Chapter Nineteen

Kara screamed, wide awake now. The gloved hand pulled her with force and she dug her heels in, pulling back while her heart raced in blind panic.

The door flew open, slamming back against the wall and Lucas stood in the door way a gun in his hand.
"Kara!"

"Help me!" she screamed.
In a second, he was across the room, but it was too late. The gloved hand had disappeared. Lucas
went straight for the window, but Kara grabbed him back as she sank to the floor.
"Lucas! No!"

He turned back to her, dropped to his knees.
"Merde! You're trembling!" he hissed, holding her hand.

Kara breathed in shakily, her heart in her throat.
"Oh, my God," she whispered.

Lucas shot up and began for the door. "Wait here," he ordered.
"No, wait!" she called, but he was already out the door. Kara wasted no time in getting up and racing out after him.

By the time she'd reached the front door, he was stalking back towards her, looking pissed as ever.
Kara hurried back into the cottage as Lucas closed and locked the door. He found her sitting on the sofa.
"Nobody!" he yelled, making Kara start. "That's what you said when I asked you who was after you! You lied when I can help you and now you have some bastard trying to snatch you out a fucking window!"
She stared up at the gun he was waving around as he yelled and sank back into the sofa, placing Luc's hoodie over her bare thighs

"Who was that?!" Lucas demanded. Kara remained quiet, letting her gaze drop and he ran a frustrated hand down his beard.
"I asked you a question, Kara."

She shook her head, eyeing the gun again. Lucas cursed, realizing the weapon intimidated her and immediately put the safety on before putting it away.
He slowly approached her and crouched before her, putting them at the same eye level.
"Kara," Luc began, trying to adopt the tone Isabelle used with Rayan when he was pissed off. "I need to you to talk to me."

He picked up her hand and held it, studying how small and fragile it looked in his.
Kara bit her tongue. She couldn't tell Lucas anything. She couldn't tell anyone because they'd try and make her go to the cops. And they would treat her different after that. Calling cops was the last thing she was ever going to do, cause those bastards would just take her right back to Markov. She'd seen it happen to one of the other girls before. She couldn't.
"I can't..." said Kara, hoping he'd drop it. Of course, Lucas being as hard headed as a mule, did the opposite.

"There was a man trying to pull you out of the window! What were you doing at the damn window at three am in the first place?"

"I got cold... and realized my windows were open."
She looked into his grey eyes, realized they had a cold, calculative look in them. Could she trust him? He was a man and in Kara's experience, men always disappointed you. No matter what they said, in the end they would disappoint you. Eventually, she looked away from him. Lucas was a man.

"Do you know who he was?" Luc asked and Kara shook her head, biting hard on her lip as a lump formed in her throat.
Fuck, she'd never been more scared in her entire life. She'd thought, whoever that bastard was, he'd snatch her out of the window and drag her all the way back to Markov Vilmont's office. Where they would kill her. She'd thought she was going to die.
A sob broke out of her and the first tears ran down her cheeks.
Luc's jaw clenched and he tugged on her chin gently, lifting her face.
"When you were at my place... you were running," he stated, didn't ask, so Kara said nothing. "You were running from somebody and now they've found you."

She sighed, blinking to hold back the tears heavy in her heart. God, she was so scared.

"Hey," Lucas called, feeling enraged by her tears. "Look at me."
At the steel in his voice, Kara looked into his eyes and her breath got caught in her lungs at what she saw. The look in Lucas' eyes. Kara had seen it before in the eyes of every man who was about
to pull a trigger. And she had seen too many men pull triggers.
It was a look of murder.

She gulped.

Lucas leaned in. "I won't let anybody... anybody...lay a finger on you. Do you understand me?"
Kara found herself not only nodding at his statement, but also believing every word he'd said. He was a man, but... could he be different?
Maybe.
"Yesterday..." she began. "He was here."
Lucas stiffened. "The same one?"
Kara frowned and shrugged, shaking her head. "I don't know. I heard something outside my window and when I l-looked... there was a shadow of a man. Just... standing there. It was so scary," she whispered, holding her hands against her chest.
Lucas ran his tongue over his teeth. They were here last night. And Kara had been alone, for fuck's sake!
He drew in a breath to calm himself. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't think you'd care. Plus, I can't... I can't tell anybody."
Lucas frowned, wrapping his hand around hers again. "I do care. I can't have anybody shooting your annoying ass, Celeste and my brother like you."
Kara snorted out a laugh and Luc fought a grin, glad he'd made her smile.

"They're the reason I can't say anything," she said softly. "They took me in, Lucas. After I ran from your place, François found me by the road side. Homeless- even if I had thousands in my bag. He took me home and added me to his staff. I can't put their lives in danger."
He shook his head. "We won't. We'll take care of your problem quietly and they'll never find out."

She scoffed. "Oh, my problem can't be taken care of quietly. It's stubborn."
His jaw clenched. "Listen here. Your problem will do whatever the fuck I tell it to do. When I put a bullet in its head, it won't have much left to be stubborn with, now will it?"
Kara was taken aback. She eyed the bag where he'd kept the gun. "You-you would use your gun?" A thought occurred to her, making her gasp loudly. "Have you... used it... before?"
Lucas stared at her coldly, letting go off her hands. "When I have to." He shrugged. "When people cross me, I deal with them. You don't get to being as fucking rich as I am without... dealing... with some people."
She gasped again, loudly and dramatically. Luc gave her a dry look.

"Give me his name, Kara. Just his name. By tomorrow he'll be gone."
Her eyes widened. He couldn't be serious. But... this was Markov Vilmont they were talking about! Only... oh, yeah. Lucas didn't know that.
She shook her head. "He's dangerous, Lucas... very dangerous," she whispered.
Lucas smirked and Kara got scared at the cold steel grey that his eyes turned.
"I promise..." he whispered. "To make this... 'very dangerous' man shit his pants. Nobody can stand before Lucas Cartier and not shit their pants."
Kara stared at him with wide eyes, realizing that Lucas probably has done some really bad things in his life.

"That's not a good thing," she whispered. "You won't make friends."
Lucas tilted his head at her. "I don't want friends."
Kara bit her lip and his eyes dropped to her mouth.

"Stop that," Luc said, tugging her bottom lip free with his thumb before he got up and put a huge distance between them.

"Hungry?" he said, carrying the remaining box of pizza over to the microwave. Kara nodded and ran a hand down her bare thigh under his jacket. She was cold.
But she wasn't going back into that room. The windows were still open, she'd ran out before she could close them. While Lucas dug around in her cupboards and ate her snacks, she dragged his bag closer with a frown of concentration.
Gingerly pushing his gun aside with two fingers, she saw a folded t-shirt, a bunch of man things, a pair of jeans and a pair of tracksuit pants. With a smile, Kara picked up the track pants and stood to put them on.
Lucas turned from the cupboard to put a bowl of chips on the counter and froze. He blinked a few times, but the sight didn't change. There was Kara, dragging pants up her long legs, entirely consumed by her task and looking very satisfied too.

Only one problem. They were his damn pants.
"Qu'est-ce que tu fais?" Luc asked, his voice holding a note of unbelief in it.
Her head shot up, a lock of dark hair curving over one eye.
She'd frozen with the other leg only halfway in.

"Uh..." Kara began, turning pink. She hadn't actually thought about Luc having a problem with her wearing his bloody pants. A genius, wasn't she?! "I'm cold...sorry..."
He rubbed his forehead, fighting a grin. "It's fine."
She perked up and completed putting the pants on. "Thank you."
Lucas put his hands on his hips, watching as she tied the strings super tight to accommodate her tiny waist.
With a laugh, he carried the box and two bowls over setting them on the table.

"Did you close those windows?" he questioned as he picked up the remote. Kara shook her head, looking sheepish and he nodded.
A trip to her room had the windows closed and Kara's heart resting easy.
He came back and found her sitting cross-legged on the sofa, munching away on Pringles.
Lucas found himself pausing and studying her for a second.

"You know you can't stay here anymore, right?" he said.

Kara's gaze met his, a chip frozen half way to her mouth. She lowered it, looking worried.
"But... I thought you said I didn't have to leave the ranch..."

Lucas shook his head. "No, I mean the cottage. Whoever's after you knows exactly where you are. They know which room is your bedroom, which means they've had time to figure out the arrangement of this cottage." He put his hands in his pockets. "You need to leave the place."

Kara felt her heart sink and put the bowl of pringles aside, her mouth tugging down.

"Well... where will I stay? I don't have a-anywhere else..."
Lucas quickly sat beside her when she started to get frustrated and turned her to face him.

"With me."