Holiday Illusion. Lynette Eason

      “You can stay with me,” Lucas announced as they left the FBI office, both of them shivering once again in the nippy air. The smell of hot dogs coming from the sidewalk vendor’s cart tantalized her nose. Then his statement smacked her brain.

      Anna nearly tripped on her way down the steps, his comment registering through the rush of memories that had just assaulted her. She was now standing on the very step where she’d been shot four years ago.

      “Excuse me?” she asked.

      “I don’t mean with me alone, I mean with me…at my father’s house, with the rest of my strange extended family and our loyal staff.”

      Her mind played the mental video she couldn’t shake. She could still see the bullet come from the crowded sidewalk, feel the burn as it slammed into her. She swallowed hard and stated absently, “I thought you and your father didn’t exactly get along.”

      “The understatement of the year, but nevertheless, that’s where I’m going to stay. Trust me, there’s room.”

      She didn’t respond, her mind caught in the vividness of the past. It had been a cold day, with snow dusting the streets. But the weather hadn’t stopped the crowd from showing up and protesting the FBI’s arrest of one of the city’s most prominent businessmen and benefactors. She remembered the precise sound the gun had made as the shot rang out, the exact feel of the bullet as it hit her. Her breathing accelerated as she pictured the person with the gun, ski mask covering features she’d strained to see. The figure melting back into the screaming, scrambling crowd. Then she was falling, falling, everything happening in slow motion as sounds rushed by, voices called her name, then the pain faded and darkness settled over her like a warm blanket on a cold night.

      “Anna!”

      Blinking, she focused back in on Lucas. The concern in his eyes wrapped itself around her heart. His hands rested on her upper arms, and he’d obviously been calling her name for some time. He gave her another shake. “Are you all right?”

      “I…no. I mean, yes. I was just…remembering something.”

      “Not something pleasant, that’s clear. Want to share?”

      How did one share the kind of grief that was ripping through her very being, tearing her heart from the depths of her body? What could she say? God, please help me.

      “No,” she said. “I can’t stay with you. I mean…I can get a hotel room. It’s not a big deal.”

      His expression said he didn’t buy her evasion but was going to let her get away with it. Then he shrugged. “Maybe I want you there for the moral support.”

      “Oh.” He needed moral support? To deal with his family? Obviously there was way more to his past than he’d told her during their talks in Brazil. She eyed him. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I can’t take the chance that I might put you or your family in danger. Somehow de Chastelain will find out I’m back—if he hasn’t already. And when he knows, he’ll be after me, mowing down anyone in his path.”

      Lucas gripped her arm, pulling her to a halt. “Look, Anna, we’ve been friends for a long time. When you agreed to bring Paulo to America, I can’t tell you how relieved I was. I wanted the time with you…was hoping maybe here, we could…” He looked away, seeming to search for the words.

      Longing mixed with shock curled through her. He’d come for her. To be with her because he felt the same thing she did. He also knew why neither of them could explore the possibility of a relationship other than friendship. Yet. But his action said he still held out hope…

      “I…I don’t know what to say. I mean if the circumstances were different…” But they weren’t. “Don’t you understand? If something happened to you because of me…” Her throat clogged. “I can’t take that chance.”

      “It’s not up to you. I’m a big boy. Sure, I’m here for Paulo, but you can count on the fact that I didn’t come all the way back to America just to wave goodbye to you and send you on your way to face death all by yourself. I’m in this with you…all the way.”

      “Lucas…”

      Placing a finger over her lips, he shushed her. She gulped as he trailed the finger past her mouth, under her chin, then curved his hand around her neck. He continued. “And I know what you’re thinking.” Narrowing his eyes, he promised, “If you decide to disappear, I’ll hunt you down. I’ll haunt the FBI office until someone tells me what I want to know.”

      “Don’t you realize the danger you could be putting yourself in?” Anguish curled in her stomach at the thought of what could happen to him.

      He quirked a crooked smile. “Then you’d better keep me with you so you can keep an eye on me.”

      She stared up at him, her mouth working, but nothing came out. He tapped her chin and her lips came together.

      He sighed. “Look, my father suffered a stroke about a year ago. I almost hopped a plane when it happened, but Godfrey, my cousin, told me that it was very mild, nothing the man couldn’t bounce back from, so…”

      “You stayed in Brazil.”

      Lucas closed his eyes, raised thumb and forefinger to rub them as though he could erase what lay behind them. “Yeah. I took the coward’s way out and let Godfrey handle everything. I kept in touch with him and Father’s been fine, recovering nicely. But when I started lining things up for Paulo…it got me to thinking that it was time to see if anything had changed around here.” He slid a narrow look in her direction. “And when you agreed to come…”

      She ignored the fact that her entire being tingled at his last words. “So, has anything changed?” He was holding something back from her.

      “I called Father from the airport and nearly shocked him into another stroke. Godfrey and Dahlia, his wife, have been living there, looking after things for the past nine months or so, ever since he came home from rehab. They’re having the staff get our rooms ready.”

      “You told them I was coming?”

      “I told them there was the…possibility…I might be bringing a guest.”

      “I see.” She eyed him, wondering if he’d really put his life on the line just to keep up with her. Yes, he would. But it was the fact that he’d so easily read her mind while she’d been thinking about slipping off and disappearing that really got her. Keeping him with her might be the only way to ensure his safety. She’d give it a trial run and see but knew she’d be looking over both sets of shoulders…his and hers. Throwing her hands up in surrender, she asked, “Okay, do you want to go straight to the house or back to the hospital to check on Paulo?”

      “I’ll give the hospital a call while we head toward my father’s house. If Paulo needs us, they have my cell number.”

      While Lucas drove and talked with the hospital, Anna made a mental list of what she needed to do. “Flying beneath the radar” wouldn’t be possible if she was going to figure out what happened to that evidence she’d found and apparently hid too