Chapter Forty

Lucas was already pacing before the fire place in one of Isabelle’s sitting rooms, nerves coiled as tight as a snake.
His teeth clenched and unclenched in his jaw and it was all he could do to not rip something in two.
Raphaël watched him, but said nothing. Luc was glad. Last night could have qualified as truly one of the worst nights of his life and now he could vent some of his frustrations, he didn’t want to be talked out of it.
He didn’t know where Kara was. He didn’t know if she was okay, if she was still angry or if she’d forgiven him.
He hoped she was okay. Even if she remained pissed off at him, he hoped she was at least happy and safe.
Happy and safe was what Lucas wanted Kara to be for the rest of her life and that meant getting rid of or teaching any person who had tried to harm her, a sweet lesson.
Luc’s hand’s itched. And teach him a lesson, Luc would.
Isabelle peaked her head in and felt the tension in the air. Raphaël sat, seemingly relaxed in a recliner, while Lucas paced about. It was as if they switched personalities at times, she thought, remembering how charged Raphaël always used to be and how Lucas would be his voice of reason.
Things change then.
“Uh, we’ll be off then,” she said quietly.
Raphaël got up and walked over to her. “Promise me you’ll be safe?”
Isabelle titled her head. “Gee, I’m not sure. It is a few miles away, we might get lost and eaten by bears.”
His facial expression made her grin and give him a quick hard peck on the lips to which Raphaël responded by holding her and deepening the kiss for a second and a half, which, to Isabelle, seemed worse torture than a peck.
After another cautious glance at Lucas, she inched out and tip-toed away from the place. She’d take the children and Aunt Rosa to the ranch for the day and let the kids amuse themselves. Now that Celeste’s children were home it would take very little to get the kids busy.
The house stood quiet when Lucas and Raphaël were left alone and Lucas lowered himself onto the edge of the desk, his hand sweeping back into his hair and sending it sweeping away from his face.
The silence was splintered by shuffling feet and muffled pleads.
Luc rose and so did Raphaël.
When the door was pushed open, revealing a dark faced François and a pale Kai, the men drew closer, gazes fixated on Kai, like hawks around a baby meerkat.
Kai’s legs gave out and he sunk to his knees besides François, hands trembling shamelessly for all to see.
He stared pleadingly up at the faces that looked down at him, screaming in his heart for mercy even if his mouth only whimpered.
He hadn’t been thinking straight. He’d been greedy, wanting to be like François. Wanting to own a farm, ranch and vineyard all rolled into one. Look at how rich and popular it had made François! Kai had desperately wanted the same for himself and because of his greed, because he’d plotted with the devil to harm innocent Kara , he was now likely to die at the hands of the three men who’s mercy he’d never imagined to be at, even in his nightmares.
Lucas spoke first. “Alors?” he said. “What do you have to say?”
Kai wouldn’t… couldn’t look up into Luc’s eyes and kept his gaze trained on Luc’s tightly fisted hands.
They shook with suppressed fury and Kai felt bitter fear of being on the receiving end of that fist.
When he remained silent and lowered his gaze, Lucas snapped and the next thing Kai knew, he’d been snatched off the floor and held dangling in the air, Luc’s hand curled around his throat.
Lucas needed the boy to answer his damn question.
Kai couldn’t even beg. The amount of fear pounding within him at that moment was humongous. He stared, wide eyed down at Luc’s cold grey eyes, tears coursing out of his own.
“Lu-Lucas!” he managed to force out. “Please…”
Luc didn’t budge.
François stepped forward behind Kai and Luc’s gaze darted to his. François frowned, giving Lucas a warning look.
Luc’s jaw clenched but he eased his grip on the kid's neck.
“You were stalking Kara in her own house, weren’t you, you little rat?”
Kai started to cry.
Lucas looked up at him with disgust and withdrew his hand, letting the guy fall to the ground, dragging in lungfuls of air.
“Please… I’m sorry…” he coughed out skittering away on the floor.
Lucas only followed him.
“For which part? Trying to pull her out of her window in the middle of the night or trying sell her away to Vilmont like a damn vegetable?” he asked calmly.
Kai shook his head. “E-everything… I am sorry… I only wanted…”
“Okay, I don’t really give a fuck what you wanted, you understand? Anyone who played a part in all that shit needs to be punished. All those Rein bastards got their piece of it… I’ve gotten my punishment, it’s only fair you get yours, not true?”
The cold smile that curved Luc’s mouth had Kai trembling down to his toes.
“Please…”
“Which hand did you use to try and pull Kara out of her window?” Luc asked quietly.
Kai didn’t understand. Until Luc’s hand disappeared behind his back and came back with a switch blade held in it.
“No…” he whispered. “S’il te plait, Lucas, please!”
Lucas grinned coldly and flipped out the blade. Kai stared at the length of it in horror as it glinted evilly in the light.
“I said which hand?” Luc repeated, strategically cornering Kai.
“Please, L-Lucas!” He was openly crying now. Big sobs, powered by the crippling fear inside him.
“Which hand, Kai?” taunted Lucas as he grabbed Kai’s ankle and dragged the guy back to the center of the triangle the three men had formed.
Kai struggled, screaming his lungs out and Lucas wasted no time in stuffing his mouth with the over-sized shirt Kai wore.
“Was it the left or the right?” he asked, holding Kai’s right arm down against the carpeted floor, by pressing his knee down onto it.
Lucas frowned, ignoring Kai’s struggles.
“You’re going to have to tell me which hand it was, else I might cut the wrong one off,” Luc said in mock anxiousness. “Which hand, espèce de dégoûtant?!”
His raised voice sent Kai screaming again with urgent shaking of his head.
“Si e lee! ‘eeaasse!” he pleaded through the cloth in his mouth.
Raphaël’s mouth twitched when Lucas studied his blade in concentration.
“Sharp enough to cut through bone, don’t you think?” Luc asked.
“Looks it,” said François, rocking on his heels.
Raphaël nodded in agreement. “Absolutely.”
“…’ooooo!” Kai screamed.
Lucas held the sharp knife tip over Kai’s nose and he stilled immediately, although unable to stop the trembling.
“I could slide this right into your throat, do you know that?”
Kai’s eyes widened in terror and Lucas ensured that he was a safe distance away in case the kid peed himself.
“Didn’t I tell you to stay away from her? Didn’t I?”
Kai’s muffled cries filled the office.
Luc scowled in disgust. Kid wasn’t even man enough to take a little knife.
He yanked the shirt out of Kai’s mouth and lay the blade against his throat, making Kai’s crying stop immediately and he went as still as a corpse post-rigor mortis.
“Why did you do it?” Luc questioned, already convinced that the kid probably won’t look in the direction of another woman and have thoughts of selling her for as long as he lived.
Kai spoke, moving only his quivering lips.
“I’m sorry…”
Lucas huffed out an impatient breath. “That’s not what I asked.”
“I… I needed the money…” Kai said, eyes streaming tears. “I am desperate to start my own ranch… to be like François….”
“Oh?” said Luc. “So the only way to be my brother’s double is to go selling women?”
“No…”
“Exactly.”
François crossed his arms as he watched, proud of how Lucas was handling Kai, who to all of them was obviously an inexperienced, foolish lad with big dreams.
“You were like a friend to her. That’s not how you treat a woman, Kai,” Luc said then. “When a woman is as amazing as Kara is, you don’t go stabbing her in the back, you understand?! You treat her like fine china, like goddamn diamonds, like the fucking goddess she is!”
“I regret it. I never wanted to hurt her. I a-actually love he-”
Raphaël hissed when Kai made the mistake.
“You what?” Luc cut him off. “Love? Who? Kara? Clearly you want me to take your fucking hand off!”
“No! Please!”
“Shut the fuck up then, and listen! Because I know all about loving Kara, my heart's fucking beating for the little minx! If you loved her, you wouldn’t cry to save your damn hand, you’d cry because you hurt her…”
Kai gulped. “You? You can’t love K-Kara… you hate everybody.”
“Shut up,” Lucas stated cleanly, glaring at Raphaël when he chuckled. “Because I fucking do, you little prick. I love the hell out of her and if you ever so much as look at her again, your hand won’t be all I’ll be taking off…”
“I can look after myself, Lucas.”
Luc’s head snapped up so fast, he nearly saw stars, but he didn’t feel the throb in his neck. He couldn’t believe his eyes.
“Kara?”