Page 17 of Bryson's Treasure

Chapter 7

Married.He rolled the word around in his head. She married into one of the wealthiest families on the West Coast. The Rockefellers had old money, more money than he could ever dream of having. Azadeh saying Lynn should come live with them was a good idea. He just didn’t know how he was going to be with her around all the time. She was so beautiful, and he always wanted to reach out and touch her. Earlier he’d thought she was going to kiss him when he’d plowed her to the ground.

Now they were in his brother’s truck heading to Montana Gold Ranch. Noah had agreed with the plan even with the Brotherhood Protectors at Brighter Days. It would be safer to move her without anyone knowing. Bryson planned to look through all the info on her husband and figure out what he was really after.

“Are you sure this is the best idea? I planned to save up some money at the ranch and then find a way back to the city for a paying job. Not sure if my skills are very useful anymore. I haven’t used a computer in three years.”

Bryson couldn’t wait to hear about the app she’d developed. He had never been a fan of programming, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t like to hear about it. Computers had to be the least romantic thing possible to talk about. Hopefully, it would keep his mind off her beautiful body and on the task of saving her from whoever was trying to scare her.

Montana Gold Ranch was owned by his future sister-in-law. It wasn’t very far from Brighter Days. He turned down the long gravel road toward their destination. Azadeh had come to love the place in a short time. Each morning she would get up before him and Noah and wait downstairs until it was time to go out and help with the animals. He knew she loved to work with them, but something more was going on. He thought she felt she needed to help to keep her place in the house. All Bryson wanted was for her to be a kid, something she hadn’t been able to experience since her parents died.

Noah had bought two of the trained rescue horses from Brighter Days Ranch. Hannah and her team of guests had done a fantastic job with the horses. Bryson would talk to Hannah in the coming days to see if they could bring Midnight over to the ranch as well. Since learning she was still married, Lynn had shut down, and the sparkle he’d seen in her eyes earlier was gone.

“What was the name of the app you sold?”

Lynn’s cheeks turned pink. “The company didn’t use the actual app for their store. They took the back-end code and combined it with their app.”

“Do you like writing code?” Bryson asked as he turned down the long gravel road toward the ranch.

“I love a good puzzle, and to me, code is like solving a puzzle. Each piece has to line up perfectly, and when it does, you have a masterpiece.”

“I never thought about it that way. Over the years, I’ve written scripts to help me get by but never a huge chunk of code.”

“What is code?” Azadeh asked from the back seat.

“Has Bryson let you play any games on his phone?” Lynn asked.

On the flight from Afghanistan to the US, when she woke, Antonio had given her an iPad to play with. Bryson had downloaded a couple of games she could play, and when he’d arrived in Montana, Noah had handed him a new phone, and he’d added a few more games for Azadeh. He didn’t want her playing them all the time, but he’d found a few to help her with English.

Azadeh smiled from ear to ear in the back seat. “Yes! I’m on level two.”

Bryson looked in the rearview mirror. “I don’t want her to get hooked on the games, but I felt like learning English was a good game.”

Lynn tapped her finger against the armrest. “Those games can be very helpful. Azadeh, those games run off a bunch of words and other symbols, and that is what we call code.”

“You write video games?” Azadeh asked.

“No,” Lynn said. “The code I wrote helped with an algorithm inside an app. My code made it easier for the company to offer more merchandise to the consumer based on their browsing history.”

“Can I ask what company you sold the code to?” Bryson inquired.

“Simonson Expomed Inc.,” Lynn said. “The more I think about it, I could’ve gotten a lot more for the code. I was so excited someone wanted my work that I didn’t even try to negotiate. They sent the contract, and I accepted seconds later without even reading the fine print.”

“Are you going to work on developing another idea?”

“Not sure.” She sighed. “Three years is a long time to be away from technology.”

Bryson glanced over at Lynn for a second. “Things change. All you can do is try.”

Lynn nodded. “I feel like my life is in turmoil and I will never get off the hamster wheel. After finally getting out of the cult, I thought I could start over and not have to talk about my past or what I did. I knew I couldn’t stay at the ranch forever. That place is for wounded vets who need help.”

Bryson gripped the steering wheel. “Your giving Keith that money didn’t change the outcome. Stop blaming yourself. It’s not going to do any good. If you hadn’t given them money, someone else would’ve. A few years ago, I met Lexi, and she was a cruel b-word with deep connections. She would’ve found another way to do what she was doing.”

Lexi was a rogue CIA agent using her connections to help Keith sell the girls around the world. She was also the one who’d found many of the girls they’d sold.

“I know that in my head, but I can’t seem to communicate the same thing to my heart.” Lynn shrugged. “You’re right. Lexi is a cruel b-word. Somedays I think the underground prison the CIA sent her to will be too nice.”

“It’s not.” Bryson rolled his neck. “Two years ago, I had to drop off a few terrorists to the location. The cell Azadeh rescued me from was the Ritz-Carlton compared to what those men and women have to stay in.”

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