Free Honey Kisses (Romance on the Ranch Series #2) by Verna Clay Page B

parking lot. Ann stared blankly at the paper and then mentally talked
herself into her car. Open door…get in car…close door. Like an
automaton, she stuck the paper in her purse, put the key in the ignition,
started her car, and drove back to her cottage. When she pulled in front of her
home, she couldn't remember driving there. It was if she had been transported directly
after talking to the bad man. You're in shock.
    Inhaling gulping breaths, she raced from her car
to her tiny front porch. After multiple tries, she finally got her key in the
lock. As soon as she stepped inside her cottage she fell to the floor and
sobbed. For the next hour she could do nothing but cry. Jerry, what have you
done?
    Eventually, she dragged herself into a seated
position and leaned against the door. Think, Ann. Think. Slowly, her
mind returned to reality. Should she go to the police? If she told Jackson or
Sage, would they make her go to the police? A peep out of you and what you
saw in that picture will look liked child's play. I have eyes everywhere— the
words echoed over and over.
    She grasped the door handle and pulled herself
up. Finally her brain chugged and the niggling of a plan sprouted.
    * * *
    "Ann, are you feeling okay? You've been
looking peaked for a couple of days," Jackson said, concern etching
creases at the corners of his eyes.
    Rather than pretend she was okay, she replied,
"I've been feeling a little under the weather."
    Jackson lifted the basket of clean linens she
was carrying. I can put these away. You go home and rest and don't think about
coming back until you're better."
    Instead of arguing, she nodded, "Okay.
That's probably for the best."
    Back at her cottage, she pulled out the tablet
in her nightstand drawer and reread the computer code she'd started writing the
horrid day of the visit from the loan shark. Closing her eyes, she focused on
what she'd been taught by experts and planned her strategy for hacking
Jackson's bank accounts.
     

Chapter 12:  Show Me the Money
 
    The day after Jackson sent her home to rest, Ann
was back at work. He had come to the main house mid morning to check on her and
let her know he was riding out to round up strays. He'd said if she needed
anything she should call him on his cell phone. She'd played the actress,
smiling and wishing him a good day. Now, closing his office door, she quickly
switched on his computer, punched instructions that would record his
keystrokes, switched his machine off again, and hastily left the room.
    Two days later, after Jackson left with Sage to travel
to Denver to check out a bull they were thinking of going partners on, she slipped
into his office. Turning his computer on, she punched in the code that would
bypass the normal startup, and went directly to hidden files and folders.
Reading her notes and using her hacking expertise, she printed several pages of
code that had recorded his keystrokes. Shutting the computer off, she took the
pages to the kitchen, poured a cup of coffee, and set about deciphering her
printout. Within two hours she knew Jackson's login code and the IDs and
passwords to his bank accounts.
    Inhaling a calming breath, she decided it was
time to call up his accounts and transfer the money to the bad man's account.
Back in his office, she fired up his computer and had no trouble getting past
his login and into his online banking. She did a double-take at his large
balances. He had a ranch account, a renovations account, a retirement account,
a personal account, a savings account, and two investment accounts. She finally
decided on using the renovations account because it had multiple large
transactions with regard to remodeling being done on the ranch hands' living
quarters. She had no illusions that the money would not be discovered missing,
she only hoped it took some time to find out. Slipping the piece of paper with
the bank account number from her pocket, her fingers trembled as she typed the
information. In the notation