Page 26 of No More Hiding

“She said it to me too,” he said. “She was the best of us.”

His mother was silent. “She was,” she said.

“And now we need to end this before I put you in a sad mood when you were calling all in a huff because you think I’m neglecting my dog.”

“You’ve proved me wrong so I’ll let you get back to work. It’s after six, but I’m sure you’re working.”

“I’m actually not,” he said. “I was getting ready to make some dinner and feed Sammie before I ran her in the yard again.”

“You could take her for a walk,” his mother said.

“I could, but it’s going to rain. I’d rather not look any more suspicious to my neighbors going forward.”

His mother laughed, said bye, and then hung up.

He turned to look at Sammie napping on her bed in his office. He’d lied and said he wasn’t working, but he was still in his office running a few reports. He was done though. After several fourteen-hour days, he was able to get what Homeland Security needed back to them but was warned to be ready for more.

Such was his life. One secret project after another. Half the time he wasn’t sure what it was he was giving them or what it meant. He was fine with that.

He was a coder and a hacker. There were others that took what he did or found and moved it on for other things. It was his job to get the information, not to interpret it or find patterns at that high of a level. Those people, they worked in the office.

Him, he was behind the scenes doing things no one was supposed to know were being done.

He didn’t need flash. He didn’t need the glory.

He was content and had been for years.

But now, he was wondering, was there more out there?

Yeah, there was.

Her name was Vivian and she was nice to him three times now when in the past he might have been dismissed because he blended in. He always wanted to. Do the job and don’t be seen, don’t be remembered.

He wanted to be seen and remembered now though. Just not like a homeless man living on the street.

9

In Her Life

Vivian wasn’t sure why she was spending another Sunday outside working on her house, but she’d told herself there was so much that needed to be done.

No, she didn’tneedto paint her front porch, but she was doing it anyway. Then she’d weed some more and pressure wash the siding.

If she was trying to stay outside to see if Brent walked by with his puppy again, she wasn’t admitting that to anyone.

Or the fact he’d been on her mind more after Blair had been in the salon on Monday and brought up a man and dog in her life.

Brent and Sammie weren’t really in her life. But maybe she wanted them there.

And when was the last time she’d felt that way? Well over three years.

She’d been in relationships, but nothing ever stuck. She never worried about her past name change or her father that was in jail. Never worried anyone would find out. Not with her grandparents being alive. She’d had family any guy she dated met and no one questioned anything.

She’d been truthful that her mother died and she had no relationship with her father. Maybe she’d said her father had died too a few times because in her eyes he had.

But she found it easier to say she was alone now. That she had no surviving family to speak of. Again, the truth. She didn’t speak of her father and never wanted to again.

Three life sentences weren’t enough in her eyes.