Chapter Ten
Zoe propped one foot on the bottom rail of the fence around the corral, braced her elbow on the top rail, and sucked the last of the iced tea from her glass. In the lingering heat and sunshine of the day, two of the ranch hands were working a pair of cutting horses, teaching them to “cut” calves from a herd. She was fascinated by the way the horses responded to almost invisible signals.
It was such a nice change from the tension of the past two days when all she’d been able to think about was staying alive and finding out who had done this to her. She could almost, standing there in the middle of the Hill Country, pretend that none of it had happened. That tomorrow she’d go to her office and nothing would have changed.
The night she met Nate Dunning had changed her life in more ways than one. Her first impression of him, when she’d met him and Uncle Ivan at the restaurant for dinner, was of enormous power and electricity. His thick, dark hair had just enough of an artfully rumpled look to take the edge off the too-smooth appearance. His eyes were such a vivid blue they reminded her of a cerulean sea. And he had, of all things, a dimple that winked whenever he flashed his trademark smile.
In his expensively cut suit that fit his tall, muscular body like a caress, he looked like every woman’s dream.
During dinner, he’d deferred to her when ordering the wine, rather than showboating his knowledge. He kept the conversation low key, telling her about himself as if he was a neighbor meeting her for the first time, downplaying the meteoric success of Dunning International, and instead, questioning her at length about Lombardo Simulations.
She floated home on a cloud, wrapped in a sense of euphoria that lasted through the signing of the contracts, the first infusion of capital, the boost in sales of the newly-designed games. Even Max and Caz had been deferential, lauding her business success in a male-dominated field.
The parties had taken her into a world she hadn’t previously known. International businessmen mixed with minor royalty against a glittering background of high-dollar mansions and women with enough jewels to support a small country. It was a world she never in her dreams thought to become a part of, and she was swept along in the glamour of it all.
What an idiot she had been, falling for the line they handed her. No wonder Nate asked so many questions. He was looking to make sure she could provide him with what he wanted. Whatever that was, which she still hadn’t discovered, although by now she had an inkling. If he just wanted to sell a lot of computer games overseas, even unique ones like she designed, he could have bought them from her and handled everything himself.
If only she had listened to Zak instead of letting her temper get the best of her. Her resentment at what she saw as interference and even, possibly, jealousy. God, she’d been so blonde.
Deliberately, she pushed the thoughts from her mind and focused again on the horses and their trainers.
“Beautiful thing to watch, isn’t it?”
She hadn’t heard Frank come up to the corral until he was suddenly beside her.
“Yes,” she agreed. “The communication between horse and rider is like poetry.”
Frank adjusted the brim of his hat. “These men have been doing this for a long time. They’re two of the best.”
“Zak said he bought the ranch a year ago. Did he hire you then?”
Frank chuckled. “Actually, I’ve been here at Arrowhead Ranch for almost thirty years. Started out as a wrangler. The man who inherited the ranch from his father decided last year he wanted to get out of ranching. Zak was here for a barbecue, the subject came up, and I think he bought it on an impulse.”
“That’s quite an impulsive action,” Zoe pointed out.
“Yeah, but he’s smart for an absentee owner. He made it worth my while to stay here and keep the hands we had. I run the ranch, and he gets to put up his feet when he comes out here. His contribution is handling the finances.”
Zoe gazed past the corral to the open pastures. “He said you run a cattle operation here, but I don’t see any of them.”
He pushed his hat back on his head. “We’re not a big operation. Zak wants to keep it that way, which is good. We’ve got about a thousand head of cattle we just moved up in the hills to the summer pastures. We move them around so no area gets overgrazed. The horses are all workers.”
Zoe blinked. “A thousand head? That seems like a lot to me.”
“Just enough to keep us in beans and show a profit,” Frank joked. He turned his head and studied her. “I’m glad to finally meet the woman who’s had Zak Delaney tied in knots.”
Zoe was stunned. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No, ma’am. Serita and me kept asking him why he didn’t bring any women to the ranch, was he ashamed of us or something. Then he had a little too much bourbon one night and blurted out the woman he wanted had blown him off. That must have been some fight the two of you had.”
“He was as much at fault as I was,” Zoe told him defensively. “Did he tell you that?”
“He did. But it’s burned at him ever since.”
“Does… Does he ever bring a woman here at all?” God, she hated herself for asking the question. For even caring.
“Not a one. This is the place where he hides from the world. I think he’s always hoped you and he would get back together again.”
Before she could form a remark to his statement, they heard a droning sound coming from the east, a black speck appeared in the sky and in what seemed like seconds the black Guardian Security helicopter was overhead, the whap, whap, whap of the rotors cutting the air. It set down in the same space they’d landed last night, the side door popped open, and Zak leaped to the ground. He waved at the pilot, who lifted off immediately.
Then Zak was striding toward the corral where Zoe and Frank stood, and all she could think of was how very weary he looked. Was that worry lining his face? Was his concern for her merely that of one person for another or was this thing growing again between them real? Was she the only one who had hopes of them getting back together?
She closed her eyes and imagined the two of them—she and Zak—living on this ranch, enjoying the life, raising a family here. Zak had his obligations with Guardian, but she could actually work from anywhere. Be flexible according to his schedule.
That is, if he wanted it. And according to what Frank had just said, that was highly possible. She just had to figure out how to make it work. Get him to fully trust her again, to trust the fact that she loved him.
Oh, how she wanted to erase all the doubts and reservations she was sure he still wrestled with. This back and forth, high and low, was making her an emotional wreck.
Serita’s dinner was delicious, but Zoe knew she didn’t do it justice. She was too busy trying to analyze Zak’s attitude, keep a low profile, and figure out how to get back in his good graces.
Frank ate with them, which eased the tension. He and Zak discussed breeding records, feed formulas, and the projected condition of the winter pastures. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep herself from peppering Zak with questions. But eventually the meal ended and reality couldn’t be ignored.
“Excellent meal, Serita,” Zak complimented her. “But you didn’t have to stay and serve it. Frank and I could have handled it.”
“And I’m perfectly capable of serving food and clearing a table,” Zoe put in acerbically.
Zak turned his gaze to her, his eyes carefully masked. “Yes, I believe you are.” He rose from the table. “Serita, go home. We’ll finish up here. I think I could use a glass of wine. Zoe, how about you?”
“Yes, thank you. I’d love one.”
“I’ll help Serita finish up so she can get out of here fast,” Frank said. “Y’all go on and take care of business.”
Zoe followed Zak into the den where he pulled a bottle of a Texas merlot from a cabinet and poured the ruby liquid into two goblets.
“Sit,” he told her, indicating the big recliner. He took the chair behind the desk. “I have some things to report to you. Then I’d like to hear about what, if anything, you figured out today.”
Giving her no indication if the news was good, bad, or useless, he pulled out the lower drawer of the desk and propped his foot on it. Although he’d changed clothes since yesterday, he was still dressed in ranch wear—a chambray shirt, twill pants, and the same boots.
Zoe thought how natural he looked, in the clothing and in these surroundings, and remembered suddenly he’d grown up on a ranch. One his parents had sold a number of years ago when they decided to move to Arizona.
She curled up in the chair, tucking her legs beneath her, and sipped at the rich liquid, never taking her eyes from Zak. Did he feel the sexual tension lying so thick in the room, or was she the only one who sensed it? And was that old familiar look in his eyes again signaling a possible change in his attitude, or was it just wishful thinking on her part?
The silence was almost palpable when he finally broke it. “Okay. Here’s what we found out today.”
He gave her a rundown on what they’d learned about the explosives, the grenades, and the gestation of Dunning International. He kept his sentences short and clipped, making sure she understood the significance of each fact.
Zoe rubbed her forehead. “It’s just so hard to accept the fact that Russians are behind all of this. Right here in San Antonio. It’s bad enough that we’ve always had the drug cartels here, but this…” She waved her hand in the air. “This is like something out of a movie.”
Zak took a swallow of his wine and set the glass down. Dropping his foot from its propped position, he leaned forward toward Zoe. “There’s one more thing I have to tell you. It won’t make you very happy, but just remember, things are only things. They can be replaced.”
Her heart tripped over itself as anxiety gripped her. She clutched her wine goblet. “What are you talking about? What else happened?”
“Someone set a sophisticated charge today and blew Lombardo Simulations into a pile of rubble.”
“What?” Her head spun, her vision blurring, and a loud buzzing hummed in her ears. Her company? Someone had blown up her company? “But… But why? I don’t understand?”
“I’m sure it was to destroy whatever was in the warehouse section. The district attorney was begging for warrants, and before the end of the day, someone would have been there looking around. Confiscating everything.”
“Looking for what?” She was bewildered.
“Evidence of illegal activities. Anything suspicious at all. And the bad guys couldn’t take that chance.”
“They’d gotten into my computer system and wiped out all the files and programs,” she reminded him.
“Yes, but they couldn’t afford to have the police confiscate whatever merchandise was back there. And maybe they didn’t want to take any chances that the cops could still retrieve something from the hard drives.”
“But what could they find?” she asked again. “There was nothing in the warehouse except cartons of computer games waiting to be shipped.”
“Are you sure?” She felt his eyes boring through her. “What about the simulations you write that are the basis of the games?”
Zoe shook her head. “We don’t keep those on CDs. As soon as the program is finished, I run it for the client, then give it to him on a flash drive. He—or she—takes it back and runs it with whoever needs to see it and test it. When they’re satisfied, I rewrite the program so it’s just a simple game, encrypt the original, and save it to the cloud. I used to use thumb drives, but they are too easy to steal. I use two different cloud accounts.”
“And you have them password protected.”
“Of course.” Zoe blinked. “Do you think I’m crazy? I can’t have that stuff falling into the wrong hands. My clients would destroy me.”
“What about hard copies that you might work from or use in any way? Notes that you make.”
“Yes. I use notebooks so I can always go back to the original source of my coding.”
“Where are they?”
“In a safe at my house.” She clapped her hand over her mouth, jerking and almost spilling her wine. “Oh my god, Zak. My house. The night that Nate was killed, all I could think of was getting away somewhere, hiding, finding someone to help me. You. Even when you told me about the bomb or whatever at the house, I was so glad you weren’t hurt I didn’t think about anything else.”
Zak fished a cell phone out of his pocket. “Don’t panic yet. Where’s the safe?”
“In my den. Which probably doesn’t exist anymore. There’s a panel in the built-in bookshelves. If you press it in a certain place, it slides open, and there’s the safe.”
“If we’re lucky, everything in the room was blown to smithereens. I’d rather have those notebooks destroyed than in the wrong hands.” He started to press numbers, stopped, and smacked his forehead. “How dumb am I? I didn’t even think of this before. I thought the bomb was just rigged as a trap for you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I don’t want to freak you out any more than you already are, but there’s another possibility here. That explosion could have been set to destroy the safe and its contents.”
Zoe sucked in her breath. “They already tried to find them. They broke in looking for them. For anything I might have taken home.”
“Exactly.” He picked up a pen and began toying with it. Zoe had her nervous habits, he had his. “They would have had to disable your security system, but for people like this, that wouldn’t be a big problem. But they couldn’t find what they were looking for, so they decided to destroy both you and the evidence. Boom! Everything gone.”
“Oh, god. Who wants me dead so badly?” Serita’s delicious dinner threatened to rise back up in her throat. She swallowed hard. Lifting her glass to her lips, she had to use two hands because she was shaking so badly.
“That’s what we’re trying to find out.” He pressed a speed-dial number, then held up one finger while he waited for the call to be answered. “Buddy? I know, I know. I did say you could have the night to yourself, but I really need you to get your team and do something for me right away.” He explained about the safe, where it was located, and what to look for. “There shouldn’t be anyone around there now. The police and fire department have already tramped over the scene. But be careful. I don’t know who might still be watching the place. Call me when it’s done.”
He snapped the phone shut and placed it on the desk.
“Did you notice anyone when you were there?” Zoe asked. “Someone strange? Anything at all?”
“No, and I was pretty careful about approaching the house. When the house blew, I had two objectives. Number one, not to get blown up with it. Secondly, to get the hell out of there before the police showed up and I had to explain myself. I didn’t exactly want to answer questions about you, remember?”
Swallowing the last of her wine in one gulp, she set the glass on the table next to the chair and twisted her fingers together, an old nervous habit she’d found herself doing more and more lately. “Yes, yes, yes. Of course I remember.”
She had visions of what would have happened with those notebooks in the hands of the Russians. A good programmer could decipher her notes and recreate her codes. Maybe they’d try to sell them or steal the programs. Or…
“Zoe? Zoraya, listen to me.” Zak’s voice barely penetrated her fog.
“Oh god.” It was all she could say as the full impact of the incident hit her.
Strong fingers circled her wrists and forced her to be still. A hand cupped her chin, tilting her face up. Zak’s whiskey-colored eyes had darkened to a rich chocolate. His face was taut with strain.
“Hear what I’m saying. I have people on their way to check what’s left of your house right now,” he told her. “I think it’s highly unlikely that anyone has those notebooks. If the police had them, Detective Joe Morales wouldn’t be letting me out of his sight until he found you. If the Russians had them, there’d be other activity suddenly popping up, and Keith has his ear to the ground listening hard. He’s good working the streets. So is Jay Browning, who researches those things for me.”
“But what if someone managed to get them? Went back after the police left and searched in the rubble?” Another desperate thought flashed across her mind. “What if they already stole them, and the explosion was actually set to cover it up?”
“No, I think I was right the first time.”
“Zak, I have to let my clients know. I have to—”
“Do nothing until we hear back from Keith.” His voice was firm. “I mean it, Zoe. And you certainly can’t go calling your clients. The cops are just waiting for you to make another phone call. To anyone they can tie to you. Believe me.”
“You’re right, you’re right. Of course I can’t call anyone.” She couldn’t stop shaking.
Zak lifted her from the chair, sat down, and settled her on his lap, holding her against his chest. Zoe inhaled his scent, wishing she could stay like this forever.
Zak gritted his teeth and willed his body to behave itself. While danger still nipped at their heels, they couldn’t begin to sort out their relationship. And he wanted to be absolutely sure of his own feelings before tackling the situation between them. Last night, he hadn’t been able to resist the intimacy with her. The chemistry was still there, only stronger. But worst of all, he was still in love with her.
Did she feel the same way? Was it just the situation that intensified the chemistry, or was the feeling still there for real? He told himself to have control, be the one with discipline, yet here he was, cradling her against his body, feeling himself sinking right back into their incredible connection again.
When he found himself pressing his lips to the silk of her hair and tightening his hold on her, he mentally shook himself. Sighing, he stood up and set her back down in the chair. “Let me get you some more wine. Then you can tell me what, if anything, you figured out this afternoon on your laptop.”
When he handed her the filled goblet, he was happy to see she was more in control of herself. The wine should put a little color back in her face. She took two swallows, then let out a long, slow breath.
“Listen.” She was steadier now. This was no time to fall apart. “There’s something funny with the sims. I said that before. Remember?”
He nodded. “Did you figure out what it was?”
“Not exactly. What I did was rewrite a couple of the simpler programs from memory and then try to compare the codes line by line for variations.”
“And?”
“I found the place where the strings of code change, but I can’t figure out what they were changed to. Nothing pops up. Someone’s definitely been monkeying with my programs. And not to convert them to games, either.”
She uncurled herself from the chair and went to stand by the small window that looked out over the barns. The sun had set and the pale crescent of moon was working its way up in the sky. The moonlight played on her hair and made her skin so translucent. He had to stop himself from ripping her clothes off and dragging her to bed. That wasn’t going to fix anything except his raging hard-on and the ache in his balls.
“I did a lot of thinking today, too,” she told him. “Writing down everything I could think of that had to do with Nate and Caz and Max.” She turned to look at Zak, back behind the desk, looking at her with watchful eyes. “I analyzed it the way I do a program before I start writing it. Too bad I didn’t have sense enough to do that two years ago.”
“And what startling realization did you come to?” Had she actually come face to face with the truth of the situation? She’d already told him he was right, she should have listened to him. But did she really mean it, or had she just been playing him to get him to help her?
Stop it! Decide if you want to prove a point or get through this and see if you and she have a future together.
She looked at a spot on the wall as she told him what she’d written down that afternoon, the memories she’d pulled out of her mind. Her impressions in the beginning of the men involved and how they actually appeared to her now, with everything stripped away.
“They were just so smooth,” she told him, rubbing her arms. “I was so flattered that a man like Nate Dunning wanted to invest in my business that I didn’t stop to ask myself why. And Caz and Max, well, they just couldn’t praise me enough, these two movers and shakers in the state.” She gave a bitter laugh. “When Nate pretended to have second thoughts—and I know now it was all a sham, to throw me off my guard—Caz played his role of advisor to the hilt. Told him what a great investment it would be. How much money could be made in technology. With Max chiming in on the chorus.”
Her body language told him clearly how difficult it was for her to tell him this, to admit she was taken in.
“I kept telling myself how lucky I was that Uncle Ivan and Sergei had steered them to me. Now I wonder if they were part of the setup, too.” She pressed her fingers to her temples. “I didn’t want to believe my family would do this to me. I still don’t want to believe it. If it’s true, I want to see proof.”
“Let’s hope we find some before things get any worse.”
He waited, but all she said was, “I was stupid and naïve, and now I’m paying for it.”
She walked back to where her wine glass was and picked it up. Her hands were steadier as she lifted the goblet to her lips. Zak wanted nothing more than to take the goblet out of her hands and press his mouth to hers, to taste her flavor, comfort her, tell her no matter what, he’d take care of her.
Careful, careful.
While he was still debating the wisdom of that action, his cell phone chirped. He grabbed it almost desperately and flipped it open. “Yeah?”
“It’s Buddy. The guys and I are here. Well, actually driving away.”
“Did you find anything?”
“Yes and no.”
“Damn it. Which is it, Buddy?” Zak tried to hold in his impatience. “Yes or no?”
“The study was blown all to hell, and there wasn’t much left of the wall in the study. We found what was left of the safe under a pile of debris.”
“And? Was it open? Did it look like anyone had been at it?” Zak had to bite back his impatience.
“Boss, I’m telling you, no one could find anything there. We only got lucky because we knew exactly what to look for. The explosion blasted everything to hell, including the safe.”
Zak let out the breath he didn’t even know he’d been holding. “Anyone see you?”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“Okay. Thanks. Go back home and get some rest.”
Zak put the phone back on the desk and looked up at Zoe, who had come to stand directly in front of him. The look in her eyes was equal parts of anxiety and fear.
“Did they find it?” she demanded, her voice not quite steady. “Had someone already gotten there first?”
“You can relax. At least on that point. Those must have been some huge charges they set. And I’m guessing as soon as the one went off, it set off the others. The explosion blew apart the wall in the den and the safe with it. Your notebooks are burnt trash. Maybe you won’t have them but neither will anyone else.”
She dropped like a lead weight into the big chair. Relief washed over her face. “At least I don’t have to worry about them being in the wrong hands.”
“You know, I’ve been doing a little rethinking since the other night.”
She sat up straight, her body taut as a clothesline. “You don’t want to help me anymore? I mean, I certainly couldn’t blame you. It’s a big mess and more than you thought, and—”
He held up a hand. “Stop. Don’t put words in my mouth. I’m not saying that at all.”
The tension in her body eased visibly. “Then what?”
“I was so sure money laundering was behind all this. I still think it’s part of the picture, but now I’m convinced there’s something more insidious going on.”
A tiny vertical line appeared between her eyebrows as she pinched them together. “But what? If Nate wanted to pirate the games, he wouldn’t even need to run it through our company. He could just have copies made somewhere and sell them himself.”
“No.” Zak shook his head and took a swallow of wine. “That’s where the money laundering part comes in. He needs to show legitimate sources of income. But there’s more here, and I need more information to move forward.”
She rubbed her temples again, and her shoulders drooped with fatigue.
Zak finished his wine and stood up, taking her hand and tugging her from the chair. “I think we’ve all had enough for today. Right now, what we need is some rest.”
Zoe curled her fingers into his palm. Zak gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, then released it as casually as he could. He saw the hurt look on her face and again had to fight the temptation to yank her into his arms and wrap her up close to him.
Get through this first. Just get this all behind you. Then make sure you know how you feel.
But he knew. He didn’t need to wait. Except for their lives to stabilize again. Swallowing a sigh, he ushered her out of the den and down the hallway.
At the doorway to her room, he stopped. “Everything okay? The accommodations good?”
“Fine. Thank you.” Her voice sounded as tired as she looked.
“If you need anything, just yell. Serita comes in early in the morning, and she can get whatever you want.”
“I have everything. No problem.” She was twisting her fingers again. “What happens tomorrow, Zak? I can’t just stay hiding out on the ranch forever, although it’s certainly a great place to do that. One of these days I have to get on with my life.” She shrugged. “Such as it is.”
“Tomorrow I go back to square one. Go over all the information we’ve gathered. Dig into the activities of Lombardo Simulations. Talk to some people.” He scratched his head. “I know I’m missing something, but I can’t quite land on it. Anyway, go back to what you were doing today, and I’ll call you around noon. Okay?”
“Yes. Fine. Well, goodnight, then.”
Zoe watched him walk away and disappear into his room, swallowing her disappointment that he hadn’t asked her to come with him. Two nights ago she’d been sure she and Zak were getting back on track, recapturing what they’d had, only this time even better. Then she’d made that stupid phone call, and everything had changed.
She wanted to bang her head against the wall. One more time she hadn’t listened, hadn’t done what she should have. She hadn’t even imagined what the consequences would be. The safe house had been blown up, people had nearly been killed, the target on her back got bigger, and everything had changed between her and Zak.
And of course, he’d been right about her mother. Uncle Ivan had things well in hand. Whether or not he was a part of what was going on, he still made sure his sister was taken care of.
Well, she’d apologized and apologized, to the point where it was becoming old. It was up to Zak if he wanted to trust her again on a personal level.
Tears burned behind her eyelids.
And that was another thing. She wasn’t a crier, but she’d done more crying over the last three days than she had in the past three years. Throwing herself face down on the bed, she let them flow, wishing they could wash away the pain in her heart.