by Melissa Good
Her throat was dry and she felt her heartbeat speed up. She strained her ears to see if she could hear someone moving around below. Her device buzzed gently in her hand and she glanced down, thumbing open a message from Dar that said
Called the cops. Lock yourself in your office.I’m getting a cab.
“Oh, Dar, no.” Kerry started to dial then stopped when she heard a creak on the stairs. She hesitated, caught between wanting to see who it was and being afraid it was someone she didn’t want to see.
Macha overrode common sense and she abruptly walked forward and went to the top of the stairs, bracing her legs at shoulder length apart and looking down. “Hey!”
The figure walking up stopped and stared at her. He was a man of medium height, with a muscular body and short, almost crewcut brown hair. He was dressed in old, faded camouflage pants and a black shirt, and there was an expression she could only describe as insolent on his face.
Okay, so now she was glad Dar had called the cops. “You’re trespassing,” she said.
He spread his arms out to either banister. “You the bitch who told that fag to tell my friends to stay away from this place?” He had a deep, husky voice. “Are ya?”
Kerry kept her voice even with a good deal of effort. “Yes,” she said. “I told our landlord we don’t want people fighting outside the door.”
He started climbing up toward her again. “I don’t appreciate that.”
“I don’t actually care,” Kerry shot back. “You’re not above the law any more than the rest of your friends are.”
He stopped again about three steps down from her. “You call the cops?”
“Yes,” Kerry said.
“I didn’t hear anyone call the cops.” He stepped up one more step toward her. “Bitch.”
“That’s not my problem, asshole.” Kerry wasn’t entirely sure where all the faux courage was coming from, but at least her voice wasn’t shaking and her knees were holding her up so far. “You’ve got no business being in this building. You’re trespassing and the cops are on the way to haul your ugly ass out of here.”
He stared her in the eye. Kerry stared right back, hoping like hell her legs would both continue to hold her up and obey her if she had to do something crazy like defend herself.
She had the skill to do that, a little. Her mind knew what to do, or at least, she hoped it did.
He stepped up one more step and his head was even with hers. “You’ve got more guts than sense, you know that?” he asked. “I could rape you blind before those fat fucks at the doughnut shop could get here.”
“You can try,” Kerry replied in a quiet voice, barely hearing her words over the thundering of her own heartbeat. She felt the fear winding up in her and it was hard to keep her breathing even.
Then the door slammed open and a moment later Mark’s voice was yelling out a wordless warning, as he came barreling into the office on his way toward them.
The stranger stepped back and held his hands up. “All right, take it easy buddy.”
“Take it easy?” Kerry suddenly felt her fear turn to outrage. “You come in here and say you’re going to rape me and you want us to take it easy?”
“Get the fuck out of here!” Mark yelled, at the same time. “Who the fuck do you think you are coming in here, jackass!” He had just taken his motorcycle helmet off and was swinging it from one hand, coming up the steps like a homicidal care bear.
The door opened again and a breathless Mayte and Maria half walked, half ran in. “Merde!” Maria yelled. “What is this? I will get the police! Mayte! Get the baseball hat and go there!”
The intruder kept his hands up and slowly slid down to sit on the stairs. “Okay, people,” he said. “Don’t get all civ crazy on me. I’m not going to do anything.”
Kerry relaxed as Mark scrambled up to stand in front of her, looking as dangerous as a thirty something nerd could. “Thanks, Mark.” She patted his shoulder. “Glad you came in early.”
“Early hell!” Mark said, catching his breath. “Dar called me. I broke like twenty red lights getting here. The damn cops are probably going to chase my ass right through that door.”
Mayte climbed up the steps and was now standing next to Mark, and they all turned to stare at the intruder. He was sitting quietly, his hands on his knees, looking from one of them to the other.
Kerry put her hands on her hips. “You’re messing with the wrong people, buddy,” she said. “We don’t intimidate easily.”
“Yeah I get that,” the man said. “I thought you were just a bunch of nerds.”
“We are,” Mark said. “So you shouldn’t mess with us. We can do shit like send your food stamps to Tibet.”
The man’s eyebrows hiked up. “Shut up.”
“We can. And you should be glad we showed up before her SO did,” Mark said, pointing at Kerry.
The door opened yet again and Maria re-appeared with two policemen behind her. “There!” She pointed. “That is him.”
The intruder sighed. “Fuck.”
“You?” The first policeman headed up the stairs, hauling a pair of handcuffs from his belt. “You stupid son of a bitch. We told you to keep your nose clean.”
“I’m just trying to protect my guys,” the intruder said in an angry tone. “Why can’t you all just leave us the fuck alone? Why do you all have to be such assholes?”
The policeman grabbed him by the arm and pulled him upright. “Because we have to enforce the law, inconvenient as it is for you. So your ‘guys’ can’t just do what they want and you can’t just go into offices and threaten people.” He yanked the man down the steps. “Sorry about this bubba, folks,” he said. “We’ll take him down and get him out of your hair.” He glanced at Kerry. “You want to press charges?”
“Absolutely,” Kerry said. “Especially since he threatened to rape me.”
The cop glared at the intruder in disgust.
“I was just trying to scare her!” the man yelled. “I wasn’t gonna touch her! I could have already done it if I wanted to long as it took you to get here. Might as well have since—” He stopped as the cops and his progress was halted by Dar entering and coming to a halt right in front of them.
“Excuse us, ma’am,” the second cop said, reaching around Dar to grab hold of the intruder. “We’re just getting this guy out of here.”
For a moment Dar didn’t budge. She stared hard at the intruder, who met her eyes for a second, then looked away. “Thanks,” she said in a clipped tone. “I’d like to make sure he doesn’t come back so whatever you need from us, we’ll do it.”
The cop nodded. “Yes, ma’am. We’ll put him in the car, then we’ll be back to take some statements.” He maneuvered the now silent intruder out the door, his partner following him.
Dar exhaled. Then she trudged up the steps, clapping Mark on the shoulder as she came even with him. “Thanks.” She half turned.
“Thanks Mayte and Maria, too.”
“Anytime, boss.” Mark wiped the sweat from his forehead. “What a way to start the morning.”
Dar reached Kerry and opened her arms, enfolding her in a hug as she bumped her backwards off the stair verge. “I’ll book a later flight,” she said as Kerry leaned against her. “Son of a bitch.”
“Dar, I will take care of that for you.” Maria patted her arm and slipped past into her office.
“Ugh.” Kerry finally took a deep breath and released it. “My stupid fault. I left the door unlocked when I came in. I feel like such a jerk.”
“Don’t.” Dar bumped her further back away from the stairs as the door opened and voices started echoing through the hall again. “But bet your ass we’re going to have physical security here before the end of the god damned day,” she said as they cleared the doorway into Kerry’s office and she closed the door behind them.
Then Dar simply held onto her. “I think I’m going to throw up. You scared the shit out of me.”
“Sorry.” Kerry rubbed her side gently
. “Dar, I’m so sorry.” She felt the shivering in Dar’s tall body and it brought on a flood of intense shame. “So sorry.”
Dar took a breath and released it. “It’s okay.” She rocked them both back and forth a little. “I’m pretty sure I left some kind of security panic behind me at the airport.” She sniffled a little. “I’d just gone through x-ray when I got your text.”
Kerry winced. “Oh boy.”
“Knocked over a bunch of TSA agents and the x-ray machine, and a line of stanchions,” Dar said mournfully. “I bet I’m on some list now.”
“Dar.” Kerry rested her head against her collarbone.
“But you’re okay,” Dar said. “And believe me, that’s all that matters to me right now.”
A knock came at the door and they reluctantly parted. “Let’s get the cops out of the way, then we can go tell HR to get us some big, beefy security guards,” Dar said. “You were right about that.”
“I’d much rather have been wrong,” Kerry muttered as she went to the door and opened it. “Stupid jerk.” She exhaled. “Hi, officers. C’mon in.”
The cops came in and one of them took out a pad. “Sorry about that, ma’am. We’ve been having a lot of problems with these guys lately.”
“Yeah, we’ve seen them around a lot,” Kerry said. “Is that guy one of their old captains or something? He seemed to be responsible for them.”
“That guy?” The cop snorted softly. “Lady, he’s a priest.”
Both Dar and Kerry swung around and stared at him in unabashed disbelief. “Uh...what?” Kerry managed to get out. “That guy?”
“Well, he’s a chaplain, from the service or something,” the cop said.
“That’s what he says anyway. He was over in the Middle East with them, and I guess he’s working at the halfway house down the road trying to get them some help or something.”
“I think he’s the one who needs help,” Dar said. “Is he nuts?”
The cop shrugged. “Hard to say. You know, those guys had to deal with a bunch of stuff over there, not real nice stuff. My brother went through that. It’s tough. They come back and no one gives a damn, you know?”
“My father’s retired Navy.”
“So you get it,” the cop said. “They did service, then they come back and no one wants to help them out.”
“No, I don’t get it,” Kerry said. “It’s no justification for him coming in here and threatening to rape me.” She had gathered some of her wits around her. “So we are going to press charges.”
The cop was making notes. “We can probably get a restraining order to keep him away from here,” he said. “Thing is, these guys feel like they’re owed.” He sighed. “So, let’s hear what happened.”
Kerry went to her desk and sat down. “Sure.” She folded her hands as Dar took a perch on the windowsill behind her. “I came in early...around seven. I opened the front door and came inside, and about...I guess ten minutes after that I heard the front door open and close.”
“Uh huh.”
“So I went to the stairs and called out. I thought our receptionist had come in a little early, or one of the other staff, but no one answered.”
“Right.”
“So a couple minutes after that, I heard someone on the stairs. I went to the top there and found this guy coming up toward me.”
The cop regarded her. “It occur to you to lock yourself inside the office?” he said. “And call 911?”
“Actually, not really, no,” Kerry said. “I did close up the back door so there was only one way into the office here. But then I saw him and he started threatening me.”
“So you called the police,” the cop said.
“I called the police,” Dar interjected quietly.
The cop looked over at her. “You were here at the time?”
“No. I was at the airport.”
The cop blinked at her in confusion.
“I texted her when I heard that sound downstairs,” Kerry said. “And Dar sent the cavalry. He just stayed on the stairs yelling at me and saying he was going to hurt me until Mark showed up and then everyone else did, too.”
“Uh huh.” The cop nodded. “So we got this guy in the car, and we’re going to take him down to the station. His story is, he was just trying to scare you off from complaining about his buddies.” He studied Kerry’s pale face. “He said that they should be able to go on the sidewalk if they want to, you know?”
“They can walk all over the sidewalk,” Dar said. “We objected to them fighting with each other on our doorstep. Not to mention rummaging in our garbage, and giving the maintenance guys a hard time when they complain about the mess they’re making.”
The cop nodded and his partner nodded as well. “Yeah, okay. I know they do that a lot. We’ll see what we can do about it,” he said. “For the record I don’t think he’d have hurt you. I’ve known these guys for a few months.” He glanced at Kerry. “And besides, he said the scaring didn’t work. Thinks you have brass ones, no offense.”
“Well,” Kerry said. “I’ve met my share of assholes. But if it was one of our staff, it would have been different, and I’m not going to subject them to that. They have a right to come to work and not worry about that.”
The cop nodded again. “Fair enough. We’ll be in touch.” He lifted a hand in goodbye, and he and his partner left Kerry’s office, closing the door behind them.
Kerry sighed, and turned to look at Dar. Then she got up and went to perch on the sill next to her. “Big beefy guards, huh?”
“A dozen of them. One of them right outside your door.” Dar wiped her hands off on her jeans. “Jerks.”
Kerry rested her head against Dar’s shoulder. “Next time I’ll lock the damn door.”
“OKAY, LET’S TRY this again,” Dar said, as they pulled up to the airport for the second time that morning. “Do me a favor?”
“Anything.” Kerry put the car into park. “Have I said how sorry I am about being so dumb?”
“A dozen times.” Dar leaned on the console between the seats. “Please don’t be the last one out tonight.” She studied Kerry’s face. “Please?”
“Okay.” Kerry put her hand on Dar’s cheek. “I promise.”
Dar covered her hand and then gently kissed it. Then she released her and got out of the car. “Let me go talk to someone in security. Hopefully they won’t try to arrest me.” She put her hands on the door frame. “See you tomorrow.”
“Call me when you get there,” Kerry said. “And good luck, hon. Though I don’t think you need it.”
Dar smiled briefly and reluctantly turned her back on the car and trudged into the entrance of the airport.
Kerry sighed and watched her disappear, then she put the SUV into drive and maneuvered her way out of the drop off area and onto the exit road. She was still somewhat sick to her stomach from the morning’s events and she took a sip of water from her water bottle as she eased into traffic, trying to settle herself.
She was glad Dar was only going to Washington overnight. She already missed the convenience of the private jet they’d enjoyed and she pondered the possibility of managing their own in the relatively near future.
Less stress, less trouble with security, flying on their own schedule. Huge benefits. The only issue being the cost. Well, if they got some decent business, maybe it would work out financially.
She settled back in the seat and headed back to the office. The highway was busy, but not packed, and she turned on the radio as she headed for the exit, her mind going back to her scary morning experience.
No doubt it had shaken her. Shaken Dar, who had gotten into that truculent gruff mood she tended to when she’d taken a scare. Dar finally agreed that they could wait until after Kerry finished her review of security companies to engage the security group, but not before she extracted a promise from Kerry that she would be cautious and not go walking around outside without taking someone with her.
Dar would have much preferred to h
ave stayed around, or taken Kerry with her, but they both had jobs to do and after all, it was only one day.
Yeah. Kerry sighed as she pulled into the office parking lot. Just one day. She got out of the SUV and locked it, stuffing her keys in her front jeans pocket before she started up the path heading to the door.
The door opened and Mayte trotted out to join her and walk her up the path. “Hey,” Kerry said. “My afternoon appointments here?”
“The first one, yes,” Mayte said. “They just arrived. I have put them in the conference room.”
“Thanks.”
“The police also have called,” Mayte continued. “There will be one to see you here later.”
“Okay.” Kerry pushed the door open and paused. “Let me go get my portfolio.” She started up the steps. “Is the coffee service in there?”
“Yes,” Mayte said. “I will go and offer them some.”
Kerry went into her office and to her desk, hoping Dar was having a much smoother afternoon herself.
Chapter Three
DAR LEANED AGAINST the counter, waiting for the flight to be called. She’d gotten through security with only a small bit of trouble, deciding to try using her charm instead of her kick ass for a change and getting a light scolding from the airport security supervisor.
Now she just wanted to get on the flight and get the trip over with.
Her phone buzzed and she stepped away from the desk. She pulled it out and glanced at it. “Hello?”
“Hello there, Dar.”
“Hey, Gerry,” Dar said. “I missed my flight, about to board a second.”
“No worries,” Gerry said. “Just wanted to give you a heads up. Heard from the boys up the road that the president wants to meet you. Tonight, after your pow wow.”
Dar’s eyebrow shot up. “Me?”
“Yes, lady, you.” He sounded pleased. “Didn’t want you to be shocked out of your knickers, don’t you know. I’ll let you be then, have a good flight.”
