Dar’s voice dripped with danger, smooth, slick syllables that rolled off her tongue and were accented with glints of her eyes. “Senator.”
He moved, turning and heading towards a wooden door visible through the living room they were standing at the edge of. Dar followed him, and Kerry, after taking a breath, followed her, stunned by the powerful presence Dar had manifested. She glanced to one side and found herself looking into her mother’s eyes, peering out from their bedroom doorway.
The eyes disappeared, and the door closed. Kerry sighed and kept walking, trailing after Dar’s tall figure as they entered that damn study, and this time she closed the door behind them. A small reading lamp dimly lit the senator’s private study. Shadows filled the corners making it hard to see what hid between the bookshelves and display cases distributed along the walls.
Dar circled the room, her focus on the angry man before her, and ended up by his desk. She perched on a corner and crossed her arms. Taking a moment to study him with interested, blue eyes, she stayed quiet.
“What do you want?” he finally asked, after a period of this.
Dar let him wait a bit longer, then she stood and walked around a little, ending up next to the window. “What do I want?” she repeated. “I want you to go back twenty-four hours and not have assaulted, kidnapped, and illegally incarcerated your own daughter there. That’s what I want.”
“I didn’t illegally do anything,” the senator brusquely informed her. “She 436 Melissa Good was admitted for observation, and it’s my responsibility to make sure my family gets taken care of.”
“Oh, so when they filled me full of drugs and tried to brainwash me in the morning, that was for…observational reasons?” Kerry asked from her position against the wall.
He glanced at her. “I wanted them to talk to you, yes, and get these crazy ideas out of your head, before you ruin your life.” He glared at Dar. “She’s the one who brainwashed you.”
“Brainwashed her into what?” Dar snorted. “Into thinking for herself?
No, thanks, she did that all by herself with no help from me.” She paused.
“Oh, you mean brainwashed her into thinking we were in love with each other. Right?”
“I don’t want to hear that.” The man turned his back on them. “I don’t accept that any child of mine would be a part of something that disgusting and depraved.” He turned. “And be damned to Hell on top of it.” His hand slashed through his hair. “No!” His eyes went to Dar’s shadowed face. “Why don’t you just get out of here and leave decent people alone? Your kind doesn’t belong in this country.”
Dar stepped closer, so fast he didn’t even have time to move or to blink before she was practically on top of him, nose to nose. “My daddy died for this country, you piece of ignorant trash, so you watch what you say.” Her voice had dropped to a menacing growl. “And he was worth a thousand of you.”
Kerry held her breath. She’d never seen Dar like this. Her eyes were glittering, and her whole body seemed alert with energy. The fiery rage was almost palpable.
Dead silence. Then, “I’m calling the police.” The senator picked up the phone. “I’m going to have you arrested on whatever charges I feel like paying the chief to write up for me, and then I’m going to enjoy seeing your ugly ass locked up in the men’s side of the prison and watch you get raped until you scream.”
Surprisingly, Dar smiled. “Ah, your true colors,” she purred charmingly, her temper put back on a leash. “Before you finish dialing, you might want to think of the number 99344343.” He stopped dead, his finger on one button, and slowly, viciously, raised his eyes to hers. Dar chuckled. “Did you know, Senator, that in this day and age, everything you do goes in a computer?” Dar stepped around the desk and sat on its edge again. “Every credit card transaction, every banking transaction, every medical record.” She smiled again. “Birth certificates, death certificates…everything.”
He just stared at her. Hating.
Dar leaned forward. “You put the phone down. You let me get Kerrison’s stuff out of here, and then you don’t bother her ever again, or I have one huge-ass file that’s going out on a mass mailing to every goddamned news agency in the world, along with the Attorney General’s office.” She paused. “With a personal note from me to Janet, if you know what I mean.”
“You’re bluffing,” he whispered.
Dar leaned closer. “No, I’m not.” She chuckled. “And believe me, I’d enjoy every single second of watching you self-destruct on CNN.” She eyed Tropical Storm 437
him lazily. “I’d even send a condolence card to Pamela.” His eyes bugged out.
Dar slipped off the edge of the desk and stood, waiting.
“All right.” He straightened and appeared to regain his composure.
“What do you really want? What deal are you after?”
“Deal?” Dar inquired softly.
“You must be after something. What is it, money?” He glanced up. “They can’t pay you that much at that place, is that what you’re after?” He moved around, drawing her attention and Kerry’s as he paced. “We can work out a deal, you just name what your price is, and we…”
Dar’s body moved with a savage suddenness that startled even Kerry.
She half turned and sent a sideways kick snapping up, her foot hitting something hard and sending it flying. Then she whirled and spun kicked again, this time sending a body flying against the wall with an audible thump.
Kerry ran for the lights as she heard movement, and got to them, flicking them on just in time to see Kyle go flying again, caught squarely in the ribs by a flying drop-kick.
“What’s the matter, Kyle, you too used to picking on little girls?” Dar taunted as she ducked a side swipe of his fist. “Intimidating them and taking their puppies?” She swiveled and cracked him in the jaw with a roundhouse kick. “Stinking pig.”
He lunged at her, grabbing her around the waist and taking them both down. But he didn’t count on Dar’s powerful legs, which wrapped around him and flipped them both over, landing Dar on top and letting her get in a good blow to the groin.
“Bitch.” He slugged her in the side, did it again, then wheezed as a knee slammed him in the gut. He scrambled out of her range, then lunged to his feet, intent on grabbing her.
Dar rolled up and caught him as he tried to stand up, slamming an elbow into his jaw, then grabbing an arm and throwing him over her shoulder to land with a sodden crash on the parquet floor. “Oh yeah, the bitch that just kicked your ass and loved every minute of it.” Dar felt her breathing steady, and she felt her temper dropping, the violent need satisfied for the moment.
It was quiet then, until Dar walked over to the far wall and picked up the automatic pistol she’d kicked out of Kyle’s hand, juggling it in her own. Kerry watched an unfamiliar expression appear on her father’s face.
Fear.
“Did I forget to mention she was the National Champion in karate one year?” Kerry murmured. “Guess I did.” Now it was her turn. She stepped forward until she was standing against her father’s desk. “What you did to me was wrong.” He just looked at her. “Not just last night. You’ve been trying to make me into something I’m not since I was a little girl, and you hurt me a lot,” Kerry told him. “But you’re still my father, and I still love you. I just can’t live with you.”
“I am not your father.” He turned his back. “Get out of my house, and take your friend with you.”
Kerry sighed and glanced at Dar, who was unloading the pistol and pocketing the rounds. “Come on, I don’t have much to get here.”