by Melissa Good
They went past the security guard, who waved, then did a double take at Dar, who just rolled her eyes and headed for the elevator. ”I’m damn glad it’s early,” the executive commented dryly. The trip up was quiet as Dar leaned against the wall, and Kerry fussed a bit with her lapel, which bore a pretty, filigreed rose pin, with delicately traced leaves. ”Did I mention how much I like this?” she murmured.
”About six times.” Dar allowed a grin to cross her face. ”You’re welcome.” They exited the elevator and proceeded down the hall, with Kerry getting a pace ahead to open the door as they reached Dar’s office. ”Well, here we go.”
Maria glanced up as they entered. ”Buenos Dias. Dios Mio, Dar!”
The secretary stood up and stared at her boss as Dar maneuvered into the office. ”What happened?”
Kerry walked ahead and opened the inner office door, leaving it open. ”Rough weekend,” she joked faintly, holding her casted hand up.
”Ended up shorter than expected, as a matter of fact.”
Dar exhaled. ”Long story, Maria. Let’s just say be ready for all kinds of crap to hit all kinds of rotary air movement devices today.” She paused in the doorway and half turned. ”In addition to the usual Monday disasters, I’m sure Mariana will be in here as soon as she gets in. We made a mess of things.” She turned back around and moved towards her desk, sitting down in her comfortable chair with a sense of relief and setting her crutches down on the floor next to her. She flipped on the computer and leaned back, hearing Kerry’s low voice in the outer room as she filled in Maria on the weekend. Her mail program came up and she winced, watching the new messages scroll rapidly down the screen.
Hurricane Watch
117
It used to be fun, she recalled. She used to even look forward to Mondays, when most of the really interesting disasters lifted their ugly heads. Now, she had other priorities. One ear focused on Kerry and she sighed.Her phone rang and she punched the button. ”Yeah?”
”Dar.”
”Mariana. Good morning,” Dar replied, lacing her fingers together and leaning back.
”Not very, it isn’t. We’ve got real trouble,” the personnel VP stated quietly. ”The police are on their way here. Fabricini pressed charges.”
Dar sat up and leaned on her elbows. ”Pressed charges? For what? I didn’t touch him!”
”Not against you,” Mariana replied, ”against Kerry, for assault. She broke his nose.”
”Oh, you’ve got to be kidding,” Dar snapped back disgustedly. ”He can’t be serious.”
”Dar, I’m not kidding, and he is serious. I’ve already talked to him and he’s not backing down. He’s going to press charges for assault and file suit against her for pain and suffering.” Mariana’s voice was very tense. ”I don’t know what he’s after, but...”
Dar gazed across the office quietly. ”I do,” she answered. ”I know what he’s after.” She exhaled, then nodded once. ”All right, thanks Mari. I’ll tell Kerry what’s coming.” She disconnected the call, holding the knowledge inside her as Kerry poked her head into the office.
”I’m going to run downstairs for coffee, want some?”
”Sure.” Dar mustered a smile. ”I’d love some.” She watched Kerry leave, then she studied the top of her desk for a few moments. Fifteen years. Her eyes strayed to the gilded clock resting on the shelf across the room, her ten year marker. Fifteen years. She took a breath and dialed a number, waiting for an answer. ”Get up here,” she stated quietly when it was answered, then hung up, and simply waited.
It didn’t take long. Fabricini walked into her office, his face half obscured by a white bandage and his skin covered with blotches and smears of lotion. He sat down without being asked and tossed a folder on her desk, with a quietly triumphant air.
Dar opened it, regarding the contents with an expressionless face, then glanced at him. ”What do you want?”
He didn't even pretend not to understand her. ”You out of here,” he answered with vicious satisfaction.
Dar gazed quietly at him. ”All right,” she answered, very simply.
”You call the cops and withdraw your charges, and you’ve got it.”
”Oh no, Dar. I want my pound of flesh out of that whore of yours,”
Steve replied, with a smile.
”You withdraw the charges, or no deal,” Dar answered, ”and you get countersued for sexual harassment.”
He kept her waiting for a long moment. ”Do you know how sweet this is?” he purred. ”It’s perfect. You’re sitting there, completely 118
Melissa Good
helpless and I’m loving every second of it.” He paused. ”All right, Dar.
I’ll leave your little piece alone, but I want you out of here today.”
Dar glanced aside at her mail, which had just finished downloading four hundred new messages. ”All right,” She agreed, handing him the handset of her phone. ”Call.”
She listened to him speak charmingly to the police, then hang up.
”Goodbye, Dar. It’s been a pleasure working with you.” He got up and left. Dar closed her eyes briefly. Now came the hard part. She picked up the phone and dialed Mari’s extension. The personnel VP answered immediately. ”Mari.”
”Dar, oh, good, glad it’s you. Listen, I was brainstorming with Duks, maybe we can find a way to—”
”I fixed it,” Dar interrupted her. ”He dropped the charges.”
Silence. ”Oh.” Mari was obviously startled. ”Well, I...I didn’t think he’d back down, Dar. I...”
”He didn’t,” Dar stated quietly. ”I just gave him what he wanted.”
She took a breath. ”I’m resigning.” A soft sound made her look up to see Kerry standing in the doorway, staring at her in shock. ”I’m going to put the paperwork in, just get it through, Mari,” Dar finished, then hung up. ”Shut the door.”
Kerry did, then she came right around the desk and put the coffee down, kneeling at Dar’s side and putting a hand on her arm. ”What do you mean you’re resigning?” she asked in utter confusion. ”Dar, what’s going on?”
Sad blue eyes regarded her. ”The police were coming here, Kerry.
He filed charges against you for assault and battery and filed a lawsuit for pain and suffering against you.”
”So?” Kerry sputtered. ”Let him! Dar, don’t you tell me you resigned because of that. I’ll...I’ll... How much trouble would I get into for punching him anyway? What are they going to do, sentence me to prison time for that? In Dade County? I don’t think so. You have to kill someone to even be booked in jail here.”
”Kerry, I’m not going to have that on your record, have you go through all that crap with the police and being charged, and taken down there, and go to court. God knows he could probably get a jury to award him who knows what in damages.” She cupped Kerry’s cheek.
”No, I can’t stand by and watch that, knowing it was my fault and I could have stopped it.”
”Dar, you can’t let him win like this.” Kerry argued fiercely. ”I’m not going to let you do it.”
Dar sighed and pushed the folder over to her. ”We don’t have a choice.” She nudged the folder. ”One of us would have had to leave anyway.”
Kerry stared at her, then she opened the folder, her eyes falling on a stack of 8” x 10” pictures. Her and Dar. Walking, shopping, standing on Hurricane Watch
119
the boardwalk with their arms around each other. Her feeding Dar crawfish.
One striking photo that had caught her looking at her lover, with an expression even Kerry couldn’t explain away as anything other than adoration. ”Oh.” She closed the folder. ”Well, then, I’ll leave, Dar. Come on now, you’re a lot more important to the company than I am. That’s ridiculous.” She looked up at Dar. ”Can’t you call Alastair? Can’t you do anything?”
Dar studied her interlaced fingertips. ”I’m not sure I want to do anything,” she admitted.
Kerry stared at her
. ”So you’re giving up?” She waved a hand.
”After fifteen years, just like that?” She shook her head. ”I don’t believe it.” ”C’mon, Kerry. I don’t regret my time here, but maybe it’s time to move on. It’s getting harder and harder for me to keep the hard edge I need to do this.” Dar pleaded with her for understanding. ”Not without carrying that over into my personal life, and I really don’t want to do that.”Kerry remained silent for a moment. ”What am I supposed to do?”
She asked, finally. ”You don’t think I’m going to stay in this hellhole without you, do you?” She stood and raked a hand through her hair. ”I can’t believe you’re giving up and letting him win,” she repeated softly.
”I...” She shook her head and walked to the inner door, opened it, and passed through without another word.
Dar was quietly stunned. “Well shit,” she muttered. Here she’d been, being rather noble, she’d thought, in putting herself between Kerry and a bad situation. But Kerry didn’t see it that way at all and rather than be grateful, she was disappointed.
Disappointed and angry.
Dar felt very confused, but didn’t have time to consider her options before her door slammed open and Mariana came in, her face upset and angry. ”You coming in here to yell too?” she snapped defensively.
Mariana stopped and looked at her. ”I’m here to try and talk some sense into you, Dar, you can’t just leave.”
”Why not?” Dar propped her chin up on one hand. ”Am I indentured?”
”No, no, Dar, you know what I mean.” Mariana took a seat.
”No, I don’t.” She shook her head. ”This is an at will state. I have no signed contract, the company doesn’t own me, and there is no reason why I can’t just walk out that damn door.” Dar stood, grabbing her crutches and pacing around. ”It’s what he wants, it’s what José wants, it’s what Eleanor wants. Maybe I am standing in their way.”
”What? Of course you are, you—” Mariana spluttered. ”Someone has to stand up to them, Dar, or else they’d wreck the company. You and I both know that.”
”Why me?” Dar whirled, and poked a thumb at her chest. ”That’s 120
Melissa Good
all I am is a target, Mari. No matter what I do, no matter how many fucking rabbits I pull out of my ass, no matter how many accounts I save, or how many points I made the stock rise, it’s always still ‘that damn bitch, Dar Roberts.’ Don't you think I get sick and fucking tired of it sometimes?” Her voice rose to a yell. ”Now I’ve got this buttfuck asshole you hired who does nothing but give me a damn hard time, and I don’t hear you saying a goddamned word to him, now do I?”
Mariana stared at her.
”No no, let’s leave that to that bitch. She’ll just give as good as he does, and shut him up, right?” Dar rounded on her. ”Right? I have to stand by and put up with a blatant, personal attack by another employee, and you’re telling me I can’t walk away? Screw you, Mari!”
Now Dar’s temper snapped. ”Why the hell didn’t you bring him up on harassment charges? Or fucking insubordination?” She leaned over her desk. ”Let me tell you something, he’s goddamned lucky it was Kerry that hit him, because if it’d been me, he’d have more than a broken fucking nose for it.”
”Okay, okay, Dar, calm down.” Mariana held her hands out cautiously. ”You have a point there, I know...”
Dar turned and went to the window, leaning against it with one hand. ”I know I do. I’ve been fighting all the battles here for so long, everyone else has forgotten how,” she stated softly. ”Well, you’ll have to find someone else to fight for you.” She let her head rest against the sun warmed glass. ”I’m tired of it.”
Silence. ”So this is just an excuse, isn’t it?” Mariana asked, quietly.
Dar regarded the blue and green waves. ”Maybe.”
A soft exhalation. ”What happened to you, Dar?”
It was almost funny. ”I found out there was more to life than the next email, Mari.” Dar snorted softly. ”Unfortunately for the company.”
She turned. ”I’m not going to stand by while that bastard attacks Kerry, and since you won’t do anything about it, I will.” A pause. ”I have.”
Mariana leaned back in her chair and exhaled. ”I know you think this is all my fault, Dar, and I’m sorry you think that.” She looked up, but Dar wouldn’t meet her eyes. ”Maybe you have a point. I should have jumped on him sooner, stopped some of that stuff when it first started. I just thought you had it under control, and if I interfered, it’d just get worse.” She paused, to give Dar a chance to speak. When the other woman didn’t, she sighed. ”By that gauge, I should have also stepped in and separated you and Kerry when I found out you were seeing each other.”
Still no answer.
”But then, you should have done that yourself,” Mariana continued, ”and if you had, we wouldn’t be sitting here.”
Dar’s face didn’t change expression. ”Go on. Put the blame all on me,” the dark haired woman muttered quietly. “I’m used to it.” She turned her head towards Mari. “It’s my fault I fell in love with someone.
Hurricane Watch
121
So it’s my choice to leave.”
“Dar,” Mari exhaled. “For pete’s sake no one holds that against you.”“Everyone holds that against me,” Dar cut her off. “Didn’t you just say you should have stopped it when it happened?” She shoved the pictures across the desk. “That’s what he wanted put in the papers, that’s what Michelle sent to Alastair. Every goddamned person within a hundred miles of here wants a piece of my personal life, so screw it.”
She turned back to the window. “It’s my life. You don’t own me anymore,” Dar exhaled. “So put the damn paperwork through and find someone else who gives a damn.”
“You trying to convince me or yourself that you don’t?” Mari asked, in quiet voice.
She didn’t get a chance to answer because the door opened and José barged in. ”What is this I hear? You are quitting?” José asked, his voice incredulous.
”Yeah,” Dar answered, turning and going back to her desk. ”You can cater the party, José. Congratulations. You won.” She typed a message into her mail program and sent it. ”There, I just told Alastair; that should make it final.” She stood and picked up her briefcase, slid her laptop out and left it on the desk. ”I don’t have many personal items here.” She picked up her dolphins and glanced at her fighting fish. ”I’ll see if Maria wants those.” She dropped her badge on the laptop, and her pager with it.
”Wait, wait.” José held up a hand. ”What do you mean, I won?”
Dar gazed at him. ”Isn’t this what you wanted? You hired a man you knew was an old enemy of mine and gave him explicit instructions to find my weaknesses, and exploit them. He did. I’m gone, you won.”
Her tone was cold and mocking. ”Congratulations and good luck. I hope you screw up the company so badly, they have to recall the entire office.”
”I did not do...”
”You certainly did,” Dar shot back. ”Want to see the email you sent him?”
The phone beeped. ”Dar, Mark on line numero uno,” Maria’s voice floated in.
“Thanks, Maria. Can you call a cab for me, please,” Dar asked, crisply.
”Si,” the secretary sounded puzzled.
”Thanks.” Dar hit the button. ”What is it, Mark.”
”Northeastern backbone’s down,” the MIS chief stated. ”They can’t locate the problem.”
Dar drew in a breath. ”Find someone else to deal with it, Mark. It’s not my problem anymore,” she replied evenly. ”Give ‘em about an hour to choose someone to replace me.”
Silence for almost thirty whole seconds. ”Fuck,” Mark finally 122
Melissa Good
replied, then hung up.
Dar shouldered her briefcase and glanced around. ”Well, I’m going home,” she stated flatly. ”Have fun.” She limped over to the door and opened it, then went throug
h. Maria was standing near her desk, her face rumpled in concern. ”Maria...”
The Cuban woman came around the desk and approached her.
”You are leaving? For good?” she asked, visibly upset.
”’Fraid so,” Dar replied gently. ”Thank you, for everything, Maria.
You’re a good person, and I appreciate all you did.”
Maria wrung her hands, then she stepped forward and gave Dar a hug. ”God bless you, Dar. This place doesn’t deserve you.” She glared at José, who was just coming out of Dar’s former office. ”And you are a piece of caca. I hope God strikes you outside with a bus.” She went to her desk and picked up her purse, then walked out, slamming the door behind her.
Dar quietly followed, moving down the silent corridor towards the elevator, which slid open as she approached. She got in and turned, leaning against the back wall as the doors closed and it started to move.
KERRY GOT BACK to her office and sat down, staring at her desk for a long time without moving. ”I can’t believe she did that,” she finally muttered. ”I can’t believe she did it without even talking to me about it, like I was some kind of kid that needed protection or something.” She stood and began pacing back and forth.
”I can’t let her do that.”
Pace, pace, pace.
”I know she thinks she’s doing it for the right reasons,” Kerry sighed. ”I know she wants to protect me from all that legal crap, but what she doesn’t realize is that I’m a lot more politically savvy than she thinks I am. She forgets who my father is.”
Green eyes regarded the window. ”Right, so what in the hell am I going to do?” She drummed her fingers on her desk. ”The first thing I need is an ally.” She regarded the phone, and then dialed a number. It rang several times, then went into voice mail. ”Damn it, Mark. Where are you?”
