Read In the Dark for Free Online Page B

counter and handed over a credit card. Hannah wondered if the FBI was funding this shopping spree, or whether Luther himself was paying for it. He signed his name on the credit card slip, telling her nothing.
    She resolved to wait.
    Leading the way to the optometrist office four stores over, Hannah selected a pair of prescription-free lenses with silver frames. Luther paid again, casting her a sidelong glance as she continued to shape shift on him.
    "You're having fun," he observed as they left the shop on a mission to buy clothes.
    "A little," she confessed. Half the fun was watching him watch her. "SEALs wear camouflage; operatives wear disguises. There's not much difference in what we do."
    "That's true," he said thoughtfully.
    "Which way now?" She glanced toward the department stores at either end of the mall.
    "Hechts has the best fall sales."
    Hannah sent him a wry smile. "Now that was a telling statement. You must have a wife or a girlfriend who loves to shop." She was openly fishing, now.
    His expression hardened subtly. "No, I don't," he said, leading the way.
    Ooh, ouch. Hannah caught up to him. He'd obviously had a wife or a girlfriend recently or he wouldn't have responded that way. Her step felt curiously lighter. Knowing Luther was single made this outing feel more like a date and—wow—she hadn't had a date in years!
    "Do you even see Westy?" she inquired, using the glass at the front of the stores to see behind them.
    "Not right now," Luther admitted. "And we're not going to see him till he wants to be seen. But then again, neither will anyone who might be following us."
    Being reminded of the Individual took the fun out of adventure. This wasn't a date. These were steps she had to take to protect herself from a powerful and unknown entity.
    Entering the department store, she stopped before the Ladies section and eyed the conservative fashions with distaste. "Here we go," she said, plunging in. "This is going to cost a fortune. I don't even own underwear."
    From the corner of her eye, she saw Luther's conjecturing gaze drift over her.
    "You can help me," she told him. "See this look?" She held up a satin blouse with a hideous ruffled collar and balloon sleeves. "This is what you call frumpy. I'm looking for frumpy in size ten, long."
    He backed away with his hands up. "I think I'll have a seat over there," he said, gesturing to a set of waiting chairs.
    "Coward," she called. Fortunately, there was plenty of frumpy clothing to choose from. Five minutes later, she carried her selections to him, draping the items on the seat beside him.
    "You're done already?" he asked, in disbelief.
    "I still need shoes and underwear," she answered, heading toward the lingerie and footwear departments. "Be right back."
    She chose two pairs of shoes: gray pumps that went with everything and tennis shoes in the hopes that she'd get some regular exercise. Breezing through the lingerie department, she was hit by a perverse impulse to rattle Luther's equanimity. The key to altering one's identity, she reminded herself, was to feel like a different person, right down to the undergarments. Her new alter ego just happened to wear the sexiest lingerie imaginable, unlike Hannah whose taste ran toward cotton and jog bras.
    She bore down on Luther with her scandalous selection. "All set," she announced.
    His deer-in-the-headlights look made her ribs ache with the urge to laugh. He turned away abruptly, and she trailed him to the checkout counter, biting her lower lip.
    "Do you need any jewelry?" he asked, fixing his gaze on an earrings display.
    "Oh, yes," she said, selecting big, gaudy earrings to complement her new wardrobe.
    "How about a watch?"
    "No, I think that's enough," she said, reluctant to impose upon him further. "How am I going to pay you back?" she lamented when the cashier named a price well above the one she'd tallied mentally.
    "You already are," he said, and she realized he was thinking of Lieutenant Renault's