Page 89 of Protecting You

Maybe the woman in the photo Callan had seen in Ghazi’s room had nothing to do with anything, but it was another lead that needed following. Michael had texted earlier saying he was still working on it.

When Callan had told Alyssa about the photograph and her cousin’s response, she’d been exasperated. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” They’d been leaving the hotel room. “I could’ve been looking for her all morning.”

“I didn’t think of it last night,” he’d said. “And we’ve been sort of busy today.”

They’d decided that she could start searching while he bought some clothes. His least favorite chore—shopping. But he couldn’t exactly wear dirty joggers to her grandparents’ anniversary party the following day.

He stopped at the curb in front of the bookstore. “I don’t feel comfortable leaving you.”

“There’s no way he can track me here.”

“Your laptop?—”

“I know how to hide my location, Callan. They won’t find me.”

“Okay. Fine. But… If anything happens, or if you feel the slightest bit worried or even get a bad feeling, call me. Don’t text, don’t email. Call.”

“So I should call?” Her eyes widened in false confusion. “Is that what you’re saying?”

“You want me to show you how it works?”

“Haha. Let me know when you’re on your way so I can be looking for you.” She opened the door.

He took her hand, which he’d done so many times in the last few days that it felt perfectly natural. It shouldn’t, considering that before Wednesday, they hadn’t seen each other in years. She shouldn’t mean more to him than any coworker would.

She did, though. That was the problem.Oneof the problems.

Another problem was the terrorist trying to manipulate her into helping him pull off some unknown…something.

The biggest problem came in the form of a precious eight-year-old girl, thoughts of whom should push out any attraction or romantic feelings he had for the woman at his side.

Her eyebrows hiked. “Did you need something, or do you just like holding my hand?”

Yes to both?

“If you learn anything, email it to me and to your cousin, just in case.”

Her amusement faded. “Will do.”

Reluctantly, Callan released her, and she grabbed her laptop bag from the floorboard and walked inside.

She’d be fine. Of course she’d be fine.

Callan drove a few short blocks to a strip mall where he’d done his share of shopping over the years. Mom used to bring him and Hannah here every summer to buy new school clothes. Hannah would insist she had to try on every new style—in every single color. She couldn’t make a single decision until she knew all the options in the entire mall.

Meanwhile, Callan would grab the cheapest jeans, T-shirts, and sweatshirts he could find. He’d only use the dressing room if his mother made him. And then he’d be finished shopping and bored, slumped in a chair—or on the floor, if that was all he could find—to wait for his slow-as-mud little sister.

But when they were loaded down with shopping bags filled with jeans and sweaters and underwear and jackets and shoes and all manner of things, Mom would take them to lunch. When Dad could get off work to meet them, he did. It didn’t matter that it was cheap fast food. For his family, it was a rare treat.

These days, he didn’t have to search for the least expensive items, but old habits weren’t easy to break, no matter how his savings account grew.

He looked for sales and found a pair of trousers, a button-down shirt, and a sports coat, though Alyssa had said that last was optional. But they’d need to go forward with the whole fake-engagement thing in front of her family, just in case Ghazi was watching. They had to assume he was, which meant Alyssa would need to deceive her entire family.

He hadn’t broken that to her yet.

It was the reason that, even though they were within thirty minutes of his family, he didn’t plan to take her there. If he got a chance to go home and visit Peri, he would take it, but he wouldn’t be taking Alyssa with him.

Ghazi didn’t know who Callan really was, but anytime they were in public together, they needed to keep up the ruse, just in case. And much as he’d insist she had to lie to her family, he would avoid lying to his own at all costs.

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