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Her eyes opened when she heard the door latch work, and she looked over to see Clarice emerge onto the balcony. Kerry mentally articulated a curse she was sure would surprise the other woman, then wrestled her manners into place and merely gave her a polite nod.

Clarice opened her mouth to speak, but she was forestalled by the sound of Kerry’s cell phone ringing.

Saved by the bell. Kerry unclipped the instrument and checked the caller ID. A smile crossed her face at the readout, and she flipped the phone open with a sense of mildly vengeful relief. “Hey, sweetie.”

She could almost hear Clarice’s teeth grinding.

“Hey,” Dar drawled softly. “Why are you outside?”

Kerry extended her legs and crossed them at the ankle. “How did you know I was?”

“I can hear airplanes. I assumed you hadn’t gotten into model racing while I was gone.”

Red Sky At Morning 349

The droll response made Kerry chuckle. “You know, I didn’t even hear ’em. How’s it going?” She made a point of ignoring Clarice, who went to the railing and looked over.

“Eh,” Dar replied in a verbal shrug. “I gave Gerry the info, he gave it to some jerk in JAG. I get the feeling it might end up lining the president’s secretary’s birdcage before long.”

“Mm,” Kerry murmured. “That’s a shame, after what we risked for it,” she said. “So are you coming home now?”

“Yeah.”

“To hell with them, then.”

There was a brief silence. “Everything okay there?”

Kerry’s eyes went to the stiff back facing her. “Everything’s peachy.

I’m going to clean up some garbage, then pack up my gear and take off.

Can I interest you in a midnight cruise?”

“Mmm.” Dar purred in response. “For that I’d climb to the top of the Washington Monument and flap my way home without the plane.”

Kerry grinned in pure response. “See you soon, sweetie.” She paused, her green eyes distinctly twinkling. “I love you.”

“Love you, too,” Dar replied. “See you in a bit.”

Kerry folded up her phone and put it back in its clip. Then she leaned back and spread her arms across the back of the stone bench, taking possession of it, the space around it, and the situation she could feel brewing between her and Clarice.

She’d felt guilty about Clarice, she’d realized, because of what had happened over Thanksgiving. But now she realized she could no longer hide behind that guilt in dealing with the woman.

Clarice turned and looked at her. Kerry gazed coolly back.

“You know what, Kerry? I think—”

“Shut up,” Kerry interrupted her in a quiet, yet carrying tone.

It caught the black woman by surprise, and she hesitated.

“I did you a favor and found you a place here,” Kerry said. “And you repaid that by being as obnoxious as you could possibly be to me and undermining me with my staff.”

“You didn’t do me any favors,” Clarice snapped back. “That was Dar.”

“No, it wasn’t,” Kerry replied. “If it were up to Dar, you’d be in Nome.” She got up and leaned against the wall, minimizing their height difference. “So you’d better decide if you want to keep on like you have been, because I’m losing my patience with you.”

“You think you’re so hot just because you’re humping her—”

Kerry refused to get angry. “No, you think just because she and I are lovers, that gives you the right to attack me because Dar wouldn’t sleep with you.”

Clarice stared at her. “I guess she just likes white bread.”

Kerry exhaled, realizing suddenly that her line in the sand had moved unexpectedly, and it was now right up against her toes. All 350 Melissa Good along, she’d felt a sense of guilt about Clarice, because of how it had all happened, how it had all come down, and how she’d forced the woman to fly across the country because of a silly quirk in her own psyche.

Now, with this almost offhanded attack on Dar’s character, it was as though all that vanished, erased from her conscience as though it had never happened.

To insinuate smarmy things about her, and about their very visible relationship...well, they’d made the choice to expose that to their coworkers. She and Dar had long ago decided to take the fallout when it happened and deal with it.

But accusing Dar of racism? Kerry had realized at some point in their relationship that as far as it was possible for a person to be so, Dar was color blind. It wasn’t that she didn’t care, it was that the factor just didn’t enter her thought processes and this self-martyring assumption on Clarice’s part just burned her shorts.

She exhaled, and found the decision actually far easier than she’d thought. “Actually, she likes raisin toast with cream cheese,” Kerry told Clarice, in a firm, final tone. “And you can pick up your severance check next Friday, in Personnel.”

“What?” The woman’s jaw actually dropped. “You are not firing me.”

Kerry pushed off the wall and squared her shoulders. “Yes, I am,”

she informed Clarice. “For insubordination after a verbal warning.” She paused. “It’s in the handbook.”

Clarice was visibly stunned. “You’re joking.”

Kerry shook her head. “I’m not.”

“You can’t fire me. I’ll sue your ass!” The woman’s voice rose in shrill anger. “I’ll haul your ugly ass into court, and I won’t have to work a day the rest of my life!” She stepped forward, her hands clenching into fists.

Kerry stood her ground, even though Clarice topped her by several inches. Adrenaline rushed through her body, washing away the ache and the exhaustion. Without her realizing it, her own hands curled into loose fists also. It brought on a sense of almost confusing power and she stepped forward instead of backward, her body responding to a fight-or-flight reflex in a completely unexpected way.

Fight? Her?

“It’ll make a very interesting case.” Kerry’s voice rose. “I’ll enjoy hearing your justification for your documented insubordination.” She added, “Maybe Dar’ll testify how she had to push you out of her office the last time.”

“Bitch.”

Kerry smiled grimly. “Sometimes,” she said. “When I have to be.”

She took a deep breath, but half turned as the door opened. Mark’s head poked out, along with that of a security guard.

Kerry wondered yet again if their MIS manager was some kind of Red Sky At Morning 351

clairvoyant. “Nice timing,” she complimented. “Keith, please escort this lady from the building. She’s been terminated.”

The security guard edged around Mark and came out onto the balcony, obeying her without question. “Yes, ma’am.” He gave Kerry a respectful nod, then said to Clarice, “Please come with me, ma’am.”

“You have not heard the end of this, whorebait,” Clarice hissed. “I will see your ass in court.”

The guard took her to the door and they disappeared. Mark closed the door behind them, sliding out onto the balcony to Kerry’s side.

“Whoa, chief. That was radical.”

Kerry felt her knees shaking. She went over to the bench and sat down before she fell down, letting her arms fall to rest on her thighs.

“Son of a fucking bitch.”

Mark’s eyes widened.

“Yes, Republicans curse.” Kerry lifted a shaking hand to her head and tried to catch her breath. It hadn’t quite worked out how she’d planned, and she could only imagine the round of e-mails that would have to start between her, Mariana, and Hamilton Baird, ILS’s legal council.