An ex-cop in federal witness protection and an overly eager journalist looking for a big-time crime story to break wide open.  What could possibly go wrong with them painting his apartment together?<br/><br/>Darius liked Jane.  But he had to remind himself that she was the enemy.  Any member of the media was the enemy to someone with an assumed identity.  They asked too many questions, because that's what the media does.  And while his new identity was well crafted, there was bound to be flaws in that identity.  No one is perfect when it comes to forgetting their past life of 35 years and creating a whole new life from scratch.  There was no father with a hardware store in his past.  That was a story created by the feds.  The truth was he never knew his father.  His mother raised him all by herself.  And she was gone now, so he was on his own.<br/><br/>With the death of his mother from cancer, his last link to his past life had been severed.  Which was what the U.S. Marshals wanted.  They kept drumming into him that he could never go back to visit old friends or old haunts.  But the only friends he had were his mother and his partner, both dead.  Which worked out fine for the Marshals, but not for him.  As for his old haunts, those were crime-infested hell-holes that no one in their right mind would revisit.  So he was starting over.  The problem was, he was more paranoid now, afraid to let anyone get too close for fear he would accidentally let something slip from his past life, putting his life and theirs in danger.<br/><br/>"I appreciate the offer Jane, but I'm almost done.  Half an hour in the bedroom and I'll be finished.  And while I still hate that pink tile in the bathroom, I've decided to wait until I've finished my latest novel before tackling that job.  The tile job can wait, but my publisher won't.  And not to sound inhospitable, but I have an appointment with my barber in a few minutes."