Holiday Illusion. Lynette Eason
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rather leave buried. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option.
Taking a deep breath, she let it out slowly. Hearing the door whoosh open behind her, she scooted into a stall, not wanting to paste on a false smile or look anyone in the eye. Locking the door behind her, she leaned against it, still lost in fighting her reaction to the memories, the fear that wanted to surface and take over.
Footsteps sounded, stopping first in front of the row of sinks, then moving toward the stalls. Her senses tuned in and she stilled, zeroing in on the sound. The steps moved heavily, sounded clunky. Steps like a man might make. She froze, then turned sideways to peer through the crack. Broad shoulders, muscles, definitely a man. She caught a brief glimpse of dark pants, a white shirt. Hiking boots? Then the person entered the stall next to her. Wrong restroom or something more?
Anna shivered, swallowed hard as she acknowledged her only protection right now was a thin metal door. She hadn’t wished for a gun in four years. Today, she did. Why was she so nervous? No one knew she was here.
Adrenaline flowed freely as she pondered what to do. Should she call out? Speak? Call Lucas on her cell phone? Justin? Shifting her backpack, she set it on the back of the commode, keeping her eye on the crack in the stall.
Fingers fumbled for the phone.
Hard metal touched the back of her head. She froze. Dropped her purse. Heart pounding, fear exploding, she remembered the feel of a bullet piercing her stomach. The bullet hitting her was memory. The feel of the gun on her skull wasn’t. Gritting her teeth, she couldn’t do anything about the shaking as she forced the words from her mouth. “What do you want?”
“Go back to Brazil before you get hurt, little girl,” a voice rasped in a low whisper from up above. He’d be standing on the toilet, hanging over the wall separating the stalls. “Don’t bother calling the police. They won’t find me. This is your only warning.” With the nose of the gun, he shoved hard, knocking her off balance. Her leg hit the toilet bowl. She missed catching herself and landed on the floor—hard. The door beside her opened, then swung shut. Retreating footsteps, the main door whooshing, then silence—broken only by the sound of her harsh, hiccupping breathing.
Her mind screamed at her to get up and chase him. Don’t let him get away with this! But fear had her paralyzed. Nausea swirled. Fortunately she didn’t have to go far to lose what little she’d eaten that day.
Then she got mad. Mad at herself for caving in to the fear. Furious at her weakness but still shaking, she opened the stall door and stepped out. Whispering a prayer, she gathered every ounce of courage, strode to the main door and yanked it open. She looked up one hall, then down the other.
Nothing.
At least, no one wearing the clothing she had glimpsed.
Okay, she was back to square one. The whole reason she’d entered the bathroom in the first place. She needed to pull herself together so she could go meet with Justin. And she needed to rinse her mouth. Lord, I’m going crazy here. How did he know I was here? There’s no way anyone can know. Justin is the only one.
By the time she stepped out of the hospital, after another deep breath, she had herself relatively collected. And she had a few questions for Justin.
Lucas headed to the car to wait for Anna to join him. Shoving his hands in his pockets to protect them against the cold, he made a mental note to purchase a pair of gloves as soon as possible.
Paper crinkled in his palm and he pulled it out to stare at the tract the teen from the airport had given him. The title caught his eye. God has a plan for your life. Hmm. Well, so far the plan wasn’t exactly working out, in his opinion.
Maybe that’s because you haven’t given God a chance to direct it.
Whoa. Where had that thought come from? But then he realized it was true. He’d been pushing God away for so long, was it any wonder his life was upside down? Oh, it wasn’t terrible. Brazil had been a definite improvement over what he’d left behind, he just felt…incomplete, like something was missing.
Like a relationship with Anna?
Or, more likely, a relationship with God?
“Hey Lucas!”
The shout brought his head around to see Mark coming toward him and he felt a huge sense of relief at the distraction from his thoughts. The smile on the man’s face eased his instant worry that something had gone wrong with Paulo again. Mark reached him, saying, “I thought that was you.”
“I’m waiting on Anna. What’s up?”
“Do you think you’ll have any free time in the next couple days?”
Lucas thought. His main purpose for coming home was to be there for Paulo. And to reconcile with his father. No matter how hard he tried to deny it, no matter how much he tried to forget the reason he’d taken off for Brazil three years ago, the past still hurt and he wanted to somehow make it right. He’d be here a while. “Sure, I probably can arrange it, why?”
Mark gave a shrug. “Just thought we could get together for lunch or something, you know, catch up with each other.” He gave Lucas a playful punch in the arm. “Hey, man, I’ve missed you.”
And Lucas had missed his best friend. Much more than he’d realized. “Lunch it is. Just name the place and the time.”
“Well, it might end up being hospital fare, but at least the company will be interesting.”
Offering Mark a grin, he agreed. Then he looked up to see Anna coming his way, beautiful as always…and pale, shaken, like something was wrong. He frowned, reaching for her hand as she approached him. The smile she pushed to her lips for Mark was forced and Lucas squeezed her fingers. She looked up at him. “Are you ready?”
“Ready when you are.” He got the message. Questions could wait until later. He nodded to Mark. “Give me a call.”
“You got it.”
Since their meal at the hospital had been interrupted, Anna and Lucas drove through the nearest Starbucks for bagels and a coffee.
She had called Justin from the hospital to tell him she was running late but on her way. Then she’d told Lucas what happened in the restroom, and he wanted to call the cops. But she convinced him it wouldn’t do any good; she wanted to talk to Justin first. Lucas didn’t like it, but decided to go along with it—for now. Justin was waiting for her as they walked in the door. He was a tall man, around Lucas’s height with a military crew cut and a firm no-nonsense jaw that had felt more than one fist. The large bump in the middle of his nose said it had been broken once upon a time. Green eyes took in Anna’s appearance in one sweep, then flared with recognition. “Anna Freeman? You don’t look like the Anna I knew four years ago.”
“It’s me.”
“The voice is the same, but…wow. You’ve changed.” He turned to Lucas, sizing him up and seeming to approve of whatever it was he saw. “Is he coming with you? We can talk in front of him?” At Anna’s nod, he gestured them into his office, saying, “I would’ve picked you up at the hospital, you know. In fact, if you hadn’t said you were leaving that very minute, I would’ve insisted.”
Lucas clenched his jaw at the man’s tone, but he kept quiet. Better to watch and observe first, and act later.
Anna shook her head. “No need.” She’d tell him about the restroom incident later.
“So, who’s this guy?”
“This is Lucas Bennett. Lucas, meet Justin Michaels.”
The men nodded at each other. Lucas and Anna took seats on the ugly green sofa from the nineteen sixties, and Justin sat in the faux-leather chair behind his desk. He looked pointedly at Anna. “You’ve been gone a long time.”
“I’ve been hiding.” In more ways than one. Not just physically, but emotionally, too.
“And