Tropical Convergence (48 page)

Near the wall, the generators hummed along, their low thrum audible to her through the closed window. The sun had set, and besides the small pool of light from their bulb, the surrounding areas were eerily dark and quiet now that the rain had tapered off.

It reminded Kerry of the night of the storm, way back when she and Dar had first been getting to know each other.

That scary, magical day. Kerry smiled gently, remembering the moment she'd woken up on Dar's couch, lying there hardly breathing as she felt the soft folds of a blanket settle over her accompanied by Dar's distinctive presence.

Where...Kerry waited for the soft scuff of bare footsteps to move away before she opened her eyes, her fingers reaching out to curl around the feather light covering draped over her. The couch leather had warmed to her body and she let herself indulge in a moment of perfect comfort.

Dar's house. She moved her head a little and looked around again at it. Her ears, though, were focused tightly on the kitchen where she knew Dar had gone, every sound she detected sending a prickle up and down her spine. After a moment's hesitation, she sat up and ran her hand through her hair, getting up and wrapping the blanket around her as she went toward the source of those sounds.

She stopped short of the kitchen, spotting Dar inside before the taller woman knew she was approaching.

God, she's gorgeous. Kerry's eyes drank in the lanky form in its covering of thin cotton, her body reacting with a surge of sexual energy that almost shocked her.

Almost mortified her.

Almost. "What's going on?" Kerry continued on into the kitchen, reveling silently in the moment when Dar turned and met her eyes and a grin appeared, seeming to acknowledge the boundaries they both were knowingly skirting.

Dar pointed. "Tropical storm. Out of nowhere."

Kerry walked over to stand right next to her, leaning on the counter as she peered first out the window, then up at the television screen. Sure looked nasty...too nasty for cabs to run, maybe? "What does that mean?"

The blue eyes casually met hers and held there, gaining the faintest of twinkles in their depths. "For one thing, it means you're stuck here."

Shucks. Kerry looked out at the pounding surf as Dar made a call, feeling a sense of deep affection for Mother Nature.

"I was right. Ferries are closed down." Dar concluded.

"Guess I should have left when I had the chance..."

The twinkle grew perceptibly.

"I wanted to get the reports done, and only sat down for a minute...sorry." Kerry concluded her apology. "How are you feeling?"

Dar's eyes dropped, and her expression took on a more somber cast. "Fine. Stuff worked great." Her hand lifted and ran through her dark hair. "Listen, I better get candles out."

Candles? "What can I do to help?"

Dar showed her the shutters. It didn't take long, then she was back in the kitchen watching Dar root around in a box full of hurricane supplies.

Including candles. "What else can I do?"

Cloth in her hands. What else could she do? She could change into Dar's clothing. Holy cow. Was this really happening? "Makes sense. Be right back."

Herself in the mirror, in Dar's shirt, in Dar's house. Well, you know something Kerrison? If she's bringing candles, you've got to step up to the plate and do your part. "Bet she could use a home-cooked meal." Kerry whispered to her reflection. "Make it good enough, maybe she'll ask you to come back."

Yeah.

Kerry chuckled softly, shaking her head at her former self with a sense of unreal bemusement. Love had caught her so by surprise, she'd been overwhelmed by it before she even realized what was happening to her. And that had been a wonderful feeling, but she decided she liked the more seasoned, more faceted relationship she had with Dar now.

Though she would always cherish the look on Dar's face when she'd taken over her kitchen for that very first time. If she closed her eyes, she could still see that look in front of her, half amazed and half shy, the briefest glimpse of her soul mate soon to be.

Gorgeous.

Ah well. Kerry dusted off her fingers and neatly wiped her lips with her lurid yellow napkin before tucking it, along with the rest of the wrappings, into her paper bag. She slurped up the last of her frosty and turned the car off, then popped the door and hopped out into the warm muggy night.

The reporter spotted her and headed her way. Kerry debated on ignoring him, then she altered her steps to intercept his path and halted when she met up with him, tilting her head to one side and waiting in silence.

"Ah, Ms. Stuart?" The man readily started the conversation. "We haven't really met but..."

"But you're Telegenics biographer," Kerry supplied. "Something you want from me? I think I said everything I had to say in the meeting this afternoon."

"No, um...well..."

Kerry eyed the camera. "Is that running?"

"No, no." The man shook his head. "No, I wasn't really here to..."

"Watch us succeed?"

The man rocked back on his heels and held both hands up in front of him. "Whoa, take it easy, Ms. Stuart. You've got me all wrong."

Kerry folded her arms across her chest. "Okay." She was in a mood to be mildly benign. "What can I do for you, then?"

"First off, I'm Ben." He stuck his hand out. "And yeah, I know I'm working on that whole ship story and Telegenics being the underdog up and comer. Okay? Okay."

"Okay."

"But you know what?" Ben said. "The real story in that room today, and here tonight is you."

"Me?" Kerry sounded skeptical.

"Yeah," Ben said. "Yesterday, in that meeting, what I got from you was that it was a waste of your time. That's a strange kind of attitude for someone trying to get some new business."

Kerry considered the question. "I did consider it a waste of time. Not necessarily just of mine, but everyone else's also." She paused. "What was the purpose of having us all there? We were just responding to a fairly standard RFP."

The reporter shifted a little. "Well, maybe that's just how the customer likes to do it," he said. "Who knows?"

"Maybe." Kerry watched his face. "But you know, the last time I saw something like that Michelle Graver was involved too. I wonder if she didn't give Quest the idea."

His face twitched, too fast for him to hide it. "I have no idea," he said, after an awkward pause. "But anyway, now here you are, hacking your way into the phone system. What's the story? I heard the local news people say you got this pushed through when there's two hospitals who can't get phones and emergency service is down."

"There is no story," Kerry countered. "I'm just doing my job. Taking care of my customers. You should be asking the county why they aren't doing what I did."

"Maybe you're just smarter than all of them." Ben smiled.

Kerry hiked an eyebrow at him.

Ben studied her, then grinned a little. "Flattery doesn't do you, huh?"

"Buddy...the pond I come from, you wouldn't even register as a goldfish," Kerry told him. "So, if you don't mind--I'm going to close up shop here and go find myself a nice hot shower, and someplace relatively cool to sleep."

Ben laughed. "Oo...now, Ms. Stuart, is that a way to treat the press?"

"No." Kerry's eyes twinkled slyly. "But I don't have anywhere to hide the body here, and it's too hot anyway. So you lucked out."

The reporter laughed. "Okay, I get the message."

"Good. My can of spray paint's in the back of my partner's car. Hate to have to go get one just for you."

Ben laughed harder. "Ms. Stuart, please. When this crazy nuthouse city gets back to normal..."

"You mean it's not?"

"When the power comes on," Ben clarified. "Could you please sit down and let me interview you? I've gotten a really one-sided perspective of the...well, the competition. I'm seeing a different story here than I was led to believe originally."

Hm. "Okay," Kerry agreed. "Sure. If the power's not on tomorrow, the meeting Quest called will be canceled anyway unless he wants to have it in our offices. So...why not?"

It would be a good opportunity to maybe put a screw in Michelle's plan, and turn the tables a little. "Here's my card." She handed over one from her wallet. "Give me a call."

Ben eagerly squirreled away the card. "Boy, that was easier than I thought it would be."

Kerry gave him a wry look. "Good night." She circled around him and went over to the truck, resting one hand on the edge of the deck. "How's it looking, guys?"

"Lot better than it did when we started." The younger of the techs noted. "Ma'am, you rock."

Mark chuckled.

Kerry just grinned. "Well for the record, you all rock too, and not only I think that. Dar wanted me to tell everyone how much she appreciates the effort that was put in here tonight. She's about to go into a board meeting, and you just made her evening a lot more pleasant.

"Wheew." Mark whistled. "Hey, you should get the credit, Kerry. We just did the grunt work."

"It's all a team." Kerry shook her head. "Mark, can you get some people to take turns watching this, and keeping the generators going all night?"

"Already done." Mark rocked up and down on his heels. "I got twelve guys lined up, three guys every four hours. First bunch's due here in like, ten minutes then these guys can beat ass home."

"Good." Kerry looked around into the dark areas surrounding them. "Do we need security?" She lowered her voice. "I can have Matt send some guys over from the office. It's going to be a long night."

"Yeah," Mark agreed. "Good idea."

Kerry stepped away a little and took out her cell phone, glad the ordeal was, for her, almost over. Then another thought occurred to her and she cursed silently, waiting for the line to connect. It did, and she spoke briefly to the security supervisor on duty, then disconnected and called a different number.

"Hey, John? It's Kerry Stuart. How are...ah." Kerry could hear the chaos on the other end. "Ferries not running, huh?" She exhaled, listening to the man's exasperated tone. "Okay, well, thanks." She closed the phone and sighed. "Well, poo."

"What's up, boss?" Mark stuck his head around the corner of the truck. "No security?"

"No, they're on their way over." Kerry sighed. "But I just realized I have no way to get home. Our ferry ramps are shut down. They're getting the one island side on the generator but the one on the causeway end is dead in the water." She paused. "Literally."

"Yow."

"Yeah. Maybe I'll go sleep on the beach...and poor Chino." Kerry frowned. "Rats, rats, rats and fruit bats."

Well, there was always a hotel. Kerry gave the side of the truck a slap. "C'mon, Mark. I'll drop you back by the office for your car. Sorry about the bike."

"Couldn't have given it to me anyway." Mark climbed down out of the back of the vehicle and joined her. "Garage doors won't open."

Hm. Kerry booted a rock out of her way as they headed for the Lexus. Power outages were much, MUCH more fun when Dar was around.

Otherwise, they were just one big pain in the poot.

A FIRE ENGINE woke Dar up. She sat up in a confusion of dark strangeness, streetlights splashing an unfamiliar pattern across the sheets covering her as she spent a moment remembering where she was. The howl of the siren peaked outside, then slowly faded, piercing through the closed windows effortlessly.

Other sounds intruded after it. A chugging rumble, followed by a crash of metal against metal, some garbage truck, maybe. Then the soft, far off sound of a jackhammer.

Another siren, blaring suddenly to life almost under the window, loud and frightening, and much slower to fade.

"Damn." Dar hiked herself up and leaned back against the headboard, raking her fingers through her hair to move it out of her eyes as she waited for her heartbeat to settle back down. The darkness outside reassured her she hadn't overslept her travel alarm, but now that she was wide awake she doubted she could take advantage of the remaining time to fall back asleep.

At least not without Kerry there. Dar reached for the television remote and shifted to a cross-legged position as she flipped the button on to check the news.

Kerry wasn't a break of dawn person, Dar had discovered. Given her own natural preference, her partner preferred to let bright sunlight wake her up, long after Dar normally would be rambling around the condo.

Living together meant they'd had to learn to compromise.

As it turned out, they both enjoyed a morning cuddle, and slowly they'd adjusted their personal body clocks to allow that, plus their runs, plus time to get ready for work without making it to the office too disgracefully late every day.

Sharing a shower helped. Dar grinned slightly. Though occasionally that backfired and threw their schedule off even more when they got the giggles and lost track of time while playing around with each other, indulging in the open sensuality between them.

Natural to them now, but she could remember a time when Kerry had been far shyer, still unsure of herself and far from confident in her attractiveness at the very start of their relationship together.

"A beach party?" Kerry circled one denim-covered knee with both arms and rested her chin on it. "I don't know, Col..." She glanced over at Dar, who was sprawled on the couch in Kerry's apartment, flipping through a Linux magazine. "We're sort of busy..."

Dar looked up. "What kind of beach party?" she asked. "Laying on the sand getting fried, or something that involves volleyball and barbeques?"

Colleen hesitated, a little doubtful of her friend's newest friend. "Ah...more to the second, I'm thinking."

Dar looked at Kerry, raising her eyebrows inquisitively. "You up for it? I can do the beach."

Kerry was silent for a minute, then she nodded. "Sure," she agreed. "Um...we'll bring the drinks?"