Page 5 of Found By the Surly Ranger

"Hey." His voice is even deeper, still rough from sleep. "You made coffee. I didn't just dream you." He fills a mug, somehow managing to get completely in my way in the enormous kitchen as he pulls milk from the fridge. "What are you making?"

"Secret special breakfast surprise." I back into him to shove him aside. The warmth of his chest against the back of my shoulder is enough to make me quiver. How can he be this sexy?

"This morning is when you're going to spill all your secrets, so you might as well start by telling me what we're having for breakfast." He frowns as he watches my expression fall. "Sorry. Bad joke. Didn't mean to upset you."

My head shakes as I shove him gently toward the table. "I know you didn't. Just let me get another mug of coffee in me, then I'll tell you everything." I set a plate in front of him. "Secret breakfast surprise. I'll give you a hint: you're officially out of English muffins. They're the best for scrambled egg sandwiches."

"Thanks. This looks amazing."

We eat in silence for a few minutes, watching the sun slowly drag itself up over the trees to the east. I realize I might as well spit it out.

"I'm on the run because I was going into business with someone I thought was a friend. Well, more like a friend of a friend. Brad Brown. But everything went sideways."

Jace sips his coffee, nodding. "What kind of business was it?"

Staring into my coffee mug, my entire body sags. I feel so stupid about this whole mess.

"It's okay." His rough voice is gentler now. "Take your time."

"I thought it was such a good idea. It's almost like a dating app but for art." Jace stares at me, puzzled, waiting for me to continue.

"Many people don't know anything about art, but they want something in their homes. So it was designed for them to use any kind of descriptors. Large format, vertical, abstract, nature, realism. Stuff like that. Some people would love a colorful piece to make the dining room look put together, but they don't know how to explain what they want."

I smile to myself. "I've always loved all kinds of art, and it seemed like such a great idea. With this app users could tap a vague prompt, like light blue, or seaside, even "weird", and it'll display a selection of pieces for them to choose from. High resolution prints of original works. They pay for the rights, then they can have it printed and framed locally." My fingernails are tapping against the edge of the mug, and I force myself to stop. "Galleries, printers and framers were already lining up for ad space."

"Sounds terrific. What went wrong?"

"I found out Brad was already planning to send people directly to galleries and printers in his network that are owned by his cousins and stuff. Which wasn't the point of the app at all – it was supposed to lift all artists, and help all kinds of printers."

I'm sure Jace can tell how upset I feel from the look on my face. "Plus, I may have inadvertently overheard a phone call that he was planning on cutting me out of it as soon as it took off."

"So… The short version is, Brad is a total jackass?"

"Yep," I sigh. "My friends all said that he was this tech genius dude. And the thing is, he is. The guy can figure anything out. But it turns out he's also kind of psychotic. Or…as someone else called it…a narcissistic sociopath."

"Either way, definitely not someone you should be involved with," Jace says softly.

"Exactly. He was wheeling and dealing with his family, and he wanted to take my idea, toss me out, and make a ton of money."

"When it was all your idea and you did all of the work."

"Right?! Months of research, sourcing artists that weren't in galleries, getting the ball rolling with advertisers and starting the process of getting listed in the Apple and Google app stores. So much prep work. I mean, yeah, he did the programming and coded the search functions…but he also did some weird back door thing that would track people's purchases on other websites so that he could pass that information along to third parties to make even more cash."

Jace's eyes widen, his jaw tightening. "So he intended to spy on his customers?"

"Yeah. Which means he was also probably spying on me."

"Which is why you took off."

"Yeah." I take a sip of coffee before admitting, "I may have hacked into his email. If you can call it hacking when he left his laptop unattended to take a call outside."

Jace snorts. "That's not hacking. That's fair game."

"Anyway, I used the opportunity to remove his access to the database and changed all of the passwords, making them so long and complicated it would take months to crack even with one of those code busting things."

"And now you're terrified that he's after you?"

"Well…yes." I shrug, looking at him despondently. "His connections are going to be after him if he doesn't deliver on his promises, right? I figured if I completely disappeared, he might give up in a few weeks. I drove to the base of Wolfe Mountain because I don't know anybody here. I printed a paper map that turned out to be less than helpful and left my phone and laptop in the car, even though I've wiped them. Everything he's after is now only stored in the cloud."

---