Page 82 of Justified Secrets

“Check back in with Autumn as soon as you can. She’ll worry.”

“Oh. Okay. I will. Probably will just be a week or two.”

The line went dead. Why did Ian feel a sense of loss? They didn’t talk, and they barely texted. He drew in a deep breath, slipped his phone back into his pocket, and continued to the restaurant.

The woman known as Samantha Charles watched Ian Smith walk into the restaurant. For a former spy, he was terrible at picking up he was being followed. She guessed it was due to the idea that he no longer had people gunning for him.

What did that feel like?

She pushed that thought aside and continued past the restaurant. None of them would recognize her unless she talked. Her usually curly hair had been tamed and put up under a jet-black wig. She had been cursed with two different colored eyes, which she hid behind brown contacts that were a pain in the ass, but much needed in this case. She’d used lighter makeup on her skin to hide her usually olive undertone. Being the granddaughter of an actress had helped her conceal her identity these past few years.

What was it like to have lunch plans? She had been like that once, but her old life dissolved because she decided to be awhistleblower. Her fiancé had dumped her, and her other hacker friends had shunned her. The only people she trusted all lived in Hawaii, and they barely knew her.

Shaking off her morose thoughts, she headed down the street. Even though it was small, Hawaii had a lot of hiding places. It was time to disappear entirely off the grid as Samantha Charles—even if just for a few weeks.