Desperate Arrangement: Bouncing Back, Book IV

21

Hearing his name carried on the mid-morning wind, Lukas turned to the source of the terrified scream. His eyes widened as he saw Johanna running toward him. He held her at arm's length, carefully looking her over. She seemed fine until he noticed the trickle of blood curling under her chin from her lip. "Johanna, calm down and tell me what happened. Who hurt you?"

"A man came into the yard while I was handling the animals. Lukas, h-he tried to... force me," she sobbed into his shirt, her hands gripping the fabric tightly as she clung to him for dear life. "I fought him. I bit his hand and hit him with a piece of wood. When he wouldn't stay down, I smacked the back of his leg hard with the log and ran for my life."

“Good girl,” Lukas whispered, holding her in a firm embrace. He gently smoothed the tresses of her brown hair back from her face. "It's okay. I’ve got you now. You did your part; now it’s my turn, okay?"

"I said get back here," a man shouted as he rounded the corner.

He was limping, and the bloody scratches left by the young woman told the story of her fight to survive the encounter. Deep gashes crisscrossed his face, with one particularly nasty cut above his right eyebrow, oozing blood and partially obstructing his vision. His left hand was swollen and bruised, with several bite marks seeping red, a testament to Johanna's desperate struggle.

The sight made Lukas grin as he peeled off his shirt and draped it over the fence. Knowing Johanna had a fighting spirit beneath her gentle, shy personality filled him with pride. He was happy that her fight-or-flight response was to fight first, then flee. Internally, he laughed at the fact that she and Jaxon shared similar personalities.

“Stop right where you are, Noah,” Julian snarled, his anger palpable in the air, revealing a darker side of the man Lukas had quickly befriended. “State your business.”

"Outta my way, you wretch! I'm only here for that little heifer. Beat me with a chunk of wood, huh? I’ll show you how to behave!" Noah bellowed, pointing to the girl shivering with fright in the black-haired man’s arms.

Lukas glared at the older man, turning his attention to Julian for answers. "Who is this walking disaster of a joke?"

"He's one of a few known criminals in this area who usually never crosses the Roberts farm threshold,” Julian replied. "There's no way he would have known where Johanna was, so someone had to have told him. Kristoph and I would never disclose that type of intel to someone like Noah Walker."

Looking down at the young woman in his arms, Lukas kissed the top of her head. "Forgive me, sweet girl, but I refuse to let this go unchecked. Julian, please, I need you to take Johanna into the house and lock it down for me. Do not come back here – either of you. I have to teach a dumbass a lesson in Mafia 101 – how to silence an overzealous prick."

Nodding, Julian holstered his gun and lifted the hysterical girl into his arms. It took a bit more strength than he expected as he pried her fingers from Lukas's shirt. “Lukas, don’t kill him. We still need a confession.”

“Heh, no worries, Jules. I’ll leave the finishing blows until he’s chirped like a birdie about his visit. He f****d around, and now he gets to find out the hard way.” As soon as they were gone, Lukas turned to Noah with a blank expression. "Did you really think I’d let you off with hurting my fiancée?"

Noah made the first move, but Lukas ducked to the side, blocking the hit before dropping low and sending a hard blow to the man's solar plexus. The satisfying gush of air leaving Noah's body made Lukas silently thank Robert for diligently imparting various techniques to him. Another debilitating blow to Noah's jaw sent the man crashing into the fence with a grunt.

Flexing his hands, Lukas shook out the tension in his fingers and took a steady breath. This guy was an amateur compared to the opponents he faced back home. His current training had proven to be a wise decision, and he realized that in his younger days, he might have already lost the fight.

Noah's anger surged as he looked up to see Lukas hardly fazed. "You think you're a big man, huh? You think I'm troubled that you got in a few good hits?"

Lukas opened his storm-grey eyes, narrowing his gaze on the taunting man. He kept his emotions in check and grinned maliciously before laying into Noah. Hit after hit landed without pause, bones cracking as Lukas shifted from boxing techniques to more violent tactics, grateful for the scrapes he and his brother got into growing up. His fist slammed into Noah's side, eliciting a cry for mercy before the man passed out.

"Clemency doesn't exist for people like you," Lukas growled, echoing the teachings of the mob. Blood trickled from various places on Noah’s unconscious body. With his mind clear, Lukas grabbed his shirt and began wiping the red splatter from his torso.

"Damn, Markus wasn't wrong. Taking out bullies really is messy work," Lukas muttered as he walked calmly back to the house, wiping the blood from his torso with his shirt.

Turning the corner, he came face to face with his uncle, who was running up the path. "Lukas, where's the intruder?"

"Half-dead by the back fence," Lukas answered. "I'm done with him, so he's all yours, Uncle Kris."

“Nice. I'm going to file a report that he was met with a furious husband after attacking a young woman." Kristoph looked at Lukas, noting the resolve in his nephew's eyes and the remnants of the confrontation dotting his clothes.

Holding up a hand, Lukas shook his head slowly. “He’s dying today, Uncle. Report that he was released to go seek medical attention, but if he can sneak up and try to rape my fiancée, then who else has he done it to?”

“What plan do you have in mind?” Kristoph asked, intrigued by the hidden monster within his normally calm and gentle nephew.

Lukas grinned, an evil darkness echoing in his grey eyes. “The well is covered by old rotting wood, so that’s where I’m going to bury the prick. Then, just to make sure no one finds his corpse, I’m going to fill it with manure and compost before building a new covering.”

Getting into the house, Lukas's eyes flickered to Julian's. "What?"

"I heard him screaming from here," Julian replied with a shrug, followed by a wince. The fact that Lukas seemed to be in complete control of his actions proved that trusting him was never going to be a mistake.

"As promised, I left the bastard alive, and Uncle Kris is already working on the confession," Lukas stated. Pulling out his phone, he called David, who answered on the third ring. "Want to see my father sober up in less than a minute? Tell him I just got into a fist fight with a guy named Noah Walker."

Moments later, his father was on the line, his voice gruff with concern. "What the hell happened? You faced down Walker? When?"

Taking a deep breath, Lukas updated his father on the situation. “I’ve already decided on his burial plot and how it’s going to be taken care of. However, I need to rush the rest of my stay because this interference is pissing me off. Can you switch my flight for me?"

"Damn, kid. You’re really putting my old enemies in their places, ain’t ya? Make sure your girl’s got all her info," Trace advised, his tone more sober and focused. "Put your Oma on, and go deal with the trash."

Handing the device to his grandmother, Lukas picked Johanna up off the chair. She squealed, flailing as he adjusted her weight before she froze under his command to be still.

The man holding her so tenderly had just beaten someone to within an inch of life. Noah’s blood was still staining his body, dotting the cream-coloured sun-kissed skin. Her mind was still working through the explanations when he set her on her feet. He unbuttoned the back of her dress before leaving the room, returning with a new dress from the closet in his Aunt Diane’s old room a few minutes later.

"Here, let's get you out of that soiled dress," he stated softly. Gently running his fingers along the forming bruise around her neck, he did his best to hide the anger simmering in his eyes. "You did well today, Princess."

"I did," she questioned, wanting to confirm she'd heard him right. Letting him help her take the dress off, she held her breath as he spoke again.

"Yes, you did. It takes a lot of courage and strength to do what you did, and that made me very proud of you, Johanna. Even if you were scared to death of what you were facing, you still fought back. Not many girls are that lucky."

Johanna sobbed, "I was afraid you would be angry."

"Not with you," he murmured.

Leaving the room, he closed the door to give her the privacy to change her clothes. Turning, he swallowed as his eyes met those of his grandmother. “Oma, is everything okay?”

"Your vater rebooked your flight for two days from now, and I called your Tante Helga to provide legal counsel and to talk to Johanna to ensure she’s a willing participant in the marriage, so she’ll be by tomorrow morning. While she’s doing that, I'll have Father Daniel perform a quick ceremony to avoid any issues. Samara’s told me she has all Johanna's government documents. Once your married, your Onkle Kristoph will have a signed letter from a judge allowing Johanna to leave the country."

“Thank you, Oma,” he replied.

“Think nothing of it, child. You just keep doing right by Johanna,” she warned before she left him alone.