“Don’t laugh,” Kerry murmured. “She thinks the high techs are the worst things that ever happened to the Earth.” They arrived at Cynthia’s side before Dar could answer, and they met the glares of the aides.
“Ah, Kerrison.” Cynthia welcomed her warmly, ignoring the frosty expressions of the two men on either side of her. “Splendid.
I was just discussing you with the governor.” She turned. “James,
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this is Kerrison, my eldest daughter.” Then she paused, almost infinitesimally. “And her…partner, Dar Roberts.”
“Kerrison.” The governor extended a hand to her with surprising good nature. They shook, then he turned and met Dar’s eyes, a tiny smile crinkling the corners of his own. “Ms. Roberts.”
There was, Dar realized, something faintly familiar about the man. She returned his strong grip and tried to figure out where she’d met him before. “Governor.”
“And you know Angela,” Cynthia continued. “The governor and I were just discussing—”
“Mrs. Stuart, a word with you.” One of the aides tugged at her sleeve. “There’s a phone call.”
Cynthia looked very annoyed, but she gave the governor a graceful nod. “Excuse me a moment.” She allowed herself to be drawn off to one side, where two other aides were standing, one holding a wireless phone.
“Kerrison,” a male voice chimed in from behind them.
“Hadn’t expected to see you here.”
Kerry turned to see one of her younger uncles on her mother’s side standing there. “Hello, Brad.” She exchanged wry looks with him. “I didn’t expect to see you, either. Guess I took your place as the black sheep, hm?” Brad still had his earrings, though he’d taken out the one he usually sported in his nose for the occasion.
Kerry was glad to see him, though they’d never been close.
“Made my life a little easier, yeah.” Brad laughed. “’Specially after my band got busted for possession last year.”
Dar watched the interchange, satisfied that Kerry wasn’t going to get bushwhacked, then turned her attention to the governor, who was standing quietly, watching everything. Their eyes met. “Political minefield, eh?”
He shrugged lightly. “Aren’t they all?” He cocked his head.
“Roger was a bastard, but he knew his job and he was damn good at it. Lots worse could have been in that seat, though I’m betting you’d disagree.”
Dar glanced around, surprised at the governor’s candor with a relative stranger. “He wasn’t my favorite human being, no. People who wish me, and those I love, dead and in Hell rarely are.”
She met his eyes evenly. “It’s a fairly common attitude, though.”
The faint smile returned. “That’s damn true, Ms. Roberts.
Damn true. Some of my closest friends feel that very way, matter of fact, and I’m not known as a liberal in many circles. Makes an already dicey decision even tougher now that Cyndi’s publicly stated her support for young Kerrison, there.”
“I bet.” Dar smiled humorlessly. “Does she even want the job?”
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“Not particularly.” The governor shrugged. “S’why she’s probably going to get it.” He rocked back and forth on his heels a bit. “Hasn’t got much time left on this term anyway, and anyone else I choose would just cause me other problems.”
Dar’s eyebrows rose. “Despite the,” she paused deliberately and put a sting in the word, “complications?”
The governor chuckled for no apparent reason and looked at his laced leather shoes. “Y’know, Ms. Roberts, I gotta tell you something.” He looked up at her. “I made the mistake of assuming things about gay people once, and I got my ass dragged into a tor-pedo locker and the bs kicked right out of me for it.” He grinned at her visibly startled reaction. “I surely don’t intend to make the same mistake twice, and have Andy Roberts coming after my ass again. I’m too old for that now.”
Dar blinked, then chuckled a little in pure surprise. “You know, I thought I knew you from somewhere. You captained that hunter sub he went out on for two tours.”
“That I did,” the governor said. “Besides, I’d be a half-brained old sea salt to piss off someone who might prospectively bring more private sector jobs into my state, now wouldn’t I?” He gave her a rakish grin. “Got any plans for expanding in Troy?”
Cynthia Stuart returned at that moment, having shed the two aides. “My apologies, Governor, but I see you were well accompanied.” She gave Dar a nod. “Is Kerrison…? Ah, there she is. Kerrison, perhaps we can speak with your uncles now. Are you free?”
Kerry and Dar exchanged glances. “Sure. I don’t honestly know what good it’ll do, but I’m willing to try.”
Maybe,
she considered,
in this very public venue, they’ll at least be civil.
She put a hand on Dar’s arm. “You’d better—”
“Stay here?” Dar completed the statement with a faint smile.
“All right, but if voices start to get louder, I won’t be responsible for my reactions.” She watched Kerry walk to a knot of her family, relaxing a little when Michael slid in and put an arm around Kerry’s shoulders.
The governor gently cleared his throat. “Chip off the old block, aren’t you?”
Dar kept her eyes on her lover, but smiled with pride. “That’s what they tell me.”
“THAT THERE MAN is not worth this here suit.” Andrew folded his arms over his broad chest and reviewed the passing countryside. “Ah will tell you that.”
Ceci glanced at him, then returned her attention to the icy road ahead of her. “No, he’s not worth a potato sack. But Kerry’s
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worth that suit, and besides, I like you in it.” She caught a pair of pale blue eyes reflected against the windshield and smiled. “Not as much as the white one, but still…”
Andrew merely grunted, shifting his shoulders inside his dark blue uniform jacket. “Spent enough time decorating it, now didn’t you?” he rasped, giving her a wry look.
Ceci chuckled smugly. “Wasn’t it a coincidence that box of medals from the Navy showed up yesterday? Amazing, I tell you, just amazing.” She turned carefully onto a smaller road, grimac-ing as she felt the wheels slide under her touch. “Lovely.”
“You want me to drive?” Andy asked.
“Honey,” Ceci struggled with the wheel a moment more, then got the car straight, “I’m sure Kerry and Dar would like to see us in one piece sometime this evening.” She accelerated cautiously.
“Ah. That’s better.” It really was hard to believe they were actually there. Certainly it was only marginally their business, and their presence would not, she suspected strongly, be a welcome one.
That one shot of Dar and Kerry coming out of the hospital the night before, both faces strained to an almost scary extent, made their decision for them, for better or worse. Ceci exhaled and nodded to herself. They had the means, they had the method, and by the goddess, here they were about to turn into the driveway of the Stuart family manse.
“Think we should have warned them?” she asked, waiting in line behind a maroon Jaguar.
An unexpected smile crossed Andy’s scarred face. “Nope.
Better to just do it and fill in the paperwork later.”
“Mm.” Cecilia pulled up to the guard and opened the window. The man leaned over and peered inside as she marshaled several well thought out arguments to gain admittance, prepared to bombard the man with inescapable logic and plain intimidation if she had to.
“Go right ahead, sir,” he murmured courteously. “Ma’am.”
The gate opened. Ceci glanced at her husband who looked back at her, equally puzzled. “Well.” She pulled the car through the opening gates. “I’m not looking that gift donkey in the ass.”
“Musta been taken by your pretty face,” Andy said.
“More likely by the glare off your chest, sailor boy.” Ceci patted the front of his uniform, which was liberally bedecked with medals and ribbons. “He probably figured you run the Navy.
C’mon.”
They got out and Ceci pulled the lapels of her coat closer as the cold wind chilled her skin. After a second, Andy was next to her, and he put a hand on her back to steady her steps as they 138
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headed up the icy walk towards the house. “Stuffy looking, isn’t it?” she commented as they rang the bell.
“’Bout what I expected,” Andrew grumbled as the door opened. The staff member immediately retreated and allowed them to enter, offering to take their coats with a quiet word. They accepted the offer, and continued towards a large, crowded room off to the left.
Ceci checked out the house with a knowledgeable, patrician eye. The Stuarts occupied roughly the same social class as her own family, but there were differences. This was conservative, stolid, Midwestern money, concerned with presence and stability and tradition.
Ick.
Ceci had a sudden, almost irresistible urge to throw a bucket of paint over the stately white walls. With an effort, she controlled herself and concentrated on studying the room full of dignitaries, searching for familiar faces. It was tough, being the height she was, but she managed to find Dar’s tall, elegant form almost immediately. She had her back to the door and was speaking to a tall, silver haired man. “There’s one.”
“Yeap. Easy to spot. Prettiest girl in the room,” Andrew noted with complete seriousness.
Ceci chuckled softly. Then she stopped laughing when she saw Kerry off to one side, ringed by a number of older men and women.
“That don’t look so good,” Andrew said. “Think I’ll go scout.”
“I’ll go clue in our daughter,” Ceci replied, and they moved off in opposite directions.
“WELL.”
Dar turned her head and found a most unwelcome sight. Kyle Evans was standing there with a slightly mocking expression on his face. “Ah. What rock did you crawl out from under?”
One silver eyebrow lifted. “Not even a pretense of civility?”
“Not for you.” Dar met his gaze evenly. Of all the members of the late senator’s staff, this was the one she had the most reason to hate. And she did, with a completeness that allowed for no mitigation. Kyle had been Kerry’s persecutor, the man who had carried out her father’s rigid policies, and a nightmarish tormentor who had scarred her gentle lover’s psyche in ways it horrified Dar to think about.
“Well.” Kyle examined the room with cool eyes. “Finally got what you wanted, didn’t you?”
“No. I’ve always had what I wanted.” Dar met his sudden
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look with an icy smile. “But he finally got what he deserved.”
Kyle didn’t answer. Instead, he continued to study the room.
“Pity I was out of the country,” he purred. “I’d have made sure you didn’t join this little family reunion.” He turned and smiled at her with no humor at all. “But look, there’s the little prodigal. Let me go pay my,” his lip twitched, “respects.”
“I don’t think she wants them,” Dar said.
“I’m sure she doesn’t.” Kyle smiled again. “Maybe we can talk over…old times.”
He turned and glided away, leaving Dar with an icy facade over wild inner turmoil. She felt her blood pressure rise, sending a surge of warmth to her skin and muscles as her body interpreted the emotion she felt with uncanny accuracy. Her hands twitched, and it was only by the barest of margins that she held herself back from going after him.
“Dar?”
Her head snapped to one side, and it took a few seconds for her rational mind to recognize the voice and register the sudden, completely unexpected appearance of her mother at her side. Her glare melted as she took a breath and blinked. “Mom? What are you doing here?”
“Well…” Cecilia eased closer, now that the impending erup-tion seemed to be under control. “Up ’til now I’d have said we were here just to piss everyone off and give you two some friendly faces.” She studied her child with concern. “But after that little scene, I’m not so sure that
moral
support is the only kind you need. Who the hell was that?”
Dar’s eyes darted over the crowd. “Dad’s here?”
“Yes,” Ceci said. “He was heading over to thump Kerry’s relatives a moment ago. Why?” She put a hand on Dar’s arm. “Dar, are you all right?”
Dar closed her eyes and took firm control of herself. “Yes.
Thanks.” Now that she knew they were safe, one worry was done away with. And she had another to take its place. She finally turned and regarded her mother. “I’m glad you’re here.” She drew a deep breath before addressing the question. “And that was Kyle Evans. He’s…he
was
Stuart’s chief bastard and whitewasher.” Her lips twitched. “His personal assistant.”
“Uh huh.” Ceci relaxed a little. “Tight-assed looking creature.
Sorry about the surprise. We saw you two on television last night and you looked like you could use a little support.”
“I tried to call you earlier.” Dar felt her pulse slow. “Colleen said you’d gone out of town, but she didn’t know where.” She scanned the crowd again and immediately found her father’s tall form as he slid into place beside the unsuspecting Kerry, just as 140
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Kyle approached from the other side of her.
An unexpected smile crossed Dar’s face, which vanished just as quickly. “It’s been a rough couple of days. Most of her relatives are giving her hell.”
“So I gathered,” Ceci murmured. “Shall we go rescue her?”
Dar glanced around the room. It was full of dignitaries, most of whom were watching the cluster of people around Kerry with thinly disguised interest. She watched a camera flash and saw the reporter angle for a better shot of Kerry’s face as she stood holding her ground against her various aunts and uncles. She was tense; Dar could see that in the way she held her body and in the careful, controlled hand motions as she fought to remain civil.
“Yeah,” Dar said. “Let’s go do that.”
KERRY RETURNED THE thin smile from her youngest aunt.
Viciously polite.
That was the term she was looking for. So far, though, she’d done all right. Even her uncles, aware of the cameras and the outsiders’ stares, were behaving themselves. “Sorry, what was the question?”
“What’s the social life down there like for you?” Marcia repeated. “I’m sure you participate, don’t you?”
“Not really,” Kerry replied quietly. “I do on a corporate level, naturally, but we have other interests besides parties.”