LuAnn is getting ready for an interview that will help her leave that trailer and Duane. It's the only chance she has for her and her little daughter to get out of the dump! Jackson is waiting in the office he set up just for that. Of course, LuAnn doesn't know that she's not being interviewed for a job but something much bigger than a clerical job. They meet and Jackson offers her something that is beyond belief. He tells her that if she accepts the deal that he is offering, she is sure to win the National lottery. LuAnn doesn't believe it and won't do it. Until, she comes home and finds Duane slaughtered. She's on the run and needs money fast. She calls Jackson and gives him the numbers she picked. He tells her to go to NYC where she has to go to pick the big check up.

In NYC, she is met by Charlie, her bodyguard, until the money is pocketed and she leaves the country with Lisa. She has to leave since she's being hunted by the police who think she killed Duane. She wins the money, she is handed some of it but the bulk is left to Jackson for ten years to play with. On the airplane to Europe, she finds Charlie, sitting next to her, who decided to follow her.

Ten years later. Jackson is gonna give LuAnn her money back. LuAnn is so tired of running. She buys a house with Charlie's help in Charlottesville, Virginia. Small town, very quiet. Meanwhile, a Washington journalist is investigating the lottery. He notices that most winners have gone bankrupt but for 12 of them. All winners go bankrupt, why not those 12. He has the list and LuAnn's on it. He figures, this one has been gone as soon as she got the money but he finds out before Jackson does that she has returned. He decides to go and see her for an interview.

Matt Riggs has been hired to build the security fence around LuAnn's house. He's surveying the house when he sees a car speeding past him, chased by another. Matt jumps in in his car and try to help the first car. LuAnn is in it and Thomas Donovan is in the other. Matt Riggs makes sure Donovan can't get to her. He follows her back to the house knowing she's the owner of the house but he is not welcome, LuAnn doesn't even thank him and denies everything that he said happened. LuAnn knows something is wrong, she knows she should not have come back even for Lisa's sake. She also knows that Charlie is getting old and wouldn't be able to protect her for long. And she wonders who is this Matt Riggs who acts like a cop but who's not one. And all the while, she's afraid of what Jackson will do when he learns she is back.

I loved this book!!!!! It's the first one of Baldacci's I read, despite the fact that I had hated Absolute Power when I saw it at the movies. However, the critics were excellent, so I gave it a chance. It is totally different from The Simple Truth, nothing to do with law. An excellent cat and mouse story. You absolutely love LuAnn and Charlie and you want her to live her life as an old lady and you want Matt Riggs in her life too: )
ONE RECOMMENDATION: BUY IT, BORROW IT!!!!!!!!!