by Melissa Good
She opened the door. A stocky man of middling height stood there with a crowd of people and equipment behind him. “Hi,” Dar drawled, glad if nothing else for the fact that her mother had neatly taken her mind completely off the interview.
“Oh, hello. Sorry, I was looking for Dar Roberts?” the man responded briskly. “I’m John McAdams, from CNN Business News?”
Dar extended a hand to him. “You’ve found me.”
He returned her grip reflexively as he stared at her. “You’re kidding, right?”
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“Nope.”
“But…you’re not a middle aged Anglo conservative guy.”
Dar glanced down at herself. “Not the last time I checked, no.” She stepped back. “Would you like to come in or would you rather I find you a middle aged Anglo conservative guy to interview? I’m sure there are a few around here somewhere.”
“No way.” The man held up a hand and grinned broadly. “Lead on, Lady McByte. I’m all yours.”
IT WAS ODD, Kerry mused as she stood in line to get in the door to the chambers, to hear everyone else talking about the disaster they’d spent all night trying to fix. The change in time and the general chaos had thrown off the crowds of supporters and there were only a few around so far, waving signs and getting organized.
They were probably still mobbing the ATM machines. She allowed herself an uncharitable thought. Or raiding the discount beer stores.
Now now, Kerry. She gave herself a quiet scold. You know better than to make those generalizations. Not all white supremacists drink beer. She peered at the milling crowd. Some of them probably like Boones Farm. She sighed.
Bad Kerry. Obnoxious, stuck up, WASP Kerry. Cut it out.
“Likely lookin’ bunch of pansy ass rednecks, ain’t they?” Andrew drawled from behind her, his arms crossed over his chest. “They give my Southern Baptist butt a hive and a half.”
Kerry bit her lip to keep from laughing, then exhaled, trying to relieve a little of the tension building up inside her. No sign of her family, of course, since they were probably inside already, but she was getting sideways looks from the people standing around her, which made her realize she was being recognized from the previous day.
People were giving Andrew little glances too, and she half turned, giving her companion a little smile. He really was a distinctive looking person, she realized, with his height and muscular body and the sense of presence he carried himself with. And of course, the patchwork of scars across his face, which she didn’t really even see anymore. At least the two worst were gone, replaced by the slightly rough covering of synthetic skin that restored his face to something approaching normality. She’d understood his need to remain hidden before, but she had a feeling that now, since the one opinion that really mattered to him was secured, he’d have discarded the hood even without the surgery.
And the eyes. Dar’s pale, electric blue, set off by the tan skin creased in wrinkles on either side of them. Right now they were roaming everywhere, drinking in the crowd, the guards, the protestors—alive with interest and curiosity.
She was glad he was here. It made her feel utterly safe to be standing next to him. “Hope this doesn’t last long.” Kerry sighed. “I think I’d rather be getting dental work.” She walked forward at the guard’s request and edged through the detector, then turned and waited for 342 Melissa Good Andrew to follow.
“Ahm gonna set that off,” the tall man drawled to the guard as he ambled through, sure enough making the machine react. He stopped on the other side of it, watching the nervous reactions. “Don’t get yer britches in a square knot. I got me two plates here.” He tapped his upper thigh. “And a couple odd shells tucked up inside me somewhere.”
The guard approached cautiously and ran a hand held device over him, getting readings near his leg, and stomach. “Um…”
“Ain’t nothing up mah sleeve.” Andy lifted his shirt and displayed a scarred, but still muscular abdomen. “Here.” He pulled his identification wallet from the back pocket of his jeans and flipped out a card. The guard took it and examined it, then handed it back respectfully.
“Go ahead, sir.” He lifted his wand in a little salute as Andrew moved past him and joined Kerry at the door to the chambers.
“Jest goes to show you, stay in the damn Navy long enough, something’ll salute you,” he muttered, half under his breath.
Kerry grinned and tucked her hand inside his elbow as they walked inside. “You didn’t make the airport one go off,” she commented curiously. “And those catch my car keys, for heaven’s sake.”
“Looking fer different things,” Andy replied cryptically. He paused as they reached the threshold of the inner chamber and looked around, since the people in front of them were deciding where to sit. A cluster of people were around the defense area and heads turned as they entered.
“C’mon.” Kerry wanted to sit down and be out of the spotlight.
“That yer folks?”
She nodded as they walked down the center aisle, chose seats, and watched the room fill up around them. Michael, she noted, wasn’t there and neither was Angie this time. Just her mother, father, and the lawyers.
She felt a little nervous at that, since it appeared she was being singled out. Kerry folded her hands in her lap and regarded them, her fingers twisting her joining ring idly.
I wish this were over. She silently sounded the words. I wish it was over, and I was out of here, and we were home. Her stomach was tied up in knots, having rejected breakfast, and her head hurt from not sleeping.
A hand touched her arm and she looked up. “Kinda loud in here.”
Andy gazed at her. “You all right, kumquat?”
Kerry sighed. “I’m tired, I’m cranky, and I don’t want to be here.”
She hesitated. “And I’m a little scared of why they want me back to testify.”
The room quieted then, as the session got under way. First, there were some meetings, then they talked about procedure.
Then they called her up. Kerry stood and took a deep breath, then carefully made her way out of their row and towards the table, getting a comforting pat on the leg from Andy as she went past him. She took her seat and folded her hands as her father’s lawyer came over to face her.
It was a very lonely feeling. She knew the man, and had for years, but it was as though he considered her nothing but some trash off the Eye of the Storm 343
street, given his expression. Not to mention her parent’s faces. Cameras flashed, and her peripheral vision caught the round, black single eyes of the television crews.
“Ms. Stuart,” the man hardly looked up from his papers, “you work for a company called ILS, is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Almost a year.”
He scribbled a note. “When was the last time you spoke with your parents, Ms. Stuart?”
Kerry felt the heightened interest almost beating against her skin.
“Thanksgiving of last year,” she answered quietly and heared a faint murmur rise.
“Why is that?” The man looked up.
“Why do you want to know?”
“Excuse me?”
Kerry shifted. “I asked, why do you want to know? What does something personal between my parents and myself have to do with anything here?”
He tapped his pen on his pad. “Because, Ms. Stuart, there was some very damaging and potentially libelous material released to the press last year, coincidentally,” he put a sting on it, “a day after the last time you spoke to your parents.” He paused. “So I ask you again, Ms. Stuart.
Why?”
Oh shit. Kerry caught Andrew sitting forward, gazing at her in concern. I am in such deep trouble. She sucked in a breath though and collected her thoughts. Don’t let them rattle you, Dar’s voice intoned in her mind.
Think.
“We had a disagreement about the direction my life was taking,”
He nodded. “A disagreement so severe, it caused you to break off contact with your family entirely?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I speak with my brother and sister and our extended family.”
He made another mark. “Several years back, your uncle was fired by ILS.”
“That’s true,” Kerry agreed.
“And yet, you chose to go work for them.” He paused and looked at her. “Why?”
That, at least, was an easy question. “I’m an information services professional. They’re one of the largest IS companies in the world and they offered me a promotion, with a thirty percent pay hike.” Kerry cocked her head. “It wasn’t exactly rocket science.” Several of the senators behind her laughed.
“Even though your father was actively campaigning against them and was working to have them thrown out of government contracts in 344 Melissa Good Michigan?”
“Because he held a grudge due to Uncle Al. Yes,” Kerry answered back, a trifle sharply. “I investigated the files regarding that when I became an employee of ILS and I was satisfied that the company acted fairly.” She folded her hands.
“As a matter of fact, your current…supervisor…fired him. Is that right, Ms. Stuart?”
Uh oh, take two. “Given the information we had on him, sir, I would have fired him,” Kerry answered quietly. “But yes, in answer to your question, it was Ms. Roberts who did it.”
The lawyer nodded. “Exactly.” He leafed through a few sheets of paper. “It was the first step, in fact, in a plan to discredit your father.” He looked up. “And you played right into it.”
Kerry blinked. “What?”
He leaned on the table. “We know where that libelous information came from, Ms. Stuart.”
She didn’t answer him, her pulse racing against her skin.
“It’s been a careful, underhanded campaign to discredit your father and turn you against him and it’s resulted in this hearing, where these gentlemen are forced to question your father’s very morals.” The man turned, making sure the cameras had a good shot at him. “I put it to you, gentlemen. The company who stood to lose by the senator’s investiga-tions, who duped his daughter into working for them, who had the ability, and the resources to manufacture this information…it’s so obvious.”
Kerry could hear the murmurs of agreement. “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” she pronounced carefully. “ILS didn’t manufacture anything.”
“They could have, though. What about that problem this morning?”
One of the senators behind her leaned back. “Damn computers are too powerful nowadays.”
The lawyer circled her. “Don’t you see, Ms. Stuart? You’ve been tricked by your boss. It’s obvious that she made this stuff,” he slapped the dossiers on the desk, “up and sent it out, to stop Senator Stuart from canceling those contracts.”
Kerry took a deep breath. “No, she didn’t. And ILS had nothing to do with this.”
“You can’t be sure of that, Ms. Stuart.” The man now gave her a pity-ing look. “Or should I say, you’ve got a vested interest in denying it, since she seduced you in the process.”
A shocked silence occurred, then low whispers. Kerry’s nervousness faded and was replaced by anger. “Oh, I most certainly can be sure of that.”
“You’re not denying the seduction then? We know you two live together.”
The whispers were getting ugly and Kerry could feel the hostile eyes now on her. “That information was not manufactured by anyone and Dar Roberts did not release it.”
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The man crossed to her and leaned on the table. “Oh really? And how do you know that?”
Crunch time. Kerry met his eyes. “Because I did.”
Dead silence.
“I validated the source, I confirmed the contents, and I released that information to the press and to the FBI.” Kerry spoke into all that frozen quiet. “And, sir, it’s the bribes, and the malfeasance, and the buying of votes, and the moral decrepitude that’s at issue here. Not me, or my relationship with my family, or who in the hell I sleep with.” Her last sentence was spoken in a rapid crescendo.
He stared at her in total disgust.
Kerry just sat there, breathing hard.
“That will be all for now, Ms. Stuart,” one of the senators said, carefully adjusting a pile of papers in his hands. “I motion for a brief adjourn-ment.”
Somewhere, she found the strength to stand up with quiet dignity and face the explosion of flashbulbs. She stared through them to find her way back through the muttering crowd to a safe haven outlined by a tall, angry looking form who put an arm around her and visited the surrounding crowd with a lethal glare.
She sat down, shaking.
Andrew sat next to her and hissed out a long, aggravated breath.
“That boy is going to have his pecker pulled out his damn nostrils fore I’m done with him.”
Kerry swallowed, not daring to look up, knowing everyone was looking at her. Then a warm hand dropped onto her other shoulder and a graceful body lifted itself over the row of chairs and settled into the one next to her, feeling and smelling and sounding like Dar. She peeked over and saw a wry, compassionate gaze looking back. “Can I go home now?”
she managed to whisper.
Dar pulled her closer, ignoring the press, having gotten to the chambers just in time to hear Kerry’s admission. “Don’t worry about it, Ker.
You did what you had to. Whatever happens, you and I will deal with it.”
She exchanged looks with her father. “Take it easy. I’ve got you.”
Kerry closed her eyes, momentarily safe in her warm haven. Surely, it couldn’t get any worse, right?
She sighed.
Chapter
Thirty-seven
THEY PUSHED THEIR way out of the hastily recessed chambers, surrounded by people who were grabbing and shoving and plucking at Kerry’s sleeve. “Ms. Stuart. Ms. Stuart, a moment with you please!”
Kerry kept her head down and kept walking, relying on Dar’s guidance to keep her from slamming into the press crews and other impedi-ments. A hand grabbed her arm and she looked up to see her microphone shoved in her face. “I’m sorry.” She took a breath. “I think I’ve said enough for now.”
“Wait!”
“Ms. Stuart!”
“Is it true?”
“Excuse us.” Dar put an arm around Kerry and put a hand out, shoving hard and making some space in the crush of bodies. Andrew came up on the other side and tucked Ceci between them, slipping an arm behind Dar’s and clasping her above the elbow.
“You all right?” Ceci murmured, patting Kerry’s arm.
“No,” Kerry whispered.
“Take it easy. We’ll get out of here.” Ceci glanced up at the two determined, serious faces above her head. She and Dar had gone down to the crowded building after Dar had finished her interview, doing a more than creditable job so far as Ceci could tell and fending off the repeated passes from the reporter with a wry good grace. They’d gotten to the stairs just as Kerry was speaking and stopped in the very doorway just as she’d admitted to releasing the information.
Gutsy kid. Ceci had followed Dar closely through the chaos, almost swallowed up by Andy’s welcoming grip as she reached the seats.
She’d been out of life for so long, Ceci suspected this was the Goddess’ little revenge.
They forced their way out the door and finally felt fresh air against them, and Kerry sucked in a huge lung full of it, trying to ignore the shouting of the protestors not far away. The cameras had followed and reporters were yammering, but her senses were on overload and she shut them down in self-defense, covering her ears with her hands and shivering.
“Down there,” Dar directed. “We’ll get a cab and get the hell out of here.”
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“I’m not going back in there,” Kerry muttered. “I don’t care what they say. That’s it.”
They headed down the stairs, past the crowd, and Dar flicked her eyes over them, seeing the angry faces and surging motion. “Look! There they are! That’s the one!”
“Shit.” Dar turned her shoulders just in time to deflect a large rock.
“Let’s move.”
“Son of a biscuit,” Andrew growled. “Dardar, switch spots with me.”
Another rock pelted the dark haired woman and she gritted her teeth. “Just keep moving.”
Epithets rolled over them. Nasty, dark words full of hate, and anger, and more rocks with them. The police struggled to keep the crowd back, but several men broke through, grabbed a barricade and moved towards them with wild intent.
Andrew cursed and ducked around Dar. “Stay with yer momma,” he growled, giving them all a shove towards the cab as he jumped to intercept the two men. “And where d’you think ye’re goin’, dog face?” He grabbed the barricade coming towards him and wrenched it from the man’s hands, then he tossed it away and towards an empty spot on the stairs. The man closest to him—a tall, thin youngster with cropped hair and ugly ears—reached for him, but a policeman caught him up from behind, and hauled him towards the line of barricades.
“You stupid bastard!” the boy yelled at Andrew. “I’ll kick your ass!”
His companion jumped on Andrew and rapidly realized what a bad mistake that was when the ex-SEAL got a grab on his neck and his crotch and flipped him over his head, landing him on the hard marble stairs.
Three more men broke through the ranks and ran towards them with sticks.
Andy grinned and bounced on the balls of his feet, feeling a rush of blood through him that left a pleasant tingle behind, prickling a lust for fighting that had never quite faded. “C’mon, y’little pollywogs,” he yelled, flexing his hands.
A cab pulled cautiously to the curb as Dar signaled, yanked the door open, and hustled her mother and Kerry inside.
