Tropical Storm - DK1 (90 page)

met, have we?” She put a hand on her furious friend’s back. “My name is Dar Roberts.”

“I know who you are, you whore,” the man roared, “Get out of my house!” He turned for the phone. “I’ll have the law on you!”

“For…what?” Dar cut off Kerry’s violent protest. “Exactly?”

“Breaking and entering!” he answered, dialing.

“You let us in,” Dar reminded him.

“Of the hospital, you freak!”

“Actually, they’re an account of ours. I signed the visitors’ log like anyone else,” Dar replied calmly. “And I was requested there due to a computer problem.”

He stopped dialing. “You broke her out of there,” he accused.

“No, no, the nursing supervisor discharged her.” The executive smiled at him. “After they found nothing wrong with her.”

“There is something wrong with her.” He put the phone down. “And it’s your fault. You corrupted her, you bitch, and I’ll have you…”

A long, powerful finger lifted. “You will have me filing a lawsuit against you for libel, along with one for kidnapping and forcibly detaining an employee of mine if you don’t shut up.” She slid ahead of Kerry, dangerous as a panther as she walked up to him, staring him evenly in the eyes. “Now, I suggest we take this little discussion to whatever you use as an office, so the rest of your…family…doesn’t have to hear what I have to tell you, okay?”

“You think you’re so damn clever,” the man spat.

“No, the company does. In fact, the company pays me to be clever, and I like to give them their money’s worth,” Dar replied with a smile. “Now, you can move, or we can just collect Kerry’s things and be on our way, and I’ll just run a transmit to the news services when I get back in the car. Your choice.”

Dar’s voice dripped with danger, smooth, slick syllables that rolled off her tongue and were accented with glints of her eyes. “Senator.”

He moved, turning and heading towards a wooden door visible through the living room they were standing at the edge of. Dar followed him, and Kerry, after taking a breath, followed her, stunned by the powerful presence Dar had manifested. She glanced to one side and found herself looking into her mother’s eyes, peering out from their bedroom doorway.

The eyes disappeared, and the door closed. Kerry sighed and kept walking, trailing after Dar’s tall figure as they entered that damn study, and this time she closed the door behind them. A small reading lamp dimly lit the senator’s private study. Shadows filled the corners making it hard to see what hid between the bookshelves and display cases distributed along the walls.

Dar circled the room, her focus on the angry man before her, and ended up by his desk. She perched on a corner and crossed her arms. Taking a moment to study him with interested, blue eyes, she stayed quiet.

“What do you want?” he finally asked, after a period of this.

Dar let him wait a bit longer, then she stood and walked around a little, ending up next to the window. “What do I want?” she repeated. “I want you to go back twenty-four hours and not have assaulted, kidnapped, and illegally incarcerated your own daughter there. That’s what I want.”

“I didn’t illegally do anything,” the senator brusquely informed her. “She 436
Melissa Good
was admitted for observation, and it’s my responsibility to make sure my family gets taken care of.”

“Oh, so when they filled me full of drugs and tried to brainwash me in the morning, that was for…observational reasons?” Kerry asked from her position against the wall.

He glanced at her. “I wanted them to talk to you, yes, and get these crazy ideas out of your head, before you ruin your life.” He glared at Dar. “She’s the one who brainwashed you.”

“Brainwashed her into what?” Dar snorted. “Into thinking for herself?

No, thanks, she did that all by herself with no help from me.” She paused.

“Oh, you mean brainwashed her into thinking we were in love with each other. Right?”

“I don’t want to hear that.” The man turned his back on them. “I don’t accept that any child of mine would be a part of something that disgusting and depraved.” He turned. “And be damned to Hell on top of it.” His hand slashed through his hair. “No!” His eyes went to Dar’s shadowed face. “Why don’t you just get out of here and leave decent people alone? Your kind doesn’t belong in this country.”

Dar stepped closer, so fast he didn’t even have time to move or to blink before she was practically on top of him, nose to nose. “My daddy died for this country, you piece of ignorant trash, so you watch what you say.” Her voice had dropped to a menacing growl. “And he was worth a thousand of you.”

Kerry held her breath. She’d never seen Dar like this. Her eyes were glittering, and her whole body seemed alert with energy. The fiery rage was almost palpable.

Dead silence. Then, “I’m calling the police.” The senator picked up the phone. “I’m going to have you arrested on whatever charges I feel like paying the chief to write up for me, and then I’m going to enjoy seeing your ugly ass locked up in the men’s side of the prison and watch you get raped until you scream.”

Surprisingly, Dar smiled. “Ah, your true colors,” she purred charmingly, her temper put back on a leash. “Before you finish dialing, you might want to think of the number 99344343.” He stopped dead, his finger on one button, and slowly, viciously, raised his eyes to hers. Dar chuckled. “Did you know, Senator, that in this day and age, everything you do goes in a computer?” Dar stepped around the desk and sat on its edge again. “Every credit card transaction, every banking transaction, every medical record.” She smiled again. “Birth certificates, death certificates…everything.”

He just stared at her. Hating.

Dar leaned forward. “You put the phone down. You let me get Kerrison’s stuff out of here, and then you don’t bother her ever again, or I have one huge-ass file that’s going out on a mass mailing to every goddamned news agency in the world, along with the Attorney General’s office.” She paused. “With a personal note from me to Janet, if you know what I mean.”

“You’re bluffing,” he whispered.

Dar leaned closer. “No, I’m not.” She chuckled. “And believe me, I’d enjoy every single second of watching you self-destruct on CNN.” She eyed
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him lazily. “I’d even send a condolence card to Pamela.” His eyes bugged out.

Dar slipped off the edge of the desk and stood, waiting.

“All right.” He straightened and appeared to regain his composure.

“What do you really want? What deal are you after?”

“Deal?” Dar inquired softly.

“You must be after something. What is it, money?” He glanced up. “They can’t pay you that much at that place, is that what you’re after?” He moved around, drawing her attention and Kerry’s as he paced. “We can work out a deal, you just name what your price is, and we…”

Dar’s body moved with a savage suddenness that startled even Kerry.

She half turned and sent a sideways kick snapping up, her foot hitting something hard and sending it flying. Then she whirled and spun kicked again, this time sending a body flying against the wall with an audible thump.

Kerry ran for the lights as she heard movement, and got to them, flicking them on just in time to see Kyle go flying again, caught squarely in the ribs by a flying drop-kick.

“What’s the matter, Kyle, you too used to picking on little girls?” Dar taunted as she ducked a side swipe of his fist. “Intimidating them and taking their puppies?” She swiveled and cracked him in the jaw with a roundhouse kick. “Stinking pig.”

He lunged at her, grabbing her around the waist and taking them both down. But he didn’t count on Dar’s powerful legs, which wrapped around him and flipped them both over, landing Dar on top and letting her get in a good blow to the groin.

“Bitch.” He slugged her in the side, did it again, then wheezed as a knee slammed him in the gut. He scrambled out of her range, then lunged to his feet, intent on grabbing her.

Dar rolled up and caught him as he tried to stand up, slamming an elbow into his jaw, then grabbing an arm and throwing him over her shoulder to land with a sodden crash on the parquet floor. “Oh yeah, the bitch that just kicked your ass and loved every minute of it.” Dar felt her breathing steady, and she felt her temper dropping, the violent need satisfied for the moment.

It was quiet then, until Dar walked over to the far wall and picked up the automatic pistol she’d kicked out of Kyle’s hand, juggling it in her own. Kerry watched an unfamiliar expression appear on her father’s face.

Fear.

“Did I forget to mention she was the National Champion in karate one year?” Kerry murmured. “Guess I did.” Now it was her turn. She stepped forward until she was standing against her father’s desk. “What you did to me was wrong.” He just looked at her. “Not just last night. You’ve been trying to make me into something I’m not since I was a little girl, and you hurt me a lot,” Kerry told him. “But you’re still my father, and I still love you. I just can’t live with you.”

“I am not your father.” He turned his back. “Get out of my house, and take your
friend
with you.”

Kerry sighed and glanced at Dar, who was unloading the pistol and pocketing the rounds. “Come on, I don’t have much to get here.”

Dar tossed the automatic on the desk. “Right behind you.”

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They left the office and proceeded silently up the stairs. Dar settled her hands on her lover’s shoulders. “You okay?” she murmured softly into a pink ear.

Kerry felt like just leaning back and letting Dar’s body envelope hers.

“I’m really hurting inside,” she told the dark-haired woman honestly. “I think I’m going to need a good, long cuddling real soon now.”

Dar kissed her gently on the head. “Tonight, and every other night for the rest of your life, if you want,” she promised, realizing what she said after the words came out.

A momentary, almost shocked silence. “I want,” Kerry finally answered in a soft voice. “C’mon, let’s get out of here. I have a future to attend to.”

KERRY WALKED INTO her old bedroom and crossed the floor to where her things were still resting. Someone had tucked everything away, and she hoped it had been Angela. She quickly checked through the laptop case, then her bag, and gave Dar a nod. “This is everything.” She pulled out a pair of jeans and the Navy sweatshirt and quickly changed, tucking her scrubs away in the bag and sitting down to pull on her sneakers.

Dar walked over and lifted the bag, swinging it to her shoulder. “All right, let’s go.”

Kerry hesitated and looked around. “I grew up in this room,” she said quietly. “Angela and me.”

Dar let her eyes flick over the room, then she put her free arm over Kerry’s shoulders. “You know you won’t lose touch with your sister, right?”

“I know.” The blonde woman sighed.

They both looked up at a sound and saw a disheveled chestnut head poke in. “Ker?”

“Angie.”

Her sister came in and hurried over, as Kerry stepped forward and hugged her. “Oh my god, Kerry, what in the hell happened? You disappeared, and they wouldn’t tell me what was going on, or where you went, and I…”

“Shhh. Yeah, it was pretty bad,” Kerry answered softly. “They knocked me out and took me to Bryan’s.”

Angela released her and stared at her sister in shock. “Oh my god.” Her eyes finally drifted to the right as she realized Kerry wasn’t alone, and she gasped a little at the pale blue orbs catching the low light in the room. “Oh, I…” She looked closer. “You must be… Dar?”

The taller woman smiled, a glint of white in the gloom. “That’s right.”

She held out a hand courteously. “Nice to meet you, Angela. Wish it was under better circumstances.”

“Oh…uh, yeah.” Kerry’s sister took her hand gingerly and shook it. “I’ve heard a lot about you.” She smiled tentatively, then turned back to her sister.

“So, what happened?”

Kerry sighed. “Well…Dar showed up and sprung me.”

“You were doing pretty damn good at that yourself when I got there,”

Dar interrupted.

Green eyes gave her a mild, affectionate look. “Then we came back here,
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and I…sort of had it out with Dad, and now…we’re leaving.” She paused, gazing at her sister. “For good, it looks like.”

“Oh.” Angela took her hands and squeezed them. “Well, I might be right behind you, and I’ll keep in touch, okay?”

Kerry smiled and hugged her. “Please. I’ll miss you. Will you let Michael know what’s going on?”

Angela nodded as they parted. “I’ll call him tomorrow. I’m sort of glad he got stuck at school and wasn’t here—you know he would have gone ballistic.”

Kerry sighed. “I know. Well, we’ve got to get going. I’ll call you when I get back to Miami.”

“During the day,” Angela told her softly. “Richard’s given me a lecture about getting involved.” She made a face. “We had quite a discussion about that.”

“All right.” The blonde shouldered her laptop. “C’mon, Dar, before Jack comes busting in here.” She gave her sister one last hug, then moved towards the door, trailing her tall, dark shadow behind her. They walked down the stairs and out the front door, passing through the pool of light and onto the path, towards where an anxious-looking Jack was half in and half out of the car, one foot on the ground. He got back in as they arrived, and Dar opened the door, allowing Kerry to slide inside. She started to close the door when the blonde woman held a hand up, then reached out and tugged her coat, sliding over further to make room.

Dar tossed the bag in the back seat and closed the door, then got in next to her lover and exhaled. “Let’s get out of here.”

Jack needed no further instruction. He started the car and backed out, then turned around and headed down the road. “Nasty?” he asked, after a few silent moments.

Dar sucked on a sore knuckle and glanced at him. “Disgusting.” She snuck a peek at the very quiet Kerry, then put a hand on her shoulder. “How are you doing?”

Kerry tore her eyes from the dark landscape and slowly turned her head, peering up at Dar’s half shadowed face. “Really sucky,” she answered in a hoarse voice. “Dar, why can’t I just hate them? It would be so much simpler.”