Dangerous Deceptions: A Christian Romantic Suspense Boxed Set Collection

by Lisa Harris

  “Maybe.” He glanced down the hall where she’d disappeared, wishing he could forget their kiss. “We’re too different.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “She told me. I think she’s having a hard time seeing past the spoiled rich kid in me.” Aiden reached for a handful of pistachios from a bowl on the coffee table and popped one into his mouth. “I can’t really blame her. No matter how hard I try, I can’t shed that part of me.”

  “Your past will always be a part of you. Maybe it’s time you accepted yourself for who you are. Who’s to say you can’t embrace both sides?”

  By the time the food came, Rachel had pulled on a pair of gray sweatpants and a zippered hoodie. She joined Aiden in the living room that now smelled like spicy lamb meat.

  “Feel better?” Aiden asked, trying not to stare at how naturally beautiful she looked with wet hair and no makeup.

  “Definitely. Where’s Charlie?”

  “He had to run an errand.”

  She looked out at the darkened skyline and the lights of the city. “What kind of errand?”

  “I trust him, Rachel. We have to trust him.”

  “I know. I’m just having a hard time not seeing a villain around every corner.” She studied the food he’d spread out on the small table. “This looks amazing.”

  “The paper plates and card table, or the food?” he teased.

  She managed a laugh. “Definitely the food. What is it?”

  “Pide is the Turkish version of pizza,” he said, opening up the box. “Flat bread with meat, vegetables, and cheese toppings. Sometimes eggs, a sprinkle of lemon. . .”

  “And this?”

  “Döner. Marinated lamb that’s been cooked on a spit, then sliced and eaten in a pita with tomato, pepper, and onion.”

  She slid into one of the chairs before grabbing a slice of the pide and taking a bite. “Wow. This is good.” They ate until Rachel broke their comfortable silence. “I have a question for you.”

  “Shoot.”

  “I’m having a hard time seeing your parents eating delivery on paper plates. I mean, they bought an island as a second home. And yet you travel to places like Tibet, live in a tent, and seem just as comfortable eating Turkish pizza in a tiny apartment as you do flying a jet halfway around the world and dining on sautéed shrimp in some tropical paradise.” She cocked her head. “I’m just. . .trying to figure you out.”

  He took a bite of marinated lamb then wiped his fingers. “In other words, you want to know how a spoiled rich kid decided he wanted to do humanitarian work.”

  “That’s not exactly what I said.”

  He tried to read her expression. Kissing him had clearly been an impulsive act she regretted. Now he wasn’t sure what she thought of him. “But it’s what you were thinking?”

  “Maybe.”

  “My father had these grand plans for me to run the company, and although I enjoyed my science classes much more than my business classes all through college, it was simply what was expected. I honestly never really thought about anything else.”

  “So what changed?”

  “Charlie, actually. As you can imagine, he never liked working in the office. He was always traveling the world, following pandemics, and involved in cutting-edge technology. One summer he asked me to go with him.”

  “You’d traveled before.”

  “Yes. In five-star hotels with room service. Traveling with Charlie was different.” He squeezed a slice of lemon on his slice of pide, then took a bite “We were in Zambia at the time, working on an outbreak of cholera. I’d spent hours in a makeshift lab as we tested to find the source of the contamination that was decimating the surrounding villages.”

  “I’m guessing the place was short on five-star hotels.”

  “Ha. No, that wasn’t it. Charlie came to me after dinner one night and told me a woman had just showed up at the hospital. She’d walked two hours just to get to the hospital to ask for help for her sick son. Charlie wanted me to come with him to check on the outbreak in their village. We drove through the bush in the dark with a guide who somehow managed to hit every pothole on that narrow dirt road. I’ll admit, I’d never been so uncomfortable in my entire life. But then I met Samuel. He told me he was thirteen, but he didn’t look like he was a day over nine.”

  “Did he live?” she asked.

  Aiden tugged the bracelet on his arm. “He did. He gave me this as a thank-you. I’ve never forgotten him. Not too long after that, I talked to my dad about starting an official rapid response team through his company. I came up with an entire plan, including partnering with a couple of universities.”

  “What did he think about that?”

  “He decided to placate me. Thought it would be good publicity, but that I would get bored quickly of roughing it.”

  “But you didn’t.”

  “No, and now my father expects me to give it all up.”

  “Does he know about your plans with Doctors Without Borders?”

  “I haven’t told him.”

  Her brow rose. “Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and trust God to do the impossible with our lives.”

  He shook his head. “You don’t know my father.”

  “No, but I met him, and I can tell he loves you and is proud of you.”

  “There won’t be forgiveness for walking away from the company my father built from nothing.”

  “Maybe he just needs time to let it sink in.”

  “He’s had plenty of time. Trust me.”

  Aiden’s phone went off. “Excuse me, but I’m waiting to hear from my dad. I’m hoping he has some answers as to who’s behind the attacks.” He checked the secure message system Charlie had set up for his emails.

  “Is it him?”

  “No.” Aiden paused at the sender’s name. “It’s a message from Iceman.”

  “What is it?”

  Aiden looked up at Rachel. “Apparently, he’s been trying to contact me. He says he has some answers I need. He’ll be in Istanbul in the morning. Says we need to meet somewhere safe.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Rachel was dressed and reading an article Charlie had written nearly ten years ago on the advantages of cloning viruses when Aiden stepped from the tiny bathroom dressed in his usual worn jeans, white T-shirt, and hiking boots. His hair was wet, but he hadn’t taken the time to shave.

  “Morning,” he said, totally oblivious to how his low-maintenance style appealed to a girl who always chose comfort over impressing others.

  His allure had already gone up several notches on her interest meter after several days of watching him work in Charlie’s lab. It wasn’t every day a girl got a backstage pass into the brilliant mind of the hero in her chosen field. In fact, the time she’d spent working on the virus with Aiden and Charlie, each of them taking turns on the loveseat to catch a little sleep and eating takeout from a box, had been eye-opening on so many levels.

  Not only had she learned the intricacies of a cloning technique she would have sworn was only possible in the imagination of a sci-fi novel writer, she’d come to realize she’d misjudged both Aiden and Charlie. She’d judged them in the very same way people often judged her as a goody-two-shoes missionary kid based on what her father had done. She’d labeled Aiden a spoiled rich kid and Charlie a rogue scientist. She was wrong. On both counts.

  Charlie was kind, patient with her, even when she struggled to follow his unconventional reasoning or figure the correct answers to one of his complicated equations, and he was always telling her how good she was at her work. Every time he looked over her shoulder to check her progress, he gave her shoulder an approving pat. His touch reminded her of her father, made her feel as if her dad was there, cheering her on. She was a bee drawn to the nectar of the old man’s approval.

  And Aiden, selfless and generous in both his funding of this entire operation and his determination to stop this virus before it spread throughout the world, had made her feel secure in the
likelihood that together they would do something significant. Now and in the future. He’d said more than once that he needed her to help contain this virus and what a great addition she’d been to his team. Whether or not he thought about their kiss, she couldn’t say, because he hadn’t mentioned it. Not even once. But the last few days he seemed to linger when he brushed past her in the small lab or when their hands touched during the exchange of cell vials. His constant and close proximity had ignited the smoldering embers left over from their kiss into a flame that was pushing her out onto Charlie’s chilly balcony more and more often.

  “Rachel?” Aiden pulled on the sweater he’d picked up from a vendor’s stall during one of his food runs. “You okay?”

  She shook herself free of the dream that they might have a future together after this was over. “Just nervous about meeting your friend.”

  “Iceman has been my wingman since college. But I told you, I’ll go on my own. You’d be safer—”

  “No. I need to get out and stretch my legs. Besides that, you might need someone to watch your back.”

  He shot her a half smile. “You can’t really say you’ve seen Istanbul if you haven’t strolled the Grand Bazaar.”

  “That might be true, but here’s what I don’t understand. How did Iceman find you?”

  “Iceman knows me like a brother. He also knows my high regard for Charlie. It wouldn’t take much for him to put two and two together.”

  Trust didn’t come easy for her, she had to admit, but something felt wrong about this. “If he knew you’d come to Charlie, why didn’t he just come here?”

  “He knows Charlie’s in Istanbul. But you’re the first person I’ve brought here.” The trust he conveyed in his gaze didn’t completely tamp her concerns, but Aiden was right. They were going to need help to see this through.

  She gave Charlie an impromptu kiss on the cheek before they left. The old man, who smelled of strong coffee and leftover lamb, had a smile on his face as he assured them of his commitment to check on the progress of their work. Outside his door, they waited until they heard every bolt and chain lock into place.

  Aiden took her hand. “Better if we look like a couple.”

  To keep from concentrating on the heat generated by his touch, Rachel rehashed the plan they’d agreed on. They’d spent the last few days working with the rules and predictably of science. Adding someone else to this risky pursuit was fraught with unpredictability. She’d argued against it. Even laid out all the things that could go wrong. But in the end, Aiden had smiled at her and said, “Life isn’t always predictable. But I know Iceman, and we can trust him.”

  They planned to arrive at least thirty minutes earlier than the scheduled time for the meet. They’d wait at a table in the back of a pastry shop and order two noisettes. Once Iceman arrived, Aiden would make certain his friend had not been followed. If Aiden saw or suspected anything suspicious, they’d slip out the back of the shop. As a precaution, in case they got separated, he’d given her a burner phone and some cash, but if anything went wrong, they were going to have to warn Charlie to pack up the cloned virus and disappear using the escape route known only to Charlie. Once the old man was safely out of harm’s way, he was to contact Aiden via the burner phone he’d purchased from a vendor beside the red cart where he had purchased their morning fix of simit rolls.

  “First stop,” Aiden said to her after they descended the stairs of Charlie’s apartment house and stepped into the crisp air. “A transportation kiosk.”

  Aiden was either excited or anxious to have his team back together. Although he’d allowed her a small peek into who he really was, she wasn’t sure she knew him well enough to gauge which emotion had the stronger pull. She zipped up her long jacket and rubbed the toe of one of her boots over the back of her black jeans as she waited for him to buy an Istanbulkart, a contactless electronic card he’d said could be used on the many modes of public transportation across the city.

  They casually inserted themselves into the crowd heading toward a bus stop and hopped aboard the first metrobus that came along. The diesel vehicle coughed black smoke and was crammed with so many people they had to stand. Aiden’s breath warmed the back of her neck and his arm encircled her waist to keep her upright during the sudden stops and turns through the traffic. Rachel noticed there were no route maps posted anywhere inside the bus. When she turned to mention the possibility to Aiden that they could get lost, he merely tightened his hold on her.

  After several blocks, Aiden whispered in her ear that this is where they would get off to catch the public ferry. The orange and white chimneys of the passenger boat bobbed in the choppy blue waters. Aiden placed their card on the electronic reader on top of the turnstile, and she followed him to the upper deck of the ferry.

  “Would you like a little history lesson?” he asked, passing rows of wooden benches before stopping at the rail that overlooked the water.

  “I would,” she said, welcoming the distraction.

  “The city of Istanbul actually lies partly in Europe and partly in Asia.”

  Rachel glanced up at him. “Now how did I miss that fact growing up?”

  Aiden let out a low laugh. “I don’t know, because you don’t miss much.” The same could easily be said about him. “The city’s separated by the Bosphorus Strait, which connects the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea.”

  “You really have traveled the world, haven’t you?”

  “Thanks to my parents. They took me to Cairo, Paris, and Berlin, you name it, but I’ve always been partial to this city.”

  “Is that why you set Charlie up here?”

  “That and he already knew the city well.”

  “I wish we were just tourists today.” The wind whipped at her hair. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

  She took a deep breath as she scanned the horizon, thankful to be outside in the fresh air. Gulls circled the boat. The heavily populated city, lush with centuries of churches, mosques, and other architecture, spread out along the waterfront. A week wouldn’t be enough to explore the city properly. But all she could think about right now was staying alive.

  “I first came here with my parents when I was seventeen.” Aiden broke into her thoughts. “I wanted to go skiing in Aspen, but my father had friends living here, and they invited us to stay for the holidays.”

  “How did that turn out?”

  “They had a daughter, Gabriella. They must have bribed her into showing me the city. She was in college and studying history. We visited museums, churches, mosques. Spent hours in the Grand Bazaar and Basilica Cistern. She somehow managed to unlock a love of history in me.”

  “So was it the city that fascinated you, or Gabriella?”

  “I suppose a little of both.” He laughed then turned and caught her gaze. “I’ll have to bring you back here someday. There are so many things I’d love to show you.”

  There are so many things I’d love for you to show me.

  Rachel kept her thoughts to herself. She’d meant what she said about the two of them being too different. These feelings were nothing more than admiration. And kissing him had been a foolish impulse.

  Twenty minutes later they disembarked at the ferry terminal. They headed down the crowded street, with Aiden looking over his shoulder every few seconds to make sure they weren’t followed. If anyone was trying to track them, they’d have a hard time keeping up with the twists and turns they took through the alleyways. Another thirty minutes and they made it to the stone arch of the Grand Bazaar. For five centuries the first covered market in the world had sprawled over the city’s center. During the Ottoman Empire, Aiden told her, the market had been a fire lookout tower guarded by hundreds of soldiers. Today, the one bored and overworked security guard barely noticed the people flowing in and out of the giant entrance.

  Rachel sucked in a deep breath. “Here we go.”

  She and Aiden eased themselves into the bustle of people wearing heavy coats. Heads down,
they passed the smooth-faced security guard without being stopped. Inside the arched and ornate halls of the marketplace, the music of the tambur, lute, and an end-blown flute floated on the spice-scented air, creating an ambiance intended to put a person in the mood for parting with their money.

  “This way.” Aiden led her along one of the many wide concrete aisles lined with lighted display windows. Perfume, jewelry, exquisite vases, clothing, and vibrant splashes of color surrounded her. Shop sellers waited beside stacks of multi-colored fabric, beautiful pottery, and interesting artwork, each of them smiling and calling out to attract the attention of potential customers.

  The experience would have been one to check off her bucket list had she not been distracted by the nagging thought that coming here had been a mistake. That somehow, they’d been lured into a trap.

  Aiden easily found the pastry shop he’d given Iceman as the location of their meeting. He took her elbow and drew her close to him as they headed toward the back of the room. There was no turning back now.

  She secured a small table while Aiden ordered their coffees. All around her people passed, oblivious to the nerves twisting in Rachel’s gut. Only a couple of men let their eyes move from their deep conversation to the blonde sitting in the corner, but their assessment was brief and unimpressed. Everyone else ignored her. After all, she was a woman. She doubted she would be so easily dismissed if they knew she possessed knowledge of a virus that could forever alter their lives.

  She folded her hands together to steady her nerves, then spotted a tall handsome man with a blond crewcut coming her way.

  Iceman.

  The adrenaline pumping through her veins turned to ice at the sight of him. He was broad shouldered, muscled, and very sure of himself. His blue eyes locked with hers. Rachel’s heart rate doubled as he strode to their table.

  The blond microbiologist waited for Aiden to set the coffees on the table, then embraced Aiden. “Hey.” They gave each other glad-to-see-you slaps on the back, then released. “Man, you scared me to death when you dropped off the grid.”