Cause For Alarm. Erica Spindler

at her, his expression serious. Then he smiled. “I have a feeling about us, Julianna. Do you want to know what it is?” She nodded eagerly, and he continued. “I have the feeling that you and I are going to be the very best of friends. Would you like that?”

      She glanced up at her mother, saw that she looked pleased, then back at John Powers. “Yes, Mr. Powers. I’d like that very much.”

      The best of friends. The father she’d never had. Her protector. Her lover.

      John Powers had become her everything.

      And now he wanted her dead.

      A horn ripped through air, followed by a shouted epithet. Julianna blinked, startled out of her reverie. She looked around her, disoriented. People, anxious to get home after a long day of work, streamed around her, a few sending her curious glances. John, if that had really been him, was gone.

      Gone. She blinked again, despair rising up in her, stealing her breath. The past, her former life. John. All gone.

      Pulling her coat tighter around her, she turned and walked away.