Dar gazed down at her, unhappily. ”Kerry, you’re all those things, and so much more I can’t even begin to tell you. I was just trying to figure out what I was going to say to you on Saturday morning.”

”Oh.” The inflection was totally different. ”You don’t have to say anything,” Kerry told her softly. ”Just your being there’s enough for me.””Oh,” Dar’s turn to murmur.

”I thought...maybe...I could just...sort of, um...I mean, I have this poem that I wrote. I thought maybe I could have Pastor Robert use that.”Dar exhaled in relief. ”That’d be perfect.” She kissed Kerry’s head gently. ”Thank you.”

Silence fell.

”I turned everything upside down, huh?”

Dar rolled over onto her back, pulling Kerry up on top of her.

”Yep.”


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”Awk, Dar, c’mon. You’re gonna be squished.” Kerry laughed.

Dar rubbed her back, working the strong muscles with her fingers.

”Nope, I like this feeling.”

”You like not being able to breathe. Dar, you’re demented.” But Kerry’s body slowly relaxed completely against her, melding with her own in boneless completeness.

”Mm...” Dar savored the feeling.

”Goofball.” Kerry nuzzled her neck, nibbling the underside of her jaw. ”I love you.” She felt the muscles of Dar’s face move as she smiled.

”It’s almost time to get up.”

”Uh huh,” Dar agreed lazily. ”How are you feeling?”

Kerry considered the question. ”Like I don’t want to get my lazy butt up and go running, but I don’t have a good excuse not to,” she admitted. ”So, c’mon, tiger, let’s hit the Frosted Flakes and get moving.”

Dar laughed softly, and pinched her on the specified body part.

”I’ll put the coffee up, you let the puppy out?”

It was just the start of another day.


Chapter

Twenty-three

DAR OPENED THE door to her outer office, then she paused, as she spotted the workmen blocking the way further. “What’s going on here?”

Maria was off to one side, supervising. She turned and spotted Dar and circled back around her desk. “Oh, jefa. Look. They are bringing your new name.”

For a second, Dar wondered if they meant she was taking on Kerry’s. She blinked and edged over to where the workmen were busy replacing the plaque on her door, relieved when all it showed was her new title. “Ah.”

It would have been funny if it’d been the other. Dar managed to squeeze past the men and into her office, deciding if it had been, she’d have left it. “Confuse the hell out of everyone. That’s my motto.”

She took her seat and booted up her PC, resting her hands on the desk as the machine chimed softly and started up.

Her intercom buzzed. “Yes?”

“Jefa, Mr. José is here to see you.”

Despite the absolute politeness of Maria’s tone, what she thought of Dar’s visitor was evident. “Thanks, Maria. Send him in.” She glanced at the folder, still in her in box, and sighed. “Can you grab me some coffee? I think I’m gonna need it.”

“Surely.”

Maria closed the connection and she was left in a moment’s peace before the door opened and José entered.

Her erstwhile nemesis in Sales crossed the room and took one of her visitor’s chairs, seating himself in it and hiking one ankle up on the opposite knee.

Dar didn’t truly dislike José. She knew he was if not the best, one of the best salespeople she’d ever met, and his aggressive style had won them more accounts than she had time to count over the years.

They fought like they did mostly because they were both up front, take them as you see them kind of people, and at her core, Dar really did have a level of respect for the man. “Yes?” she drawled, after he got himself comfortable. “If you’re here to bitch at me, take a hike. It’s too early for that.”

José studied her. He opened his mouth to answer, but they both turned as knock sounded on the inside corridor door.


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“C’mon in,” Dar said.

Kerry entered, carrying a Styrofoam cup. “Brought extra back.

Want some?” she said, after a pause when she saw who was sitting there.“Sure.”

Kerry brought the cup over and handed it to her, glancing over at José. “Good morning.”

José cocked his head and regarded her. “Buenas dias,” He replied.

“Is that café cubano?”

“Yes,” Kerry said. “I’m convinced we run on this, not electricity in this building.” She gave Dar a wink, then retreated to the door. “Sorry to interrupt.” She slipped through the door and left them alone again.

Dar sipped the thick, sugary rocket fuel. “So where were we?”

José blew his breath out. “I have come to say this,” he said. “Either we learn not to eat each other, or we go nowhere.” He laced his fingers together. “No matter what you think, I did not look for you to leave this company.”

Dar grunted.

“You do not sell things,” José went on. “I do not fix things,” he said. “The company needs the both of us to do well and make money.”

“That’s true.”

He leaned forward. “I do not like people who threaten me.” He stared evenly at Dar. “I do not care who they think they are.”

She sensed the raw challenge. But between that and her visceral response there now floated this cushion of introspection brought on by everything she’d been through in the past two weeks. Dar rested her chin on her fist. “Let me ask you something,” she said. “What would you have done if I called your wife a whore?”

José looked at her. “That is not your wife.” He pointed at the door.

“Do not make it the same thing.”

“But to me it is.” Dar got up and circled her desk, not missing the flinch as she closed in on him, only to settle herself on the edge of the flat surface. “Kerry is everything to me your family is to you, José. So I ask you again, if I’d have called your wife a whore, what would you have done?”

The salesman was briefly silent. Then he got up and paced to the wall and back. “I would not have liked it,” he finally admitted. “But you...”

“Had no right to talk to you like that? Sure I did.” Dar shrugged.

“José, I am who I am. I’m not changing.”

He put his hands on his hips. “You threatened me.” He pointed his thumb at his chest. “This is not right.”

“I didn’t threaten you,” Dar objected. “I told you what I was going to do if you said something like that again and I will do just that.” She got up, putting her hands on her desk and leaning back instead. “You want to be fired? I think it would stink for the company if I had to do it, Hurricane Watch

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but trust me. I will.”

José folded his arms over his chest. “You are impossible.”

“Sometimes,” Dar agreed. “But tell me this, José, who else can you depend on when everything’s absolutely shit?”

He grunted.

“Besides.” Dar circled her desk and sat down again. “Stop blaming me for all this crap. You’re the one who decided to bring in someone to attack me.” She dropped the folder on the desk. “So now you’re gonna go back to your office and fire his ass.”

José came to the front of her desk and leaned on it. “I will not,” he said. “This is— Yes, he is a troublemaker, but all his ideas are good ideas. He is right in the things we need to do.”

“Fire him.” Dar opened the folder. “Or, I will. He falsified his employment documents.” She shoved the folder over. “He wants your job. Now that he failed to get me out, you’re his next target. You really want that, José?”

The VP of Sales was studying the paper. “What is this?” he said.

“This was not true? He told us of his successes at this company.”

“He lied.”

José sat down. “You are telling me this now?”

Dar held her hands up and let them fall. “For Christssake, José. I’m not responsible for vetting your damn personnel records! Mari just gave this to me because Alastair asked me to take care of the problem. That’s what he views this guy as. A problem.” She stared at him meaningfully.

“Your problem. Now are you going to get rid of him, or do you want me to do it?”

José fingered the folder. “You say he’s after my job?” he queried.

“How is it you know so much about this??”

Dar met his gaze. “You really want to know?”

“No,” José said, in a disgusted tone. “You have all the power. I see it.” He got up. “But it hurts us to do this. His ideas, they are correct.”

Dar steepled her fingers and regarded him. “I didn’t say they weren’t,” she said, quietly. “I think we do need changes. I think we do need to alter how we do business.”

José looked surprised. “You say that?”

“Yeah. Now that I have the power to make that happen without all of you getting in my way,” Dar replied, with a grim smile. “You want change? You’ll get it. But it’ll happen how I want it to.”

“What does that mean?” José came back and sat down. “Explain to me, what you intend, Dar.” He eyed her shrewdly. “Or do you want me to just get rid of this man because he does not like you.”

“You hired him because he doesn’t like me,” Dar retorted. “He hasn’t said anything you haven’t told me for the last year, José. Think about it.”

The sales exec leaned back in his seat. “That is true,” he acknowledged, after a minute. “He just said them louder and was in 330

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your face with them.”

“But if he’s here, and changes are made now, who gets credit?”

José was silent for a moment, then he pulled his ankle up on his knee and regarded Dar with a wry expression. “Ah,” he grunted. “So what are these changes? Or, is that just a trick to get me out of your face too?”Dar went around behind her desk and sat down, giving herself a moment to consider. She naturally didn’t want to share the nascent plans that had started budding in her head over the last day or so, but instinct told her she’d get a payoff by throwing her adversary a bone.

Sometimes you had to take a risk. “Okay.” She leaned her elbows on her desk. “The biggest problem I see is that we don’t have control over most of what we offer.”

José tilted his head, but didn’t interrupt.

“We’re too dependent on vendors, on long haul providers. It’s too expensive in the long run to over provision, and we can’t ever get fast enough response when we do need an increase.”

“Exactly,” the Sales VP nodded. “That is exactly the problem. It is why we cannot sell the way we need to, because it’s always a hedge, yes?” He waved the hand holding the folder. “We can give so much, but it always has to be paid for and plus.”

Dar nodded. “To make the budget.”

“Si.”

“What if we had our own network?” Dar asked him. “Everything belonging to us. No circuits. Just a slice of bandwidth you could sell however you wanted.”

José went very still for a long moment. “Madre dios. Are you kidding me?” he asked, finally. “Is this serious?”

“It’s serious,” Dar said. “I’ve wanted to do it for a while, I just couldn’t.”

She tapped her thumbs together. “I warned the board already,” she said. “Capital expenditure. Outside the budgets.”

José tapped the folder against the side of his neck. He studied her face in silence, his eyes flicking back and forth as he considered. “This is something we have all been looking for,” he said. “We will all win with this. I like it.”

He stood up. “I will get rid of this man.” He held the curled folder up. “This is not something he should get credit for. Who is he? A liar, as you say?” The sales VP shrugged. “All right. I will say I did bring him here after I learned he knew you to chew your face. I am an asshole sometimes.”

Dar smiled at him. “Me too,” she agreed. ”But we do have a common cause.”

“Si. That we do.” José looked a lot happier. “Was he really after my job?” he asked, turning back to her. “Or, was that the bullshit to make me loco?”

“His admin told her uncle the janitor supervisor, who told my Hurricane Watch

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admin,” Dar related honestly. “He’s a good friend of her husband’s.”

José threw his head back and laughed. “Now that I completely believe.” He slapped the folder on his leg. “Enough of this caca. Let’s get back to business.” He waved his hand at her and headed for the door. “Hasta la vista. Dar.”

“Later.” Dar sat back in her chair and felt a sense of rare victory.

”OH, I GET it.” Kerry finished slicing up the fresh chicken breast.