Hurricane Watch - DK2 (53 page)

”Can’t I just go home?”

Kerry divided her inbox stack. ”I’ll take half.” She carefully moved the floral arrangement, carrying it over to the side credenza, where she set it down and arranged the flowers carefully. ”There.” Then she crossed back over and headed towards the door to her office. ”Forward me any stuff you don’t want to deal with. I’m going to get started on my own avalanche.” She looked back over her shoulder, regarding a happily munching Dar. ”Dar, at least save a few for after lunch. You’re going to get sick if you eat all of those.”

Dar licked a flake of pastry off her lips, and took a sip of coffee, then poked her tongue out at her lover.

Kerry sighed, and shook her head. ”What a little punk.” She opened the door and slipped through it, heading for her own office.

DAR RECKONED SHE would not have drawn more attention walking down the hall into Personnel if she’d been stark naked. She could feel the eyeballs following her, and if she’d wanted to, heard the comments that followed.

Deliberately she ignored them, rapping lightly on Mariana’s door.

“Come.”

She unlatched the lock and walked inside, closing the door behind her as she faced the woman behind the desk. “Morning.”

Mari leaned back. “Morning” she replied wryly. “How’s it feel to be queen?”

Dar chuckled and took a seat facing her across the desk. “Thanks for the warning.”

Mariana threw up her hands. “You don’t think we all tried to call you? What did you think those pages were, us asking what to order you
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for lunch or something? Good grief, Dar!”

“I know.” Dar leaned on the chair arm. “We turned everything off for a few days. Serves me right.”

The Personnel VP pulled a packet from her desk and tossed it across to her visitor. “That’s for you,” she advised. “Explains your new benefits, and obligations being a member of the board, and so on.”

“Mm.” Dar observed the packet but didn’t reach for it. “Keys to the private baths in there too?”

Mari chuckled. “The keycodes. We are a technology company, after all,” she said. “It really was unexpected, Dar. We were all thrilled when everything started working again—I mean... “ She gave a self-deprecating hand wave. “Most of us really didn’t understand what was going on but hearing the ops people cheering was great.”

“Long night,” Dar agreed. “Lot of hard work for a lot of people.”

“A lot of brilliant improvisation, from what we heard,” Mariana said. “From both of you.”

Dar nodded. “Couldn’t have done it without Kerry,” she said. “She definintely proved why she’s where she is.”

They both were quiet for a minute, as the multiple level of meanings filtered through.

“Alastair sent me a policy memo,” Mari went on. “You have hire/

fire for the whole operation here, complete.” She picked up a folder from her inbox and dropped it on top of Dar’s packet. “Want that to be the first one? I’ve got enough sworn statements of pretty much everything that if he sues, we’ll win.”

Dar leaned over and picked the folder up, opening it to find Fabracini’s personnel records inside. She glanced up. “José should fire him,” she said. “He hasn’t done anything but screw him over too.”

“He should,” Mari agreed. “But he won’t.” She leaned back. “He had the afternoon to spread his poison around before you saved the day. Damage was done.”

Dar shrugged. “You mean about me and Kerry?”

“That too.”

“I don’t care. Kerry doesn’t care. Alastair doesn’t care. Everyone else doesn’t matter.” Dar stood up. “I’ll take a look at this and let you know what I decide to do.” She picked up the other packet. “See you at the staff meeting.”

“That should be fun.”

Dar paused at the door and peered back at her. “For me.” Finally, she grinned, and winked at Mari, before she left and let the door close behind her.

Mariana gazed at the door, then she sighed and leaned back again.

“This is either going to be the best or the worst decision he’s ever made,” she mused. “Talk about no guts, no glory. Alastair McLean, I hope you end up swimming in glory because otherwise I’m going to find someone else’s nightmare to be part of.”

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Melissa Good

”I’LL BE RIGHT IN.” Dar gave Mariana a wave, as she ducked into the bathroom. Fortunately, it was empty, so she spent a moment just twitching at her clothes, and giving herself dire looks in the mirror. She was wearing the gunmetal gray suit today, with a black silk shirt, the only splash of color the pin Kerry had gotten her down on the boardwalk.

Okay, Paladar.
Her jaw muscle twitched.
They're all in there,
waiting on you. This isn't an executive committee meeting anymore.

This is a staff meeting. They're your staff now.

You are their leader.

Dar winced, and her face wrinkled up into a grimace. Ugh. The slightly widened blue eyes gazed back at her mournfully.
I'm too young
for this.
With a sigh, she reached up and ran her fingers through her dark hair, arranging it in some kind of order, then she took a deep breath, and let it out, settling the neatly pressed fabric over her broad shoulders.
Okay. How do we do the ‘tude.

Grumpy? Casual? Bitchy? Annoyed? Hey… I could say I was
PMSing.
She considered that for a moment, then discarded the idea.

Nah. They'd never be able to tell the difference.

She lifted a brow experimentally.
How about...
She let a sardonic grin edge across her face, to join the brow.
Amused. Okay, I can do
amused. I'll just think of them all in their underwear.

The grin widened.
And I've seen some of them like that, too.
With one last look, she left the bathroom and headed into the executive conference center, where the rest of the upper management staff was waiting.

”Where in the hell is she?” Duks whispered, nudging Mariana with one knee.

The Personnel VP glanced at him. ”She’ll be here in a minute.

Would you calm down?” she whispered back, eyeing the restless group.

José and Eleanor were seated next to each other, with frosty looks on, and the rest of the staff was a mixture of excited, annoyed, scared, or just plain bored.

The door opened, and everyone stopped talking, as Dar let herself in. All eyes fastened on their new CIO, who strode across the room with a smooth, powerful stride, and took her end chair in a blizzard of self-confidence that simply rolled down the table at them.

In silence, Dar let her icy blue gaze go from face to face, then a slow, lazy, amused grin pulled her lips upward just slightly.

”Morning.” Her low, richly toned voice echoed slightly in the silence.

”Let’s get started, shall we?”

Everyone swallowed, Mariana noted, astounded at the amount and quality of sheer presence Dar could produce when she was in the mood to. ”For...obvious...reasons we didn’t have a meeting last week.” Dar put her fingertips on the table, and leaned on them slightly, the fabric of
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her jacket tensing across her shoulders. ”And since I’ve got crap piled up on my desk six feet tall, this is going to be a short one.”

Silence.

”First item on the agenda.” The tall, dark haired woman gazed down the table at them. ”Every department gets a fifteen percent operating budget cut. Effective today.”

Jaws dropped.

Dar waited.

”Hold on a goddamned minute.” José stood up. ”What in the hell, Dar?”A chorus of protest rose after him, belatedly courageous once the Sales VP had broken ice, so to speak.

Dar waited. Silently. Blue eyes roving from face to face, her attitude one of quiet menace.

The voices trailed off, until they were left again in uneasy silence.

”I’m going to take that budget, and duplicate the networking hub,”

Dar continued, as if nothing had been said. ”Because, let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, I am not spending another night out freezing my ass off in North Carolina jury rigging some goddamned patch panel to run this company off of.”

Duks chewed on his pencil. ”Budgets are already figured for the quarter, Dar,” he commented quietly.

”Rework them,” she answered back, inflexibly. ”Or, sell your damn desk chairs, I don’t care, but I'm going to go ahead with the facilities regardless.”

José was still standing. He put his hands on his hips. ”I think we should consider the options, here Dar, and I—”

She pointed at him. ”This...is...not...a...committee anymore.” Each word was spoken sharply, with fierce enunciation. ”There are no options.”

Silence. Dar watched them. ”All right, we’re going to go around the table, you bring up what you think you need to, but be quick about it.

I’ve got a ton of things to do.” She finally sat down, and took a sip of water from the glass in front of her, then leaned back and gazed at Duks, who was closest to her. A brow lifted at him.

Impudently, he poked the very tip of his tongue out, where only she could see it. ”Congratulations, my friend.”

Her eyes twinkled soberly at him, the faintest hint of a grin pulling at the corners of her mouth. ”Thank you.”

”I have some good news,” Duks went on. ”The retirement fund had an investment in a group of technicals, and we made a killing last week.

We’re thirty percent over expectations in the fund.”

Murmurs went around the room.

”Nice,” Dar commented. ”Who picked those?”

Duks named one of his assistants. ”Damn good job of analyzing,”

he added. ”I put a commendation in his file.”

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Melissa Good

”Put a little commendation in his paycheck,” Dar suggested wryly.

”Before Merrill Lynch steals him.”

A faint, nervous chuckle skittled across the table. ”That it for you?”

Dar inquired.

Duks nodded, then turned, to where Mariana was seated next to him. ”Next?”

They went around the room, receiving clipped replies from José and nothing from Eleanor, and everyone left when she closed the meeting, save Duks and Mari. Dar waited for the door to close, then glanced at them. ”So.”

Duks leaned on his elbows. ”That was different,” he commented.

”Giving notice that your reign is not going to be business as usual, my friend?”

”Give me a break,” Dar snorted, leaning back and allowing herself to relax from the almost painful tension of the meeting. Her entire body ached from it, and she exhaled in relief. ”You know it won’t last. Next week they’ll all be in here bitching again.”

Mariana laughed softly. ”I don’t know about that, Dar. You made quite an impression. You have a very powerful presence, you know.”

Dar gave her a wry grimace. ”Well, I don’t hold out a lot of hope, but at least we didn’t spend five hours going over crap we’ve been through for the last two years.” She sighed, and studied her pen, which she turned over and over in her fingers. ”I’m going to need to pull a project team on that new facility.”

Mariana nodded. ”I gathered. You want to put in a new orgid for you? We can slot them in there, and charge them off against the operating budget.”

”Sounds good,” Dar agreed mildly. ”Well, I’ve got two phone conferences, four client briefings, and a major proposal to review, so...

You two going to be around later? Maybe we can all have dinner or something.”

Duks and Mari exchanged looks. ”I hear you know a good Thai restaurant down on Biscayne. Sound good?” Mari asked. ”We can save all our chitchat for there. Will you be able to unbury Kerry from her desk by then?”

Dar chuckled. ”Yeah, I think so.” She caught their eyes and realized where they were looking. Just barely keeping herself from sticking her hands in her pockets, she merely flexed her fingers instead. ”I’m not going to fill my position right away.”

Silence, as they digested that. ”Good idea,” Mariana nodded approvingly. ”You slowly going to shift responsibilities to Kerry?”

”Yes.”

”Smart.” Duks nodded also. ”Give everyone a chance to see what she can do.”

Silence again. Mariana cleared her throat gently. ”Are you going to um...” she considered, fishing for a way to ask delicately. ”Change your
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beneficiary information in CAS?”

Dar almost laughed, as she kept her eyes on her pen. ”Yeeahh...it looks like it,” she admitted, glancing up to see a twinkle in Mari’s eyes.

”Talk about an obscure way of asking.”

Duks chuckled. ”C’mon, Mari, we’ve got things to do, and so does the grand poobah, here. Let’s be getting a move on.” He stood, then leaned over and clapped Dar on the shoulder. ”Good job, Dar.”

”Likewise,” Mari added, as they pushed their chairs into place. ”I think it’s going to turn out for the best for everyone.”

Dar felt her pager go off as she watched them leave, then she sighed, looking around the empty conference room. ”I sure hope so.”

She stood and went to the phone nearby and rang the office. ”Maria, what’s up?”

”Ah... Dar. I was not going to bother you, but it has been some time now, and I...that Michelle Graver person is here.”

”Oh.” Dar winced. ”Great, is she down there waiting? I’ll come down. We’re done here.”

”Aie. No, no, Dar. She came a half an hour ago. She was upset at something, but Kerry took her away to fix things.”

Kerry? Oh. Great.
Dar tried to remember if she had a first aid kit in her office. ”Um...did she say where they were going?”

”No, but I think they were in her office.” Maria supplied helpfully.

”Is good I called you? I don’t like that woman, Dar. She is very sneaky looking.”

Yeah. ”Okay, yeah, that was good, Maria. I’ll take care of it.” Dar sighed. ”Talk to you later.” She hung up, then grabbed her portfolio and headed purposefully out the door.

KERRY NIBBLED HER lip in thought, then added a couple of lines to her email, clicking on the send once she’d reread it for the fifth or sixth time. She checked her watch, and paused, wondering how Dar’s meeting was going, before she punched a few numbers on the speakerphone. ”Hi, Maria?”

”Si...si...uno momento, senora.” The secretary sounded harried, and Kerry could hear an angry voice in the background.