Flora’s Guide to a Second Chance at Love and Life

The place was buzzing-everywhere you looked, people were working on something different.

Fiona and Jackson had already seen most of what the design facility had to offer. They weren't in any hurry to leave, just taking it all in.

Curious, Fiona struck up a casual conversation about the cyborgs. It turned out they were pretty good at spotting which ones were unfinished or defective.

From a few offhand remarks, they picked up some useful intel about where Country M kept its research institute. Most of these flawed cyborgs were basically mindless, barely able to mumble a few sounds, let alone form real words.

But for Fiona, figuring out those syllables was no big deal. She cracked the pattern in no time.

She gave Jackson a quick look, and he met her gaze. They didn't need to say a word-both knew they'd learned what they came for. No reason to stick around any longer.

"Ms. Fiona, I was wondering if you and Mr. Woods are free tonight?" their guide asked. "If you have time, I'd love to take you out to dinner. We can talk more about the contract."

little smirk tugging at her lips. "Sounds good. You choose the

to pick you up. That's

really get our

much credit, Ms. Fiona. We just

then," she said,

straight back to the

not to shop, but to tire out the person taiting them. When their shadow

the next spot, picked up their concealed weapons, and checked that the bullets were loaded, tucking everything away-one at the waist,

were in Country M, after all. There were limits to what they could risk. Once things kicked

outside, they ducked into another high-end boutique Sure enough a new tatho appeared almost immediately.

downstairs, someone was already waiting to escort