The asterisk returned, but this time Dar slumped back in her chair and relaxed.
“Now we wait, right?” Kerry perched on the corner of the desk. “To see if we have anything.”
“Right,” Dar agreed. “We wait.” She paused and looked around the office. “Listen, no sense in all of us sticking around.”
“No,” Kerry agreed. “Mark said he’d stay and watch.”
Dar had opened her mouth to continue and now she closed it, giving them both a dour look, realizing she’d been outflanked. “If I didn’t know better, I’d suspect I’m being coddled.”
“Nope,” Mark jumped in. “I figured once this sucker runs and barfs up the results, you’re the one who gets to figure out what it means,” he said. “So the least I could do is watch the pretty lights flash for ya.”
Dar looked at him, then at Kerry, who looked back at her with a gentle smile. “Okay.” She dropped her hands onto the chair arms and pushed herself to her feet. “C’mon, Kerry, let’s get a couple hours’
sleep.” She turned toward Mark. “Want me to double lock the doors?”
she teased with a rakish grin. “I think I heard some phantom chicken men outside.”
Mark cleared his throat. “Nah, I’m fine. G’wan.”
Dar nodded. “Thanks.” She lifted a hand in a half wave. “Call me if anything doesn’t look like it’s going right.”
“Will do.” Mark settled in the chair Dar had just vacated, and leaned back. The door closed behind them, leaving him in peaceful silence.
BEING HOME FELT good. Kerry scrubbed her teeth industriously, turning as she felt a warm body nearby. “Hfero, Chirf,” she greeted her pet, who was standing up on her hind legs, peering into the mirror with Kerry.
“Argorf,” Chino barked, very glad to have her family home.
“What are you guys doing?” Dar wandered into the bathroom behind her and snuggled up, putting her arms around Kerry’s stomach.
“Giving her pointers, Chino?”
Kerry spit out her mouthful of toothpaste. “No, she’s showing me you didn’t quite get all the blackberry sauce off her face.” She pointed at the mirror. “How on earth did she get into the refrigerator, Dar?”
“Opposable paws.” Dar picked up one of the Labrador’s feet and 332 Melissa Good examined it, getting a kiss for her pains. “Glad you didn’t leave that container of pasta sauce on the bottom shelf.” They’d come home to find purplish blobs everywhere and a suspiciously meek-looking dog trying very hard to appear innocent with a face covered in jam.
“Bad girl,” Kerry scolded their pet. Chino cupped her ears and folded them downward in an expression only a Labrador could come up with, looking soulfully at Kerry all the while. “Ooh...you think you have me so fooled, don’cha?” She had to laugh at the hopeful tail wag.
“Spoiled brat.”
Dar chuckled and rested her chin on the top of Kerry’s head, hugging her and swaying a little. “Mm...bedtime for nerds?”
Kerry spent a moment just absorbing how wonderful it felt to have Dar hugging her. Then she turned around in her lover’s arms and the sensation trebled as she slid closer and returned the hug. “Mm.” She took a breath filled with the scent of clean cotton and Dar’s distinctive smell. “Definitely bedtime for nerds.” She took a step forward and guided Dar toward the waterbed, tumbling onto it with a sense of exquisite relief.
Dar immediately curled around her, capturing her in a net of long arms and longer legs, creating a warm nest she snuggled into, letting out a pleased murmur of contentment.
Dar reached over and turned the light off, ignoring the clock, which reminded her it was after four. Then she resettled her arm over Kerry, who squiggled closer and sighed, warming Dar’s chest with a minty scented breath. The still-nagging aches faded, and she closed her eyes as her body relaxed at last.
What would the analysis come up with? she wondered drowsily. She’d thrown the dice on capturing the data she had, hoping it would deliver to her the mechanism they’d been using to move around the funds that she’d seen in the accounts. But what if it didn’t? Dar felt Kerry’s breathing even out and slow, becoming deep and regular as her partner fell asleep. Curiously, she found herself unconsciously trying to match it.
She thought about that for a moment, then returned her attention to their problem. Or at least, that’s what she’d intended to do. But sleep snuck up on her, ambushing her best intentions and taking her out before she could form another thought.
Chapter
Twenty
“MORNING.” KERRY GAVE Mayte an apologetic look as she entered, closing the outer door behind her. “Sorry I’m late.” She shifted her laptop case to her other shoulder. “Anything blowing up that I should know about?”
Mayte smiled at her. “There is nothing that I know of. Mamá said there have been some messages for la jefe, but it is nothing too serious.”
“Good.” Kerry opened the door to her office and went inside, circling her desk and dropping her briefcase behind it. She collapsed into her leather chair and nudged the switch on her PC, leaning back and watching as it booted.
Late or not, she hadn’t gotten nearly enough sleep. Her eyes were sore, and she could feel a heaviness in her head that made her hope she wasn’t coming down with something.
Her phone rang. With a sigh, Kerry sat forward and answered it.
“Yes?”
“Hello, Kerry.” Eleanor’s voice sounded a touch on the smug side.
“Did you forget our meeting?”
Oh, pooters. Kerry rested her head on her hand. “Not exactly,” she said. “We were here on a project until almost four last night. I just got back in.”
“Four?” Eleanor replied. “Good grief, woman. I can’t think of anything fun I’d like to do until four in the morning, let alone anything involved in work.”
“Yeah, well, you know how it is.”
“No, and I’ve got no urge to find out,” the marketing VP said.
“Well, how about a reschedule for tomorrow?”
“Fine.” Kerry rolled her trackball and studied her schedule, now displayed on her fully booted PC. “How’s 3:00? I’ve got two reviews to do in the morning.”
“3:00 it is. Try not to sleep through this one, huh? Though I hear the company’s worth it.” Eleanor chuckled, and hung up.
Kerry had to think about that for a moment before she groaned and let her head hit the desk with a soft thump. Then she got up and trudged around the desk, snagging her coffee mug and heading for the door.
334 Melissa Good Mayte’s desk was empty when she passed it, as was the hallway when she ducked across it to the little kitchenette that served the fourteenth floor. She went to the cappuccino machine and started some milk frothing, studying it as the coffee poured out of its nearby funnel.
The scent itself made her perk up a little, and she breathed it in, trying to extract some alertness from it.
“Well, well!” Clarice entered with her own cup. “Everybody was wondering where you were.”
“Really?” Kerry was very aware of the ragged edges of her temper.
“They could have done something out of the ordinary, like ask my admin.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Clarice chuckled. “Not that anyone blames you, Kerry.”
One, two, three. “Blames me for what?” Kerry asked with studied innocence, pouring her coffee into her steamed milk and stirring it gently.
“Sleeping in,” the black woman explained with a grin. “Not with that bedmate.”