Garden of Dreams (17 page)

Then he'd heard Harry explain that the banking program was top secret and nobody could see it. That had set the jerk off, all right. Cursing his uncle's stupidity, if that was what it had been, JD lashed the branches to the boat and inspected the impromptu camouflage job.

Grunting approval of the temporary concealment, JD slogged through the water toward the bank. DiFrancesco had insisted on seeing the banking program immediately. JD had refused. The building had been broken into that night. Fortunately, the thief wasn't aware of the new technology guarding the lab. Unfortunately, the thief had escaped before the police arrived.

He'd backed everything up the next day, removed all the disks from the lab, cleared out the hard drives, and taken off before Harry's “friends” could make another attempt. He had to trust that none of his staff had taken anything home with them. Security was supposed to check, but he knew well enough the holes security overlooked. JD rather suspected DiFrancesco and his cohorts had broken into the homes of everyone on the staff by now, including his own. He could guarantee no one had the latest revision, because he'd just created that himself on the way out here. But DiFrancesco didn't know that. The question was: What exactly did the bastard know?

It didn't make sense. If the rat had a working version, he might want the creator dead so JD couldn't make claims against him when he sold it as his own. But no working version existed. Everyone knew that, except maybe Harry.

As JD carried the last sack of groceries up to the house, the answer finally dawned on him. DiFrancesco had contacts with JD's competitors.

Damn! How stupid could he be? He'd thought only Uncle Harry naive enough to deal with warped characters like that.

Instead, he'd been the one who was naive. Industrial espionage was big business, particularly in his high-tech world.

DiFrancesco must have found enough information to send the other developer into ecstasies thinking they had enough for a working program. That's when they'd tried to bump JD off, although how in hell they'd found him, he couldn't say. Unless Jimmy had told them. Or someone had followed him.

But by now they'd discovered they still didn't have a working program, and they probably weren't any closer to solving the snag that finalized the software either. So they were tagging him, waiting for the final answers.

By the time he reached the house, the kitchen smelled of overcooked hot dogs and root beer. Nina was just putting up the mop, probably after cleaning chocolate ice cream drips. He wondered if she'd tried to save it. Smiling at the thought, JD glanced at Jackie and the ketchup-laden paper plate in front of him.

“Hey, Dad, I heard you've got a boat! Can I go for a ride?”

Nina froze, and deadly silence descended. Jackie gulped and turned a sheepish gaze to his plate. Removing a box of cereal from the grocery sack, JD gave Nina credit. She never missed a beat. But she didn't say a word.

“I'll take you out for a ride some other time. Isn't there something else you can do right now?”

Realizing escape was his best bet, Jackie leapt up. “Laddie's camping out at his cousin's tonight. Can I go?”

“There are sleeping bags and equipment in the front hall closet,” Nina informed him. “I don't know what condition they're in.”

“Gee, thanks, Miss Toon.” Giving her his best manners and charm, Jackie raced out of the room.

JD wished he could go with him.

The silence thickened. He didn't owe her any explanations. Obviously, she had come to the same conclusion. She offered no questions. Instead, she chopped viciously at a green onion as if she'd make juice out of it.

JD grabbed one of the tomatoes they'd just bought and hacked at it equally viciously. Ignoring the juice spurting across the table, he talked to the back of her head. “I told you, we're keeping a low profile.”

“Right.” The knife sliced sharply into the cucumber she picked up next, and JD winced at the graphic image.

“You're the one who assumed we were brothers,” he reminded her. “I never said a word.”

“You certainly didn't.” Chop, another chunk rolled off the cucumber.

JD plowed his hand through his hair. He didn't have to deal with this. He could just remove himself to the other room and let her steam. With any other woman, he probably would have. He just couldn't find it in himself to treat Nina like that.

“Okay, so I lied by omission. I didn't want Jackie involved, or you. If the sheriff had an APB out for a man and his son, I figured this would slow him down. And I suppose I was kind of flattered. I've been feeling ten thousand years old since I found out about him.”

That brought her around. Her big green eyes widened into disbelieving circles. So much for showing his sensitive side.

“Since you found out about him? You mean, you didn't know you had a son?”

Oh, hell, he was in for it now. Grabbing a bunch of spinach leaves, JD ripped them in half. He'd never realized how much stress cooking could release. “She never told me. I was sixteen, and she was fifteen. When her old man got the marriage annulled, I joined the marines and left town. I didn't even think about the consequences. I probably sent her a few lovesick letters at the time, but she never replied. That's the last I heard of her until a couple of weeks ago.”

“My God.” Blinking, she opened the refrigerator and produced boiled eggs and a packet of shredded cheese.

By the time she finished, this would be one whopper of a salad.

She remained silent as she chopped the egg. Finally, she glanced over her shoulder. “How did you find out about him?” she asked.

JD shrugged. “He found me. When that bastard Nancy married started beating up on him, Jackie didn't just get mad. He went searching for me. He's not dumb.”

“I didn't think he was. I'm not so certain about his father.” With that scathing remark, she opened the refrigerator again.

“What did you want me to do?” JD exclaimed. “I found out I had a kid I knew nothing about. I've got a madman trying to steal my business out from under me. And I was supposed to sit there and let the hound dogs rip me apart while leaving Jackie for his old man to beat into a pulp?”

He couldn't believe he was demanding she understand his actions. Damn, but the heat in this place was rotting his brain. “Why don't you have a damned ceiling fan in here?”

“We tried, but it kept shorting the fuse. So we put it in the living room. What kind of dressing do you want?”

“Like I have a choice,” he answered grumpily. “You have low-fat ranch and an ancient Thousand Island. I'll mix some vinegar and oil.”

“You should have bought more at the store if you wanted something else.” She withdrew the ranch dressing and reached for the salad bowls.

They were bickering like a married couple. Damn. JD closed his eyes and shook his head, listening for the sound of Jackie in the other room. He'd been rummaging in the closet earlier. He was on the phone now.

“Laddie's father will pick him up,” Nina said, as if reading his mind. “The boys camp out down there all the time. I haven't figured out the fun of fighting off mosquitoes and burning marshmallows, but it keeps them occupied. There's not much to do in Madrid otherwise.”

“It's a good place to bring up a kid,” JD grudgingly admitted. “Back home, they all think it's a parent's duty to keep them entertained. Thanks for suggesting the camping. I wanted him out of here before I moved the boat.”

Jackie burst back into the kitchen. “Did you buy any cookies? We need grub.”

“Cookies aren't grub,” Nina informed him. ‘Take some apples and that jar of peanut butter along with the cookies. At least you'll get some nutrition.”

Jackie made a face but did as told. JD admired the no-nonsense way she ordered the boy around. If he'd said that, Jackie would have griped and complained.

They sat down with their cold meal and didn't discuss anything of relevance again until they heard the truck pull up, and Jackie yelled his farewell from the front room.

“I'll take a look at your wiring when I get a chance.” JD finally broke the quiet. “You could probably burn the place down with some of these sockets in here.”

“That's what the electrician said when he installed the wiring in Hattie's room. But he wanted the earth and two moons to redo it, so I figured he was just out to earn a buck.” She scooted her lettuce around in the bowl.

“I suspect you'd blow the place up if you installed air-conditioning. What did you decide to do about the incompetency hearing?”

“I'm going ahead with it. I can't even borrow money against the equity in the house until I have legal authority. So I guess that means I'll have to hire someone to fight the phone company before they condemn the land. I think my lawyer told them Hattie was in a nursing home and wouldn't protest.”

She looked so dispirited, JD wanted to reach out and hug her. He definitely didn't need that kind of complication right now, though.

“Let me check my resources for an attack lawyer. He'll clean the phone company's clock fast enough. You might want to junk the local guy, too, if you think he's working against you.”

She jabbed a slice of tomato. “I went to school with him. He's running for county attorney next election. I have to live with these people. I'll give him the incompetency case, but I'd appreciate the name of a fancy lawyer if you can drum one up. I don't think Matt would want the hot potato of the phone company even if he's not in cahoots with them.” Finally, she looked up from her salad bowl and met his gaze. “How much danger are we talking about from your unfriendly Mercedes people?”

“I don't know for certain it's them,” he warned her. “I could just be paranoid.” He read the blink of agreement in her eyes and the slight relaxation of tension in her shoulders. So, she'd come to the same conclusion. “But I have a lot of evidence that says otherwise. I haven't heard from my partner and I'm worried. I can't keep moving on, setting up in new towns all across the country until I solve this puzzle. I don't suppose you have any relatives you could visit for a few weeks?”

“Doesn't matter,” she said. “I have too much to do to leave now.”

JD slumped back in the kitchen chair and examined the pale face of his hostess in the sunlight from the big kitchen windows. She was made so delicately, a man couldn't be blamed for thinking her weak. She had her chin thrust out, as if daring him to turn her out of her own home. The spiky hair added its own perverse vision of strength.

“I've pretty much concluded the villains have run into the same snag as I have. Until the problem is solved, the program is essentially useless. The danger will come when they think I have the software ready for market. Are you ready to play the game with me?”

“I don't want Jackie going back to an abusive father,” she warned.

JD understood. She didn't care what happened to him, but she would watch out for the boy. Nodding, he took his bowl to the garbage can and scraped it out. “I'll try taking the boat back to the marina and picking up your car later. If the Mercedes is still there, I may have to make other arrangements. But I suspect they're looking for easy alternatives. In the meantime, I'll see if my partner has left any messages.”

He put the bowl in the sink and left her with the sunlight playing through her nimbus of silvery hair. She didn't look happy with his solution. He wasn't particularly thrilled himself. Despite a lifetime of transience, he didn't want to pick up and run this time.

A few minutes later, when he discovered Jimmy's e-mail box was too full to accept more messages, JD reconsidered his decision.

Nina listened to JD's frantic pounding on his keyboard. He hadn't even bothered closing his door. When she'd gone outside to pick up the mail, she'd seen him hunched over the computer in her aunt's room, notes scattered on the floor all around him, and a pen crunched between his teeth. She suspected he hadn't moved an inch for hours.

His thick hair had grown long enough to pull into a small ponytail in back, and he'd apparently grabbed a rubber band and jerked it away from his face. It made him look more like a motorcycle thug than ever. To her utter dismay, she liked it that way.

Not wishing to contemplate the knot of tension or whatever it was she felt when around JD, Nina retreated to the garden. It hadn't rained in days. Everything needed watering.

Once upon a time she could have lost herself contemplating rows of corn in the vegetable garden, new climbing roses for the fence, a trellis for the walkway. Her mind would focus on which plants were thriving, which seemed to be failing, and she would wonder what foul insect had skeletonized her geraniums. Today, she scarcely saw where the water fell.

The incident with the Mercedes had puzzled more than terrified her. JD's behavior, on the other hand, churned her stomach. Either he was insane, or someone was really after him. Neither alternative appealed.

She'd known kids in school who lied about everything. They just made up stories as they went along, making their lives more exciting, more interesting than anyone's around them. It got them the attention they didn't receive at home. Surely a grown man wouldn't do the same. But she could think of one or two women around town who were prone to exaggeration. Maybe a man would think it made him more attractive.