Page 20 of Found By the Surly Ranger

A small break in the trees shows thick, ominous clouds gathering. Even though my breath is getting labored, I fight to keep going and keep up a medium jog. My muscles are starting to ache, and eventually I'm forced to slow my pace a bit. A tiny part of my mind is desperately trying to calculate how long it would take to jog a distance that took us around fifteen minutes to drive, but that was on roads and my feet are moving through leaves and brush and I'm too tired and frazzled.

I hope Jace isn't angry with me. I know he's going to worry. And he's going to wonder why I didn't ask him for help.

Tears fill my eyes as I realize I made a really stupid decision. I'm just not at all used to having anyone to rely on. My instinct to take off at top speed kicked in before I remembered that I have help now. Back up. A partner.

No. It's way too early to think like that. Even though it feels right, it would be foolish to trust someone completely when I have only known them a handful of days, even though I want to believe in us, so much.

Maybe it's just my string of bad luck talking, but no… I really feel like Jace is the one. I've never felt such electricity when someone touched me. Never had someone listen to me with such intensity.

And now I've gone and shown him that I don't really trust him. Terrific.

How will he ever forgive me when my gut instinct was to run away from him instead of asking for his help? That's not what a proper girlfriend does.

My cheeks are wet, even though the rain hasn't started quite yet, and a damp chill is settling into the breeze angling through the trees.

I need to get a sense of where I am before the rain kicks in. Through my tears, I search for a place to get a little more height. I notice a slight cliff wall with a clearing at the top, so I begin to climb. There seem to be a lot of jutting rocks for handholds, so it shouldn't be too hard?—

Wait. I'm not thinking clearly. How do I know I'm doing the right thing? Although… I'd rather face a bobcat or a storm than have Brad yell at me. Or do whatever else he might do to get that information.

It was clear from the deliberate non-expression on Jace's tight face as he read those emails that Brad was threatening some extremely unpleasant things. I know for sure he's the kind of guy to follow through, too, which scares me to the bone.

What am I doing? I have no experience dealing with this sort of thing. I'm just a bookworm art lover who wants to connect people with art they love. How am I supposed to face someone like Brad?

I can't think. Just have to pick a direction, hope it's the right one, and go.

Getting to Jace's house is the only thing I should worry about right now.

Unless, of course, Brad is following me.

14

JACE

Fire flows through my veins as I race toward the silver Mercedes. The owner isn't in sight, but one well-placed shove of my boot sets off the alarm. My eyes dart around every doorway of the main street area until I see Brad's weaselly face poking out of the hardware store.

The second I start to stride purposefully toward him, his irritated expression turns wide-eyed. Rounding on his designer heel, he takes off, running full tilt away from me. I follow at a brisk jog, confident that he won't get far.

Sure enough, a large man steps out of the fruit market, causing Brad to nearly collide with him. The man's chin jerks up to see me in hot pursuit. In a flash, his shopping bag is on the ground with apples tumbling out the top and my old friend Riggs has Brad in a headlock.

As I approach, Riggs is chuckling darkly. "If a Wolfe is chasing you, you've done something wrong, buddy."

"Let me go!" Brad screeches, trying to squirm out from under the thick arm around his throat, twisting and jerking. "I don't even know him."

My hand lands heavily on Brad's shoulder as Riggs releases his hold just enough to let the rat's head turn toward me. "Why are you after Kara?" I growl into his dark, beady eyes.

His already pale face goes even whiter. "H-how do you know her?"

Riggs shakes him roughly. "You only get to answer questions, not ask them, asshole."

To his credit, Brad seems to realize that he's completely out-gunned, and the only chance of getting out of this in one piece is to be agreeable.

"Kara was working for me. When the project was almost finished, she changed all the passwords and ran off. She's obviously going to sell the app to the highest bidder, and screw me out of some important connections."

"Funny, that's not the version I heard. The way she tells it, you lied to her and changed the project. She didn't want to be involved anymore, so she took her proprietary information and left." My fingers dig roughly into his scrawny shoulder. "Then you threatened her. And before you try to deny it, I saw all of your emails to her." Brad's eyes almost bug out of his head.

Riggs shakes him again. "You're threatening a woman, you pathetic son of a bitch?"

"This is assault," he whines. "You can't do this to me."

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