Honey Kisses (Romance on the Ranch Series #2) (12 page)

Ann joined her laughter. "That's too
funny!"

Jackson switched off his computer. Today was his
one month anniversary and Annie had been bustling around the kitchen all day.
He'd asked if she wanted to celebrate by going to Sizzling Sicily, the ritziest
restaurant in town, but she'd said she'd like to prepare a candlelight dinner
if that was okay with him. Hell, anything Annie did was okay with him. He
reconsidered—well, anything but steal from him.

Although his marriage was fulfilling, the
unresolved questions about his missing money kept their relationship from being
perfect. With each day, questions gnawed at his gut—did she do it? If so, why?
how? An idea began to take shape.

 He left his office and found Annie in the
kitchen pulling a bowl from a lower shelf. She looked up and the smile lighting
her face made him want to forget the theft. However, wanting to forget, and
being able to, waged a continual war in his heart. He sat on a stool at the
island.

"Would you like me to pour you some coffee
or tea?" Annie greeted him.

"I'll get it. You finish what you're
doing." He walked to the coffee pot.

Annie set the bowl in the sink and rinsed it.

Jackson said, "Honey, I've been thinking
that I need to open a personal bank account for you. I don't know why it didn't
occur to me before. I want you to have money for your own stuff. You know,
shopping, manicures, eating with your girlfriends, that sort of thing."

With her back to him, she replied, "There's
plenty of money in the household account. I don't need any more. Even the new
Toyota you bought me is over-the-top."

"Annie, the car is not over-the-top. That
clunker you were driving was falling apart. As for the money, I've made up my
mind. Tomorrow we'll go to the bank and I'll deposit five thousand dollars into
an account for you."

Annie dropped the bowl in the sink and it
clanged. She still didn't turn around. "Jackson! What would I do with five
thousand dollars? There's no way I'm accepting that amount of money!"

Jackson covered the distance between them and
turned her around. "Baby doll, you are too cute for your own good. I
haven't been able to take my eyes off your backside since I walked in. We'll
talk about this later. Do you think you can put dinner on simmer so we can
simmer for an hour?"

A playful smile quirked her lips. "Only an
hour?"

Jackson laughed loudly and slipped his arm under
her legs, picking her up and walking to the stove. "Turn it down to a
slow
simmer, baby."

The next day, under protest from Annie, they
went to the bank and he opened an account for her. He planned his next step,
and although he'd feel like a rat, Alligator's words taunted him,
You
hogtied yourself to a thief!
A week later he followed through with his
plan. After work he slipped into his office, closed the door, and turned on his
computer. He was no slouch when it came to basic computer skills and within a
short time he'd sabotaged his computer's start up.

After dinner, he brought Annie to his office
with the excuse that he wanted to show her how to log on to the internet and
call up her new bank account for online banking.

He said with exasperation. "Crap!
Something's wrong with my computer. This puts a wrench in my night. I'm a
novice when it comes to computers and my broker sent me some important emails.
Excuse me while I get my cell phone and call him." He left the room and
came back fifteen minutes later. When he stepped into his office, Annie wasn't
there, but his computer showed his logon screen. She had repaired the damn
thing. He silently cussed a string of profanities.

He entered the kitchen. "What happened to
my computer? It seems to be working now."

"Oh, I don't know. Sometimes turning
something off and then back on works wonders. That's what I did and I guess it
reset something. Now you can look at your important emails."

Jackson knew she was lying and it put him in a foul
mood.

"Do you still want to show me how to log on?"

"No. It can wait til later." He left
the house and went to muck the barn—anything to release his anger.

* * *

Ann was worried about Jackson. He hadn't been
himself for several days. He'd been moody and quiet. The couple of times they'd
made love had left her unfulfilled. She was at a loss as to what was troubling
him. As for the bank account he'd opened for her, she had no intention of
touching the money—not after she'd already helped herself to fifty thousand.
Between her increasing guilt and Jackson's bad mood, she didn't feel the same
closeness with him, and it broke her heart. She toyed with the idea of coming
clean, but decided against it because he might feel obligated to go to the
police and she couldn't risk upsetting the loan shark. She didn't know what to
do.

At the beginning of October while they sat in
the living room, with Ann reading a book and Jackson watching a football game,
there was a knock on the front door.

"I'll get it," said Jackson. "It's
probably Newt. He was going to drop some blueprints by that Sage wanted me to look
at for an addition to their dorm."

Ann barely looked up from reading the Maxwell
Henry novel she had purchased the day Sarah had introduced her to Dixie. The story
was a page turner and she was right at the cliff hanger. She heard voices in
the foyer but didn't pay attention. A few minutes later she heard footsteps and
glanced up. Jackson entered the room followed by Alligator and another man she
had never met. They were dressed in typical business suits that showed
wrinkling, like they'd been on a long trip. Jackson had a stricken look on his
face and she dropped her book in her lap. "What's wrong?"

Jackson walked to one of the book shelves and
leaned against it. Alligator and the other man stepped to the center of the
room. Ann looked from Alligator to Jackson and back to Alligator.

Alligator said, "Annie, I'm an FBI agent
and this is agent Mahoney. We've come to escort you to New York."

Ann jerked her eyes to Jackson's and saw
something that made her heart stop.
He knows. That's why he's been behaving
so weird.
She wanted to flee the room but swallowed hard against the urge.
She was caught. She said to Jackson, "How long have you known?"

He ran a hand through his hair. "Since the
week it happened."

"What! Why would you marry me?"

He didn't respond.

Alligator said softly, "A husband can't
testify against his wife."

Ann furrowed her brow.

Jackson looked at Alligator. "I want you to
know she'll have the best attorneys money can buy. I'll spare no expense. In
fact, she's not talking to you until an attorney is present."

A slight smile creased Alligator's mouth.
"I think you've misunderstood our visit." He looked at Ann. "We
haven't come to arrest you. We've figured out you were blackmailed by your dead
husband's loan shark and we've come to enlist your help in taking his
organization down."

Jackson pushed away from the bookcase.
"What!"

Alligator waved him to a chair. "Maybe we
should all sit down and take this from the top."

Ann grabbed some clothing and shoved it in a
bag.

"Annie, this is ridiculous. I don't want
you going back to the cottage. You're my wife."

She opened her underwear drawer and grabbed a
handful of panties and bras. The anger she was trying to suppress found vent
and her eyes flashed. "I don't intend to be your wife much longer. As soon
as I've finished helping the government, I'm filing for divorce."

"Annie, please…"

"No, Jackson, don't say anything. No matter
how honorable your intentions, it was wrong to lead me on. And now that I think
about it, you sabotaged your computer to see if I could fix it, didn't
you?" Her voice rose in volume and the guilty look on his face answered
her question. Disgusted, she looped the straps of her bag over her arm, grabbed
Spike off the bed, and stalked out of the bedroom.

Jackson followed and shouted as she stormed into
the hallway. "How was I supposed to know the fifty thousand was stolen to
protect your family?"

Ann paused, turned around, and said softly,
"I will never again become a man's doormat or his charity project. My
first husband used me for his own selfishness and you married me with some
perverse idea of saving me. And to think that making love was only acting on
your part. It makes me sick. I didn't want your pity. I wanted your love."

"Annie, it wasn't an act." He shoved
his hands through his hair.

With finality, she turned and ran down the hall
to the living room and out the terrace doors to the gate. She didn't stop
running until she'd reached the cottage. Inside, she set Spike on the couch, threw
her bag on the floor, and then ran and launched herself across her bed, sobbing
uncontrollably.

Hours later she stared at shadows on the
ceiling. She'd crawled under her covers not even removing her clothing.
Although weary, her mind refused to rest and memories paraded across her
consciousness.

Nine Years Earlier

Ann sighed and lifted the papers Jerry had
scattered across the coffee table. He was forever leaving a mess to be cleaned
up. His new job as a computer programmer for a software gaming developer appeared
to be going well. After changing jobs several times, he seemed to have found
his nitch. It certainly took up most of his time. She took the paperwork to her
husband's desk in their spare bedroom. A sudden curiosity made her sit at the
desk and peruse the papers. An hour later she was still studying the strange
language with fascination. She could actually follow some of the programming logic.

When Jerry came home late that night, she was
excited to talk to him about his work. Maybe they could find a common interest.
She said, "I was curious about the language that creates computer programs,
so I looked at the paperwork you left on the coffee table. I hope you don't
mind. You know, I think I actually have a handle on it."

Jerry looked at her with incredulous eyes, and
laughed. "Ann, there's no way you have a handle on it. You have a handle on
cooking and cleaning. You do not have a handle on writing software programs."

Although his words hurt, she did not refute them.
The next day, she studied the programming again, and definitely felt she had a
semblance of understanding. A few days later, she went online and found the University
website, and after an internal debate, finally signed up for an afternoon class
in Computers 101.

Within five years, she had completed the most
difficult programming classes with straight A's. Of course, Jerry always
scoffed at her accomplishments, and so after a year she'd never mentioned her
classes again.

It was during her fifth year, after acing the
most difficult class yet, that one of her classmates, a skinny, nerdy guy with
long stringy hair, had asked if she'd be interested in checking out a group
that took programming to a level not taught in class. Since she had completed
all available classes, she'd accepted his invitation out of curiosity and
attended the meeting held in the dorm room of a fulltime student. She knew some
of the other students, but most were strangers. When they showed her the code
they were writing and the things they could do, she'd become enthralled and
come to more meetings. Finally, they'd asked her to join the club so they could
show her the
real
stuff. Joining meant taking a vow of secrecy, and
she'd accepted because she was hooked and couldn't imagine anything greater
than what she'd seen so far. After taking the vow, they'd initiated her into
the art of cracking code and hacking computers. They'd also shared the name of
their club,
HFH,
or
Hackers from Hell.
The name was more of a
prestige thing than anything else. She'd never done anything illegal that she
knew of. She'd mostly watched and learned and offered occasional advice. The
group had an unwritten policy to never harm any website or computer that they
hacked. Mostly, they were braniacs always trying to surpass their own
accomplishments and that of their fellow members. They were like marathon
runners always striving to beat their previous records. Ann lived a lonely
existence and the nerds became her friends. They even gave her the nickname of
"Hack," after laughing about her last name being Hackstetter.

A couple of years after joining, she knew enough
to hack any computer and decipher convoluted software programs. The challenges
made up for her boring life. When a new student joined the group and was later
voted in as leader, things changed dramatically. It didn't take long for her to
realize their new chief and his followers were trying to infiltrate a
government site. Ann was appalled and timidly voiced her opposition. Several
other members sided with her. The rogue members didn't listen and when they hit
panic mode because they were about to get caught by a tracking program
triggered by their hack, she had systematically stopped the track to the amazement
of the entire group. After that, she'd left the club and told them they were on
their own.