by Melissa Good
Dar’s brows creased as she considered the information. “Steve, are you saying I was poisoned?” She paused. “Accidentally?”
There was a long silence. “Dar, the type of stuff this is, you absorbed through your skin. You didn’t swallow it, or nothing like that.” An awkward pause. “Had to be touching you.”
“Touching me,” Dar murmured, then cocked her head at Kerry. “Dr.
Steve says it was some kind of poison that got me sick the other day.”
Kerry’s eyes widened in shock. “Something I got by touching the stuff.
God, it could have been anything.” The phone shifted. “Steve, other than Eye of the Storm 279
the office and the house, I was in a couple of odd places that day. What are the odds it was on something there? Like the airport, for instance?”
“Dar, this stuff,” Steve hesitated, “it’s not very common.” He seemed uncomfortable. “I’d like you to come in tomorrow, let me take more blood and make sure you got rid of it all. You haven’t been sick since then, have you?”
“No. Not at all. In fact, I feel great. We just got back from the gym and Kerry was giving me grief about running her ragged,” she replied. “I was a little queasy the day after that, but even the morning after you came I was able to get some breakfast down fine.”
“Good.” Steve sounded relieved. “It’s probably all right then, but I’d like to run some blood anyway,” he insisted. “Stop by in the morning.
Won’t take but a minute.”
“Okay.” Dar exhaled. “I’ve got a plane to catch, but I’ll swing by the office first.”
“Great. See you then, Dar.” Steve hung up, leaving an echoing click behind him.
Dar set the phone down and regarded her friend. “Damn.” She wasn’t sure how to react. “I wasn’t expecting that. I thought it was just a damn bug.”
“What was it?’ Kerry asked. “Does he know how it got in you? I heard you say by touch. You mean it’s absorbed through the skin?”
Dar nodded thoughtfully. “Well, only two people touched me that day, so that blows that theory out.” She tugged on a lock of wet blonde hair. “You and Dad.” She looked up as a soft knock clearly sounded through the open door. Leaning over, she pressed the intercom button.
“Yes?”
“Hey, Dardar.”
“Hey, Dad. C’mon in.”
“Dar!” Kerry gave her a look. “In case you forgot, we’re naked.”
“He’s seen me naked,” Dar protested mildly, as the door opened and ambling footsteps crossed the tile. She glanced down. “Course, I was a little smaller then.” She looked up. “Hi, Dad.”
“’Lo there—Jesus H. Christ!” Andrew turned his head. “Paladar Roberts. Get yer clothes on.”
“Does that mean I can stay naked?” Kerry inquired innocently.
“Cool.”
“No, young lady, you most certainly can not.”
“C’mon, Dad. They’d get all wet in here.” Dar chuckled. “We’re under the bubbles, look.”
“No.”
“Really, we are. You can only see our heads.”
Andrew peeked, spotting two sets of sparkling eyes very close to the water. Dar had turned the jets up and the whirlpool provided a frothy, but effective screen otherwise. “You two little barnacles are gonna get scraped one of these fine days,” he growled.
“We love you too, Dad.” Kerry grinned cheekily, splashing him a lit-280 Melissa Good tle. His face was visibly sunburned, the color obscuring the worst of the scars and heightening the contrast of his pale eyes, and the tense lines had relaxed considerably in the past week. A corner of his mouth quirked, uncannily like his daughter’s often did and he stuck a hand in to splash her back. “Have you been having fun?”
The quirk edged into a smile. “We’ve been busy, if that’s what you mean,” he remarked. “Found us a new home.”
“Oh yeah?” Dar forgot her concerns for a moment. “Where?”
“South Beach Marina.”
Twin puzzled looks peered back at him. “South B—” Dar started to say.
“Where?” Kerry asked simultaneously.
“Yer mother liked that damn boat so much, we figgered maybe we’d get us one and live on that,” Andrew answered placidly, rocking back and forth on his heels. “So we did. Went down and ordered me one the other day. Be ready in about a week or two.”
“You ordered a boat?” Dar blinked. “Like…as in one like ours?”
“Bigger.” Her father smirked. “Some sixty damn feet long and ah had ’em put a pair of the biggest damn engines I could find in the back end of it.”
Dar just gaped, totally stunned by the news. “I…” She tried to come up with something to respond with. “But…”
“Wow.” Kerry leaned her chin on Dar’s shoulder. “I can’t wait to see it. I bet Mrs. Roberts is going to make the inside so cool.” She smiled.
“Can we have a boatwarming?” She managed to push the knowledge of her trip tomorrow out of her mind, replacing it with the excitement of seeing her friend’s new home. “I wish it were next week already.”
Dar sighed. “Me too.”
Andrew cocked his head and regarded them from under grizzled eyebrows. “What’s yer troubles?” He glanced at Kerry. “I know you got to go north tomorrow.”
Kerry nodded, then looked up at Dar. “Dar has to go to Houston.”
Dar found herself under a very familiar scrutiny and she felt years younger all of a sudden. “That guy I told you was causing me trouble?”
“Yeap.”
“He did,” she admitted. “I don’t think I’ll be working for ILS after tomorrow.”
Andrew looked truly stunned. “Why?”
Dar glanced at Kerry, then shrugged. “Scandal. They’ve got a BS
lawsuit pending, and I think they’re going to ask me to resign, to keep all that from going public.” She couldn’t meet his eyes anymore and looked at the roiling water instead. “I…um…broke the rules with Kerry.”
Her father snorted. “After all this damn time, they’re gonna ask you to bail out fer that? C’mon now. Gimme a Christly break. They need t’get their heads out of their keesters.” He paused. “Ye’re not seriously gonna do it, are you?”
She gave her head a tiny shake. “I don’t know.”
Eye of the Storm 281
Andrew leaned over and took her chin, forcing her eyes up. “You listen to me, Paladar. You’ve been givin’ them people two hundred percent since you was fifteen years old. Don’t you walk away from them with your tail tucked.”
Kerry could, in that moment, have easily kissed him. It was exactly what she’d wanted to tell Dar, but had been reluctant to, since she was so close and so involved in the whole situation. Besides, that kind of thing sounded better coming from her daddy. Her instinct was to fight what she saw was an intolerably unfair situation and she was glad to see Andy was on her side. She slipped an arm across Dar’s stomach under the water, and ran her fingers over the toned surface.
“I don’t know if they’re worth the fight,” Dar objected quietly.
“Maybe they ain’t, but your pride is,” her father responded. “Losing’s one thing—we all gotta do that sometimes. But quittin’s something else.” His jaw bunched. “You’re my kid and I didn’t raise you to run from nothin’.”
Her lips tensed into a grim smile. “No, you didn’t,” Dar allowed.
“And I never have.” She closed her eyes and tilted her head in tacit agreement and felt her jaw released and patted gently.
“That’s my girl.”
Yeah. Dar exhaled, accepting it. So she’d go out swinging. It would make a good story anyway, right? “Wish I had something to throw in his face, though.” She shifted a little. “Mark couldn’t find a damn thing on him.”
“You’ll think of something, Dardar,” her father predicted. “This that same guy that came after you that night?”
That night. “Yes.”
“Lucky
he turned you loose, munchkin. He ’bout had mah boot up his hinder quarters there.”
Turned me loose... Dar straightened up and stared out at the horizon.
She touched a spot on her upper arm, as she stirred her memories of that night. “He did grab me, didn’t he?”
Kerry’s eyes widened. “Ankow?” She sat up as well. “He touched you? That night? That little piece of slimy…”
Andy blinked. “Possessive little thing, ain’t you?” he remarked.
“No, no. Dr. Steve just called. He found out some poison stuff was what got Dar sick last week. He said she got it through her skin,” Kerry blurted. “I bet that son of a bitch did it. I bet he did. That slime bag. Boy, if I get my hands on him I’ll—” She started to stand up.
Dar grabbed her and pulled her down as Andrew yelped and covered his eyes. “Calm down.” She found herself tangled with her friend, eyes meeting at a distance of inches. “Let’s not jump to conclusions.” The angrily coiled body in her arms slowly relaxed as Kerry slid back under the water.
“What’s she talking about?” Andy asked, still with his hands over his eyes. “What’d Steve find?”
“It’s safe, you can turn around,” Dar told him. “He found some kind 282 Melissa Good of toxin. Didn’t say what it was. Just that it was something you absorbed through your skin, and it was nasty. He wants me to drop by tomorrow so he can make sure it’s all gone.”
Blue eyes peeked out, then the ex-SEAL blinked. “T’morrow huh?
Mind if I tag along?” His gaze had sharpened and his whole attitude shifted subtly. “I’d like to hear about this.” He cleared his throat. “Might as well say hello to the old dog too.”
Dar nodded absently. “Sure.” Her brows creased. “You don’t really think he...” She forced a laugh. “C’mon. This isn’t some trashy thriller novel.”
“Ah don’t know.” Andrew touched the skin on her arm where Ankow’s hand had clutched. “But ah aim to find out.” His voice had lowered and deepened into a throaty rumble that was more purr than speech.
For a moment, there was danger there. Then Andy straightened and thumped the edge of the Jacuzzi. “Came t’see if you two’d like to join us for a cup of something down yonder.”
“We have to get dressed then, huh?” Kerry murmured, from her warm spot nestled against Dar.
Andy raised one brow.
“Sure,” Dar agreed. “We’ll join you in a few minutes.” She watched him leave, hearing the faint clang of the gate as he exited the garden and headed towards the beach.
DAR PUT HER sunglasses on, as she pulled off the ferry and turned right on the causeway. Her father was sprawled in the seat next to her, wearing a pair of, for him, festive dark green shorts and a sweatshirt with its sleeves pushed all the way up. “It was nice of Mother to take Kerry to the airport.”
Andrew turned from his review of the streets. “She likes the little kumquat.”
“So I gathered.” Dar smiled wryly. “The feeling’s mutual.” She turned onto the beach road that held Dr. Steve’s practice and headed south. She had a bag packed in the back of the Lexus and had agreed to her father’s offer to take the SUV back from the airport rather than leave it there overnight.
She had shared breakfast with Kerry, out on the patio as they’d watched the sun rise together, and she’d spent an extra few minutes just hugging her lover before she’d gotten dressed and started off, wishing she were going to Washington instead of Texas.
“You know, the two of them together could be dangerous,” Dar remarked, darting a sidewise glance at her father, who grunted and gave her a half nod. She turned into the parking lot of the doctor’s office and parked, then got out and waited for him to join her as they walked towards the entrance. “Maybe we should have called him first. I’m not sure it’s really fair to spring you on him this early in the morning.”
“He’ll live.” Andrew pulled the door open and gestured for her to go Eye of the Storm 283
inside. “B’sides, if he’s gonna keel over, least it’s in a doctor’s office.”
“Dad, he’s the doctor.”
“Got nurses, don’t he?”
Dar chuckled and went to the sliding glass windows, ignoring the buzzer and tapping on them lightly. The panel slid aside, revealing a young girl in jeans and a T-shirt. “Morning, Aliene.”
Dr. Steve’s daughter waved. “Hi, Dar. He’s in back. G’wan in, he’s exp—” Aliene’s jaw sagged in shock as she looked up and over Dar’s shoulder. Her eyes widened for a long moment as she leaned forward.
“Uncle Andy?”
“Hey there, squirt.”
“Holy shit! Hey, Dad!” The girl slid the panel all the way back, scrambled right through the window and hurled herself at Dar’s father with heedless abandon. Dar got out of the way and just watched with a smile on her face as Aliene enveloped the older man in a hug.
“Aliene, what in the world are you yelling? Hey, where are you?”
Dr. Steve’s voice came through the door. “Oh, hello Dar.” Dr. Steve poked his head through the window, looking for his daughter. “What’s going on…out…here?” His words just wound down as his eyes met the ice blue ones looking back at him from over his daughter’s shoulder.
“’Lo, Steven,” Andrew murmured, releasing Aliene with an awkward pat on the back.
Dr. Steve pulled his head in and shut the window, then came around the receptionist’s desk and out the door into the waiting room. He came right up to Dar’s father and stopped. “My god, it is you.”
“Pretty beat up, but yeah.” Andy held out a hand and it was slowly clasped and held. “Good t’see you.”
The doctor shook his head in wonder. “I can’t believe it,” he breathed, then turned briefly to Dar, who leaned against the wall with a quiet smile on her face. “I can’t believe it.”
“Believe it.” Dar pushed off the wall. “Listen, I’ve got a plane to catch. You two can spend the rest of the day swapping tales, but Dad’s got to take me to the airport first.”
“Pushy little thing, ain’t she?” Andy drawled, sticking his hands in his pockets.
Steve just laughed softly. “My god. All right. C’mon back, the both of you. Aliene, call your mama and tell her who just walked in my door.”
He guided them into an exam room and turned his back, visibly collecting himself before he turned around and came at Dar with a hypodermic needle the size of New Jersey.
Dar backed up, her eyes widening in alarm. “What the hell is that for?”
“I told you I needed to take blood,” the doctor scolded.
“With a harpoon? What do I look like, a fur seal?”
Andrew snickered. “Y’ere such a big baby.”
“You don’t like them either,” Dar accused, pointing a finger at him.
Then she took in the amused looks and sighed. She backed up and 284 Melissa Good hoisted herself up onto the exam table with a distinct glower. “Fine.” She presented her forearm and watched nervously as the doctor swabbed her arm with alcohol and iodine. “So. What is it you found?”
“Hang on.” Dr. Steve pulled off the cap of the needle with his teeth and probed her skin, putting pressure on a vein expertly before he very gently inserted the sharp point. “There.” He looked up at Dar. “Not so bad, hmm?”
“Mmm.” Dar peered at her father, who was studiously examining the tongue depressors. Then she looked back up into Dr. Steve’s face, surprised to see a look of gentle compassion there. The doctor removed the needle, having gotten his blood sample, then patted her cheek and put the cap back on.
“Okay, Andy, you can turn around now.” Steve chuckled. “All right.
Let me tell you what the lab said.” He put the needle down, opened a drawer, pulled out a file and opened it. “I can’t say I’ve seen this before, because I haven’t, Dar, but from what they tell me, it’s pretty nasty stuff.”
Andy circled him and peered at the paper.
“I asked the lab if it could have be
en on something like a chair,” the doctor continued. “They didn’t seem to think so, but they didn’t have any really good ideas on how you came into contact with it.” He paused. “Or where it came from, for that matter.”
“I kin tell you that,” Andrew said softly, but with utter seriousness.
“That there came out of a United States Gov’ment laboratory.”
They stared at him. “What?” Dr. Steve murmured.
Andrew took the file out of his hands, walked to the window, and tilted it to the light and studied it. The sun came in and splashed across his uneven, scarred features which had gone quite still and cold. Dar got up off the table and walked to him, rubbing her arm. “What is it, Dad?”
Andrew cocked his head and regarded her with steady intent.
“Someone,” he said with unusual clarity, “done meant you harm, Paladar.”
She felt a definite chill. “Are you sure? Maybe it was just something I picked up at that alley.”
“Finding this at a bowling alley is about as possible as you sprouting wings and flying to the moon,” her father stated flatly. He handed the folder back to Dr. Steve. “It is kept in a small packet and held on yer fingers with a wax paper.” He held up two fingers. “One hit will make you sick as a dog. Two will do worse.”
Dar felt like she’d been hit with a baseball bat. “C’mon, Dad. That’s too melodramatic. I’m not a character in a supermarket thriller.” She tried to shrug it off. “Can’t I just have had a damn bug? Or food poisoning?
Granted I’m not the most liked person on earth, but I can’t believe someone would try to slap poison on me.”
“Dar,” Dr. Steve put a hand on her shoulder, “this stuff was in you, like it or not. I don’t know how it got there, but the fact is, it made you sick. If you don’t think there’s anything to worry about, that’s great. I’m glad to hear it.” He picked up the needle. “I’ll make sure there’s no scrap Eye of the Storm 285
of it left, though if you’ve been feeling all right, I doubt it.” He paused.
“When we spoke, you said two people had touched you that day.”
“Kerry and my father,” Dar replied. “Except I was wrong. There was one other person.”
