by Melissa Good
She nodded to herself. She’d always had the feeling that just around the bend, just around that next corner, she’d find someone special.
Okay, so it wasn’t around a corner, and the person had barged into her office intent on firing her, but she’d found it. Kerry smiled and leaned forward a little, picking up her pace. Faster I go, faster I get back.
Red Sky At Morning 299
DAR KEPT HER eyes closed, aware of the fact that she was alone in bed. This didn’t make her very happy. The waterbed was comfortable, but it was a lot warmer and more comfortable if it was full of a certain blonde woman she knew, who tended to drape nice smelling and cutely shaped parts of herself all over Dar.
On the other hand, Dar reasoned, she could also smell cinnamon and the scent of fresh coffee, which meant she was trading off waking up chilly and grumpy for sticky buns and a cup of Santa’s White Christmas in her big blue mug.
Hmm.
She heard soft clinks from the kitchen, then the light scuff of bare feet against tile heading in her direction. It was strange, but she could actually feel Kerry’s presence as her lover entered the room, bringing the nice smells closer and combining them with apricot skin scrub and the clean cotton T-shirt that covered Kerry’s freshly showered body.
Mm. Dar briefly wondered if she could just suck on Kerry and forgo the sticky bun. She opened one eye. “Morning.”
“Hi there, cute stuff.” Kerry set the small tray down on their bedside table. On it was the anticipated blue mug and a plate with two buns. “How do you feel?”
Dar closed her fingers on the knee conveniently close by and squeezed. “Mm, not bad,” she joked wryly. “Like crap, honestly,” she then admitted. “I feel like I’ll never get rid of this headache, and my arm’s killing me. I think I slept wrong.”
Kerry rattled the small bottle on the tray. “I came prepared.” She removed a small glass from next to the mug. “Here.” She handed Dar some juice and three tablets.
Dar finished the juice and handed the glass back. “Thanks,” she said. “You better get dressed.”
“Oh.” Kerry plucked at her shirt, which had an almost life-size Dilbert sprawled across its surface. “You mean I can’t go to work like this? C’mon, Dar.”
Dar cocked her head slightly. “Well, okay, hon, but don’t stand with your back to the light, okay? It’s a little translucent.”
Kerry looked down. “It is?” she asked in surprise. “Where?”
A finger reached out and tickled a very sensitive spot.
“Yeak!” A snorting laugh escaped Kerry. “Okay, okay. I see your point.” She gazed fondly at Dar. “Let me go get into my monkey suit.”
Dar tangled her fingers in the soft cotton and tugged. “Thanks for breakfast,” she said. “And you can go to work dressed casual today if you want. It won’t kill anyone.”
Kerry considered that, then nodded. “Okay, I will,” she decided.
“I’m in the mood for jeans.” She turned and made her way into the living room, then took the stairs two at a time.
300 Melissa Good
“WHEN’RE WE GONNA see what we got?” Brent asked, sticking his hands in his pockets and regarding the locked steel box in the corner of Mark’s office.
Mark didn’t look up from the folder he was writing on. “When Dar says we do. Go do something, willya, Brent? It’s not going to levitate out of that box.”
Brent stayed put. “We risked our necks to get that thing.”
Now Mark looked up. “You volunteered.”
“So?” The tech squared a pugnacious jaw. “We still did.”
“And your point is what?” the MIS chief asked. “Look, you wouldn’t know what the hell was in there even if I did open and link it.
It’s not readable.”
Brent’s brow creased. “Huh? Then what’d we do it for? You mean we can’t use it?”
“I didn’t say that.” Mark took an impatient breath. “I said you can’t read it. I can’t read it. Yoda the Jedi Master can’t read it.” He pointed at the box. “But Dar can. She knows what formula she used to structure the sector copy. She’s the one who has to reconstruct it, okay?”
Brent looked interested. “Oh.”
Mark leaned back. “Hey. Why the fuck did you go with us?” he asked bluntly. “You spent the last two weeks blowing shit all over this office about how you felt about the boss.”
Brent studied him sullenly. “It’s not right.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You, my aunt Matilda, and Dr. Laura with your homophobic bullshit,” Mark snapped. “All of you can kiss my ass. So why offer to help out someone you hate so much?”
Brent shrugged. “The Navy sucks,” he commented, then turned and walked out, leaving a bewildered Mark to stare after him.
“What the hell was that?” Mark asked the empty air. “Why the fuck do I get all the warped SIMMS in Miami working for me?” He shook his head and glanced at his screen. “Ah.” An alert showed him that Kerry had logged into the office systems. He checked a second alarm, scowling a little on seeing it remain dark. “Shit. C’mon, Dar. I want to know if we got those bastards, too.”
THE BOAT ROCKED up and down in the very light chop as Ceci walked along the edge of the deck. Good thing, she mused thoughtfully, that I’m not prone to seasickness. That would have been a hell of a thing to find out after I talked Andy into this thing, wouldn’t it?
She spotted her husband seated on the very front of the bow, resting his arms on the railing as he watched the sun rise over the sea.
He was dressed in his shortie wet suit, which glistened with the seawater that also dampened his grizzled hair and scattered sparkles over his tanned skin.
“Hey, sailor boy.” Ceci took a seat next to him.
Red Sky At Morning 301
“Y’know, Cec,” Andrew turned his head and looked thoughtfully at her, “I do believe I do not consider that a compliment anymore.”
Ceci looked at him. “Andy,” she put a hand on his leg, “don’t say that. A bunch of jackasses shouldn’t take a lifetime of pride away from you. C’mon now.” She found herself in the weird position of defending a service she’d never really liked or understood. “You know the vast majority aren’t like that. They’re like you.” She gazed into the pale blue eyes. “Well, not just like you.”
Andrew sighed. “Ah remember doing bartering myself back on that there base.”
“Everyone did,” Ceci laughed. “C’mon, Andy. That’s how we managed to trade enough for that Christmas party that one year, remember? When you won that stuffed tiger from Brad at the carnival, and gave it to Dar?”
Andrew brooded. “How was that different than what this was? Jeff said he done it for his family. Well, I done that for my family.”
“Hon,” Ceci managed not to smile, “I don’t think even the attorney general, bless her good, cracker heart, would see tins of peanut butter and a case of beer in the same light as selling black-market M16s and cocaine.”
“Mph.”
“Besides, how could we possibly deny Dar her peanut butter?” Ceci asked. “She ate so much of that, I’m surprised she doesn’t carry a cane and wear a top hat and spats.”
Andrew laughed wryly in pure reflex. “She surely did like that stuff,” he agreed, then sighed. “Maybe that’s how it starts, though. Folks think that’s all right, then it just goes a little further, and further—”
“No.” Ceci shook her head. “There’s a line there, Andy. You and I both know that. Someone made the decision to cross that line.” She put a hand on his arm “It just so happens that person was a friend of ours.”
Andrew scowled. “Jackass.”
“Mm.”
“Hope Dar nails his ass t’the ground with a sharpened flagpole.”
Now it was Ceci’s turn to laugh.
DAR LAY QUIETLY in bed, soft New Age music providing a background as she drowsed, allowing the painkillers to ebb some of the throbbing from her arm and head. There were a dozen things she c
ould be doing, she admitted, but it was much easier to do what she’d promised she’d do, which was rest and allow her body to heal.
It was hard to remember the last time she’d just slept in all day. She and Kerry kept pretty busy; even on weekends they were out on the boat, or driving down to the Keys, or...Dar smiled sleepily. Or shopping.
She’d discovered she liked shopping with Kerry. Even when they 302 Melissa Good were looking for something totally mundane, like plates, she found herself enjoying the process. Last time they’d gone to the mall, she’d even done a little clothes shopping, both she and Kerry having fun remembering the first time they’d done that, mere weeks after they’d first met.
And this time they shared a dressing room. Dar chuckled softly as she indulged herself in a memory of the two of them buttoning and zipping each other.
And unbuttoning and unzipping.
Dar idly hoped Saks Fifth Avenue didn’t videotape their patrons.
The phone rang, causing her to reluctantly open her eyes and peer at the table. With a groan, she rolled over and reached out to slap the speaker button. “Hello?”
“Good morning, Dar.”
Dar let her eyes close again. “Morning.” She returned her mother’s greeting cordially. “What’s up?”
“Your father’s temper.”
That got one eye open. “Don’t tell me it’s the Priceline.com commercials again,” she said.
Ceci chuckled wryly. “Actually, his new pet peeve is the erectile dysfunction minimovies that have been playing recently.”
Dar’s brow wrinkled. “Ew.”
“Mm,” her mother agreed. “At any rate, he took a ride down to the base yesterday and didn’t come back very happy. Apparently they’re covering their tracks pretty thoroughly.”
“Um,” Dar tried to dredge up some interest. “Figures.”
There was a moment’s silence. “You doing all right?” Ceci finally asked warily.
“Pretty much,” Dar answered. “Been laying in bed most of the morning.”
“Ah. I see.” Ceci seemed to consider this statement seriously for a little while. “Well, I went to the technological depths of iniquity and managed to produce a pan of something that might, if you don’t look too closely, pass as brownies to cheer your father up.”
Dar chuckled in pure reflex.
“Mind if I drop some by?”
Dar lifted her head up and peered at the phone in honest surprise.
For a second, she almost politely declined, then a sudden impulse took over. “S...sure.” She cast a quick look around. “Place is a mess.”
Her mother laughed audibly. “See you in a bit.”
“Okay,” Dar replied, then heard the line drop. She rested her chin on her wrist and stared at the phone, then shook her head. “Look out, Chino. We’re getting a visitor.”
The Labrador lifted her head up and wagged her tail. She was curled up in her bed next to where Dar was lying.
“My mother’s coming over,” she informed the dog. “And she’s Red Sky At Morning 303
bringing brownies.” Dar rolled over cautiously and regarded the ceiling. “Bet if I look outside, it’ll be snowing.”
“Growf.”
“Mm. But if she offers to do the laundry, we’re outta here.” Dar covered her eyes with one hand. “Scary. Very scary.”
KERRY KNELT BESIDE the lockbox and lifted the security tag, reading the number off it and recording it on a large manila file clipped onto the clipboard she was carrying. “Okay.” She stood and wrote the cataloging entry on the file folder. “Do we have point-to-point concurrence that this never left anyone’s view?”
“Yep,” Mark said. “I made sure I kept three guys with me to sign off on it.”
“Good.” Kerry took a step back and dropped into the chair across from Mark’s desk, crossing one denim-covered ankle over her knee.
“Now we just have to find out if there’s anything useful in there.”
“Yeah,” Mark sighed. “Boss won’t be in ’til Wednesday, huh?”
“Nope,” Kerry said. “And I’d feel better if we did all the analysis here, rather than have that brought to the house. It’s going to be touchy as it is.”
The MIS chief nodded. “I’m with you. They get that team into the base?”
Kerry chewed on the end of her pen. “Yeah. I got a call from that JAG officer. They’ve been there all day, and so far, it all looks clean.”
Mark snorted.
Kerry acknowledged his derision with a twitch of her lips. “Not that we don’t already have some data on them. But nothing major.
Mostly bad or shady bookkeeping on stuff like supplies.”
“So, if there’s nothing in this thing,” Mark kicked the lockbox,
“that’s it? They just get off?”
Kerry stood up and exhaled. “If we can’t prove anything, then, yes,” she agreed. “Or, to be more specific, if we can’t provide information to the authorities that will allow them to prove it. We’re just the analysts.”
“Bet Dar doesn’t feel that way,” Mark commented. “Man, I can’t believe she grew up there. My brain can’t process that.” He glanced at Kerry. “Weird.”
“Why?” Kerry asked, pausing in the doorway on her way out.
Mark shrugged, a little uncomfortably. “I don’t know. It was like when she took us out to that little island place, y’know? I just figured she went through the same kind of growing up around here that I did.
Malls, football games, whatever.”
Kerry studied him. “Didn’t figure her for a redneck?”
Mark scowled. “She’s not a friggin’ redneck. She’s just a, a—”
“Cracker,” Kerry supplied gently.
304 Melissa Good
“No way.”
“Mark.” Kerry came back over and sat down, resting her hands on her knees and putting her envelope down. “I love Dar. You know that, right?”
He blushed.
“She’s my best friend, and my partner, and I wouldn’t trade her for anyone or anything in the world,” Kerry went on. “She’s not embarrassed by her origins, so why should you be?”
Another shrug. “It’s just weird.”
Kerry sighed. “I think it makes her achievements all the more spectacular,” she said. “Because she really did start from nothing, and everything she’s gained has been on her own terms, and by her own brilliance.”
Mark looked up. “Yeah.”
After a speculative look, Kerry admitted, “I envy her for that. It must be an amazing feeling to know you’ve totally controlled your own destiny.”
Mark played with the chip puller he used as a paperweight. “She has, hasn’t she? I never really thought about that,” he told Kerry. “Hey, you had lunch yet?”
Kerry let the subject change pass. “Not yet. Want to go down?
They’ve got lamb shanks today.” She stood back up. “I think Mari said she was going down about now, too.”
Mark joined her and carefully locked the door to his office behind them. “Not like you could drag that box anywhere, but ya never know.”
“Mm,” Kerry agreed. “You never do know.” She glanced around the office, and gave the staff there a brief smile. Most smiled back.
Brent just looked away from her.
CECI SELECTED A glass from the cabinet and went to the refrigerator, opening the door and standing on her tip toes to reach the handle of the milk dispenser on the top shelf. She watched the glass fill, muffling a chuckle as it finished. She then took a step back and closed the door. The condo was quiet, and despite Dar’s disclaimer, seemed no untidier than it usually did. Which was not at all, save a collection of laundry awaiting attention in the utility room.
That didn’t really surprise her. Though Dar had maintained a nest of teenage clutter in her younger years, the room had never been dirty, per se, just full of stuff. Things that held Dar’s capricious interest, or things that Andrew had given her, all jealously hoarded in n
eatly labeled boxes stacked everywhere.
She’d had time, when she and Andrew had dog-sat, to wander over the condo, and had found herself smiling at childhood vestiges she’d found tucked away in inconspicuous corners.
Those things had meant something to her daughter. Ceci studied Red Sky At Morning 305
the glass of milk, then shook her head and made her way through the living room and into the bedroom where Dar was resting. She held out the glass. “Figured you’d need this.”
Dar got caught in mid-chew. She hastily swallowed a mouthful of brownie and accepted the milk, taking a sip of it to wash down the rich treat. “Thanks.” She indicated the tray. “Not bad for instant.”
“Mm, yes.” Ceci sat down in the comfortable chair near the bed.
“Shocked the hell out of me, I have to admit.”
Dar grinned slightly. “I know the feeling. I made dinner the other week and was totally amazed at it being edible.”
One of Ceci’s silver-blonde eyebrows rose. “What was the occasion?”
Dar hesitated, then shrugged. “Nothing special. I just felt like doing it.” She was aware of the always perceptible discomfort between them, and suddenly felt very tired of it. Life was, she’d come to realize, just too damn short sometimes. “Hey, Mom?”
Ceci detected the change in Dar’s tone, and she leaned forward a little. “Yes?”
Dar took a deep breath. “We’ve got a pretty lousy past with each other.”
Uh-oh. Ceci felt her heart move up into her throat. “Brownies weren’t that bad, were they?” she joked faintly.
That made Dar smile, and she realized her mother was a lot more nervous than she was. “No.” She glanced down and collected her thoughts, then looked up. “Can we just forget it all and start fresh from here?”
It came around a blind corner and smacked Ceci right between the eyes, leaving a sting as though she’d been hit with a mackerel. She found herself gazing right into Dar’s intense face, the echo of the question reminding her strongly of the one she’d asked Andrew the night they’d been reunited. “That what you really want?” she asked quietly.
Dar nodded.
