The Wells Brothers: Luke (8 page)

Like that was going to happen when
those claws were caught in his t-shirt, tiny pin pricks poking through to his
abdomen followed by scratches as the kitten tried to get a foothold on his
chest.

“Jesus!” he yelled.  “Someone
do
something
!”

“Here!”  Elspeth’s hand caught the
kitten’s scruff, pulled upwards and the kitten went limp for a few seconds.  It
was all she needed to pull it free and drop it into the box she held in her
other hand, quickly closing the lid and holding it shut.

Panting, they all stood in a semi
circle.  Luke’s hands were bleeding, his abdomen felt like it was scoured to
hell and back, Mikki’s impressive bosom was heaving and several curls had escaped
her braid to bob around her flushed cheeks.

“Wonderful!”  Elspeth beamed.  “We
got her!”

The box was jiggling around in her
hand as the kitten inside went ape-shit.

“It’s frightened, poor thing,”
Mikki said.

“We need to get her to a vet.” 
Elspeth’s gaze fell on Luke’s hands.  “Oh, Luke, you poor thing!”

Following her horrified gaze,
Mikki’s eyes widened.  “Oh no.”  Reaching out, she laid her palms under his,
holding his hands up so she could see better.

It was a surprisingly gentle hold,
her palms warm and dry against his.

Didn’t make up for the stinging of
the scratches, though.

“Here.”  Elspeth made to hand Mikki
the box.  “You hold this and I’ll get us fast to the hospital.”

That brought him out of his stunned
daze at the sudden, totally unexpected happenings.  No freaking way was he
going to let this mad woman drive.  Never mind the hospital, they could take
him straight to the morgue because if he had to rely on her driving once more
he’d stroke out, never mind bleeding out from the scratches and a couple of
bites.

Time to take control of this
disaster.  “Elspeth, you sit in back with the kitten, seeing as you have such a
secure hold on it.”  Luke strode around the front of the SUV.

“You shouldn’t drive with your
hands like that,” she fretted.

“Mikki, get in the front.  We’re
going.”

“I really don’t think he should
drive,” Elspeth confided to Mikki as she got into the backseat and pulled on
the seatbelt before taking the box from her niece and settling it on her lap.

Getting into the driver’s seat,
Luke glared at Mikki.  “In.  Now.”

The kitten chose that moment to
have another anxiety attack, sending the box jiggling once more and taking
Elspeth’s attention as it meowed and clawed at the inside of the box.

Mikki shot Luke a wary glance.

He stabbed a bleeding finger at
her then at the passenger seat.  If that redhead dared to argue after what she
and her madcap aunt had put him through
again-

Before the thought could finish,
she quickly shut the back door, scrambled into the passenger seat and buckled
up.

Taking a deep breath, he reached
for the automatic stick shift.

“Um…maybe you should dab off some
of that blood?” Mikki suggested.

Clenching his jaw, he put the car
in ‘drive’ and after carefully checking the road behind him - unlike some
certain eccentric widows - he pulled out into the lane.

“Or not,” Mikki muttered.

He couldn’t trust himself to look
at her.  He couldn’t believe it, he just couldn’t.  First he was kneed in the
balls, then his skin was practically raked off his hands and his belly, well
hell, he was probably half disembowelled by that furry clawed fiend in the
box.  What the hell had he done to deserve all this?

“Can you imagine?” Elspeth was
completely oblivious to Luke’s smouldering silence.  “That bastard just dumped
this poor little kitten on the side of the road.”

Mikki twisted around in her seat
to peer into the backseat.  “Poor little baby.  Who could do such a horrible
thing?”

Mouth set, Luke continued to drive
in silence.

Elspeth cooed at the unseen kitten
in the box and Mikki resumed staring out the windshield.

After several kilometres, he felt
her gaze shift to him.

“Um…Luke?”

“Yes?” he answered tersely.

“Come on, you have to admit,
whoever dumped that poor little kitten is a mongrel.”

Glancing into the rear-view
mirror, he eyed the box on Elspeth’s lap.  Okay, whoever the prick was who had
dumped the kitten was a mongrel, but geez…

A soft hand on his forearm had his
eyes swivelling to the side to see Mikki dabbing gently at the stinging
scratches on his hand.

With a sigh, he slumped a little,
his hold on the steering wheel easing.  “Yeah, a mongrel.”

Mikki smiled slightly.

Shaking his head, he flicked a
glance in the mirror once more.  Geez, that was how he’d ended up with Dog,
he’d found him tied to a guide post on the side of the road miles from nowhere,
left to die of hunger and starvation or for some kind person driving past to
rescue him.  Dog had been a mangy puppy full of fleas, worms and the shits. 
The last two he’d found out when Dog had diarrhoea all down Luke’s jeans when
he’d picked the shaking puppy up, and as he’d looked down in dismay at his
trousers, he’d been totally grossed out by several tape worms wriggling around.

He hadn’t given a crap what any
cop would think if they pulled him over, he’d ripped his jeans off, thrown them
into the bushes and jumped back into the driver’s seat of the ute in his jocks,
shirt and work boots.  The puppy he’d placed on the floor, desperately hoping
he wouldn’t crap again until he had him at the vet’s.  An emergency phone call
to Blue, who had met him with a cardboard box and a clean pair of jeans just
outside the city, a visit to the vet that had cost him a pretty penny, and he’d
become the owner of a dog named, appropriately enough, Dog.

He understood how the women felt,
for he’d felt the same towards whoever had dumped a helpless animal to such a
cruel death.  He was a strong believer in letting the punishment fit the crime
- he’d sure have liked to get hold of the bastard who’d abandoned Dog.

Looking at the scratches on his
hands, he sighed again.  Poor little bugger, the kitten was terrified and had
had God knew what done to it before being thrown away like rubbish.

“Vet first,” he said gruffly. 
“I’ll clean up there.”

Elspeth beamed at him.  “Oh, Luke,
you’re such a brave, honourable boy.”

Oh geez.

A glance sideways showed Mikki
with a surprisingly gentle expression on her face as she studied him.  A soft
smile that unexpectedly pulled at something deep inside him, making him notice
those lush lips curving so sweetly.  He’d never seen her look at him with such tenderness,
such caring, such gratitude, such -

“When did you last have a Tetanus
shot, Luke?”

Shit, looks were deceiving.

~*~

Elspeth disappeared into the vet’s
office clutching the loudly protesting kitten in the box to her chest, leaving
Luke and Mikki to find a chemist and attend to his wounds. 

Leaving him sitting in the SUV in
front of the vet’s, Mikki hurried across the road to the row of shops on the
other side.  Entering the small chemist, she browsed the shelves, quickly
finding a bottle of Betadine and a bag of cotton balls.

Expecting someone older, she
couldn’t help but notice that the pharmacist behind the counter was cute, with
bright hazel eyes, golden-blonde hair, and a square jaw.  His smile was all
charm.  “Passing through?”

“Kind of.”  She pulled her purse
from her small shoulder bag.

“I haven’t seen you here before. 
On holiday?”

Mind on Luke’s scratches, Mikki answered
briefly, “More like a working holiday.”

Bagging the Betadine and cotton
balls, the chemist offered, “It’s a small town here, everyone knows everyone. 
I’m Mark.”

“Mikki.”  When he kept smiling at
her, she raised her eyebrows.  “Umm...what do I owe you?”

The smile faltered a bit.  “Ten
twenty five.”

Crap, maybe she’d been a bit too
short, but with Luke waiting in the SUV… Mikki attempted to salvage the
situation.  “Seems like a nice town.”

He handed her the change.  “It
is.”

Oh yeah, she’d offended him
somehow.  Curses, she sure hadn’t wanted to do that, not with this town being
so close to the mansion.  Not to mention they needed to shop here, use the
library and museum, and find out information.  The last thing she wanted was to
spoil things for Elspeth, not to mention that being short and rude wasn’t her
style.

And Luke wouldn’t bleed to death
if she spent a few minutes rebuilding bridges.

Relaxing, she smiled ruefully at
Mark.  “Sorry, I don’t mean to be curt.  We were on our way here and saw a car
taking off from the side of the road.  Whoever was in there tossed out a box
and we stopped to check it, turned out to be a kitten.”

A frown crossed Mark’s features. 
“A kitten?  You mean whoever it was threw out a kitten in a box?”

Mikki nodded.  “Abandoned it.  We
went to check if it was all right and it got out, but we grabbed it.”

Concerned, Mark’s gaze fell to her
hands.

“I was lucky.”  She gestured over
her shoulder with her thumb.  “My friend wasn’t.  He caught the kitten. Unfortunately
it scratched and bit him, hence the Betadine.”

Mark’s frown grew.  “Has he had a
Tetanus shot?  Those ferals can be savage and full of disease.”

“I don’t know about a feral being
full of disease.  Anyway, that’s exactly what I asked him - about the Tetanus
shot.”  When the chemist waited, those nicely formed eyebrows raised, she
added, “Turns out he had.”

“Lucky for him.  So you’re going
to patch your boyfriend up, hey?”

“Not boyfriend, just a friend.”
She picked up the paper bag.  “Thanks for this.”

“No worries.”  He studied her. 
“Staying around for long?”

He’d find out soon enough, and besides,
he just might have information.  “Actually, I’m staying with Luke and my Aunt
up at the old Willock mansion.”

His eyes brightened with
interest.  “Are you the buyer?”

“Me?  No-”

“Then it must be your aunt.”  His
gaze flashed behind her.  “She’s here?”

“At the vet.”  She picked up the
bag again.  “Okay, well thanks.  I better go and patch Luke up.”

Coming around from behind the
counter, Mark fell into step beside her.  “In town for the day?”

“Just doing a few things.  A bit
of shopping and stuff.”  She reached for the door.

Beating her to it, he swung it
open, smiling down at her with a flash of perfect teeth.  “I knock off at five
thirty.”

Her jaw nearly dropped.  “Pardon?”

“If you’d like someone to show you
around, I’m available.”

Utterly floored, Mikki stared at
him.

His smile didn’t falter.

“Um, well, that’s a lovely offer.” 
She managed to recover some aplomb.  “But we’ll be back at the mansion by
then.”

“The offer always stands.”  He
glanced across to the vet clinic.  “Is that your friend?”

Shifting her attention from him to
the direction he was looking in, she spotted Luke leaning against the front of
the SUV, long legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles, his hands resting
on the car bonnet behind him.

As if sensing her regard, his head
turned in her direction.  She wasn’t sure if he was looking at her or not,
especially with the distance between them and the sunglasses hiding his eyes.  The
road was wider than normal, the vet clinic set well back from the main road.

“That’s Luke,” she affirmed. 
Looking up at Mark, she added, “Thanks for your help.”

He leaned his shoulder against the
door frame.  “Anytime, Mikki.”

A little flustered, definitely not
used to a man being so blatantly interested in her, Mikki nodded and walked out
of the shop.  Straightening her shoulders, she moved across the road, unable to
help a quick peek back over her shoulders to find Mark still standing in the
doorway watching her.  Flashing those pearly whites again, he lifted his hand
in a brief wave.

What could she do but give him a
wave in return before continuing across the road?  Truthfully, she was a little
flattered.  He was good-looking man and had just offered to show her around. 
That was one for the books.

As she neared the vet’s parking
lot, Luke adjusted his sunglasses in that bad-boy way he had.  “Making
conquests now, Red?”

“He was just being friendly.”

“Really?  He’s still watching
you.”

Placing the bag on the car bonnet,
Mikki glanced over her shoulder once more, undeniably flattered to find that
yes indeed, the handsome pharmacist was still standing in the doorway watching
her.

Suddenly he stepped back, the door
swinging closed to cut him from view.

Huh.
  Turning back, she
found Luke still gazing across the road at the shop, this time with his glasses
partially down his nose to reveal his eyes.  Those eyes dropped to gaze down at
her.

“What?”  She pulled open the
corner of the bag of cotton balls.

“Got an admirer?”  Those normally
twinkling blue eyes regarded her curiously.

“No.”  Twisting the cap off the
Betadine, she tipped the liquid onto a cotton ball.  “What makes you ask?”  She
gestured for one of his hands.

He held one arm out.  “Your new boyfriend
was watching you the whole time you walked across the road.”

“Maybe he was concerned for my
safety.”  She dabbed the scratches marring his tanned skin.  “And he’s not my
boyfriend as you very well know.”

“Bet he wants to be.”

“Aw, that’s sweet of you to say.” 
She moved gently over the scratches.  “Funnily enough, he thought
you
were my boyfriend.”  When silence met this, she glanced up but was unable to
guess his thoughts with the sunglasses once again pushed up his nose to hide
his eyes.  Nevertheless, she could feel his scrutiny “What?”