INTRUSIVE

CHAPTER 11

She sat where she was most comfortable: in front of her laptop.

Her apartment was filled with the bright sunlight of the setting sun. Now that Michael was gone, Ember's mood had improved. She'd opened the blinds, taken out the trash, put all of her cups in the dishwasher, and cleaned up the apartment.

She felt like a new woman, and now, her apartment looked like a new apartment, as well.

Her day at work had taken her mind off of Rylan. He was still there, of course, always in the back of her thoughts, but she felt better than she had since all of the trouble had started.

She was still frustrated with him, of course. Who wouldn't be? But at least she was now accepting that her life wasn't ending. That she wouldn't have to flee the country. That she could live, and work, in peace, even if it was with Rylan.

Now, she decided it was time to get to work.

But it wasn't work for the company.

It was work for herself.

Because no matter how many times she told herself she shouldn't worry about Rylan's personal life, she couldn't help but feel intrigued. Why had he gone out of his way to help her? What had he meant by that cryptic comment earlier this morning?

She intended to find out.

She followed the trail that she'd followed last time she'd looked him up. He was like a ghost: his data trail was almost nonexistent, but it was there. Barely. But it was enough for someone like her.

It didn't take her long to find out a bit more about him. She found he was born in a small town in the Midwest, someplace she would never have expected a man like Rylan to come from. From there, she started searching for any Fords in the history of the town.

There wasn't much information on them, but they'd been there for years. Involved in the community, the church, the school.

Finally, after nearly two hours of prodding around in school records, city databases, and businesses around the town, Ember hit pay dirt. She followed a record through a local club that gave him a computer engineering scholarship right of high school.

Then she was hacking through the college database. Rylan had really covered his tracks; he'd practically erased all records of him attending college. But a little bit had survived, enough for her to follow. He'd been a busy hacker in college, taking on the alias FORDY in some of his exploits.

That had given her enough information to find out just what he had been up to overseas.

Another hour down, and she clicked one more link: the final trail in finding out just who Rylan Ford really was. Finding out just what made him so mysterious.

"Oh, my God," she said as the page loaded.

*

She was banging on the apartment door, trying to open the door and push her way in even as he opened it. She barreled into his apartment, uncaring that he hadn't invited her in. Rylan looked half asleep: his hair, for once, was a mess and he rubbed sleep from his eyes. He wore pajama pants with no shirt. Ember's eyes focused on his toned chest just for a moment, then looked up into his eyes.

"How'd you get in past security?" he asked. She didn't bother explaining how she had done it. It wasn't important; it had been a cakewalk. What was important was what she had found while trying to find information out about him.

"I found out who you really are," she said. She should have seen this coming, but it had blindsided her. "I found out who you used to work for. What you used to do. How you got so good at what you do."