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At first she’d thought him an aide to the council members. But as he’d continued to ask questions as well as answer them, she had begun to wonder if he was with the private security company hired to protect the council.
She—no, her alter ego, Shereen Alsop—had had some familiarity with Blue Haven Security and with its staff...then. Before she had fled the town of Blue Haven to avoid the threats to her life that she knew, but could not prove, had come from Stan.
Ella had called this man Alan. He had just reentered the restaurant behind the group, but now he slid in front, approaching Kelly. She wanted to flee into the kitchen. Instead, she stood her ground.
The last thing she wanted was to do anything that might make her conspicuous, especially now, with Stan in the room.
Besides, her suspicion of this guy could just be a self-protective instinct. She couldn’t trust anyone. She didn’t dare.
“Good job getting this set up, Kelly,” Alan said to her immediately. Ella had told him her name earlier, too.
A feeling of warmth passed through her—unwanted heat. Sure, he was attractive. Sexy.
But she didn’t dare even hint at flirting with him.
“Thanks,” she said, making sure she did everything possible to stay within her role.
Alan was over six feet tall. His deep brown eyes regarded her from beneath craggy dark brows that matched his short hair, and he smiled.
But something in his expression made Kelly think he was trying to keep up appearances, too. Maybe because she suspected everyone these days.
Or maybe because she actually knew who this guy was.
“Hey, can we place our orders now?” someone called from beside her. “We’re in a hurry.”
Kelly needed to move away from Alan, and so she turned to respond. But she knew that voice. It was Stan’s.
Which would be less risky—staying here and talking with this possible security guy who might have a different agenda from the rest of his team?
Or confronting Stan for the first time?
“Go ahead,” Ella said from her other side, and the choice was taken from her.
When she glanced in Alan’s direction, she saw him nod slightly, with a small grin on his rugged, amused face that suggested he understood her dilemma.
Was she just reading into his appearance, his actions, because she suspected there would be someone in this town who was also undercover, but officially so?
Well, this wasn’t the time to worry about it. Right now, she needed to confront Stan. Sort of. While staying in character, and praying that her new appearance worked, and Stan didn’t recognize her.
And thus she would at last be able to accomplish what had become her life’s mission: protecting Eli and finally getting the evidence on Stan.
* * *
Alan Correy watched the gorgeous waitress who turned toward the tables of city council members.
The woman he had never met, yet already knew.
When he had come in before as a staff member of Blue Haven Security—his job here, while undercover—to request the tables, Ella had said her name was Kelly. And Alan had previously been instructed to keep an eye out for the woman now known as Kelly Ladd. He had been sent her photo as she’d looked originally, along with the last time they’d seen her, by his boss over his secure phone connection. Was this her?
Maybe.
That woman had taken full advantage of his real employer, the ID Division of the US Marshals Service. They had provided her protection as well as an identity change. But she left the job she had been given in her new life, disappeared without permission from the division’s head, Judge Treena Avalon, or anyone else.
She had been expected to show up here. Apparently she had.
This Kelly resembled the photo, although her hair was softer, curlier and a darker brown, pulled away from her face with a narrow band. Her cheekbones were more prominent, her lips narrower. Her face could have won beauty contests.
But the real Kelly, in addition to having had her looks modified, would also have been instructed in ways to further disguise herself if necessary.
Instead of immediately rushing over to the tables to take orders, Kelly continued looking at Alan for an instant. He had a sense that she was assessing him the way he was assessing her. That she suspected who he was, too.
But then she quickly pulled a pad from the pocket of her skimpy skirt and approached the table.
