's friend, Colleen, just came to the office and said to tell everyone who is talking that Kerry did not get hit by Dar. Did you know that?"

  Maria stopped in mid dial and clicked the phone off. "Did I know that it was not so? I never once even thought that it was. Was there people saying that?"

  "She said that there were, but I did not hear anything like that," Mayte said. "People do not say such things to me, I think, because they are afraid you will hit them."

  "Good." Maria nodded briskly. "I will send a note to Conchita and Rose, and those others so whatever they are saying, they will stop. I have got them good chained."

  "Trained, mama." Mayte murmured. "But I am glad it is not true. I would not like to think Kerry could get hurt that way."

  Maria leaned on her desk. "I will tell you something. Dar may be many, many things and some people may think she is tough, and mean, and would do something like that. But I know in my heart that before she would do any little thing to hurt Kerry, she would faster jump off the building."

  Mayte nodded. "I think so too." She hesitated. "But mama, I did hear something that really bothered me just before. Some people are saying that they are going to break up, and they have heard Kerry talk about leaving. Do you think that's true?"

  Maria turned in her chair and stared at her daughter. "Como?" She said, astonished. "They told you that? Who told you that?"

  Mayte shook her head. "No, they did not tell me, Mama, I heard. It was in the bathroom. They did not know I was there." She explained. "One was the woman who works over near the little room with all the books here, and the other I did not know."

  Maria was quiet for a brief time, as she pondered what to do. "Mayte, no, I do not think that is true at all." She finally said. "But we must find out who is saying these things, and why they are saying them."

  "Okay." Her daughter agreed. "Then we can throw food at them, yes?"

  "Tch." Maria gave her a look. "That was not funny."

  "Mama, yes it was." Mayte told her. "Kerry said it was very funny. She is so sad there are no pictures." She got to her feet. "But, yes, we should find out who is being so mean, and make them stop it. I know it would hurt Kerry very much if she heard someone say that. I think she really is very devoted."

  "Si." Her mother agreed. "First, let me do this thing I want to show you. Have you gone for lunch yet?"

  Mayte fidgeted a little. "I was going to meet someone for lunch, Mama."

  Maria looked at her, then made a clucking sound. Mayte blushed, and shrugged. "It is not that person with the pins again, is it?"

  Mayte shook her head.

  "Dios Mio." Maria dialed the phone. "Please god, that you find someone nice like Kerrisita who I don't have to worry about being a pincushion."

  Mayte sighed. "It would be nice if Kerry were twins." She admitted mournfully.

  Her mother paused, and gave her a look.

  "Don't you think so?"

  "Dios Mio." Maria glanced at the ceiling, then looked down as the phone was answered. "Hello, Senor Clemente? Si, this is Maria. Yes, I have something I need for you to do for me."

  ANDREW LOOKED UP as the door slammed, recognizing one of the two women in charge of the computers. She stopped and looked around, then headed determinedly toward him. Since he was the only one left in the trailer, it wasn't unexpected, so he turned and faced her waiting in neutral silence.

  "I'm looking for the crew chief," the woman said, stopping in front of him.

  Andrew rotated his head and looked round the small trailer. "He ain't here." He drawled politely.

  "I can see that. Where is he? I need to speak to him right now." Shari snapped.

  "Wall." Andrew sniffed. "I do believe he said he was goin' to get him some lunch."

  Shari looked at her watch. "When?"

  "'Bout half hour past."

  Visibly disgusted, Shari turned and regarded the trailer. "Did he say where?" She turned again and stared at Andrew. "With all this going on, how could he have just left?"

  "He was hungry?" Mild, blue eyes blinked back at her. "Feller's entitled to have him some lunch."

  "Not on my dime." The woman paused. "Did I meet you somewhere before? Or are you just from around here?"

  A corner of Andrew's lip twitched. "Ah do believe we have never met. I surely would have remembered it."

  "Whatever." Shari turned and headed for the door. "When he gets back, you tell him to call me. Otherwise, I can arrange for him to find another job." She turned, pausing on the steps out. "Sure you can remember all that?"

  "Ah do believe I can," Andy said. "If that there feller does come back, ah will surely tell him."

  Halfway out the door, Shari stopped. "If?"

  Andy got up and stretched, his hands touching the roof of the trailer as he shook the kinks out of his tall frame. "Yeap. He done took all that there paperwork with him, and ah figure he probly headed back to his office or something."

  "Shit." Shari slammed the door and stomped down the steps making the wall of the trailer shake.

  Andrew lowered his arms and chuckled, half turning as the back door opened and the supervisor returned wiping his hands off on the tails of his shirt.

  "Hey, did I hear that woman in here?" The super asked.

  "Yeap." Andy nodded. "I done told her you took off for the day."

  The super started laughing. "You did?" He walked over and slapped Andrew on the back. "Damn, I like you Ugly. I'm gonna give you a damn raise." He went to his desk and looked out the window. "There she blows...I mean goes...what'd she want, anyway?"

  Andrew returned to his sorting task, making marks on a sheet of paper. "Ah do not know," he answered honestly. "Just wanted to talk to y
ou."

  "Ahhh...it'll wait." The super sat down at his desk. "Last thing she asked me to do was submit one of her orders six times. What kind of bullshit was that? Must be nuts."

  Andy's eyebrow lifted. One thing he was fairly sure of was that whatever the woman did, it was for a purpose, and the purpose was probably something he wasn't going to like.

  Just like he didn't like the woman herself.

  "WHAT?" Kerry frowned, listening to Mark's voice on the cell phone. "Tell me this again?" She glanced up as Ceci re-entered the living room. "They said what?"

  "It's a crock, boss." Mark sounded more than peeved. "Son of a bitch. I called them to find out a ship status on the order, and they told me it was on hold because they were out of stock."

  Kerry's one good eye narrowed. "You didn't hear that when you placed it the other day?"

  "Nope, I had a seven day delivery quoted," Mark said. "So I called our rep, and he said there wasn't anything he could do--out of stock is out of stock-- but he could get us hooked up through a distribution channel provider."

  "At list price," Kerry said.

  "Yeah."

  "Problems?" Ceci sat down on the love seat and picked up her teacup, sipping it as she watched Kerry's face. Her usual good humor had vanished, and the gentle planes had hardened into a much sterner profile.

  "Bastards." Kerry murmured. "Mark, that can't be an accident. We're all using the same gear. Someone got to someone."

  "That's what I thought." Mark agreed readily. "But the rep won't budge, said someone above him released the shipment, some big customer apparently."

  Kerry folded her arm over her stomach and stared past the glass doors. "We're big customers, Mark."

  "That's what I told him. And told him. And told him," Mark said. "I don't think there was squat he could do, Kerry. I even asked to talk to his boss and got told he was out of the country."

  "Pfft." Kerry snorted in derision.

  "So what do you want to do? Go with the distribution order? Maybe we can shave off some costs somewhere else?"

  Kerry exhaled, wondering really what her options were. If they lost the advantage their discount gave them, could she make it up somewhere else? The project was so important, could she risk it?

  What would Dar do?

  Kerry turned her head and focused her vision on the picture just to one side of the television, the one where Dar was looking right at the camera, and seemingly right into her eyes.

  Hmm.

  "Mark?"

  "Still here, boss." Mark spoke through the ever present rattling of keys. "You got any great ideas? I was even surfing around our inventory to see if we can pull from stock, but we just don't have enough units for the full order."

  "Call that jerk back up, and tell him that I said if he doesn't shake that order loose, we're going with another vendor's gear."

  Silence. "Um...okay." Mark hesitated.

  "Company wide."

  Longer silence. "You're kidding, right?"

  "Nope," Kerry said. "They want to lose a top tier partner? Fine. I'll get two other infrastructure companies in here giving me bids by the weekend, and believe me my friend, they'll be more than happy not only to give us better prices, but tell the press all about it as loud as they can."

  More silence.

  "You want me to call him?" Kerry asked.

  "No, I'll do it." Mark recovered hastily. "No problem, matter of fact, I'd enjoy the heck out of it. Lemme call you back after I talk to him, okay?"

  "Okay."

  Kerry folded the phone up and laid it on her stomach letting out a long breath before she glanced over at Ceci. "Sometimes, you just have to be a bitch."

  Ceci leaned on the arm of the love seat, her gray eyes wryly twinkling. "Kerry, don't take this the wrong way, but you'd have to channel the Wicked Witch of the West with terminal PMS to come off as a really good bitch. You're just too cute."

  Her guts still churning in side, Kerry nevertheless managed a wry grin. "Yeah. I know. Dar says the same thing." She admitted. "Even my getting a tattoo really doesn't up the intimidation factor."

  "You?" Ceci sat up. "Got a tattoo?"

  "I sure did." Kerry got up off the couch and walked over, crouching next to her mother-in-law and pulling her t-shirt down off one shoulder. "See?" She watched the puzzled, then charmed expression cross Ceci's face and smiled as their eyes met again.

  "What did Dar say when she saw that?" Ceci asked. "It's absolutely gorgeous, by the way. You found a great artist."

  "Mm." Kerry relived the warmth of the moment. "She didn't say much. But she liked it." She got up and plopped back down onto the couch.

  "I bet she did," Ceci said. "What made you decide to get that done? I never figured you for the pain loving type." She settled back in the love seat and tucked her bare feet up under her, leaning on the arm as she watched Kerry squirm around on the couch.

  "Well," Kerry stretched out, resting her head on the thickly padded arm, "I'm not. I hate needles almost as much as Dar does."

  "That's saying something." Ceci commented wryly. "I always timed her checkups for when Andy was home, because he was the only one who could hold her down long enough for them to inoculate her."

  Kerry spared a moment to imagine that. Her partner had a considerable amount of strength, and she could easily imagine her terrorizing the nurses. "Well, considering what happened to her in the hospital that one time, I can't say I really blame her. I know I was an adult when I had my one horror show and how it affected me, so..." She glanced up at Ceci, who now had a pensive look on her face. "Anyway, it was when Dar was in New York. I finished boxing class, and I guess that, plus talking with the guys, plus the smell of a new Harley...I don't know. I think I just went nuts for the night."

  "Ah." The older woman nodded.

  They were both quiet for a brief time. Then Kerry sighed. "It was just something I wanted to do," she said. "And you know I was worried about what Dar would say."

  "About that?" Ceci's eyebrows popped up like a surprised meerkat.

  "About me doing it." Kerry turned and grabbed her cell phone again as it rang. "Yes?" She answered it, pushing her disordered hair out of the way. "Hey Mark. What's up? Did you get through to that guy?"

  Mark sounded as though he was out of the office for a change, traffic sounding behind him instead of the usual humming bustle of the MIS center. "I did, boss. He's gonna call me back." He told her. "He was not a happy guy."

  "I'm not a happy gal," Kerry retorted, "so we're even. Did he really think he'd just get away with that game that easily?"

  "I dunno." Mark sighed. "I'm just grabbing something for lunch. I passed DR heading to the sushi place with that reporter. Glad she wasn't there when this hit the fan."

  Mm. Sushi. Kerry stifled a grin, recalling the little place she'd found that had been there for years and escaped Dar's notice somehow. It was small, but the service was good and they had a table in the back where the little waitresses always recognized them. "That reporter's connected with the ship bid." She told Mark. "Guess they didn't antagonize Dar too badly, if she's eating with them."

  "Yeah." Mark agreed. "She looked nice enough, not like that scruffy guy who came in here last time." A siren blared. "Well, soon as I hear back on our order, I'll give you a buzz, okay? I'm almost to the pizza place."

  "Right." Kerry agreed. "Have a good pizza, Mark." She hung up, and felt her nostrils twitch just a trifle as she acknowledged a brief pang thinking about Dar having lunch with another woman. It was extremely unclassy, and stupid, and pointless, so she just waited it out and after a second it passed, and she could mentally roll her eyes at herself.

  If there was one thing she knew she could trust completely, it was Dar in that regards. Heck, Dar had turned away offers even before they were barely friends, much less involved with each other. She was steadfast and honest, and it bothered Kerry to even have the littlest of reactions to the thought of anything otherwise.

  Ah well. She released a long sigh
, and dismissed the thought. "So anyway, that's how I ended up with a tattoo."

  Ceci had been quietly watching her. "Did Dar mind you doing it? I don't really think she'd object. I know she really wanted one when she was younger, but her father and her own dislike of the apparatus dissuaded her."

  "No." Kerry shook her head. "I don't think she minded at all. She thinks it's kind of...um..." She blushed slightly. "Well..."

  "Well, it's her name on your chest." The gray eyes twinkled. "So I'm sure it's quite sexy."

  "Yeah." Kerry's blush deepened and she scrubbed one hand over her cheek. "But it's not just that, I think? I think it means something else, too."

  Ceci pursed her lips. "I think it means for her the kind of permanence she was always looking for." Dar's mother spoke up unexpectedly. "I didn't understand that for such a long time."

  Kerry nodded, a lump rising in her throat. "That's what I wanted it to mean." She could hear the husky note in her voice, and she stopped speaking to let it clear.

  Ceci fiddled with her cup as the silence lengthened. "Want more?" She offered. "I'd offer to bake cookies, but we both know how that's going to turn out."

  Kerry smiled. "Sure. How about you get some tea, and I'll bake the cookies? I've got a black eye, not a broken leg." She got up from the couch, suddenly wanting something to do. "Besides, I know they won't go to waste later on if we have extra."

  "Eh." Ceci amiably joined her. "That's for sure."

  "Hey, any chance of Dad stopping by after work?"

  "With cookies in the offing? Absolutely."

  Kerry chuckled, putting aside her worries for now. There would be time enough to worry about them later.

  Chapter Six

  "OKAY. SO NOW I have some questions." Pat Cruicshank said, as the waitress set down two tiny cups of tea. "You ready?"

  Dar was in the back corner seat one arm spread along the bench back and her legs extended almost into the aisle imperiling the service. "You can ask," she said. "No guarantee I'll answer." She picked up the small cup and set it down in front of her, adding a packet of sugar to it before daring a sip.