Stormy Waters: Book 10 in The Dar & Kerry Series

by Good, Melissa

  "Question one." The reporter went on gamely. "How come you go to a sushi restaurant, and don't order any sushi?"

  Dar's eyebrow quirked. "Any raw sushi, you mean?"

  "Yeah."

  "I've swam in the water they pull those fish from," Dar replied, with a brief flash of white teeth. "Take mine cooked, thanks."

  Pat pondered that, then made a face. "Do you have any idea what you've just done for my love of raw tuna?"

  "You asked," Dar said. "So let me ask you something."

  Cruicshank looked slightly dubious. "Okay."

  "What's your angle in this? Just an opposing viewpoint?" Dar watched the reporters face without seeming to, propping her head up with one hand. "I'm fed up with the games, and that includes the scruffy little reporters they keep sending to bother my staff."

  The black woman looked down at herself, then back at Dar, her eyebrow lifting. "You talking to me?" She indicated her chest with her thumb.

  Dar's lips twitched. "Your predecessors," she clarified.

  "Well." She folded her hands on her pad. "Yes, it's an opposing viewpoint, and that's useful for the story."

  "Ah." Dar felt faintly disappointed. She'd been hoping the filming team had started to see through Michelle and Shari's façade of noble underdogs. "Yeah, I guess someone has to interview Goliath and get his perspective."

  Cruicshank chuckled a little. She glanced up as the waitress returned, bringing them plates of various pieces of sushi. "Thanks." She looked at her tuna, and then looked at Dar.

  Dar popped a piece of well cooked egg on rice into her mouth and winked.

  The reporter left her plate for a moment and concentrated on her table mate. "But you know I had to pull all kinds of background video and all that on you for the story, since you were cast as this big, old villain. All I could dig up just showed you as this lady knight in shining armor saving everyone's behind on national television."

  Dar chewed her sushi and kept a straight face. "There's film of me eating kittens, but they won't release it to the press. Too disturbing."

  Another chuckle. "No way because if it existed, trust me, those gals at Telegenics would have already had it up on a poster." Cruicshank disagreed. "So here I was having to reconcile what I was seeing with what I was hearing. I decided to come and see for myself."

  "Uh huh." Dar munched steadily through her meal. "Better eat that before it swims off."

  The reporter gave her a mock evil look, but picked up her chopsticks and bravely doused the fish in soy sauce then took a bite of it.

  Dar took the opportunity to remove her PDA and glance at it, then flip it open to scribble a short note before she sent it out. She laid the unit down on the table and picked up another piece of sushi. "I'm not the one you should be talking to."

  The reporter blinked. "Excuse me?"

  Dar swallowed. "I'm not in charge of this project. The only reason Telegenics is focusing on me is for personal reasons. It's not my bid."

  Cruicshank put her chopsticks down. "It's not?" She asked. "I don't understand. I thought..."

  Dar managed a mildly amused expression. "I'm the CIO of the company. I do actually have more important things to do than baby-sit what is, on our level, a midrange contract being handled by our VP Ops. Who, by the way, has already done more than a dozen of them this year."

  "That would be...Kerry Stuart?" The reporter asked. "She is your operations vice president, right?"

  Dar nodded.

  "And..."

  "And my partner." It didn't even give her a twinge to say it, just a sweetness that she could taste on the tip of her tongue as the words rolled off it. "So, if you want a real perspective on the bid, you need to interview her."

  The reporter scribbled a note and then sniffed reflectively. She went back to her lunch plate and took another bite of sushi before she continued her questioning. "All right. I'll do that," she said. "You're very open about your relationship, aren't you?"

  "No point in being anything else," Dar answered.

  "Does that bother your co-workers? Must be a little awkward sometimes."

  Was it? Dar neatly bit a piece of shrimp in half and chewed it. "Not anymore" She shrugged. "At the beginning it took a while for everyone to get used to it, but now...eh." She picked up a rice grain and ate it. "Biggest problem Kerry has now is all the people who hang around her trying to get her to get me to do things because they're too chickenshit to ask."

  Cruicshank burst out laughing. "Oh, that puts a different perspective on it. You know, my colleagues asked your counterparts about that, and they said they just treated each other as business associates at work."

  "That explains a lot." Dar drawled. "I don't stop loving Kerry while we're in the office, why would I act like I did?" The words came out almost in a rush, and after she said them, she found herself somewhat shocked that she had.

  The reporter was a little surprised also, but she covered it up by writing several more notes. "Well, they seem to think it's more professional," she said. "What do you think about that? Do you think they're right? After all, there are a lot of people who have to deal with you both on a daily basis, and maybe they don't feel that comfortable knowing about your relationship."

  Ah. Good question, Dar admitted to herself. In fact, this woman was full of surprisingly good questions. "I think at first a lot of people had a big problem with it." She answered honestly. "But then, ninety percent of the company had a big problem with me to begin with. I think having Kerry as a buffer has far more helped than hurt. We...we tried to keep it out of the office at first, but you know how offices are. Every time we passed in the hallway, it would make the weekly newsprint."

  "Uh huh." Pat nodded in complete understanding. "I work in an office with forty other thirty and forty-something's and believe me, there's always drama everywhere. That's why I asked. Because my boss got involved with one of our top reporters, and for a month, it was the news."

  Dar chuckled under her breath.

  "And it was hard, you know?" Pat went on. "Everyone was tiptoeing around the subject and it made life real hard for a while."

  Dar grasped her last piece of sushi between her chopsticks and neatly positioned it, then dunked one end into her soy sauce. "You break up after that?" She asked casually, glancing up at her tablemate as she took a bite.

  The woman's expression confirmed her guess in a heartbeat.

  "So yeah, eventually everyone got over it." Dar continued, breaking the silence. "Now we only get the odd remark from clients in the bible belt." She finished her lunch and took a sip of the now cooled tea, picking up her PDA as it beeped.

  "You know what? You are just too damn sharp, Ms. Roberts." The reporter sighed, after a few more stunned moments. "Here I thought I was being so slick and you just see right through it."

  Hey sweetie! Are you sucking up more fame again?

  Dar smiled and scribbled a reply. That's me, Fame-Sucker. How's your head?

  There was a brief pause before the answer came.

  Spinning from your mother's jokes about how much chocolate I put into your chocolate chip cookies. Other than that, I'm fine.

  Ah. Dar just kept herself from licking her lips. Well, I'm goingto keep that afternoon conference call short. I don't thinkmy reporter friend will be sticking around much longer. Shemight want to talk to you tomorrow or sometime though.

  Is she nice?

  Dar glanced at her lunch companion, who was taking advantage of her tapping to finish her own lunch. Very nice and pretty sharp. Not like the last one.

  Kerry's rolled eyes were almost visible in the reply. About time. I figured she must be okay if you had lunch with her.

  Dar read that response twice, then hit reply. Eh. Slim pickings since you're not here.

  No, I'm here baking with your mom. Why don't you get holdof Dad and bring him home with you?

  Dad, cookies, Kerry...maybe she'd stop for flowers. Dar paused in her thought, and then rewound it. Maybe she'd stop for a bottle
of wine. You're on. See you later--don't burn yourself.

  Heh heh. Yes, mommy Dar. Have a cup of tea for me.

  Dar closed her PDA and slipped it into her pocket leaning back again as her table companion finished up her lunch and wiped her lips. "Sorry if I shook you up a little. If it's any consolation, I've been there." Dar told her, with a faint grin.

  "You certainly did shake me up." Cruicshank agreed ruefully. "Or was that a very clever way to get me to stop asking questions?"

  Dar's eyes twinkled. "Maybe it was just a way to get enough time to finish eating."

  The woman held one hand up. "Okay, touché." She looked up as the waitress came over, and neatly plucked the check from the woman?s hands. "I'll take that, thanks."

  Dar poured herself another cup of tea, drinking it slowly as the reporter settled their bill. It hadn't been a bad interview, she thought, but it hadn't really given the woman anything concrete to use either.

  Had it?

  She frowned, having the distinct feeling suddenly that she'd gotten more personal than she'd intended. What if the reporter chose to slant the story that way and it ended up as part of the show?

  Kerry wouldn't like that. Dar was pretty sure. She'd had to face the press with that front and center more than she'd ever wanted to and hated every moment of it. Maybe she should have discussed the whole thing with Kerry before agreeing to the interview?

  But how was she to know the reporter was going to ask that stuff?

  "Well," Cruicshank folded her credit card receipt and put it neatly into her wallet, "okay, so I have to talk to Kerry Stuart about the ships, but one of the things that most caught my eye about the information I gathered was the way your company responds to a crisis."

  Eh? Dar watched the train she'd thought they were riding on take a flip. She raised a polite eyebrow in question, but remained silent.

  "The most spectacular thing I saw was the ATM outage on the East Coast," the reporter said, "played out on national television. I'd like to talk to you about how that all went down, if you don't mind."

  That seemed harmless enough. "Sure." Dar got up. "I've got about forty five more minutes."

  "I'll try to make them count." Cruicshank promised. "Is there some place we can pick up a cup of coffee on the way back? I'm still on west coast time."

  "We have some inside the office." Dar led the way out of the restaurant, giving a casual wave at two of the marketing regional managers who had just sat down to eat. "Unless you'd like to try Cuban coffee."

  "Cuban coffee? Okay, sure. How bad could it be?"

  Dar grinned evilly and pushed her way out the door.

  "WELL?" KERRY ANGLED the phone against her ear as she mixed items into a mixing bowl. "What's the scoop?" She'd given Mark three hours to hear back from their vendor, and her patience was wearing thin. "Listen, if he won't talk to you, Mark, I know who he can talk to."

  "Relax, Kerry. He just called." Mark sounded much happier. "He's pissed. Really, really pissed, but they put the order through. He said he's in a lot of hot water."

  "Tell him he could be in boiling. I was going to sic Dar on him. Can you imagine what she'd have said?"

  "Um...yeah." Mark chuckled wanly. "Actually, I can. But whatever, he caved. So we're cool. I was just gonna call you."

  Kerry felt her shoulders relax. Despite her fierce words, she knew damn well they didn't have time to spec out a new vendor's gear and if their current partner hadn't given in, she really didn't have much of a backup plan to replace them.

  Dar, of course, was in reserve, but Kerry really hated to pull that card out unless she really had to. It made her feel like she wasn't capable of doing her own job if she had to go running to her partner for help all the time.

  She felt good that she'd been able to resolve this problem by herself. "Okay, so when can we expect delivery?"

  "Monday." Mark sounded a touch smug. "I think you scared the crap out of them. Maybe they went and bought those units at distribution, and just resold 'em to us at our price."

  Kerry chuckled. "Whatever it takes," she said. "We've given them so much business they've got nothing to gripe about." She pulled out a baking tray and set the fish fillets she'd just coated onto it's already lightly oiled surface. "Okay, thanks, Mark. I'm going to set up a touch point meeting tomorrow afternoon for the whole team, just so we can see where we are."

  "Gotcha."

  "See you tomorrow."

  Mark almost hung up, and then paused. "Hey, Kerry?"

  "Mm?"

  "Are you feeling better?"

  Kerry blinked her bad eye, which had pretty much opened fully during the course of the day. The swelling had gone down, and now it was merely tender to the touch. "I feel a lot better, thanks." She told Mark. "At least I can see out of both eyes now and I just look like half a raccoon."

  "Cool deal." Mark replied. "I was wondering because I just saw big D, and she looked real antsy so I was hoping it wasn't because you were feeling bad."

  "Ah." Kerry pondered. "Well, we're having a family get together tonight."

  "Oh. Um..."

  "I'm cooking."

  "Oh!" Mark's tone altered to one of understanding. "Cool! Hey, have a great time, okay?"

  "Thanks, we will." Kerry hung up. She scattered a handful of crushed pistachio nuts over the filets, then covered them and set them in the refrigerator.

  She was alone now, Ceci having headed back to her boat home to pick up a few things for the dinner. Chino was curled up on her bed in the corner of the kitchen, and Kerry had a soft new age CD playing in the living room.

  It was quiet, and peaceful, and it smelled like freshly baked cookies. Kerry leaned against the counter and gazed out at the pretty sunlit ocean and indulged in a brief moment of mindless observation.

  She went to the refrigerator, removed a bottle of ice tea, then headed to the sliding door and slipped outside into the warm air. It smelled like warm sand and salt outside, and she sat down in their swinging chair with a sense of satisfaction.

  Chino had scuttled out after her, and she stood up on her hind legs and put her front ones on the porch rail, gazing out at the sea with an intelligent expression.

  "You like that, Chi?" Kerry sucked slowly at her ice tea, swinging back and forth in the chair. "Want to go for a walk on the beach? Just you and me? We can find some sticks for you to bring back to mommy Dar, how about it?"

  "Growf." The dog dropped down and came over to her, licking her knee affectionately and sitting down next to the swing chair, her tail sweeping the stone tiles rhythmically.

  "You're so cute." Kerry scratched the dog's soft ears. "You know what, Chi? We're going to the cabin this weekend. How do you like that?"

  The tail swept faster, as the Labrador recognized a word she knew.

  "You like the cabin, right? I like the cabin too. I think I like it better than even this place." Kerry confided. "How about I teach you to ride on the back of the motorcycle, hmm? Would you like that? Your ears all flying back?" She tugged one ear.

  "Growf!" Chino wiggled her entire body back and forth.

  Kerry chuckled. The sun was already behind the line of the condos, so the porch was in shade. A cool breeze came up off the water, and she squirmed into a more comfortable position, and exhaled in contentment.

  Okay, so where am I at the moment? She let her eyes follow a lazy white cloud as it drifted overhead. I've got my project going, the equipment's ordered, my people are in place, and the wiring is going. I'm doing good.

  She nodded once or twice.

  It's a good plan. I know the technology works. So the only question left is--how do I price it so that it comes in under what that low balling bitch Michelle comes up with? "I know she's going to lie, Chi."

  "Rowf?"

  "She's going to low ball that bid, sure as I'm sitting here just like she did everything else. But I don't want to fall into that game."

  "Rr." Chino rested her chin on Kerry's knee.

  "I don't know what I'm
going to do about that." Kerry told her pet seriously. "I want to win this one, Chi. I really do." She ruffled the dog's fur, then she let her head rest back against the chair, simply enjoying the lazy moment.

  DAR OPENED THE door to the condo, poking her head inside and listening to a surprising lack of sound. "Ker?"

  When she wasn't answered, she entered and stood aside to let her father come in behind her, then shut the door and glanced around curiously. "Maybe she took Chino for a walk."

  "Fuzzball likes that." Andrew allowed.

  With a faint shake of her head, Dar ducked into her study and dropped off her laptop case, then went toward the kitchen. She paused as she spotted a Labrador tail outside on the porch, and changed direction. "Ah. Maybe not."

  She slid the door open and looked out, then emerged onto the porch with a grin as Chino scrambled up to greet her. Kerry was sleeping soundly on the swinging chair and only slowly stirred as she heard the noise their pet was making. "Uh?"

  "Hey." Dar managed to get past the canine roadblock and sat down on the chair next to her partner.

  "Oh...bwah." Kerry blinked herself awake, her hands reaching out instinctively to wrap themselves around Dar. "I fell asleep."

  "Really?"

  "Uh huh." Kerry stifled a yawn, and then rested her head against Dar's shoulder. "I didn't mean to do that. I was just going to relax for a minute, then take Chi for a walk on the beach." She gave her partner a little hug. "But I guess waking up to find you here is a pretty good substitute."

  "You guess?" Dar reached over and tilted Kerry's head up a little to study her injured eye. The swelling had gone down quite a bit, returning a more normal shape to her face, and the bruise seemed a little less lurid. Two pale green pupils looked back at her, rather than the morning's one eye, and she smiled in reaction. "I missed you today."

  Kerry grinned, her eyes lighting up from within. "How did your meetings go?"

  "Pretty good." Dar leaned back and braced her foot against the rail, rocking them both gently. "Hacking calmed down today. I only saw three attempts, and they were all pretty lame."