Lucas nodded. “I know the debt you are facing, but greed, Henry? Could all this only be for greed?”
“You don’t know.” His friend’s eyes grew vicious. “You have been and always will be golden, Lucas. You were always the strongest, the best, the brightest. Even when I introduced you to the world of spies, you quickly overtook me in talent and ability. I wanted more. So much more. I tried to get it and failed. This was only supposed to happen once. Just reveal Warfield to the enemy. I would garner a handsome reward and eliminate a man I hated all at once.”
Lucas swallowed against a tidal wave of nausea. “But I showed up instead.”
“Yes.” Henry jerked out a nod. “And I was hit while trying to protect you. The War Department was ready to dismiss me, but the other side embraced me all the further. They offered me money. And I had power, Lucas. Once I started, I couldn’t stop.”
Ana met Lucas’s eyes. He saw her fear lighting higher, but it was matched by pity. Tears trickled from the corners of her eyes, and he knew they were for him. For the friend he had lost long ago, but never known was gone until she opened his eyes.
He let his gaze hold hers.
“I don’t want to have to kill you, Lucas.”
Henry’s statement shocked Lucas’s attention back. “You would kill me?”
Henry nodded, but the movement was erratic. “I’ve tried to protect you all this time. I fed you false information, I tried to assign you to cases that would keep you clear of my involvements. When Anastasia was assigned to partner you, I believed that would be perfect. I encouraged your desire, knowing she would resist. I thought her inability and your want for her would keep you busy, keep you away until I could cover myself. But she interfered, Lucas. She put you in danger. Now I can’t let her go.”
He moved the pistol against her head again, and Ana’s eyes squeezed shut for a brief moment. Lucas jumped forward before he checked himself. No. Remember the training. He was so close to the reticule now. Clearly there was something inside that Ana thought could aid her. If he could distract Henry long enough, she might be able to grab it and get free.
Henry leaned forward, his expression pleading. “But if you join me, we will be unstoppable. The money, the women, Lucas. The power. I would split it all with you.”
Lucas shook his head as he slipped his boot toe beneath the little bag. “I could never join you, Henry,” he whispered. “And I cannot let you harm the woman I love.”
Henry’s face twisted. “Love her?” He swung the pistol away from Ana and toward Lucas. “You’re telling me you love her?”
Lucas locked eyes with his wife, despite the danger of the weapon now pointed at him. He smiled.
“I love Ana more than I have ever loved anything in my life. I would die for her. I would kill for her.” He let his gaze move to the best friend he’d ever known. The worst enemy he’d ever had. “Even you, Henry.”
Then he flipped the reticule toward Ana and fired a shot.
The world seemed to slow to a frustrating crawl as Ana watched her reticule circle toward her. The explosion of Lucas’s gun rang through the air as she caught the bag and tore it open to pull out the perfume bottle.
Henry staggered back and Ana jumped to her feet as she saw he had been hit in the right shoulder. But somehow he managed to keep the gun in his hand.
“For her?” he bellowed as he raised the gun again. Lucas kept his ground, reloading his pistol.
Ana stared at him. How could he not run? How could he not take cover when Henry was armed?
Because of her. He wanted to protect her.
She turned on Henry, who was lifting his mangled arm to point his pistol at Lucas. Gripping the perfume bottle and praying the concoction she’d created would work, she charged him.
“Don’t you dare!” she screamed as she sprayed a mist of the kerosene and pepper oil directly into Henry’s eyes, then followed with the hardest punch she’d ever thrown.
He howled with surprise and pain, lifting his hands to cover his face. Ana staggered back as some of the mist back sprayed at her, filling her lungs with the pungent odor and making her eyes water.
Henry collapsed to his knees, swearing as he rubbed at his eyes. Ana coughed and backed away.
But he wasn’t ready to quit. He swung the gun in the direction she had approached from.
“Bitch!” he screamed over and over as he waved the gun in her direction. She tried to move, but her own vision was clouded by the backlash of her invention.
A gun fired a second time and Ana braced herself for the impact. But none came. Instead, Henry slumped forward, his weapon clattering away uselessly as he let out one final rattle of breath.
Chapter 25
“Y ou’re certain this spray won’t have a lasting effect?” Charlie asked as Dr. Wexler looked at Ana’s eyes.
She shook her head. “I can’t be sure, but the stinging has lessened since we rinsed my eyes. My lungs no longer hurt and my throat is raw, but it doesn’t burn. I believe the spray did exactly its job. Blinding and incapacitating without maiming permanently.”
She shot a glance in Lucas’s direction. He was leaning against the wall in the hallway of the abandoned building. He had hardly spoken since he gathered her up into his arms and carried her away from the broken, bloody body that had once been his best friend.
Charlie and men from the War Department had arrived, Lucas had answered their questions, but he had refused to leave her side. And refused to look at Henry’s body, even when they carried him away, covered in a blanket.
“This is amazing, Ana,” Charlie looked at the pretty perfume bottle. “Another invention that will assist us in our duties.”
She smiled, but the expression was forced. Somehow Charlie’s praise and even solving this case no longer meant everything to her.
Lucas did. And she needed to talk to him desperately. Needed to touch him. Without these people here. Without their prying eyes and questions.
The doctor put his things away. “You’ll come to see me tomorrow, Anastasia,” he ordered. “And I will check you for the next few days to insure you aren’t permanently damaged.”
She nodded absently, hardly hearing his orders. All she could do was stare at Lucas and watch him stare back, utterly unreadable, just as he had been when she first met him.
What had he said to her then? That she had to learn to break the rules.
“I’d like a little air. Could Lucas take me outside for a moment?”
Charlie nodded. “Of course. But we’ll need to speak to you both further.”
“Just for a moment.”
Lucas straightened and wordlessly offered her an arm. She took it, clutching at his heat and feeling his muscle contract beneath her hand.
“I’ll bring her back in a few moments,” he promised.
They stepped into the gathering dark. The moment the door closed behind them, Ana took his hand and hurried him toward their carriage, which had been swung up to the line of other vehicles for the officers and men inside.
“What are you doing?” Lucas asked, following behind her as she threw open the door. She pushed at him to go inside, whispered a few words to the driver and jumped in beside him.
He stared at her as the coach rolled forward. “What’s going on here, Ana? They need further statements from us, there is paperwork—”
“Rules were meant to be broken,” she interrupted. “I need to ask you something, Lucas. I need to know.”
He dipped his chin as if he anticipated what her question was. “Go ahead.”
“You told Henry that you loved me,” she whispered, her voice cracking and not just from her raw throat. “Did you mean that, Lucas? Do you love me? Or was it just a tactic to distract him?”
When his gaze lifted to hers, she saw the answer even before he said it. And it awed her.
“I meant every word, Ana. I have loved you since…probably since the moment I saw you.” He caught her hands and drew them to his chest. “I know you
do not wish for love. But I think, given time, you could grow to love me. I feel that in every part of me. I feel it in your kiss. I won’t ask you to love me now. But I hope that you will one day allow me into your heart, even in some small way. Even if you never give me as much of yourself as you shared with Gilbert.”
Ana stared at him, this man who had just poured his heart out. Offered her everything without any thought that he would receive anything in return.
He loved her.
And her love for him, which had seemed so surprising when she realized it a few hours before, flamed up and overcame her.
“I loved Gilbert,” she said softly, and her memories didn’t overwhelm her. “He was the boy I loved from the time I was a little girl. And being his wife was every childhood dream I ever had come true.”
Lucas swallowed hard and he nodded. “I know.”
“Wait.” She held up her hand. “I am no longer a child, Lucas. My dreams and my wishes and my fantasies are not the same as they were then. You helped me see that. Helped me see who I truly am. You are the man I love now. With all my heart. All my soul. Everything I have in me wants to belong to you. I do belong to you, Lucas.”
His eyes went wide and she realized that for the first time since she met him, she had shocked him into silence.
But then he didn’t need words. He caught her cheeks and drew her mouth to his, kissing her with a wild passion and pure joy that made her heart sing. She threw her arms around him, hugging him so tightly that she could feel his heart pounding against her own. The two were in perfect time.
He pulled back to grin down at her. “Where are you taking me?”
She reached up and pulled him closer again. “Emily, Meredith, and I bought this little home in Southwark. No one knows about it but us. And tonight it will be ours. No one can find us to file their reports. Or ask us questions.”
“It sounds like heaven,” Lucas laughed.
She lifted her lips to his.
“If you are there, it will be.”
About the Author
JENNA PETERSEN’S journey as an author truly began when her husband told her she was only happy when she was writing. He was right, as always. She loves history and happily-ever-afters, so writing historical romance is a perfect fit. When not writing, she enjoys reading, making fun of reality television, and spending time with her cats (who truly believe they are children). She currently lives in the Midwest, where she dodges tornados between chapters.
Jenna loves hearing from readers! You can find her online at www.jennapetersen.com.
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Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
DESIRE NEVER DIES. Copyright © 2007 by Jesse Petersen. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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