Public Secrets (Artificial Intelligence Book 1) by Liza O'Connor

you’ll have my total attention. Why don’t you go back to sleep? I’ll wake you when he’s left.”
    “Promise you’ll wake me?”
    He leaned over and kissed her. “Promise. Now sleep.”
    Chad watched her close her eyes and fall asleep, then went to his room to dress.

Chapter Seventeen
     
    The first thing Chad did when he went downstairs was to let the housekeeper know a guest would be arriving. She suggested he could use the library.
    Upon checking out the lovely room, which had every electrical device imaginable, he hurried upstairs, quietly entered Carla’s room and, without waking her, carried her PC downstairs.
    Sure enough, one of the myriad chargers worked once plugged into the proper power converter. Having solved Carla’s problem, he headed off to the kitchen to solve a problem of his own. He was always hungry.
    The cook greeted him and insisted he sit and wait for a “proper breakfast”.
    The moment he tasted the first bite of the omelet, he groaned. Never had he tasted anything half so good. His thoughts turned to Carla, certain she would love this as well. He considered waking her but decided against it. She didn’t appear to have gotten any sleep at all last night.
    An angry female voice yelled from somewhere in the house. “Get away from that!”
    Carla... A reporter must have snuck in wanting an interview. He hurried from the kitchen, planning to throw the bastard out. Damn it! He needed more time before their cruel games began.
    As he burst into the library, he was almost relieved to discover Luke Gallagher holding both hands up in surrender.
    Anna, the housekeeper, had followed him into the room. “I’m sorry, sir. He said he was Luke Gallagher, so I put the gentleman in the library. Shall I call security?”
    “No, Anna. It’s all right. He’s the right guy.” Chad glanced at Luke. “Sorry, I hadn’t expected you so soon.”
    Luke dropped his hands. “My hotel is only a few blocks down the road.”
    Chad turned his attention to Carla, who stood in the corner of the room, hugging her PC.
    “Carla, this is Luke Gallagher. He’s with the FBI. You don’t have to be afraid of him.”
    “He was reading my laptop.” Fear and tension radiated from her body.
    “Interesting reading, too,” Luke replied, not looking the least bit apologetic for his invasion of her privacy. “I’ll have to ask my colleagues in the States to look him up.”
    She shivered as if cold. “He’s not in the States. He’s here.”
    Luke tilted his head in interest. “You’ve seen him?”
    “No. But he’s talked to people I know. He’s looking for me.”
    “Is that why you’ve been hiding this last week?” he asked, his voice gentler now.
    “I don’t know what you mean. I haven’t been hiding. I only found out he was looking for me last night.”
    “Well, he’s not alone. We’ve been looking for you too. Didn’t Chad tell you?”
    Chad wasn’t sure which of them was more surprised by the question, but he was the first to recover. “This isn’t Carla Simon. Her name is Carla Carrington. She’s a computer science student at Columbia.”
    Luke’s eyebrows rose in challenge as he focused on Carla.
    Carla, still hugging her laptop, moved a little closer to Chad. “Chad, I am Carla Simon. It’s a long story how I came to be Carla Carrington. I’ll explain later.”
    Had she declared herself the Anti-Christ, Chad couldn’t have felt more repulsed and betrayed. “You? It’s not possible.” He turned to Luke. “You said she was dead!”
    “A case of mistaken identity,” he explained to Chad, then turned to Carla. “The woman who stole your wallet paid for it with her life. She was run off a mountain road.”
    ***
    Carla felt her knees about to buckle, but before she fell, Chad gripped her arms. But instead of the embrace she expected, he was shaking her in fury. “It was you? You made me think you were an innocent college girl, all the while getting more information for your damnable