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more drastic measures.” His stomach
continued to churn as the scenario played out in his head. There was only one
person who could help him if he couldn’t count on the people in his office. It
would cost him everything though. He took a deep breath as he glanced at his
reader’s screen. There was no way they’d let him keep his job if his father got
involved. He’d have to start all over again.
    “Like what? I don’t have the resources to go up against a
government agency and a representative.”
    He turned off the reader so he could look at her. “No, but I
do. Have you ever heard of Ahnal Lee?”
    “The terrorist? Of course. I may live in the sticks but I’m
not dead.”
    He kept his silence as she put the pieces together.
    “Wait. You know him?” Something changed in her expression.
It became closed, wary. That always happened when people found out he knew the
notorious man who topped the government’s most wanted list. “Jasper Lee.” She
stressed his last name. “Shit. No. I don’t believe it. You can’t be related to
him.”
    “He’s my father.” He may not broadcast that information but
he never denied it. He had too much in common with his father to shun the man.
They might have had different methods but they both worked toward the same end.
“And let me ask you, who is more of a terrorist? The government, trying to take
your land at any cost—willing to hurt people if necessary—or the man with the
ability and the willingness to tell the universe about it?”
    She closed her eyes and pulled a hand over her face. “If you
ask your father for help and they find out—”
    “I know what happens if they find out.” He’d grown up under
the man’s shadow. Yeah, he knew exactly what happened when people found out.
“For now let’s hope things don’t get any worse. Who knows, maybe we can get
this all sorted out on our own.”
    His reader vibrated again. He turned it on and read the
message twice before cursing. “Police just found Mark’s body. Someone slit his
throat and dumped him in a refuse bin in town.”
    “So if he was the saboteur—”
    “He wasn’t working alone.”

 
Chapter Five
     
    It’d been a long night. One of the longest Kat had ever been
forced to endure. She wished it’d been the pain that’d kept her tossing and
turning, but unfortunately the pain had been the least of her concerns.
Especially with the pills the doctor had left with Jasper. No, it’d been the
fear of an uncertain future that’d kept her awake. And there wasn’t anything she
could take for that.
    The only salvation for the entire evening had been Jasper
lying next to her. Wrapped in his arms, she almost believed they’d find a way
to save her ranch. But, under the light of daybreak, her certainty faded. It
didn’t help that sealing a bone hurt like a son of a bitch. Yes, she was out
for the actual procedure but she had to wake up at some point. And, boy, when
she did she wished they’d just cut the damn foot off. She couldn’t imagine it
hurting any worse.
    “Today is going to be the worst of it,” the doctor said as
he handed her two pain pills. “By tomorrow you should be able to get up and
move around, with crutches of course. Sealing the bone speeds up the process
but your body still has some mending to do. Keep the brace on and no weight on
that foot for three weeks.”
    She dutifully took her pills before saying, “I want to be up
and around today.” She knew she was whining but she didn’t care. Just because
her ranch hands could cover her work for a couple of days didn’t mean she
enjoyed giving up that much control. Especially when it meant she’d be stuck in
bed, staring at a ceiling.
    “And I want to be twenty years younger and have a full head
of hair,” the doctor said. “But you’ll be up and around tomorrow and I’ll be an
old coot until the day someone finds me stone-cold. Hopefully under one of
Jake’s painted women.”
    She snorted as she tried to erase