Page 28 of Desperate Vows

The man leaned down and smiled. “You’ll see soon enough.”

“Well, what is going on here?”

Thea? I tried to find where she was and nearly cried when I saw her with her shoulder leaning against the doorframe.

The other man, less thick, snarled at her. “Maybe the guy would like to play with her too.”

Necky laughed and then abruptly stopped. I looked up, and there was a knife lodged in his throat. He dropped to the floor, and I just stared. I’d seen death in the movies, but up close, I was frozen. That man was alive, and now he was dead. At my feet. In my home.

I somewhat registered a conversation between Thea and a man. No, two men.

Several loud pops later, an arm snaked around my waist. “Claire!”

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t blink. I couldn’t look away. All I could do was watch the dead man’s blood pool on the floor. It was like a macabre abstract painting. He’d planned to kidnap me and take me to someone who wanted to hurt me, but I couldn’t stop myself from wondering who might miss him when he didn’t come home.

Fingers tugged on my chin, and my eyes were on Lucas.

“I’ve got you.”

He had me?

“She’s in shock. I’m getting her out of here,” Lucas said.

“Thea?”

“Thea’s fine, but I need to get you somewhere safe.”

“Somewhere safe.” I nodded. “Okay.”

It wasn’t until my skin connected with cool black leather that I realized Lucas put me in the car. The driver’s side door whooshed open, and he was sitting behind the wheel. He clipped my seatbelt in place, and the engine revved.

Lucas was on the phone. With the way he was talking, it must have been one of his brothers. “Yeah, I’ve got her. Take him to the warehouse. I want to talk to him once I get her settled.”

Blood rushed through my ears as I tried to process what had just happened. It was too much. Too much. The words repeated until everything went black.

“Claire.” My name was a whisper. “Claire, hey, wake up.”

The cloud I floated on was soft and warm. When I breathed deeply, something spicy filled my nose. The familiar spicy scent of Lucas. I slowly opened my eyes, and the night’s events rushed back with blinding speed. The men. The violence. The blood.

I realized I was on a bed, and I scrambled back until I hit the headboard. My hands went to my head. My stomach was in knots. Panic was building in my chest. I couldn’t breathe.

“Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Lucas came into focus as his warm honey voice coated my ears and addled brain. “You’re okay. You’re at my condo, and you’re safe.”

He gave me a second to let that sink in. I swallowed and looked at him. Dimitris, the little girl, and the conclusion I’d come to hit me. I’d laughed it off, but as I was looking at Lucas, I knew I was right. I knew it.

I wanted to tell him I’d figured it out, to pelt him with questions, and to understand why. A deep sense of self-preservation kicked in, and I quickly decided that it would be a bad idea to say anything. He didn’t know me, and what I knew could get him and his entire family killed. He’d kill me to prevent that from happening, and I couldn’t say it wouldn’t be justified.

Instead, I used my expertise in burying things that I didn’t want to remember and asked, “What happened?”

“We’re not exactly sure yet, but we got one of the guys who tried to kidnap you. He will fill us in.” Lucas growled the last sentence.

An image of the man with the knife in his throat, his hand on the knife handle, played in my head—the bewildered look in his eyes. “There was so much blood. I’ve never seen so much. It just…” I took a breath. “So much.”

“I know, and I’m sorry you had to see that. I wish I could erase it from your memory.”

My shoulders relaxed, and my gaze dropped to my hands. “Me too. I wonder if he had a family. I wonder if he had children.” I lifted my head, my eyes meeting his. He had a strange look in his eyes.

His head tilted as his eyebrows furrowed. “He was going to hurt you.”

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