Chapter 3

Holy crap. I haven"t slept so well in weeks. Maybe ever.

The rain slowly lulled me to sleep with a calm tapping on the roof. I did wake up wide-eyed and shaking in the middle of the night, the stress of the past week flooding back. But once I heard Jace snoring from the other room, it only took a few minutes for me to settle down, and I"d fallen back asleep before I knew it.

The light filtering through the trees outside definitely signals that it"s morning. I jump up, brush my hair, and put on coffee as silently as possible. It feels weird not to have a phone to check the time. Or the weather. It makes me feel…untethered.

Jace, on the other hand, makes me feel completely grounded. What would it feel like to have an anchor like that around all the time?

Safe. Definitely safe. Even though he"s clearly a gruff, loner type. I"m picking up that he"s trying to be friendly with me, though. That"s sweet, to make the effort.

If I told any of my friends that I"d slept at a stranger"s house they would think I"m nuts. And yet, although I don"t claim to be able to read people or anything, Jace"s eyes are so…open. He"s clearly a no nonsense, straight shooter – except when he"s joking around with me, which is ridiculous and endearing.

I"m just putting the finishing touches on the scrambled eggs as Jace walks stiffly out of the bedroom, running a hand absently through his thick, dark hair.

In the morning light, his eyes are a deep forest green. My eyes accidentally drop to the front of his navy pajama pants, and…oh boy… I"m going to have to pretend that massive moving shadow is a trick of the light. Otherwise, I might never be able to concentrate again.

"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."

Jace looks at me carefully, then reaches out to take my hand. "Tell me, Kara. If this guy really is a psycho, how far do you think he will go to find you?"

"I don"t know," I sputter. "Sometimes he"s fixated on one thing for a really long time. Other times he drops an idea after two days and jumps to another one. He"s all over the place. But this time he has a bunch of other people to answer to."

His hand squeezes mine again, then he pulls back, staring up at the ceiling for a moment, thinking. "If I were to use cell service for just a minute, could you get me a photo of this guy?"

"Sure. It"s all over his website."

"Even better. What"s the site?"

"BradBrownTechnology.com."

He reaches over to where he left his phone charging last night. "I"m going to text a handful of people. Then it"s going right back into airplane mode. Okay?"

I find it deeply touching that he clearly knows what"s best, yet still asks for my permission. "Sure. Thank you."

He calls up the website and finds a photo of Brad. "That him?"

I flinch. "Yeah."

He uses voice to text to send a similar message to three different people. "Hey – go to bradbrowntechnology.com and take a good look at the photos of the guy. If you see him around, don"t let on that anything"s up, just tell me where he is."

His thumb flips back to the photo of Brad in his expensive suit, wearing a shit-eating office-appropriate grin. A shudder runs down my spine when I remember the way he screamed at me.

Jace smirks and scoffs. "Yeah, you"re definitely safe with me, beautiful. I could take him out with one shot." He twitches slightly, as if he didn"t mean to put it that way. Then his phone rings. "It"s my younger brother." He presses the button and turns up the volume so I can hear. "Hey, Josh."

"Jace, what"s with this Brad guy? Are you in some kind of trouble?"

"Not me. There"s a chance he"s after a woman who has information he wants. He"s a scumbag, so I"m keeping an eye on her."

"Do you need help, or just a lookout?"

"Just a lookout for now."

"Got it. I"ll spread the word."

"Thanks. And can you ask the others to check the trails for me? Oh, and my phone"s gonna be in airplane mode most of the time, so I might be slow getting back to you."

"Got it. Oh shit – if you"ve been offline, then you probably haven"t heard about the bridge being out from all of the rain last week, then again last night. I"ll holler when it"s clear."

"Thanks. Talk soon."

He disconnects, then notices my fingers are twitching. "The bridge is out?"

"It"s fine," he murmurs, reaching out to cup my cheek again. Every time he touches my skin I feel sparks flying through every part of me. Certain parts more than others. I"ve never been so close to such a sexy man, and it"s making me feel…I dunno. Like my body is starved for touch and aching for more.

"There"s two roads into town: a super winding back one that"s pretty dangerous, and a much safer direct one. But it has a bridge over a river that rises fast when we get more than two days of rain and sometimes washes out. Don"t worry – I have supplies here for six weeks or more. It"ll probably only be out for a day or three." He pulls his hand away, just as I realize I"m pressing my cheek into it. "I mean, you"re hiding out anyway, right?"

"Fair." I nod. "Maybe it"s a good thing."

"There you go."

My stomach lurches as I realize I"ll be stuck here with Jace for a few days. He won"t be off checking the trails or going into town to run errands. We"ll be alone, without much else to do. My mind is already racing at the implications.

Proximity breeds familiarity.

And I already know that I want Jace to be just as familiar with me as he wants.