Rancher On the Line Read online

  Jacob’s name came up on the screen.

  “How do you know where I am?” Dane asked as Catalina crossed the room toward the door.

  “You triggered the silent alarm. That’s not the reason I called, though,” he said. “My folks are on the way there as we speak to spend the week at the cabin so you might want to disappear. Unlucky break.”

  “That’s a shame.” Dane needed to find a new place to stay or suck it up and go home. “I’ll head out now. They’ll never know I was here.”

  Catalina had stopped.

  “Sorry about that, man. Bad timing,” Jacob said.

  “Not a problem. I can already think of another place to go,” Dane reassured.

  “Cool. Everything okay?” Jacob asked.

  Dane wasn’t in the mood for conversation. “I’ll take a raincheck on answering that question. Do me a favor?”

  “Anything. Name it.” Jacob’s word was gold.

  “Don’t tell anyone I was here.” Dane watched Catalina, hating the thought she might walk out the door.

  “We never talked,” Jacob reassured.

  Dane thanked his friend before ending the call.

  Catalina spun around. “You accused me of being secretive, but you haven’t exactly told me why you came home but don’t want anyone to know.”

  “I can’t stay here,” he said.

  “Where will you go?” Concern wrinkled her forehead.

  “First, I have to make it seem like I was never here.” He shrugged. “Then, maybe I’ll grab a couple hours of sleep in my car.”

  “You can’t do that,” she countered. “It’s too hot outside. You’d have to sleep with the windows open and you’d be eaten alive by mosquitoes. Come next door with me. There’s a couch.”

  “I’ve slept in much worse conditions and survived,” he said. The fact she genuinely seemed to care where he slept touched him.

  “Because you had to,” she said. “And I have no doubt you could do it again. The thing is, you’d be punishing yourself for no reason.”

  “What if I like mosquitoes?” he joked as he made quick work of cleaning up after them, handwashing the mugs and carafe before wiping down the counter and the coffeemaker. When he was done, there was no sign they’d been there.

  “Nobody likes mosquitoes,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I’ve insulted you and now you’re being difficult.”

  “Is that right?” He couldn’t completely deny her accusation. And since sleeping on a couch seemed a whole lot more comfortable than a sedan, he nodded figuring he could get more information about her and what she was doing in town. His instincts said she was in some kind of trouble. Dane wanted to help. For Hawkeye.

  “Prove me wrong. Say you’ll stay over.” The look she shot him next made it clear she was issuing a dare. Her balled fist on her hip pushed him over the edge. Then, she dropped her hand and softened her stance. “If not for me, do it for Lucas. He would want me to make the offer.”

  Now, he couldn’t refuse.

  “I’ll stay,” he said.

  “Good,” she stated. The defiance in her eyes said she was having an internal battle. He intended to find out what she was hiding.

  Catalina walked in front of Dane. She was all of five feet four inches so the man had almost a foot of height on her. At least part of her wanted to explain her situation to him, see if he would understand. It couldn’t hurt to have someone to bounce ideas off of. Lucas had respected this man and trusted him with his life. Could she risk it?

  Expose herself and what she was doing and she could incriminate herself. As it was, she only had her word against her boss on the conversation she’d overheard. Besides, no District Attorney would file a case based on hearsay. She needed proof. She needed to finish the app she was working on and sell it to a competitor. Hanson Tech would do the right thing with it. No question there. As for her non-compete clause—the clause every tech person signed with an employer that said they wouldn’t develop software and then sell it to a competitor or leave to work for them—Hanson Tech would be able to get her out of that as well. On balance, she decided there was too much on the line to tell anyone what she was doing no matter how connected she felt to Dane. She chalked her familiarity up to his connection to Lucas.

  “Home sweet home,” she said, unlocking the door to the cabin before opening it.

  He signaled for her to go first, and he reached over to hold the door for her. Turned out chivalry wasn’t dead. Catalina appreciated the gesture. It showed the rancher-turned-Spec-Ops-soldier’s manners—manners she wished more people embraced.

  The cabin she rented had the same layout but that’s where the similarities ended. This one had updated wood flooring, cream-colored paint, and comfy oversized furniture in warm tones. There were peaceful pictures of bridges covering the walls and a water fountain was on most of the time in the kitchen. The serenity of the place had attracted her.

  She used her body to block Dane’s view of her opened laptop. The toothless angel on the screensaver would give away more information than she was ready to share. The biggest question came an instant later…could she trust him at all?

  Catalina absently fingered the chain of the dog tags she kept with her at all times. When she felt especially alone, she wore them.

  “What kind of project are you working on?” Dane’s voice cut through her thoughts.

  She cleared her throat and motioned toward the sofa, closing her laptop before he could get a good look. “It’s a tracking app used for scalping.” A quick glance at a confused Dane brought a smile out. She took a seat across the coffee table from him and then hugged a pillow against her chest.

  “Is this like buying concert tickets?” His eyebrow came up.

  “The app will track digital goods. At least that’s what it’s supposed to do. It isn’t much of anything right now.” She exhaled long and slow, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose to stave off the stress headache trying to take shape. Her blurry eyes burned from staring at a screen too many hours in the day. Bottom line? The faster she finished this program, the quicker she got to hold her baby again. Dry eyes would be more than worth the sacrifice if she could pull this off. Catalina refused to consider the possibility she couldn’t. She also needed to find proof of what Kal Sutton actually planned to do with her app, once the developmental stage was finished.

  “Sounds like an app like the one you mentioned will be worth a lot,” Dane said.

  She nodded and then realized she’d forgotten her manners completely. “Would you like something to drink?”

  “I barely took two sips of coffee at Jacob’s place. You have any here?” he asked.

  “Of course.” She set the pillow down and pushed to standing. “I have cream and sugar if you’d like.”

  “Black is good for me,” he said. “But can I help? I’d hate to force you to make coffee twice in the same hour.”

  “It’s no trouble.” She waved him off. Besides, having him here felt strangely intimate. She hadn’t been alone with a man besides Lucas in a very long time. Putting on a fresh pot would give her something to do with her hands while she gained control over an attraction she had no idea what to do with.

  “Who would buy an app like this?” Dane asked, leaning forward, hands clasped with his elbows on his thighs. The man was clearly uncomfortable relaxing.

  “A lot of people. So, I need to make one hundred percent certain it falls into the right hands,” she said.

  “I thought you worked for a government contractor,” Dane said. He really did know more about her than she realized. She was also at a disadvantage because he was a mystery. Lucas only briefly discussed his friends on the rare occasions he came home to Ardmore, Oklahoma, where they both grew up with their families.

  “Right now, I’m doing a freelance project.” She figured it was true enough. The idea of lying didn’t sit well. She’d always been terrible at misleading people. It was half the reason she’d known she had to leave Tech Corp after overhearing her boss; one look and she would have given herself away.

  “What would you think if I told you my scalping app was going to be paired with a GPS program. Where would your mind snap to?” She finished making the coffee and brought over twin mugs, which she set on the glass table. No way was she risking their fingers touching again while she was feeling so vulnerable.

  “I’d wonder why you needed a GPS component for a tracking app in the first place. What you said a minute ago was that your app only tracks digital goods. So, that’s an online trail. GPS would allow for a physical component.” He thanked her for the fresh brew, picked up the mug and took a sip. “Now that’s coffee.”

  “French roast.” She shrugged. “What can I say, I’m spoiled over here.”

  “Why are you asking me the question, by the way?” he asked. Dane might not be a computer guru, but the man seemed like a quick study.

  “Because this combined product is supposed to be sold to the US government. I got excited when I first realized the implication.” She lowered her gaze because she couldn’t look at Dane when she said the next words. “This could help someone like my Lucas. The government could have tracked his location after he was captured. Maybe things would have turned out differently.”

  “That’s a dangerous product in the wrong hands,” Dane said after a thoughtful pause.

  “It sure is,” she confirmed.

  When she looked up, she could practically see the wheels turning in Dane’s mind, connecting dots. And she wondered if she’d just made a critical mistake.

  4

  “This app would be worth a fortune, right?” Dane asked, wondering if she’d left her job to develop this on her own and sell it to the highest bidder. From everything Lucas had said about her, there was n
o way she would do anything illegal or immoral. After meeting her, Dane would have to agree. He’d always been a decent judge of character and hers struck him as honest and responsible.

  But he also wanted to know why she was out here in a small Texas town renting a fishing cabin while working on a secret project. Then there was the fear in her eyes during their first encounter. The way she fought back like it meant her life was on the line. Dots were connecting in his mind.

  “The answer to your question is yes,” she admitted. “But this isn’t what you think.”

  “How do you know what’s going on in my head?” he asked. The last thing he wanted to do was spook her even more. She seemed like she was in some kind of trouble. Maybe with her former boss. Maybe with the government. He’d bet his life savings she didn’t book this rental under her real name.

  “Because it’s the first place mine would go to if I were in your shoes.” She picked up her mug and started to take a drink but stopped short of letting the rim touch her lips—lips he didn’t need to notice the fullness of or their rich pink color. “And you’d be right. I’m here because I overheard my boss in a conversation that made me believe he is in league with the wrong government. So, I factory reset my work computer and did the same with my company issued laptop. I always have my own, so that’s the one I’m traveling with because I can’t risk getting caught until I have proof of what my boss planned to do with the app. Mine was supposed to be a scalping app. There was never supposed to be a GPS component.”

  “You don’t have proof, or you would have come forward.” He put two and two together. If there was an app that could track military personnel’s location and information, and then execute, this would be critical to retrieving POWs. After losing Lucas, she would go all-in for a program like this. But Dane saw the darker side immediately. He didn’t need to overhear a conversation to realize this would be awful for soldiers. Besides, there were places operatives had to go while on a mission that was no one’s business.

  “I also need the money from the sale of this app since I no longer have a job,” she admitted. She tucked her feet underneath her bottom and hugged the pillow to her chest. Lucky pillow.

  “You don’t strike me as the greedy type, so you’re going to have to explain to me why you want to finish the program and sell it.” He couldn’t think of one good reason for her to follow through with coding on the app.

  She swallowed. Hard. Her pulse pounded at the base of her neck. She was about to reveal something he wasn’t so sure he wanted to know about her.

  “First of all, Lucas was taken as a prisoner of war before being tortured and killed, and his body shipped back in a box to our hometown of Oklahoma, so I don’t take this lightly and I won’t betray his memory by making it easier on the other side to do the same with other soldiers. The company I worked for has some military contracts. We were freelancers and also developed software for regular companies.” Her voice shook, giving away her emotions, but make no mistake about it, this lady was strong. “If I can finish my side of the app, I can sell it to a competitor. I know exactly who.”

  “Why sell it at all?” he asked.

  “Because I have a child to think about.” She practically glared at him. “And, yes, my son belongs to Lucas.”

  This information was the equivalent of a bomb detonating in Dane’s brain.

  “Lucas never said anything about a pregnancy or child,” Dane said, still trying to process why Lucas would keep the information from his brothers in arms. The answer came almost instantly. He wouldn’t. “He didn’t know?”

  “And it’s better that way,” she said.

  “How so? Because last time I checked, he had a right to know he had a child.” Dane’s defensiveness was misplaced. He couldn’t separate how he would feel if this news was dropped in his lap and knew Lucas would have the same mindset.

  She shook her head. Despite her strong front, a tear rolled down her cheek. “I would have told him but I didn’t find out I was pregnant until after he went missing. And you know how I found out that happened? His mother called. Lucas and I weren’t married. We didn’t live together. So, the military informed his mother and I found out secondhand. When I called her to tell her about the pregnancy she said I was lying and hung up on me.”

  Dane could see the pain in her eyes. She ducked her head, chin to chest, and coughed. He figured the move was meant to stop her from full-on crying. Talking about their child would only make it worse, so he gave her an out.

  “What about a non-compete? Don’t you have to sign something when you go to work for a company that says you won’t develop something and then turn around and sell it to a competitor?” he asked.

  “The company I’m targeting is twice as big and their lawyers are twice as smart. They’ll know how to protect me,” she said. “Tech Corp won’t have a chance. But right now, all I have is an overheard conversation. I can point a finger but haven’t found the proof. And, if Kal finds me before I finish this program and have any sort of bargaining chip, it’s game over.”

  “Not while I’m here,” he stated.

  “What?” she asked. The shock in her voice only matched by the expression in her blue eyes.

  “I’d like to help,” he said. “I failed Lucas in life, Catalina. I don’t want to fail him in death.”

  “Don’t you have a family obligation?” Her brows drew together as she rolled the mug in between her hands. His words clearly struck a chord.

  “It can wait,” he stated, but she was already shaking her head.

  “I can’t let you do this,” she said.

  “Why not?” He needed to hear her objections so he could make her see reason.

  “It’s dangerous, for one.” She glanced over at him and must’ve realized what she’d just said. “I do realize you’ve just come from a hot zone. This might be a trigger for you.”

  “I’ve already cooled off,” he pointed out. “The military never would have released me if they didn’t think I could handle it.”

  She shot him another look that called him out.

  “Okay,” he said. “There are ways to get past the system. Except that I was in no hurry to leave the former Virginia tobacco farm to see my family, so you can trust that I didn’t pull any tricks.”

  Catalina seemed to think long and hard about her next words.

  “I appreciate your offer of help, Dane. I really do. But—”

  “No arguing. I want to do this, Catalina. Let me help. It’s the least I can do for an old friend.” It didn’t matter that Dane and Lucas weren’t as close as some of the other guys. But then Dane didn’t get ‘close’ with anyone. People were best kept at arm’s length. So, why did his heart want to get close to Catalina?

  The very last thing Catalina should be doing was refusing help.

  Dane picked up his coffee mug and his hand started shaking. He immediately switched hands, narrowly saving her the cleanup of black coffee on a cream-colored area rug. But that wasn’t the point. She watched as he flexed his hand a few times and her heart went out to him.

  “First of all, thank you for your service,” she said, choking back more tears, refusing to let them fall.

  “You’re welcome,” Dane said mechanically, like he’d said it a hundred times before. He most likely had and, based on what Lucas had told her, it never got old. But he was distracted and trying to convince her of something she wasn’t so certain was a good idea.

  “And secondly, I don’t want to keep you from your family. If anything, this whole ordeal has reminded me how important family is,” she began, searching for the right words.

  “Mine does nothing but argue,” he said. He managed a sip of coffee, holding the bottom of the cup with his left hand.

  “Can I ask how long you were in the military?” She figured he might not answer but it didn’t hurt to ask.

  “Seventeen years,” he admitted.

  “You were so close to twenty,” she said quietly, realizing that meant he most likely medically boarded out.

  “But I didn’t make it and it’s fine,” he said.

  The minute he’d used the word “fine,” she knew the opposite was true.