Winds of Change Book Two

by Melissa Good

  “Hey.” Kerry wiped sweat from her eyes. “Feel better?”

  Dar smiled. “Yeah.” She shadowboxed at Kerry. “When you’re done, want to take a swim?”

  “Sure.” Kerry stretched her body out, one way and then the other. “Let me just do the leg press and we can go splash.” She got off the incline board and moved to the next machine while Dar took her place and hooked her feet under the holders and started a set of sit-ups herself.

  Kerry settled on the leg press and unlocked it, adjusting the weight and slowly starting the exercise. She saw Dar’s profile and was glad to see the furrow gone from between her brows and a relaxed expression on her face. Much better. “Guess what I have when we get back?”

  Dar eyed her. “Does it start with ice cream?”

  “It does.”

  “Mm.” Dar looked contented. “Y’know, something you said before gave me an idea.”

  Kerry paused at the top of her extension. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Is that good or bad?”

  Dar smiled, and boxed a little with her hands as she continued her sit ups. “We’ll just have to find out.”

  THE SUN WAS just thinking about peeking over the horizon as Dar closed the door to her truck, clicking the lock on the door before she shouldered her backpack and started for the building.

  Hers was the first car in the lot, as she’d expected it would be, and she paused at the front of the walk just to look up and regard the sign on the wall for a moment.

  Her face scrunched up into an unapologetic grin. Then she shook herself a little and continued up the path toward the door. She reached into her jeans pocket for the hard key as she walked. A bird started warbling in one of the olive trees on either side of the walk and she pursed her lips and warbled back, the sound fading off as she came around the last bend and saw the figure crouched on the front porch.

  “Ah. Nice way to start the day,” Dar muttered under her breath as the figure heard her boots on the path and straightened up a little in his wheelchair. “Morning,” she said as she climbed the few steps up to where he was seated.

  He blinked at her, bruises evident on his face, one hand wrapped in a makeshift bandage. “That other lady coming?”

  Dar put her backpack down on the small wrought iron table and sat on one of the little chairs next to him. “If you mean my partner, Kerry, she’s taking our puppy for his checkup at the vets. Something I can do for you?”

  He avoided meeting her eyes. “I’ll wait.”

  Dar rested her elbows on the chair arms, glad she had a hoodie on when the chill of the metal transferred even through the cloth. She laced her fingers together and studied him from the corner of her eyes, knowing a moment of unexpected compassion for him. “Your buddy came to see us last night. He was trying to sell all of you as a package.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “That your idea?” Dar kept her voice light and mild. “That’s not how civ works.”

  He peeked up at her briefly, then looked away. “Wasn’t my idea. I showed Joe the jobs. He thought maybe it would be good for all of us.” He shrugged. “Told him you all’d say no way.”

  “We did,” Dar said. “He told us it was all or nothing. He change his mind or did you?”

  Wheels stared dourly at his hands for a long moment. “Told him I was going to come back anyhow. No one else round here will even talk to any of us.”

  “He hit you for saying that?”

  He looked up again, more sharply. “Nah, we just scrapped.” He kept eye contact with her. “Not on your fucking sidewalk either.”

  Dar smiled. “Thanks. I do appreciate that.”

  He looked away again, a flush rising up his neck up to his ears.

  “You here on the porch waiting to ask us for something in particular?” Dar said after a moment of silence. “Whatever it is you’re going to ask Kerry for, she’ll tell me before she answers anyway.”

  The man studied her in silence. Dar sat there waiting, returning his gaze in mild neutrality.

  He shifted in his wheelchair, his face old before it’s time, lines of pain etched across it. He pulled out a folded piece of paper and offered it over to her. “Wanted to ask about this here.”

  Dar unfolded the paper and studied it. “One of our tech support positions. This something you do? You do that in the service?”

  He shook his head. “Infantry. I did that before I went in. In high school I was the guy who messed with all the computers in the lab and all.” He shifted again. “I used to set up the machines from scratch, reload them after all the classes, you know?”

  “Yes, I do know,” Dar said. “You fix printers and that sort of thing, too?”

  He nodded. “I can take apart and fix a laser fuser,” he said. “And solder components, that stuff.”

  Dar’s eyebrows lifted a bit. “Why didn’t you stick with that instead of the Army? You can make a living with that. Or why not specialize in it? Army uses tech.”

  He looked at her. “Went with my buddies. They all wanted to go into the Army and I went, too. Stayed with them when we all got picked for grunts.” He scowled a little. “Guess you think that’s stupid.”

  Dar folded the paper and ran her fingers over the edges. “Not really, no. I was a signature away from the Navy myself, mostly because my dad was in and I grew up on a base.” She cleared her throat. “So no, I don’t think that’s stupid. But I bet you think so now.”

  He flushed again. “Didn’t think about coming back like this.” He indicated his lower body, one leg missing mid thigh and the other below the knee. His pants legs were drawn closed with twine, dirty and ragged. “Dead’s one thing. This?”

  “No you don’t think of that when you’re going in. I saw people coming back with half their guts missing. I saw my dad hurt and still didn’t think about it. When you’re that young you think you’re invincible.”

  She saw his neck muscles relax and he straightened up, looking at her. “Yeah.” He studied her briefly. “What made ya back out?”

  Dar smiled briefly. “They wouldn’t let me get a berth where I wanted it and I wasn’t going to settle for anything else,” she said. “I’m a hardass that way. Always have been, even back then.”

  He considered that. “Ballsy,” he said. “You want intel or something?”

  “Special forces.” Her eyes twinkled a little at his reaction. “So I ended up doing technology instead. Worked out better for me in the long run.”

  He snorted a little. “Fuck.”

  Dar pulled her Handspring out, studied it, then tapped out a message. She glanced up at him. “Are your friends going to be pissed off by you coming here to talk to us?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That going to be a problem for you?”

  For a very long moment he didn’t answer, his gaze going past her and unfocused. Then he looked back up at her with his most straightforward, honest expression yet. “Don’t care.”

  She glanced down at the phone as its message light stuttered red. “We’ll try to make it worth the hassle then.” She looked back up at him. “Let’s go inside.” She stood up and went to the door, keying in the alarm code and opening the door with her hard key.

  “For what?”

  Dar’s brows lifted and she held up the folded paper. “You want a job? I’ll give you a try at one.”

  He looked around with a stunned expression. “Don’t you have to talk to that other lady?”

  “I did.” Dar held up the Handspring as she pushed the door open and held it. “C’mon, let’s get the ground rules settled before everyone comes in and freaks out.”

  He stared at her for a very long moment. “Sorry I was such a jackass,” he said. He swiveled the chair and rolled in the door.

  Dar smiled. “Takes one to know one.” She closed the door after

  them and indicated the right hand turn down the hallway. “Let’s go to

  the HR office. You can start filling out paperwork.”
<
br />   “You’re really going to hire me?”

  “Yup.”

  “Somebitch.”

  KERRY TUCKED MOCHA under her arm and opened the door to her SUV. She put him on the seat and hopped inside, getting the door closed before Mocha could get any clever ideas in terms of jumping out. “C’mon, Mochie. Let’s go to work and see what trouble mommy Dar’s gotten into.”

  “Yap.” Mocha sat down on the passenger seat, his tongue hanging out.

  It didn’t surprise her that Dar hired their crippled veteran troublemaker. She’d sensed a sympathy in Dar for the guy. She was a little surprised, though, that he’d showed up after the grandstanding play by his buddy last night.

  She navigated the busy city streets carefully, not wanting to spill Mocha on the car floor with a sharp stop. They’d been the first ones at the vet, and Mocha passed his exam with flying colors. He was happy to be the center of attention even when that center meant various things being stuck in him and in unpleasant places.

  So now this new employee. Her mind started to count up the issues she figured they’d need to face which would start with, did this guy actually have a place to live?

  Did he have a place to shower? Did he have clothes to wear to work? If he stayed around with his buddies, would he be reliable?

  Was she being a little too WASP-y about it?

  Kerry pulled into the office lot and parked. She stuck her sunglasses up in the visor and opened the door. “You hang on there, Mocha. I’ll come get you.” She got out and shut the door, walking around to the passenger side as the puppy raced around inside, barking excitedly.

  “Relax!” She chuckled as she got the other door open and collected the bouncing fur ball.

  “Hey, Kerry.” Mark appeared at her side, two cups of coffee in his hands. “Crazy morning already, huh?”

  Kerry put Mocha down and looped his leash around her wrist. “You mean our new employee?” She grinned. “Hey, I never argue with Dar’s hiring.”

  Mark chuckled too as he walked alongside her up the path. “He kinda surprised me. He’s got some skills,” he admitted. “I thought Dar was just being...like she was humoring him. But he knows what end of a cable to plug in stuff.”

  “Dar sees things in people,” Kerry said. “Sometimes she sees things other people don’t and sometimes she sees things the people she sees them in don’t.”

  Mark grinned as he pushed the door open for her with his elbow and stood aside to let her enter. “I had you pegged the second I saw your file.”

  Kerry eyed him. “You did, did you?”

  “Yup.” He winked and headed up the steps to his office.

  “Good morning, ma’am,” the receptionist said. “Only one dog today?”

  “Only one. Chino was very upset I left her behind. If she’d known we were going to the vet I bet she would have laughed.” Kerry headed up the steps, carrying Mocha since his legs were still a little short to handle the stairs well. She got to the top and waved hello to Maria, then ducked through Mayte’s office toward her and Dar’s. “Hey, Mayte.”

  “Good morning, Kerry.” Mayte grinned at her. “I have some messages for you on your desk.”

  “Thank you.” Kerry went in and put Mocha down in the puppy playpen Dar had constructed. It had a plethora of toys and bones and a dish of water and one for kibble. “There you go, little man. Chill out for a while so I can get my phone calls done.”

  “Hey.”

  Kerry paused in the middle of sitting down to look up and find Dar in the inner doorway. “Hey, hon.”

  “Hey, beautiful,” Dar responded amiably. She came over to the play pen and leaned over to give Mocha a pat. “Our new employee is going through the typical orientation routine,” she said. “His name’s Scott Brewer, by the way.”

  Kerry leaned back. “So how did that all come about?” she asked. “Did you know he was going to come back here?”

  Dar stepped inside the playpen at Mocha’s urgent paw scrabbling request and sat down with him. “He was on the porch when I got here.” She glanced up at Kerry. “Had one of your job requests on him. I wasn’t expecting to see him there, but I wasn’t surprised either.”

  “Isn’t that going to piss off his obnoxious friend, Joe?”

  Dar nodded. “He said it was, but he didn’t care. That’s why I hired him. That and the fact he actually was his high school’s nerd and knows how to disassemble and reassemble a laser printer.” She grinned briefly. “Naturally he also brings complications.”

  “Of course,” Kerry said. “At least the tech support office is going to be on the first floor, though he can use the freight elevator.”

  “He wants to use the stairs.”

  Both of Kerry’s brows shot up. “Our liability insurance is going to skyrocket.”

  Dar chuckled. “No kidding. If he loses his grip halfway up he’s going to take out our reception desk on the way back down. I said I’d see what we could work out.” She gave Mocha one last scrubble then

  got up and stepped over the fencing. “Sorry, buddy, gotta go back to my programming.”

  “Does he live at the halfway house, or under our hedges?” Kerry asked. “He kinda does need to come in with relatively clean clothes and all that, Dar. Not fair to the rest of them otherwise.”

  “He has a room at the church house, but he doesn’t like going there.” Dar came over and sat down on the bench behind Kerry. “He says maybe after some paychecks he can get his own place, but I had an idea.”

  “Of course you did.” Kerry reached out and gently ruffled her dark hair.

  “I threw in a membership for that little gym around the corner,” Dar said. “It’s got showers and all that. Told him until he got everything sorted out, he could go there in the morning and get ready for work.”

  Kerry thought about that, honestly impressed by the suggestion. “So it’s not like charity,” she said. “You could have offered to get him a place.”

  Dar shook her head decisively. “He’s tired of begging for handouts and getting the government runaround. He wants to try and make it himself.”

  “You like him.”

  Dar smiled briefly. “I could have ended up just like him.”

  “No, never. Your parents would never have left you to live on the streets, Paladar Katherine Roberts.” Kerry put her fingertip on Dar’s nose. “There’s nothing in the world you can say that would make me believe that.”

  “When you met me I could’ve been living on the streets and they would have never known. Don’t color my childhood in rainbow snow cones, hon. There was a time, after we thought Dad was gone, that I was just as alone as this guy is, even more so since at least he thinks he has friends.”

  Kerry didn’t refute that because she knew it was true.

  “So anyway,” Dar went on. “We’ll have to put up with his ratty clothes until he gets his first paycheck. Mark checked him out and says he’ll be okay on the tech side.”

  “Good enough for me.”

  Dar nodded and glanced around before lowering her voice. “Now on another subject.”

  “Uh oh.”

  A soft knock interrupted them. Kerry projected her voice toward the door. “Yes?”

  Zoe poked her head in. “Miss Kerry, your ten o’clock appointment is here.”

  Kerry sighed. “Rats. Yeah. Can you get them a cup of coffee and give me five minutes?”

  Zoe nodded and backed out, closing the door behind her.

  Kerry turned in her chair and scooted closer to Dar. “So.”

  “Mark talked to his buddy today. They’re on the verge of doing something idiotic,” Dar said, quietly. “I don’t think they’re going to call me.”

  “Good,” Kerry said.

  Dar nodded. “But I feel for those guys. I don’t think it would be a good idea to contact them.”

  “Good,” Kerry said again with a faint smile. “So far we’re in one hundred percent agreement.”

  “Here’s the deal. You know that network for
um I mess around in sometimes?” Dar asked. “The one where people post questions and all that crap?”

  Kerry frowned. “No, I...oh.” Then she nodded. “Yeah, you showed me that once. Nerdfest.”

  “Nerdfest,” Dar agreed. “Everyone posts there—engineers, nerds, wannabe nerds, trolls and interested onlookers. I don’t post often, and not under my real name, but every once in a while I throw a hat in.”

  “Ah. I’m beginning to see the light.”

  “So I told Mark if his buddy wanted to post a few questions in that forum, if I can answer them, I will. He doesn’t have to give his name. He can make the questions general enough not to identify ILS.”

  Kerry was silent for a moment. “Will it stay anonymous, though? Dar, I think they’ll use any excuse they can find, no matter what it is, to make you responsible for whatever bad’s going on there.”

  Now it was Dar’s turn to be quiet for a bit. “I don’t know,” she finally said. “But it’s the only way I can think of to give them help without causing a riot. I don’t necessarily know who this guy is, and I do occasionally give answers on there.”

  Kerry watched the planes of Dar’s face shift as she looked briefly away, then back at Kerry. “You really are a crusader, you know that?” She smiled and leaned forward to touch her head to Dar’s. “Be careful, Dar.”

  “I will. And anyway, the guy might not want to go that route. It’s a risk for him, too. Maybe he just wants to wait it out and see what happens.”

  That was true. “Okay.” Kerry patted Dar’s knee. “But you might want to—”

  “Go through a proxy so they can’t track the IP back here?” Dar’s eyes twinkled. “Good idea.”

  They both laughed then Dar got up and sauntered back to her office, turning to give Kerry a wink before she disappeared.

  Kerry pressed the intercom button. “Zoe, please bring my visitor in.” She released the button and shook her head. “Crusader Dar. Boy did that woman nail her.”

  “ALL RIGHT, ROBERTS.” Bridges voice sounded bemused. “Remember that conversation we had about smoke and mirrors?”

  Dar leaned back in her chair. “I do.”