Jonathan Stanhope was a survivor.

He would simply change tack to get what he wanted.

While Grace fed Baby, she thought again about Jonathan’s startling confession and the problem it created for her. She shook her head, unable to believe that men might be on their way here now with the intention of kidnapping her.

Her first thought was not to run back to Virginia as Jonathan wanted but to run instead to the safety of Gu Bràth and Grey’s strong arms.

Would she be welcome at Gu Bràth after that memorable scene in the living room? Grey wouldn’t turn his back on her if he knew she was in trouble, but would Callum and Ian and Morgan?

And what about Michael? Could she, in good conscience, ask for help from a man she now had every intention of deceiving?

But then again, could she simply run away from her problems here and hide from her promise to Mary by cowering in Jonathan’s lab?

The one answer to all of her questions was no. And Grace’s scientist mind finally kicked in. She’d start with Podly and AeroSaqii’s threat. She had a computer, a satellite link, and the ability to make her problem with Jonathan simply go away. Then she would deal with the MacKeages. She would fix their damn ski lift without demanding they help Michael, and then she would save Michael’s trees if she had to shake the ice off every damn seedling in the twelve-acre field.

And then she would sit Greylen MacKeage down and have a little talk with him about commitment and belonging and neighborly obligations and explain to him exactly how this…this…thing between them was going to proceed.

Grace tucked a full-bellied and sleeping Baby back into his crib and headed into the kitchen to solve problem number one. She ignored Jonathan standing by the wall talking in a low voice on the phone and took her computer off the counter. She set it on the kitchen table and turned it on. While it booted up, she went into her bedroom, grabbed the suitcase that held the satellite link, and headed out onto the porch.

“What are you doing?” Jonathan asked, standing in the door, watching her.

“I want to see for myself what’s happening with Podly’s transmission,” she said, climbing on a bench and hanging the antenna over a hook sticking out of the icy eave of the porch. Satisfied that it would work this time since there weren’t any mountains or trees to block the signal, she climbed down, rubbing her cold hands together, and faced Jonathan.

“I might be able simply to make this entire problem go away.” She gave her boss a good glare. “I’m dumping the data, Jonathan. Instead of unscrambling the transmission, I’m going to erase the entire experiment. And you can contact AeroSaqii and tell them to call off their men.” She pointed her finger at him. “Then you can go back to Virginia—alone—and build your damn shuttles,” she finished, sweeping past him into the kitchen.

“Grace,” he said, following her to the table. “I didn’t know what they were planning. I did what I had to in order for us to survive.”

Grace sat down in front of her computer and clicked open the program she needed to receive Podly’s data, then attached the link antenna to the back of the laptop. Jonathan leaned over her shoulder to watch and continued his plea that she understand his actions.

“I know how you feel about this pod, Grace,” he said, his voice subdued and beseeching. “And I know I had no right to sell your experiment without telling you. But you have to understand my position. We couldn’t have launched Podly without AeroSaqii’s help.”

Grace tapped several keys and started her program running, then waited for the data to begin downloading. “You could have told me, Jonathan,” she said, looking up at him and glaring again. “And you damn well could have looked into the deal more closely before you made it. But what I don’t understand, if you truly thought everything was above-board, why the secrecy? You could have come to me and told me about your financial problem. I would have understood.”

His hand squeezed her shoulder. “Would you, Grace? Do you now?”

“I understand two businesses merging.” She turned and looked up at him. “But I don’t understand the secrecy. Why not just announce your partnership with AeroSaqii?”

Jonathan sighed over her head, and his hand dropped away as he straightened. He moved to the other side of the table and sat down facing her, his hands clasped in front of him.

“It’s a business problem, Grace,” he explained in a tired and somewhat defeated voice as he stared at her. “StarShip is a publicly held company. AeroSaqii isn’t. And neither is our European competition. If I’

d announced to the world that I was in trouble, there could have been a hostile takeover from Europe.

We’d have been swallowed up, with no chance of survival.”

“AeroSaqii didn’t want to merge?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “They just wanted the experiment and only gave me a promise to contract the shuttles from me.” His smile was sad. “It was the lesser of two evils. And the only option available if I want to stay in business.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you couldn’t confide in me. I thought…I thought we had something between us.”

“We did. We do, Grace,” he whispered, reaching his hand across the table and grasping hers. “But I was scared. I was afraid you might walk. And without you, I had nothing to sell.”

Grace pulled her hand back and balled it into a fist on her lap. “Trust means putting yourself at risk, Jonathan,” she said. “And I trusted you.” She waved an angry hand in the air. “All I receive in return are some men trying to kidnap me.”

“I can fix this, Grace. Just come back to Virginia, and I’ll keep you safe.”

“No. I’ll fix it,” she snapped, turning her glare to the screen. “And you’ll go back to Virginia by yourself.”

He stood, opened his mouth to protest, but snapped it shut when Grace gasped at what she was seeing on her computer screen. Jonathan walked around the table and looked over her shoulder again.

“That’s it,” he said. “That’s the mess we were getting back at the lab.”

Grace hit several keys on the laptop, and still all she saw was the jumble of codes that would run in sequence for maybe six lines, only to suddenly be interrupted by ten lines of garble. And just that quickly, Grace found herself caught up in the familiar and very comfortable world of mathematical physics and infinite numbers, probabilities and unimaginable possibilities.

Jonathan, her home, the ice storm, and even her own body slowly slipped out of existence as Grace stared at the computer screen and looked into the future.

Chapter Fifteen

It was another three hours before Grace could bring herself to give up. She angrily shut down her computer and stood, stretching her back to get out the kinks. She jumped when Jonathan spoke.

“Were you able to make any headway?” he asked, walking in from the living room, only to frown at the closed computer.

“No. The battery is dying, so I shut it down. But even if we had power, I wouldn’t be able to fix it.” She looked out the window at the freezing rain that refused to let up.

“And I can’t even recharge the battery.”

“Don’t you have a spare?”

“No. That one fried up on the mountain.” She turned and frowned at the computer. “And when it did, I think it compromised my program. There are glitches in it that have nothing to do with Podly’s transmissions.” She looked over at Jonathan. “Did you bring your computer with you?”

“Yes. But it doesn’t have your program installed.”

“I have backup disks,” she said, walking to the kitchen door and picking up the satellite link suitcase. She spoke over her shoulder. “Is Baby still sleeping?”

“Yes,” Jonathan said, going into the living room.

Grace set the suitcase on the counter and opened it, rummaging around to find her case of backup disks.