Page 12 of Her Noble Protector

She kept staring at the picture, then thought of her job in Mexico, sure she would find some of her father’s family. She’d been wrecked when she found that all of her father’s relatives were dead and buried. It was like she had nothing. No real past, no future, nothing.

She jerked her head up when she realized she’d closed her eyes again. No sleeping. She couldn’t let herself dream. Dreams were bad. She touched her hair and felt that it was drying, so that was good, and she wasn’t shivering anymore. Bending down, she grabbed the Sprite and crackers so she could have some more.

“You’ve been quiet a long time in there. Do you feel like talking?”

Lisa jerked and Sprite spilled on her blanket. Raiden’s voice was still that smooth and gentle rumble, but this time it was laced with worry. And, he was right outside her sliding glass door. Maybe three feet away from her. She saw a small empty spot on her cluttered coffee table and put the soda bottle on it. She leaned over and pushed back one of the blinds, then yanked her hand back.

She’d seen his arm. He was standing right there! Her heart hammered in her chest. A million miles a minute. A man was right outside her house and she’d told him to leave and he hadn’t gone.

“Go away!” She heard herself. It was a cross between a shriek and a plea.

“Ah, Lisa, please don’t be scared. Paula sent me, remember?”

A picture of Paula flashed through her brain. Red hair, generous smile, eyes that saw into your soul. Paula was safe.

“Paula wouldn’t send you. She’d come herself.”

“She couldn’t, honey. Her daughter dumped off her three grandbabies. She’s got to take care of them. She wanted to be here so bad, but she couldn’t.”

Lisa pictured Paula’s daughter, a strung-out loser who had been going downhill since she turned twenty and popped out her first kid while addicted to meth. No matter how many times Paula got her into rehab, it never stuck. Maybe this time she’d get custody of her grandchildren for good.

“You can’t be here. I don’t want you here. I’m fine by myself.” Lisa began to shiver again, even though it was now warm in her house.

“Honey, you’re not fine.”

Lisa didn’t know how to respond to that. She looked around her house and knew he was right, but nobody could help her, so he needed to go away. Now.

“Please, Raiden, please go away. You’re scaring me.” That was the God’s honest truth.

It was as if she could feel his wounded energy coming through the patio door. “Do you really think I would hurt you? Really?”

Lisa nodded her head into her knees. She thought back to the big man she had met in Miami. Then her mind flashed back further to the man in Mexico. The man who had touched her so gently. The man who had talked to her in a soothing voice and told her it would be all right, that she was safe, and he would take care of her. That she was safe. That’s why she’d never screamed when she heard his voice outside her window, because she recognized Raiden from before, and he had kept his promises.

“No, Raiden, I don’t think you would hurt me. You helped me.”

“Thank God for that.”

“But having you here, having you talk to me. It’s too much. I can’t handle it.”

“Honey, I’ve never been in your shoes. All I can say is, if I could take your pain away, if I could’ve had it happen to me instead of you, I would change places in a fucking heartbeat, but I can’t.”

Lisa gasped in a deep breath of air. It sounded like he meant it. Like he really meant it.

“Lisa, I’ve been around a lot of people, both men, and women, who have gone through some devastating shit in their time. Some have come through to the other side, and some haven’t. Do you want to know what made the difference for every single person who made it through to the other side? They had people they could rely on, and they reached out.”

“But I still don’t understand why you’re here, Raiden. Why you? Why do you care about me?”

“I care because I care. I saw you in Mexico, I know how hard you fought to keep those kids safe. I know you were the one who kept her head and called in when the bus was first captured. Your bravery astounded me. Then I saw you in that hospital in Miami, I saw you hurting. No woman deserves to be hurt like you’ve been. It broke my heart, Lisa. I wanted to be there for you. You touched my heart. I’m here because I think you need me, and I don’t want you to be one of those people who doesn’t make it to the other side.”

She didn’t know how to respond. It was too much. Her eyes drifted back to the picture of the glacier.

“Did you hear me?” Raiden finally asked.

“I heard you. I need to go to sleep now,” she said quietly.

“Okay, honey.”

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