Good, Melissa - Stormy Waters - Book 10 in The Dar & Kerry Series

Stormy Waters Copyright © 2012 by Melissa Good From Melissa Good Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 About the Author More Books by Melissa Good Visit Us On Line

Stormy Waters

by

Melissa Good

Yellow Rose Books

Copyright © 2012 by Melissa Good

ALSO BY MELISSA GOOD

Dar and Kerry Series

Tropical Storm

Hurricane Watch

Eye of the Storm

Red Sky At Morning

Thicker Than Water

Terrors of the High Seas

Tropical Convergence

Storm Surge: Book One

Storm Surge: Book Two

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The characters, incidents and dialogue herein are fictional and any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

ISBN 978-1-61929-083-9 (eBook)

eBook Conversion December 2012

Cover design by Donna Pawlowski

Published by:

Regal Crest Enterprises, LLC

3520 Avenue H

Port Arthur, Texas 77627

Find us on the World Wide Web at http://www.regalcrest.biz

Published in the United States of America

From Melissa Good:

Sometimes my real life and my stories accidentally converge and so I would like to in this case acknowledge both my previous employer, EDS, and my current one, Norwegian Cruise Line for bits and pieces found inside these pages and note that it would have been a very different story had certain events not taken place.

~ Melissa Good

Stormy Waters

by

Melissa Good

Yellow Rose Books

Chapter One

DAR POURED HERSELF a glass of juice, then returned to her desk and settled back into her leather chair. A thick, white printout was already in her inbox. She lifted it out and plopped it down in front of her as her computer hummed in the background, collecting her email.

Security reports. Dar winced slightly as she started reading. "Damn, what a mucking little troublemaker I am." She shook her head ruefully. "Aye, yi yi yi yah...Mark I owe you dinner, at least for this one." Her fingertip traced one intrusion attempt that had come perilously close to finding a crack, being turned aside at the very last second by the random roaming parser that dipped continually into the data stream and examined the traffic it found there. "Wow."

The parser had been around since a twenty something year old bored Operations Manager had put it in place years ago and recently had to defend keeping it. Dar hadn't really expected to have her stubborn insistence in leaving her code in place vindicated so explicitly, but she was never one to look a gift goat in the ass either.

She opened a new mail window and typed rapidly. Next time someone tells me we don't need any of my old programs, they're fired. She reviewed it, then sent it on its way to Mark's inbox. Satisfied she went back to reviewing the report.

A soft knock interrupted her a few minutes later. Dar put the page down and leaned on her elbows. "C'mon in."

The door opened and Maria poked her head in. "Good morning, Dar."

Dar leaned back in her chair and studied her assistant. "Morning." She lifted a hand and curled a finger, beckoning Maria inside the office. "Siddown."

Looking slightly apprehensive, Maria did so, taking a seat across from Dar in one of her comfortable visitors chairs. "Si?"

Dar steepled her fingers. "I have a meeting with Mariana in about an hour over your little incident at that restaurant last week."

Maria sighed. "Dar, I am so sorry."

"Shh." Dar waved her off. "Don't apologize. I only wish you'd gotten some pictures. The two of them were up to no good, and I'm happy Kerry didn't end up there with them."

"They were very nasty women, Jefa."

"I know." Dar said. "The problem is, they're also a huge honking pain in the ass, and it's to their advantage to make us look as bad as possible."

Maria sighed. "We should not have gone to that place. It was a wrong thing to do, Dar. Even if you do not say so."

Dar shrugged. "And at that tech conference, I shouldn't have challenged every hacker on the planet to break into our systems. But I did, and here we are." She nudged the stack of papers. "So, what I want you to do is just let me handle it okay?"

"Jefa?" Maria looked confused.

Dar got up and walked around to the front of the desk, perching on the corner of it. "I'll meet with Mariana and take care of whatever bullshit she got handed. Kerry's up to her ears in this damn bid, and I don't want her bothered with it."

"Okay, Dar, if you say so." Maria still looked unsure. "But the policeman came to us on Friday, and I spoke with him. I think it is fine. He said to me that what they were was some nuisance?"

Nuisance. Dar chuckled inwardly. "All right. Listen, I'm going to need to schedule a security meeting after lunch. Book the big conference room, and get all the operations department heads in there."

"One o'clock?"

"That's fine." Dar nodded.

Maria started to get up, but paused. "Dar, I did not get to ask you-- did this thing you were in New York for go all right?"

"It did."

"Was Kerrisita a good help for you?"

Dar's blue eyes twinkled warmly. "Couldn't have done it without her."

Satisfied, Maria stood up and headed for the door. "Is good. Mayte will be very glad as well. She was very concerned that everything would go nicely."

Dar went back to her seat and dropped into it, pulling her report back over. A motion on her screen caught her attention, and she looked over studying the security alert flashing.

Damn. "I think I'm going to end up embarrassing the hell out of myself with that damn challenge." She exhaled, resting her head on her fist. "What an idiot I am."

KERRY CAME AROUND the corner of her office entrance and plowed into her administrative assistant. "Whoa!" She hauled up short and put a hand out to steady Mayte, who had bounced off her. "Hey, Mayte."

Mayte's eyes widened. "Oh, Ms...Kerry. Hello. Good morning." Her expression was a cross between apprehension and concern. "You are here so early."

"C'mon inside. I want to hear all about our rock 'em sock 'em admins." Kerry grinned indicating her office door. "I've got a staff briefing at ten, but we've got some time to talk."

Mayte followed her inside and closed the door, and stood a little awkwardly beside Kerry's desk. "Kerry, my mother is very upset with us. She said for me to come to you and to apologize."

Kerry put her tea mug down on her desk and came over to face her assistant. "Why?"

"Because we should not have confronted those ladies."

"Ah." Kerry folded her arms. "Well...I'd agree with you, except that...remember the story Dar said for you to ask me about, when you told us what happened?"

"Yes." Mayte fastened her eyes on Kerry's face.

"Once upon a time, back when Dar and I first started seeing each other..." Kerry turned and wandered over to the window, peering out. "And we were still keeping it secret from everyone..."

"Except my mama."

Kerry chuckled. "Uh...er...yeah, except for her. From everyone else, though," she amended. "Mariana and Duks asked us out to dinner. We knew Mariana suspected what was going on, so we were trying really hard to pretend we were just friends while at the restaurant."