Page 2 of Her Noble Protector

Her head swiveled on her neck as she spun to look at the door in her kitchen that led to her carport. Not only did it look closed, but she could also see that the pizza pans resting up against them were still in place. She whimpered with relief. She swung around again to check the patio door.

She was almost positive that nobody would have gotten in through her patio. They would have had to break the glass to get in, plus she had two cookie sheets and three pizza pans tipped up against that door, so they would’ve knocked them over and she would’ve heard the crash, but she lurched over to the door to double-check it anyway.

Lisa gave a watery sigh when she saw that the steel bar at the bottom of the sliding door was still in place and not one single pan had been tipped over. She felt her legs start to give out, and she eased herself to the floor before she fell down.

Lisa tried to drop the bat, but her hands were too cramped to let go. She shook her arms, trying to force it to drop on the floor. It finally fell. Her hands hurt like a son-of-a-bitch. She shoved them between her knees, trying to stop the painful tingling.

It was sweltering in her house; why hadn’t she turned on the air conditioning before she went to bed? Looking around she wondered why she hadn’t done a lot of things. There were dirty dishes all over her coffee table, and some on the floor in front of her couch. She frowned when she saw three bags of groceries on her dining room table. One was tipped over and there was a pint of yogurt and a loaf of bread peeking out. When had she ordered groceries? What was in the other two bags?

It didn’t look like her house. This was not her beloved home. Another tear fell. What had her life come to?

Lisa rested her head against the blinds on her sliding glass door. It felt a tiny bit cooler. She should get up, right? She needed to keep her eyes open; if she didn’t she’d dream then there wouldn’t be a jungle, or the back of Damon’s pick-up. The two times when she had been helpless. Utterly helpless.

Don’t close your eyes.

Please God, don’t let me close my eyes.

2

Raiden stood back and watched the menagerie. There were children everywhere, but somehow his mom and aunties managed to set the table with platters mounded with food, without tripping on one single toddler. He’d tried to help, but Auntie Rose had slapped his hand hard with a wooden spoon. At least it was his hand these days that got hit. He grinned as he took another sip of his beer. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched to see how his Lieutenant was handling things. So far, so good.

“Son, stop looking at the food and come to the garage, I want to show you something. Bring Max with you,” his father yelled above all the noise.

“Absolutely not. All of you need to come to the table, the food is ready.” Everybody stopped at the sound of his mother’s emphatic tone. For a little Japanese woman, when she decided to take charge, she could definitely scare a Navy SEAL. He saw Max’s right lip curl upward.

“Our honored guest will sit here,” she said, standing behind the chair to his father’s left and pointing at Max. Mom was seated to Pop’s right. Max no longer twitched when this happened; he was used to it. He’d been coming to the get-togethers for three years now, ever since Pop had found out that he liked old muscle cars too.

Max was just lucky Mom hadn’t started to throw some of the single cousins his way. Of course, that would be pretty fucking funny. He must have caught on to Raiden’s wicked thoughts because Max glared at him and ambled his way.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing. Nothing at all,” Raiden said with a grin. “Mom’s waiting for you to sit down.”

Max turned away from him, walked over to Raiden’s mother, and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He talked to her for a moment and she was beaming after he was done. His lieutenant was a smooth talker when he wanted to be.

Raiden sat down near the end of the table next to his teenage cousin. Leif was sixteen and going nowhere fast. He’d been hearing whispers here and there about how the kid was doing in and out of school and it wasn’t good. Leif’s parents, God love them, were blaming it on the wrong crowd, but according to Raiden’s mom and pop, his aunt and uncle were just letting the boy run wild. Then there was the info Raiden’s younger cousin Willy had told him, which was really not good, so Raiden was pretty happy to be sitting next to Leif.

Leif was looking down at his phone, ignoring everybody. When the first plate came around to Raiden, it was filled high with Aunt Cindy’s famous macaroni and cheese dish. He looked around the table and saw there was plenty to go around so he took a good-sized portion and asked Leif if he would like some.

“Leif?”

He sighed when the kid didn’t answer.

Leif’s fourteen-year-old sister Tallie was on his other side. She motioned for the dish and Raiden handed it to her.

“Leif?” she asked. He ignored her too. She scooped out some of the mac and cheese and smacked it down onto his plate. The boy still didn’t look up from his phone. Raiden looked over at what the kid was texting.

GET ME THE CASH, AND YOU’LL GET THE ANSWERS Leif texted.

THAT’S TOO MUCH

THEN I GUESS YOU WON’T PASS THE CLASS

Raiden didn’t get a chance to see how the person responded because someone just passed him the plate of Cousin Himari’s famous karaage fried chicken, and he was damn happy to see she’d made a huge bowl. He took a healthy portion, then nudged Leif who grunted at him.

“Leif, do you want some chicken?” he asked. “It’s Himari’s.”

No response.