Instantly he hit three keys in rapid succession, activating the macro that sent a message to Peter telling him, due to adult interference, communication would have to cease for now. All his friends had similar emergency escape messages. Some of them were pretty funny. But looking at Zane’s angry face and the fury blazing in his eyes didn’t make Chase feel much like laughing.
He tried to remember if he’d messed up recently. He’d accidentally broken a couple of plates while cleaning the kitchen last night, but Zane had already yelled at him for that. Plus the level of anger radiating from him wasn’t about two broken plates. Which meant Chase had messed up somewhere else. Somewhere big. But it wasn’t noon. Except for breakfast, he hadn’t even left his room.
Unless Zane had found out about...
Zane didn’t say anything. Instead he moved closer to the desk, then leaned over and typed in an internet address. By the time he punched in the fourth letter, Chase knew he was totally and completely screwed.
He watched the site load in a matter of seconds. A panoramic picture of the town of Fool’s Gold nestled into the Sierra Nevada filled the screen. Text scrolled at the bottom. Come to the Northern California wilderness and experience a vacation like no other.
The picture faded, replaced by one of people riding on horseback. It was a great photo, he thought, remembering how he’d copied it from another site.
“Start talking,” Zane growled as he straightened and fixed Chase with his sternest expression.
When Chase had been little, he’d called it the death-ray look. It used to terrify him. But he’d been a kid then and still unclear on how things worked. Back then Zane had been his big brother and the best part of his world. He’d been too young to know that while he would always think of Zane as his brother, his family, Zane would only think of him as a constant screwup who always got in the way.
“Well?”
Chase unwound himself from his chair and crossed to the bed. While the death-ray look no longer sent him running, he liked a little distance between himself and Zane.
“It’s no big deal,” Chase bluffed. “Peter Moreno and I designed a website for our computer science class. Mr. Hendrix gave us an A. He said someday we’re gonna be better at computers than he is.”
Zane pulled out the chair Chase had vacated and sank into it. After rubbing his eyes, he slowly shook his head.
“Yeah. You got an A in computer science and physics and math and every other subject that interests you. We’ll ignore the C in English and the D in history.”
Chase threw himself back on the bed. Jeez, were they going to go through all that again? No one at MIT was going to care if he didn’t do well in history. It wasn’t that kind of college. Of course if Zane had his way, Chase would never get to MIT. Instead he’d spend his life shoveling cow shit and feeding goats.
“I got a phone call about a half hour ago,” Zane said.
His carefully controlled voice made Chase sit up slowly. Even scarier than the death-ray look was the quiet voice. It meant that Zane was doing the best he could to hold on to his temper before it exploded and took out everyone from here to Sacramento.
“A woman wanted to know if she could get a massage before going on her cattle drive.”
“Oh. That.”
“Yes, that. Why don’t you tell me about it?”
Chase swallowed as he remembered what he and Peter had done. It had been a joke that had gotten out of hand. He glanced at Zane and saw a muscle twitch in his jaw. Not exactly a good sign.
“Don’t panic,” he said quickly. “I’ve got everything under control.”
“Tell me the plan, Chase.”
Zane looked like a man holding on to his temper with both hands. Chase wasn’t sure how long his brother’s grip would last. He started talking as fast as he could.
“Like I said, it was our school project. We had to design a website, then put it on the internet.”
“Through the school,” Zane said, his teeth clenched. “But you put yours on a host so anyone could access it.”
“Um, that was an accident. Reese Hendrix did it as a joke.”
Zane’s hands curled into fists. “A joke? You advertised a cattle drive. You took reservations. You accepted money.”
“Just for a little while,” Chase protested. “Look, I know what I’m doing.”
His brother stood and crossed to the window. “So people are arriving on Saturday expecting a six-day cattle drive? Was that the plan?”
“No. Don’t worry, I’ve got that taken care of. It was a mistake. When the money started arriving, Peter and I didn’t know what to do.” Okay, later he’d figured out that sending it back with a letter explaining the mix-up would have been really smart, but it hadn’t occurred to him at the time.
“Peter and I are working on our robot, and we needed parts. Peter put in his share, but you wouldn’t loan me any money or pay for anything.”
“You used strangers’ money for your project?” Zane bellowed, turning back to face him. “That’s stealing. The whole website is fraud, and I’m sure we can throw in theft for good measure.”
Chase sprang to his feet. “I didn’t steal. I’d never steal or do those other things.”
“Then where’s the money?”
“Right here.” Chase moved to his computer and started typing quickly. “Peter and I did some day-trading. We figured we’d just borrow their money for a while. After we made a bundle off the deposits, we’d return them and keep the profits. Which was a great idea until the fourth day when we lost nearly everything.”
Zane made a sound low in this throat. Chase kept typing, logging on to his brokerage account.
“I know what you’re thinking. That we were screwed, right? But then we overheard this tourist at the Fourth of July Festival in Fool’s Gold talking about a tech company that was going to announce a new kind of motherboard, and their stock would go through the roof. So we bought as much as we could with what we had left. The announcement is going to be at five today. We’ll sell the stock and send back the deposits. I figured we’d tell everyone the ranch burned down or something so they won’t show up.”
He risked a glance at his brother. “So I’ve got it covered. I’ve even written up the letter telling everyone not to come and that we’ll be sending their deposits back overnight mail. Pretty good, huh?”
Zane’s expression remained unreadable. “You stole their money, lost it day-trading, plan to get it back through insider trading and you’re canceling their vacation with less than a week’s notice. You think that’s pretty good?”
His voice rose with each word. Chase had the feeling he was trying to control himself, only he wasn’t doing a really great job.
“These people are expecting a vacation.
