”Huh?” Dar's brow creased as she followed Kerry's eyes. ”Oh, right.” She rubbed her temples. ”Um, tell him we’re sending an executive team to North Carolina to take charge, and get the systems back up as soon as possible.”
Kerry reached for the button, then hesitated. ”We are?” she asked, curiously.
A sneaky, seductive grin tugged at one side of Dar’s mouth. ”Yeah.
I figure eight hours to get their asses in gear, and a couple days for us in a little cabin I happen to know about near there.” She hesitated, both brows lifting hopefully .”Sound okay?”
Sea green eyes blinked. ”You mean us?” She pointed at Dar's chest, then at her own. ”You and me, we’re going up there?”
Dar simply nodded.
”Awesome,” Kerry pronounced, then hit the button. ”Hello, John?”
She muted the mic for a moment. ”They don’t have any horseback riding up there, do they?” She released the mic. ”John, we know it’s really bad. You can tell them that Dar’s going up there to take charge personally.”
Pause. ”No shit?” the man replied, clearly impressed. ”That’ll get them off my ass. Thanks Kerry. You’re the best.”
”It’s my pleasure,” she assured him cheerfully, all thoughts of Steven dissolved. She disconnected the line and turned to Dar. ”Now, we were discussing horses, right?”
A chuckle. ”Yeah, they’ve got some trail riding, figured we could do a little hiking while we’re up there,” she offered. ”If we leave tonight, we’ll have tomorrow and Friday to get the network office back up, then the whole weekend to play.” The idea had come to her right 178
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before she’d started over, and she’d put the plan in action before she’d left her office. ”I’ve got Maria making reservations.”
Kerry smiled. ”Want me to go home and pick up our bags?” she offered. ”When’s the flight?”
”Seven, and that would be a great idea.” Dar praised her. ”Make sure you pack some warm stuff, it’s chilly up there.” Her brows lifted seductively. ”A little too much for any scanty lingerie, unfortunately.”
Kerry stood and slid a fingertip down the buttoned closure of Dar’s silk shirt. ”I don’t know, I think you look really sexy in just that old jersey of yours,” she whispered.
A soft chuckle. ”Oh, you do, do you?”
”Mm hmm, ” Kerry lowered her voice even more. ”But then you’re gorgeous, Dar. You’d look sexy in a burlap sack,” she confided, brushing her lips against her lover’s. ”I’m going to go get our stuff. I need some fresh air anyway.” She patted Dar’s leg, then stepped around her desk, pulling her jacket off her chair and swinging it over her shoulders as she headed for the door.
Dar watched her go, then let out a long, slow breath. ”Wow.” She ran a hand through her hair. ”I think I need a little fresh air myself.”
The sunlight winked merrily at her feet in cheerful agreement, but at that moment her phone buzzed. She glanced up to see her private line ringing and the incoming tie line indicator. “Ah.” She pressed the button. “Yes?”
“Dar.” Alastair’s voice sounded harassed. “What in the hell’s going on there? I’ve got the presidents of a dozen companies crawling up my backside with backhoes right now.”
Dar winced at the visual. “Environmental systems blew up at the data center in the Carolinas,” she said. “It’s a mess.”
“A mess?” her boss repeated. “Dar, we’ve busted service levels all over the region there. This is more than a mess,” he said. “What are we doing about it? What’s the plan?”
“Thanks for assuming I had one,” she said. “I don’t goddamn know what we’re going to do about it, Alastair. They won’t give us access to the facility to find out what we even can do.”
He was momentarily silent. “B...”
Dar waited. “You asked.”
Alastair made an exasperated sound. “Dar, I have to be able to tell these people something. I’m getting roasted here. I’ve already got a half dozen talking breach of contract and the rest of them mentioned legal.”
Was it her fault? Dar frowned. “Tell them we’re looking at options, Alastair,” she replied a little testily. “I’m not going to promise to pull something out of thin air. I’ve got to get up there and see what the situation is and...”
“You’re going?” Alastair interrupted her sharply.
“I’ve got a flight in a few hours yeah and...”
“Good enough.” Her boss sounded much happier. “I’ll tell ‘em that.
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They can’t say I didn’t put the best resources on it. But Dar,” he hesitated, “if we don’t fix this, we’ll end up with a big loss I’m going to have to explain to the board.”
“Shit happens sometimes, Alastair. You know that. We’re a technology company and this stuff breaks,” Dar said.
“I know,” her boss replied. “But shit happening right after there’s a major ruckus down there gets sticky,” he reminded her. “And if people are looking for leverage it’ll hand it to them nice and neat.”
Dar gazed at her desktop. “Yeah,” she said. “I’ll do what I can, Alastair.”
“Keep me advised,” Alastair said. “I’ll go tap dance for you and break out the mirrors.”
“YEAH, THAT’S RIGHT, Col.” Kerry stretched her legs out and closed her eyes, sucking in a deep breath of the sun warmed air coming in the window of the Mustang. ”We’re going to North Carolina. We’ve got a big mess there to take care of.”
”Oh, right, yeah, I heard about that,” Colleen advised her. ”My boss was screaming that the interbank transfers won’t go through.” She cleared her throat. ”No problem, Ker, staying out there isn’t any kinda hardship, you know? Breakfast on the ocean, little tuxedoed mannequins puttering about, no problem at all.”
”Great.” Kerry sighed. ”I never thought I’d be glad of a disaster, but I can’t say I regret this one.” She stifled a yawn. ”After we fix things, we’re going up to a place Dar knows near there for a little R and R.” ”Oh?” Colleen sounded more interested. ”Well now, me lassie, you didn’t tell me that. So you and the tall dark one are finally taking some time off together. That’s great.”
”Yeah.” Kerry smiled. ”That’ll be a first for us, even over Christmas we had so much going on, we hardly had time to breathe, much less relax. I’m really looking forward to a few days alone with her.” And wasn’t that the truth. Kerry found herself impatiently wishing the crisis was well over and solved, freeing them to leave the technical problems behind and concentrate on each other.
She knew instinctively that after the past few days, they needed that. There were too many thorn pricks in both of them. Too many tiny, loose ends caused by the trauma and the tension. She felt a little shaky, and she suspected Dar did as well.
A weekend hiking up in the quiet of the wilderness was very, very appealing, and it would give Dar time to really recuperate from her bumps and bruises. ”You think they’ll have a hot tub?” she mused.
Colleen laughed. ”Well, if it’s the kinda place I think Dar likes, I’m sure it will have one. You can do some lovely skiing up in the mountains y’know,” she commented. ”Get yourself a nice fireplace, and 180
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toast you up some marshmallows, girl.”
”Mm.” Kerry could taste the warm, slightly burned morsels in her imagination. Then she imagined sharing them messily with Dar, and grinned, feeling the skin around her eyes crinkling up in amusement.
”Sounds good to me.”
”Heh, your eating habits surely have changed,” Colleen teased.
”And then there’s the food, as well.”