“Yes!” Dunc was in! She’d hacked into a Facebook account!
Damn, she’d been trying to do this for years. Her reputation as a badass computer genius was pretty much made up by her herself. She’d put it out there in her online groups that she was a man and the most worthy of anyone in the groups. By God, if she couldn’t have accolades in the real world, she’d force it in the made up world of the internet.
Glenda searched the Facebook account. She went through the messages and all the groups he belonged to. She didn’t know what she looked for except something to feed Rich and Mercedes about Austin. Just enough that she could toss it back in their court and not look like she just stole their money and left them high and dry. Rich was a staunch online Dunc supporter, she didn’t need him on her bad side, upsetting the balance of her group.
Biting at her fingernail she stared at the screen. It had taken hours to break in and there was nothing here! On a backward thought, she went to the account settings and pulled up the email address used to log in. Perhaps there was a secondary account that might mean something.
A grin spread easily along her cracked, dry lips when she found a company email address. She swiped the information out of the system and quickly turned to another computer pulling up a search and find database. Dunc plugged the information in, and through her advanced gold membership, she found the address belonged to a company Austin Grainger owned with his father. Okay, now she was getting somewhere. The company’s headquarters were based in far northern California. It looked to be a ranch.
She let the system run and watched the screen. Cigarette smoke drifted her way.
“God, Mom, you’re gonna kill me with that second hand smoke!” Her eyes never left the screen.
“You’re fifty-five years old and never go outside. Lack of sun is gonna kill ya!”
“Die already!” Dunc bellowed.
“Get a job!” Her mom yelled back moving up the steps.
Dunc lost all interest in her mom, and another grin spread across her lips. She’d typed in the same login information she’d hacked from the Facebook account and Daddy Grainger’s company website took it. Now, all she had to do was take a look around. Not that she had a clue what any of it really meant. First, she’d go through the business side of things, and then the emails, because it looked like it was all tied together. If Austin was anywhere in here, she’d find him and hand the information over to Rich. If it was any good, he’d be paying double to get it. Twenty thousand dollars would buy one hell of badass computer. Hell, she could even get a new server and still have money left over.
Maybe there’d even be enough money to get someone to bump off her pain in the ass mother. How had she not died yet?
Hours ticked by as Dunc went through every little detail.
~~~~~~
Working the horses on the track did loads to help Austin’s exhaustion, but little in the ways of helping his heavy heart. They worked Hooch without tiring the young colt, but they gave him a good run. Austin rode his own horse, holding the reins to Hooch and one of their fillies, Little Lady. They headed back to Kitt’s stable. Jose rode beside him holding the reins to the other two horses, and they kept at a slow trot until they came over the ridge by Kitt’s cabin. The small hill gave them a perfect angle to see something was going on at Kitt’s barn. Austin’s security team was involved. Several of them were in a standoff surrounding a man and Austin’s heart plummeted. Had he been found out? Maybe this was the bad feeling he’d had hanging over him for days.
“Son of a bitch!” Jose yelled and brought his horse to an abrupt halt, effectively breaking Austin’s train of thought. His first instinct was to barge down there to take care of the problem. The paparazzi didn’t need to harass the Kellys to get to him, but he brought his horse to a stop at Jose’s words and action.
“Do you know him?” Austin called out.
“Stay back. It’s Kitt’s dad’s son of a bitch old foreman. The one that blew out Kitt’s tires the other night!” Jose yelled and Austin narrowed his brow. He hadn’t heard that story, or anything about this guy.
“Stay back, I’ll handle it. If he sees you, the whole town’s gonna know.” Jose didn’t wait, he tossed his ponies reins to Austin and kicked his horse into a gallop rushing toward the altercation.
~~~~~~
“Verne, you know you aren’t supposed to be here.” Jose dismounted his horse about three yards from where the old foreman swayed on his feet, surrounded by Austin’s security team. They never quite left their undercover position, but showed way more brute strength and aggression than a normal everyday run of the mill cowhand. The drunk old man looked angry and agitated, his eyes crazier than normal as they focused on Jose.
“This is mine! This place is mine! He was gonna leave it to me, not that panty waste son of a bitch!” Verne stumbled on his feet, but caught himself before he fell on his face.
“A fuckin’ wetback foreman...that’s fuckin’ bullshit!” Verne tried to spit at Jose, but did little more than drool down his jaw. He was way too drunk to even form a proper spit.
Verne kept his hands in the pockets of his filthy jacket even as he stumbled around. The movement was odd, and Jose watched Verne’s hands closely, trying to see if it was possible there was a weapon inside.
“Verne, you need to leave before I call the law in on this. The courts say you shouldn’t be here. I’ll get someone to take you back to town, but you need to leave.”
Jose took a step forward. Verne kept swaying heavily on his feet, lurching around. The security team stayed right on him, and Jose could tell it was hard on them not to just handle this situation themselves. One of the security guards held a weapon in his hand, right alongside his leg, pointing it down toward the ground. Had they been on Grainger land, Verne would be lying face down on the ground, begging for his life.