by Melissa Good
Most were empty. Kyle frowned, thumbing through them. “I know these weren’t finished. Don’t tell me someone’s come in to get them already. I’ll have them skinned.”
He shoved the files towards the back, then hesitated as he felt resistance. Pulling the folders forward, he craned his neck to see what was blocking them in the back of the drawer. “Maybe they fell down in there…Eh, what’s this?”
He tugged out a manila envelope, its edges frayed and par-tially split. It was fairly thick, and he put it down on the desk, opened it, and looked inside.
The scent of paper and laser ink hit him. Curious, he removed the first few pages and tilted them towards the light on the desk to see better. “Ah hah,” he whispered and chuckled softly under his breath. “Now here’s something I can use.”
He read further, a look of consternation appearing on his face. “Where in the hell did he get this?” he wondered aloud, then his eyes narrowed. “And why didn’t he tell me about it?”
He drummed his fingers on the desk, then picked up the envelope and tucked it under his arm as he got up to leave.
“Maybe that’s why he put a stop to my plan of stripping those contracts.” He chuckled as he headed for the door. “Now I can kill two jackasses with one grenade.”
MUCH LATER IN the evening, Dar found a moment to pause and lean against the wall, hoping the ordeal was almost over. It had been a very long night, with a lot of stress, and her shoulder had gotten so painful, it was hard for her to move her arm without screaming.
But now, people were leaving. That was good.
Good riddance. Dar felt very little empathy for the wool suited, hostile eyed people who surrounded her beloved partner with appraising stares and veiled comments. Family, yes, but almost all of them either resented Kerry for what she’d done to her late father, or for her current lifestyle. Or for her choice of life partners.
146 Melissa Good Fuck them. Dar mentally enunciated the words with grim satisfaction. She then looked up as she felt someone approaching. Ah.
“Hi, Dad.”
Andrew Roberts found a spot on the wall next to her and claimed it. “Hey there, Dardar,” he rumbled softly. “You don’t look so hot.”
Dar sighed inwardly. She’d never had much luck in fooling her father about when she wasn’t feeling well. “No, you’re right.
I’m tired and grumpy, and my shoulder’s killing me.” She saw Kerry walking across the room towards her with a forceful and determined stride. “Uh oh.”
Andrew chuckled. “Hey, Dar?” He eased closer and motioned with his jaw to the reception room doorway where Kyle was standing, just watching Kerry. “Who is that feller?”
“An asshole who deserves to be run over by a Mack truck,”
Dar replied without thinking. “A total bastard who made Ker’s life a living hell for a long time.”
“Yeah?” Andrew’s voice was gentle.
“Yeah,” Dar answered, before she greeted Kerry. “Hi. Bet you have a headache.”
Kerry had opened her mouth to speak, and this statement derailed her a little. “Um...yes, I do, as a matter of fact. How did you know?”
“Same way you know it’s time for me to go get more drugs,”
Dar replied with a faint smile. “Unless you’re ready to retire for the evening.”
With her back turned to the room, Kerry looked up at Dar, and for a moment her determinedly cordial mask slipped, revealing a rawly anguished expression. Her voice, however, remained quiet. “I think I’ve had about enough for the night, yeah. If I have to hear one more person come up with one more euphemism for you and me being lovers, I may have to kill someone.”
There was an awkward silence. Kerry glanced up to see Andrew scratching his jaw. “Sorry, Dad. I figured you already knew.” She peeked at Dar, almost smiling at the faint blush. “I mean, you are a sailor and a man of the world and all of that stuff.”
Andrew chuckled. “I surely did know, kumquat. I just usually call you two sweethearts, is all.”
That coaxed a smile from Kerry. “Did my mother invite you two to stay over?”
”Yes.” Ceci appeared on Kerry’s other side. “Now that I’ve spent the evening bludgeoning your relatives with highbrow art talk. Good goddess, Kerry—you have a more annoying family than I do, and Andy will tell you that’s quite the radical state-Thicker Than Water 147
ment.”
Kerry sighed. “Thanks.” She looked around. “I hope you insulted the hell out of them. They deserve it.”
“Yes, they do,” Ceci said. “Tell you what. Let’s plan on getting your people together with my people some time, and we’ll bus them off to the Dade County Fair. I’ll take pictures.”
Andrew snorted and chuckled under his breath.
“They don’t deserve the funnel cakes,” Kerry said dryly.
“C’mon, let’s get out of here, Dar.”
Angie stuck her head around the corner of the doorway.
“Kerry, they want to get one more set of pictures, then we’re done.”
Aggrieved, Kerry sighed again. “For what? This is supposed to be a solemn occasion, Angie. I feel like we’re performing s…”
she glanced at Andrew and half smiled, “…bears.”
“The local paper.” Angie gave her an apologetic look.
“They’re doing an entire special section on him.”
Kerry closed her eyes. “Great.” She opened them and looked at Dar. “Why don’t you go on upstairs; I’ll meet you there in a few minutes. I need to have a word with my mother, anyway.”
Dar considered for a moment, then nodded. “All right.” She pushed away from the wall, and gave Kerry a gentle rub on the arm before she circled around her and headed for the door.
After a moment, Andrew caught up to her. Dar started to say something, then just decided to conserve energy and remained silent, ignoring the curious looks as they left the reception room and headed for the wide, open staircase. Cameras popped in the foyer as they crossed it, and Dar winced at the bright light. “What the hell’s that for?” she muttered.
Her father merely looked at her and snorted, shaking his head.
“Ms…ah…Roberts.” One of the reporters stepped into her path. “Can we get a moment to talk with you?”
Several choice replies came to mind, but then Dar recognized the lapel badge as one of the major business papers and decided Alastair didn’t deserve all the grief. “Sure.” She put a hand on the stair banister and waited. “What can I do for you?”
The man and his companion closed the distance between them as he took out a pad. Dar was mildly relieved no cameras were involved and decided to be patient and wait for him to get his act together. “Did he really rate the Wall Street Journal?”
The man looked up and gave her a half grin. “He was involved in a lot of behind the scenes issues.”
“Ah.”
“For instance, we know he’s been promoting an investigation 148 Melissa Good that calls into question the government contracts ILS has been given this past year. Did you know that?”
Dar took a moment to absorb the unexpectedly public information. “I did. But I try to stay clear of political entanglements—
our legal department handles that.”
“Your company would have been badly hurt if it’d been successful,” the man said. “So I guess that makes this an opportune event for you, huh?”
Dar remained quiet for a few breaths, balancing her inner feelings with her responsibilities. “People dying is never an opportune event, mister. No matter what he was up to, and no matter how he felt about ILS, he was still my partner’s father.”
“Even after those hearings? Pretty nasty,” the man said. “No one’d blame you for holding a grudge.”
“I don’t waste my time on grudges,” Dar lied in a sincere voice. “I don’t think he did, either. But it makes good press, doesn’t it?” She redirected the attack with a smile.
The man’s eyebrows quirked. “Someone else could pick
up the ball there, y’know. Those contracts are worth a lot of money.”
Dar shrugged. “All our contracts are worth a lot of money, and that’s why we pay the legal department. I suggest you talk to them if you need any more details.” She lifted her hand off the banister and took a step back. “Excuse me.”
“Thanks for chatting, Ms. Roberts. Have a good night,” the reporter replied courteously. “Sir.” He gave Andrew a nod, before he turned and rejoined the milling crowd.
“Pansy ass,” Andrew grunted.
“Shh.” Dar muffled a short laugh. “C’mon.” She turned and walked up the stairs, shaking her head.
Dar was glad to get away from the noise and the crowd. She didn’t like them to begin with, and the pain was shortening her already ragged temper. “Damn, I wish I was home.” She sighed as she reached the door to the green room.
“Ah bet.” Andrew opened it for her. “Let me take a look at that there arm of yours.”
Dar’s brow edged up.
”Don’t you give me that look.” Her father scowled at her.
“Git.”
“Yes, sir.” Dar entered the room with Andy and closed the door. The room was dark, as they’d left only one lamp on, and she let out a silent sigh as she absorbed the quiet, dim peace. She kicked her shoes off first, then pulled her jacket off and froze in mid motion, clenching her jaw against a gasp.
“Easy there, Dardar.” Her father caught up to her and gently eased the jacket off her shoulders. “Lemme see that…Good Lord.”
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Dar glanced at her arm. “Looks worse than it feels,” she lied.
Andrew turned her into the light and touched the bruised skin with gentle fingers. “Looks a sight worse than it did back down south. Thought you been taking it easy.” He lifted his eyes and studied her face. “That does not look good to me, young lady.”
Dar managed a rakish grin. “Yeah, well, it’s your fault.”
Andrew blinked at her in astonishment and pointed a finger at his own, medal bedecked chest. “Mah fault?”
“Yep.” Dar walked to her bag and dug out her bottle of pills, then opened it and spilled one out onto her palm. “I did something yesterday I shouldn’t have.”
Her father snorted. “Are you telling me ah taught you to be a dumbass?”
Dar swallowed the pill and washed it down with a little of the bottled water she kept in her overnight bag. “Nope.” She put the bottle down and faced him. “You taught me chivalry. Kerry was sick as a dog and couldn’t stand up, so I picked her up and carried her to the bed.”
Andrew covered his eyes. “Lord.”
“Yeah, well.” Dar trudged back to him and turned. “Mind unzipping me?” She felt a light touch, then the fabric around her shoulders relaxed. “Thanks.” She glanced back at him. “And you would have done the same damn thing, so there.”
“Huh.”
Dar picked up her nightshirt and ducked into the bathroom.
She peered at her reflection and grimaced at the spreading extent of her injury. No wonder they freaked. Damn, that looks almost as bad as it feels. With a sigh, she slid her dress off and carefully got into her nightshirt, trying not to lift her arm more than she had to. “I’ll be damn glad when this is over,” she called out.
“You and me both, Dardar,” Andrew answered.
Dar went back into the room and sat on the bed. Andrew sat in the chair facing her. They regarded each other in silence for a moment, then Dar exhaled. “I hate what this is doing to Kerry.”
She hesitated. “And I hate that it’s because of us, because of our relationship that it’s so bad for her.”
Andrew mulled that over for a bit. “Yeap,” he finally exhaled.
“It was like that for your ma and me too. Her folks, my folks…Hurts like hell sometimes.”
They both thought about that in companionable quiet.
“Dar?” Andrew finally looked up at her, the dim light glint-ing off his pale eyes. “What’d that feller do to Kerry?”
Dar studied his face. “Kyle?”
“Hm.”
150 Melissa Good
“Just a lot of things. Why?”
Andy shifted. “’Cause that young lady ain’t afraid of much, and she’s scared of him; and I want to know why that is. And
’cause he makes mah eyeballs itch.”
How should I answer that? Dar wondered. So much Kerry had told her was so very private, and she knew her lover had kept it that way for a reason. Would she want anyone else to know?
Would she want anyone else to hear the things she’d finally told Dar, getting past that one last barrier before she committed herself to their relationship?
Maybe not.
There had been shame in Kerry’s eyes when she’d told her. It was a secret she’d held inside for a long time, and something she’d offered up to Dar in a trembling voice, as though somehow it might have made her feel differently about Kerry. Instead, it had just made her angry she hadn’t been there to stop it.
As she considered, Dar peered down at her hands, clenched together and tensed. Her mind went over Kyle’s vaguely threaten-ing manner. Would he try to hurt Kerry further? Her brow creased, then she nodded a tiny bit. He’d try to make her as miserable as he could, wouldn’t he?
She lifted her eyes and found her father patiently watching her. “I think…I think the worst thing he did to her…” She paused, trying to find the right way to phrase her thoughts. “I think the worst thing he did was he forced Kerry to see just how little she counted as a person with her own parents.”
“Mm.” Andrew considered that. Then he glanced sharply at her. “How?”
Her father sensed something, Dar realized suddenly.
“He…did something to her, and when she told her parents, they didn’t believe her.” She hesitated. “They believed him and made her apologize to him, and he laughed at her.”
Andrew got up and sat on the bed next to Dar. He looked into her eyes with a serious expression. “Paladar, did that man hit her?”
“No.” Dar felt suddenly back in adolescence, facing the one person she had never lied to, and had always trusted more completely than anything or anyone else in her life. “He raped her, Daddy.”
Andrew went very, very still, not even breathing for a long, long moment.
Dar blinked and was surprised to feel the warmth of tears rolling down her cheeks. She wiped them away with an irritated swipe of the back of her hand. “How could they not believe her?
Damn! I could never understand that.”
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Andrew remained very quiet for a moment, then he exhaled and took Dar’s hand, carefully folding his fingers around hers. “I thank the good Lord that you cannot understand that.” His voice was low and a touch hoarse.
Dar studied the scarred hands holding hers. “Dad?”
Andrew looked up at her. “Hm?”
“Sorry I gave you such a hard time when I was a kid,” Dar said. “I didn’t realize how lucky I was.”
Andrew shifted, then circled her with one long arm and gently hugged her and brushed his lips over her hair as she tucked her head against his shoulder.
“KERRISON, A MOMENT, if you please?”
For a long beat, Kerry almost said no. Then she exhaled and walked to her mother. The press had disassembled their equipment, and the hall was almost empty, and she wanted nothing more than to escape and find Dar and just get a hug. “Yes?”
Cynthia glanced around, then looked at her. “I know this evening was terribly upsetting for you.”
Kerry shrugged. “It was more or less what I was expecting. I don’t think we’ll be staying for the service tomorrow.”
Cynthia’s lips compressed. “Oh dear.” She sighed. “Perhaps if I speak with them—”
“No.” Kerry lifted a hand. “Don’t bother. I’ve paid my respects and said my good-byes.” She paused, considering her words. “Anything more is just a farce, and we
all know it.”
“But—”
“Besides,” Kerry brushed aside the objection, “I’ve had about as much of Kyle’s slimebag presence as I’m willing to take in this lifetime.”
Cynthia remained silent for a moment. “His return was unexpected. Your father did depend on him so. He placed great value on him.”
“I know.” Kerry looked her right in the eye. “More so than on me. I remember that very clearly.”
Cynthia fell silent, visibly biting her lip.
“Excuse me.” Kerry stepped around her and walked towards the foyer. She met up with Angela and Michael as they came out of the library, almost as though they’d been lying in wait for her.
“Hey.”
“What a bitch of a day, huh?” Michael fell in at her side as they walked towards the stairs. “Think tomorrow will be better?”
“I don’t give a damn,” Kerry replied. “We’re out of here in the morning.”
152 Melissa Good
“Oh,” Michael murmured.
Angie put a hand on Kerry’s back as they started up the steps.
“If it’s any consolation to you, the snarky comments got nicer as the night went on. Even Marsha had to grudgingly admit you take grace under pressure to new heights.”
“Fuck them,” Kerry said. “They can all collectively kiss my ass.”
Her siblings maintained a slightly shocked silence for a few steps. “Well,” Michael finally said, “okay. But I bet Dar would start throwing them out the windows if they tried.”
“That might be fun to watch,” Angie said.
Kerry gave them both pointed looks, then she exhaled, her shoulders dropping and losing some of their tension. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay, sis.” Angie put her arm around Kerry’s waist, and Michael did the same from the other side as they walked up the steps together. “Did you know the governor knows Dar’s father?”
No, Kerry hadn’t known that. “Really? Small world, I guess.
Oh, wait. He’s ex-Navy, isn’t he?”
“Yeah,” Mike said. “He said Dar’s father is one of the scariest people he’s ever known.”
“Mm.” Kerry shrugged. “I don’t think so; not now anyway.”
“I like him,” Angie said. “And I like Dar’s mom. She’s so funny.”
