Melissa Good - Thicker Than Water

“Hm,” Kerry said. “I wonder if that look’s for my lifestyle or the company I work for, then. Maybe I’ve got her staring daggers all wrong. She’s been fighting big business since the Stone Age.”

Dar chuckled softly.

“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, Thicker Than Water 135

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?”

136 Melissa Good

“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 Thicker Than Water 137

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.