“A different hotel?” Dar laughed.
“This one.” Kerry found the name on her list and proceeded to call it. “Want me to try Southern belle, next?”
“Is that how you conned those circuits out of Southern Bell last month?” Dar was still laughing.
Kerry grinned. “No, but…I’ll have to remember that.” She cleared her throat. “Howdy there… Ahm lookin’ for a real cutie I met down on the beach t’day… Kin you help me?”
Dar covered her mouth and continued her scrolling, keeping one ear on Kerry’s best efforts to sound like Dolly Parton. The information she’d recovered was straightforward enough, but the problem was, it was hard to tell if there was any truth to any of it.
What to do? She really felt in need of an expert to at least look at the case and give an opinion as to who was more likely to be telling the truth, if any of them were. The uncle had answered through a lawyer, in a tone almost insulting in its dismissal of the insinuation, and she instinctively favored the grandmother, but… Grandmothers can be sneaky, too, and maybe she was trying to hold on to her husband’s money. Dar sighed. She checked her address book and looked up a number, then dialed it on her cell phone.
It rang twice, then was answered. “Hello?”
“Merry Christmas, Richard,” Dar said. “It’s Dar.”
“Dar!” Her family lawyer sounded pleased, if a bit puzzled, to be hearing from her. “Merry Christmas and happy birthday, lady!”
“Thanks,” Dar replied. “Listen, I need a favor.” She paused.
“More or less a professional one.”
Richard Edgerton’s gears switched. “Well, sure, Dar,” he answered briskly. “You’re not in any trouble, are you? Hard to believe.”
“No,” Dar answered without thinking, then considered. “Well, not me personally, that is.”
He hazarded a guess. “Kerry?”
“No. We’re on vacation,” Dar explained.
“Uh huh.”
210 Melissa Good Dar could hear rustling, and she guessed Richard was getting a pad to write on. He was a very good lawyer, and he knew estate law like the back of his hand. “Don’t ask me how I got involved in this, but I am,” she began.
“Uh oh.” Richard chuckled. “Let me hold onto something. This should be a doozy.”
Dar sighed. “You don’t know the half of it.”
“He’s here,” Kerry’s voice interrupted her. “He’s staying in this hotel.”
“Hang on, Richard.” Dar looked at her. “Invite him over for a drink,” she said. “Tell him we’d like to chat.”
Kerry nibbled her lip. “I won’t let him know we know about Charlie and Bud.”
“Not yet, no.” Dar smiled grimly. “Wait until he gets here.”
Kerry nodded and went back to the phone. Dar did the same.
“Okay, Richard, here’s the deal. We’re out on St. Thomas—”
“Nice place to spend Christmas,” Richard replied amiably.
“Right. We ran into a guy who told us a horse’s tale about trying to prove his uncle murdered his grandfather to inherit the family fortune.”
A long silence preceded the lawyer’s response. “Dar, have you been at the rum?”
Dar sighed. “Yes, but not today,” she said. “Listen, if I shoot something over to you in email, will you just look at it and tell me what you think? It’s a pile of legal crap I don’t have time to figure out.”
Richard chuckled. “Sure, Dar, send it over. I was stuck watching my second cousin’s vacation video from Mexico. It’s a great rescue.”
Dar packed the files into an archive and sent it. “Thanks. You can call me on the cell once you see what you think.”
“What’s your percentage in this, Dar?”
Hm. Good question. “Like I said, I got dragged into it,” Dar replied. “Now some friends of mine got dragged in too, and they got hurt. I need to know what side the angels are on, so I can figure out what to do.”
“Ah, I see,” Richard murmured. “It’s your crusader side coming out, eh?”
“Why does everyone keep calling it that?” Dar whined. “It’s not crusading. This stupid asshole just won’t leave me alone!”
“Uh huh,” her lawyer replied. “Lemme take a look, Dar. It sounds like some typical sordid, family in-fighting over money, but I’ll give you my best opinion on it.”
“Thanks, Richard.” Dar smiled. “I owe you one.”
“How about letting me handle your investments?” Richard shot back with cheerful mercenary humor. “You know, I hate to admit Terrors of the High Seas 211
this, but you made me a bundle investing in ILS last quarter.”
Dar chuckled. “We’ll talk.”
“How are your mom and dad doing?” Richard asked. “I heard some scandal that they were living out on a boat?”
“A sixty-foot Bertram, yes,” Dar replied dryly. “Having the time of their lives.”
Richard laughed heartily. “Good for them! I love it!” he chortled. “I’ll have to come down and see it sometime. Listen, let me get to this and I’ll be back to you, okay?”
“Thanks, Rich.” Dar hung up the phone and turned to Kerry.
“Are we set?”
“Hook, line, sinker, and a tin can off the bottom.” Kerry nodded. “He’ll be on his way over in a little while. He’s just finishing dinner.” She scratched her nose. “He sounded really happy to hear my voice for some reason.”
Dar gave her a very wry look. “With the Southern Comfort, or without?”
Kerry stuck out her tongue. Dar obligingly leaned over and caught it between her teeth. She slowly released it, then fastened her attention on Kerry’s lips instead. “Mm,” she drawled softly as they parted. “Much as I want to get this nailed, I’d be lying if I said I wanted it to be tonight.” She tilted her head and kissed Kerry again, then moved her nibbles down Kerry’s throat to feel her pulse thrumming against her lips as she suckled the soft skin.
“Guess you see my point then,” Kerry murmured, her hand slowly gliding beneath Dar’s shirt to explore the warm surface underneath. “About feeling selfish.”
Dar set her laptop on the floor and then rolled over, shoving the island guide and phone aside and wrapping her arms and legs around Kerry’s body. “Oh, yeah,” Dar growled, continuing her assault. “Call me selfish. I want you all to myself.”
“Ooh.” Kerry felt her heart rate speed up and a warm flush tingle her skin. There was a faint pressure at her waistband, then Dar’s touch slid beneath her shirt and traced up her ribcage. She laced her fingers through Dar’s hair and nuzzled her ear, nibbling lightly on her earlobe. She could feel Dar’s breath against her neck, then the soft, insistent tug as Dar’s teeth undid the top button to her shirt. Kerry cupped her hand along Dar’s cheek, stroking it as her thumb traced Dar’s lip.
Dar unbuttoned her shirt slowly, and Kerry felt the cool air from the room brush against her, raising goose bumps along her belly. Dar’s lips intensified the sensation, and Kerry rapidly lost any thought of their problems. All that mattered now were the teasing touches on her breasts, the warm, sun-filled scent of Dar’s skin, and the need for Dar’s body that made her hands push aside the soft cotton separating them with bold impatience.
212 Melissa Good
“Grrrrrowlll…” The low rumble tickled her skin. Kerry felt Dar’s teeth close gently, teasingly, on the skin around her belly button. “Mine.”