Guardian Bears: Lucas by Leslie Chase

thing he ever wanted to do was bring her pain.
    "Look, okay, you don't have to tell me anything –" he started, but she held up a hand.
    "No, you're right," she admitted, her voice small and scared but determined. "I'll tell you some of it, alright? So you know what I'm afraid of?"
    He nodded, reaching out to take her hand. She seemed to draw strength from him, looking up and smiling through her tears.
    "I was working on web development for a small company, okay? It all seemed pretty normal at first, but the money was… well, it didn't make much sense. Sam Tanner, that was the owner, he always said not to worry, he had some friends who were helping out, but it all looked pretty shifty. I wasn't involved in anything, but there were always these big guys hanging around. I think they were some kind of gang."
    Lucas felt his frown deepen, but he didn't want to interrupt. Nodding encouragingly, he waited for her to go on.
    "I'm not sure, but I think they were money laundering. And that Sam, he always wanted his software to be the next big thing. Like he thought he'd be the next Google or something." She shook her head, but didn't stop talking. It was as though the barriers inside her had broken, and the words were pouring out in a flood.
    "One day the other guys, the big ones, they were angry. There was a lot of shouting, and then they stormed out. It scared a lot of us, but Sam told us it was all going to be fine, he'd set things straight with the investors. And I figured that was going to be that."
    This time the words trailed off, and a silence hung between Lucas and her. He waited patiently, giving her a chance to get back to the story, but though her mouth moved, the words didn't come.
    Her hand gripped his tight, her knuckles white and he could feel the trembling. He squeezed back gently.
    "What happened?" he prompted.
    "I was working late that night. It was just me and Sam in the building. That was stupid, right? But Sam was so convincing, and he'd made it clear that whatever they'd argued about, he was square with the big guys. He just needed everything up and running as quick as possible, so he paid me extra to stay late.
    "He was in his office, I was outside working on the website. And one of them came in and, and killed him."
    Tears were flowing freely down her cheeks now, and it was clearly an effort to keep talking. Lucas put his free arm around her shoulders and held her as she forced out the words.
    "I didn't know what to do. I, I just grabbed my laptop and ran! Got as far away from there as possible. But I saw the man who did it. He's going to come after me, isn't he?"
    Lucas frowned, not liking the answer to her question.
    I'm surprised she got out of there alive, he thought. No wonder her first reaction to a big stranger was to try to hit me. He found that he was proud of her, as well as angry at the people threatening her.
    "Probably, yes," he admitted out loud. "If you saw enough to identify him. But I can keep you safe, don't worry. Why didn't you go to the cops about this?"
    She paled and shook her head. "I couldn't face that! They'd never believe me!"
    Lucas couldn't see why not – nothing in her story was unbelievable. Just a case of a woman in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or the right time, maybe – if she hadn't been there, these killers would have gotten away with it and he would never have met his Emily. There must be something she's not telling me. Whatever it was, he wasn't going to push her about it now. She'd clearly had enough of a struggle to say as much she had, and the rest could wait a little.
    "What was so important about the laptop that you had to grab it?" he asked, changing tack.
    "It has everything on it," she said. "I'm not sure if any of it's worth anything, but I grabbed everything off the network. The company's accounts, all of it. I thought it might be evidence of – of something. Maybe something I could trade for my safety? But I'm not an accountant, I can't follow the cash