Stormy Waters: Book 10 in The Dar & Kerry Series

by Good, Melissa

  Ceci stuck her tongue out.

  "Okay, but not too long, huh?" Bradley said. "This place is a mess. Wait till you hear what happened last night after you left with the government people. It's chaos."

  '"Yeap." Andrew agreed. "I do believe the gov'mint usually does cause that. Bye." He hung up the phone and set it on the counter. "Seems like somebody done hired this guys' feller off that boat Dar's working on."

  "Oh, really?" Ceci regarded him, a mildly sardonic look appearing on her face. "I wonder if I can guess who that might have been, hmm? My goddess, those women are a pair of hairless Mexican cats." She frowned. "Can they be that desperate, or are they just that pissed off about you?"

  "Beats me." Andy finished his breakfast, licking a bit of juice off his thumb. "That was a damn good hamburger, ma'am." He complimented his wife. "Do you want your part of this here MRE?" He handed over the plate of plant matter.

  Ceci took a tomato slice and bit into it. "You only wish you ever got these in those." She retorted. "So you're going to go work on Dar's boat now? Doesn't really help much to know what those women are up to."

  Andrew shrugged. "Do the best ah am able to. Sides, got me a one US dollar an hour raise out of it."

  "Oo. You're taking me to dinner on your paycheck this week, sailor boy." Ceci laughed. "And we're not ending up in that chicken wing place, either." She got up and slid her arms around him, giving his solidness a fierce hug. "I'm glad you're helping out the kids. I think this one's throwing them out of whack a little."

  "Ah'm sure they're having themselves a good time down south." Andrew said. "Without none of this here stuff to bother them." He gave her a return hug, then ducked his head and surprised her with a kiss, even though they were standing in what was now broad daylight on the back of the boat.

  After a moment, they parted, and Andrew looked down at his wife, his eyes twinkling in the sun. Ceci reached up and stroked his face gently, her fingertips tracing the scars that, though faded, still crossed his skin. "I was looking forward to spending the day with you." She admitted.

  "Yeap." Andrew kissed her again. "Me too." He said. "But I told that man I had something to take care of before I went over there."

  "Oh, really?"

  "Yeap."

  "Well then." Ceci smiled. "What are we standing out here for? Unless you want to shock the neighbors." She paused. "Again."

  "Nope." Andrew courteously opened the door, then followed her inside.

  "AUGH!" Kerry reached for the Frisbee, flying high over her head and knew she was going down. She took a quick breath as she hit the water, then kicked for the surface, her head breaking the waves as she looked around for the bright pink disk. "Darn it, Dar!" She struck out for the toy, swimming quickly toward it before the thing got pulled out to sea.

  "Not my fault you're short." Dar bobbed up and down in the surf, not far offshore on the far side of the dock near the cabin. It was fairly shallow there, not like the deep draft they'd had dredged for the Dixie, and the surf was almost calm, perfect for playing Frisbee.

  Well, almost perfect. Dar watched Kerry reach the disk and grab it, turning to swim back far enough for her to stand up and throw it back. Chino was racing along the shore barking, frustrated that her owners were somewhat beyond her reach.

  "C'mon, Chi!" Kerry got to where she could stand up, and tossed the disk back to her partner. "Come swim."

  "Gruff!" Chino bounded halfway in up to her chest, then bolted away as a wave came chasing after her.

  "Goofy dog." Kerry shook the wet hair out of her eyes, then set herself as Dar threw the Frisbee back. It was a little high, but not nearly as much as last time and she made a grab for it, pulling it out of the air despite the drag of the water against her body as she moved. "Hah!"

  Dar grinned. Kerry always approached the playful sports they engaged in with a healthy dose of competitiveness that at first had surprised her. Then, when she'd learned more about her partner, she'd come to realize that Kerry had been forced to fight for recognition at every turn in her life, whereas standing out had never been a problem for Dar.

  It wasn't as though she wasn't competitive herself, in business of course she was. But in her personal life, she'd never really had to do what she often kidded Kerry about--fighting for kibble.

  No siblings. No competition. Dar saw the disk headed her way and she lunged through the water after it, uncoiling her body and jumping clear of the surface as she snatched it just before it went sailing on a trajectory that would have taken it under the dock. "Wench!"

  "Work for it!" Kerry yelled back, clearly enjoying herself. "Teach you to call me short, huh!"

  "If I have to go diving under that dock, you're gonna be more than short, ya little chipmunk!" Dar let fly with the Frisbee, chortling as her partner had to scramble for it, bouncing through the waves and kicking up spray as she went for the catch.

  "I'll chipmunk you." Kerry grabbed the Frisbee, and then, instead of tossing it back just headed in Dar's direction, rambling through the water like a miniature freight train. "You're toast!"

  Run? Dar considered the effort of escaping from Kerry's evil intentions, and weighed it against the pleasure of suffering them. She grinned, and as Kerry came within range, she dove right toward her, disappearing beneath the waves and colliding with Kerry's legs as she tried unsuccessfully to stop in time.

  Way overbalanced, Kerry let out a yelp and tumbled over, landing mostly on Dar and grabbing at her as they wrestled half in and half out of the water. "You...you..."

  Dar got a hold around Kerry's middle and then got her legs under her, standing up and hauling her out of the water like a sack of oats. "Yeeeesss?" She purred into Kerry's ear. "Me what?"

  Kerry paused to catch her breath from her run through the waves. "You...punk." She slapped Dar on the thigh. "You tricked me."

  "Into charging at me like a rhino?" Dar laughed. "Uh okay, honey. If you say so."

  "Bah." Kerry let her head rest against Dar's chest. "Where's the Frisbee?"

  "Didn't you have it?" Dar looked around. "Oh rats." She spotted the disk floating under the dock. "You stay here, cuttlefish. I'll get it." She released Kerry and headed for the pier, diving under the water as she got close to it.

  Neither of them was really fond of swimming right under the wooden surface, since several large sea bass had taken up residence and they loved to nibble intruding humans. At night, the fish were sleeping, but during the day-- Dar blinked her eyes open quickly in the salt water then just as quickly closed them. She surfaced and located the disk, swimming over to it and grabbing it just as something bit her foot. "Yeow! Bastard!" She kicked out in reflex then kicked with her other foot just for good measure. She felt a spongy impact then turned and headed out from under the pier.

  Kerry was already at the edge of the wood reaching for her. "The fish?"

  "God, I hope so." Dar felt a sharp sting where she'd been bitten. "Ow."

  "Sorry." Kerry took hold of her arm and started heading for the shore. "I should have kept track of the damn thing."

  "Residential hazard." Dar winced, as she hopped out of the water, grateful for Kerry's supportive arm around her waist. "I should have known better..."

  "Should have just let the silly thing float off. We have a dozen of them." Kerry muttered as they got on shore, and sat down in the sand together. She scooted down a little and lifted Dar's foot up, setting it on her thigh to look at it. "Let me see."

  "Ah ah ah. We don't let plastic into the ocean ecology." Dar peered at her foot, which was covered with an alarming amount of blood. "Wow." She fended off Chino, who snuffled around them anxiously.

  "Yikes. We better go inside and clean this off." Kerry leaned closer. The fish had really chomped down on her foot, making a semi-circle of punctures which were liberally leaking blood. "I don't think it's deep, but..."

  "But it hurts." Dar observed. "Stings like hell."

  Kerry gently wiped the blood away and bent over, kissing the spot. "Let's go. We've
got some peroxide in the cabin."

  Dar cautiously withdrew her foot from Kerry's clutches. "It doesn't hurt that bad."

  "Baby."

  "Well, it doesn't."

  "C'mon, big baby." Kerry got to her feet and offered her partner a hand up. "Those are puncture wounds, and a very good friend of mine taught me that those have to be cleaned out really well."

  "Yeah, well, you shouldn't always listen to your friends." Dar accepted the aid, hopping along the sand over to where the porch steps were. "Look, it's stopped bleeding."

  "C'mon."

  "Kerry!"

  "C'mon, chicken little. What if that was a barracuda?" Kerry took a firm hold on her reluctant damsel in distress and tugged her toward the house. "Bet we've got mercurochrome, too."

  "Whine."

  Kerry opened the door. "Was that you, or Cheebles?"

  IN THE END, Dar gave in gracefully to the attention. She lay down on the couch with her injured foot in Kerry's lap as her partner tended to it. The cleaning hurt, as she'd expected, but it was offset by the look of gentle concern on Kerry's face, and the obvious care she was taking to do the job right.

  The punctures were deep. "I know you were kidding about the barracuda." Dar kept her eyes closed the better not to see the holes in her foot. "But you might be on to something there."

  Kerry looked up from her task, holding up the cotton swab she'd been using the clean out the punctures. "You really think so?"

  "Too narrow a jaw to be the bass." Dar said. "Besides, it's much more macha to say I got bit by a 'cuda than by a poky old sea bass."

  Kerry chuckled softly, giving Dar's ankle a little pat. "You realize this means I'm driving home, right?" She painted the top row of punctures with some lurid mercurochrome, admiring the well formed, powerful arch under her hands. "You have such pretty feet."

  Dar chortled. "I do not."

  "Yes, you do." Kerry traced a line across the side of one. "Have you ever worn toenail polish?"

  Dar was quiet for a moment. "Are you suggesting I should?" She wiggled her toes, then wished she hadn't, as the injury protested. "Have you?"

  "Me?" Kerry finished the top, and then she shifted to do the punctures on the bottom of Dar's foot, scattered across its ball. "Oh no. The idea of my wearing open shoes in public...I think I'd have had them cut off if I'd tried it. I wasn't even allowed to use anything other than clear or a light pink fingernail polish."

  "Did you want to?"

  "Yeah." Kerry smiled as she worked. "Bright, flame red." She painted a somewhat deeper puncture. "Oo...Dar, that's a bad one."

  "Ow." Her partner sighed. "Well, you could now."

  "Could now what?"

  "Wear bright red nail polish."

  Kerry looked up and over her shoulder at her partner, a quizzical expression on her face. "Do I look like a red nail polish kind of girl to you?" She asked. "I said back then, Dar. Now I just don't consider myself a red toenail type."

  Dar studied her back for a moment, wondering about toenail polish among other things. She could honestly say wearing polish of any kind on her feet wasn't something that had ever crossed her mind, since taking her boots off to find that would have caused her merciless kidding probably right up until this very day. "Well." She considered. "I think a nice sea green would be pretty on you."

  "Mmm hmm." Kerry agreed absentmindedly. "Probably. You would look good in coral."

  "I would?"

  "Yeah."

  Dar considered further. "Kerry?"

  "Uh?"

  "Why are we having this discussion?"

  Her partner shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. I'm sitting here playing with your feet, so I guess the thought just came to me. I remember it was the topic of conversation regularly when I was in college." She finished the last bite mark. "There." She studied her handiwork. "I'm going to put a bandage on this. You shouldn't walk on it."

  "I'm not walking on it." Dar agreed, wriggling into a more comfortable spot on the couch.

  "I meant after you get up." Kerry gently set the foot aside and got up, heading toward the bathroom.

  Dar folded her hands across her stomach and relaxed, sure that the worst of the tending was over. The injury now stung more than anything due to the cleaning, and she felt confident that it wasn't anything serious.

  She still felt a little stupid, though, that she'd been bitten by a fish underneath her own dock. Dar wiggled her toes speculatively. Maybe she could tell people she'd been bitten by an alligator. That sounded more interesting.

  Not to mention, heroic. Maybe Kerry would say she'd rescued her from it.

  "What's so funny?" Kerry came back with a roll of gauze bandage and proceeded to mummify Dar's foot with it.

  "Nothing." Dar squashed the temptation. "Just wondering what cock and bull story I'm going to come up with for people at the office tomorrow to explain why I'm limping."

  "Well." Kerry said. "You could tell them I got revenge for you hitting me by stomping you with a stiletto heel." She suggested.

  "Um...

  "Or I could tell everyone you saved me from a vicious barracuda." Kerry continued on without hesitation. "There I was, swimming innocently, not realizing a barracuda was about to bite my ass, when you jumped in and saved me at the last minute."

  "Hmm."

  "Like that one better?"

  "You tell good stories." Dar chuckled. "Even if they are completely fabricated."

  Kerry finished her bandage, and patted Dar's calf. "Not completely. You'd have done it if it'd really been after me, right?"

  "Right." Dar agreed almost without thinking. "Anyone trying to bite your ass has to go through me to get there. No question." She reached over and snagged a finger into the waistband of Kerry's shorts. "C'mere."

  Kerry gladly leaned back, stretching her body out next to Dar's on the couch. "Know what I wish?"

  "What?"

  "I wish we weren't going back tonight."

  Dar pondered the thought. "Okay." She agreed. "We won't."

  Her partner laughed shortly. "Stop teasing me. You know we have to go into work tomorrow, Dar."'

  "I'm not teasing." Dar replied. "I had this cabin installed with the gear I did for the specific purpose of us working down here. So let's do it. We can log in from here, and probably get three times the amount of work done. If we need to conference, we can finally put that god damned expensive teleconferencing center I paid for to work at the office."

  Kerry turned over so she was facing Dar. "You're serious."

  "As a heart attack."

  Should they? Kerry thought about what she had on her schedule. The ops meeting, sure, and fallout from the weekend which had to be handled by conference call anyway. No clients, and the executive committee meeting wasn't until mid-week.

  Hmm. "Okay." She sounded surprised even to herself. "Why not" You don't have anything that needs face time tomorrow?"

  "Nope. Just more work on my program." Dar confirmed. "Absolutely I'll get more done from here on that, without someone sticking their heads in my office every five minutes." She liked the idea more and more with every passing second. "And, then I don't have to make up a 'no shit I was bitten by barracuda story'."

  Kerry had to admit to feeling a little bit apprehensive, only because she knew what the view would be from their co-workers if they both didn't show for work tomorrow. Then she thought about that for a minute, and decided the hell with it. They talked bullshit about them anyway, might as well be doing what they wanted.

  Besides, Dar was probably right. She got more done when she was not in the office as well, and she had several prospective client write ups she hadn't had a chance to do the last week that really needed to get taken care of.

  Or was that just more self-justification? "What about the ship?" She asked. "You think it's going to be a public relations nightmare with them finding out Dad was working on it, and all that? If we don't show up for work on top of that, it could be a problem, Dar."

  "Hell with
it." Dar replied obstinately. "What if it's a problem? What if the media comes to interview me on it, Ker? What am I going to say, I didn't know?"

  "Ah. Good point."

  "I think it's a good idea to let that blow over a little." Dar decided. "In fact, I think the less we get involved in the whole press nightmare the better right now. Let's let our work stand for itself. Get the job done, then they can make what they want of it. The more we play into this, the worse it gets."

  Kerry was quiet for a moment, and then she sighed. "We're really good at talking ourselves into things, aren't we?"

  Dar had to smile. "Yeah." She sounded a touch sheepish.

  "But maybe you're right." Kerry went on. "We've been playing right into their hands, haven't we? Reacting like we have, and getting all into the spotlight. Maybe it's time to lay low and just get the job done, like you said."

  Dar kissed the top of her head. "We could even paint each other's toenails." She suggested. "No one has to know."'

  Now it was Kerry's turn to smile. "Renegade. Only if I can paint yours freaking scarlet." She relaxed against the leather, though, her entire body reacting to the knowledge that there would be no late night drive home ahead of her at least tonight.

  And, who knew? Dar was really a very good strategist, and maybe this would turn out to be another one of her brilliant solutions. It had happened before, and she'd never regretted trusting her partner's instincts yet. "You up for an omelet?"

  "Only if the deceased baby chickens don't touch anything resembling a green pepper."

  "You're on."

  COFFEE AND A hacker for breakfast. Dar rattled the keys on her keyboard, her eyes flicking rapidly over the large LCD screen in her cabin office. "Yum, yum." She murmured, watching the attempts at entry into their systems.

  It was quiet inside the cabin, save the rattling of her keys, and a similar, softer counterpoint from the next office over. Outside, the breeze stirred the tree branches, and leaves pattered fitfully against the window. It was cool enough inside for Dar to be wearing a pair of sedate, yet fluffy lambskin booties, one of them cradling her injured foot carefully.