Week 432 – Liam pushes Cara behind him to try to protect her

Before she could even blink, Liam pushes Cara behind him to try to protect her. As much as she loved that he wanted to look out for her, they were a team. Maybe they hadn’t known each other for long at all, but given what they’d fought through these last two days, it felt like that time was fifty times longer.

Running a hand down Liam’s arm, Cara curled her fingers around his, and took a step sideways so she was beside him rather than tucked behind him.

Ignoring both the way Liam stiffened, his fingers tightening around hers, and the way the man before them let his gaze roam her body, she offered up a tentative smile.

“Who are you? Why are you at our cabin?” Cara asked. As far as she could see the man wasn’t still armed, but he’d been firing at them, so he must have it on him even if she couldn’t see it.

“You cabin?”

“Well my boyfriend’s cabin,” she said, tilting her head sideways to rest on Liam’s shoulder, trying to pretend they were closer than they were. Not that she’d say no if he asked her out … not that it was the time to be thinking about that.

“Sorry, I must have made a wrong turn, thought it was my cabin,” the man said with a shrug.

“You don’t know which road to take to turn to get to your cabin?” Liam asked, angling his body a little so it was slightly between hers and the man who had shot at them.

Another shrug. “Must have gotten confused with the trees down because of the storm. Sorry for shooting at you, thought you were intruders.”

The way he said it like trying to kill them was no big deal made her shudder. Even if Liam hadn’t recognised the man she wouldn’t have been buying what he was trying to sell.

“Okay,” Liam said slowly, “no harm done, I guess. Why don’t you head off to your cabin now then.”

“Actually I could use a trip to the bathroom first, if you don’t mind,” the man said, offering them a leering grin that made Cara shudder again.

Everyone was tense, there was no way Liam was going to willingly go back inside the cabin with this man, and it didn’t seem like the man was going to just walk away, even if it was obvious they didn’t believe his half-hearted excuse for shooting at them.

Before she could try to say something to ease the tension, try to get her and Liam out of this alive, all hell broke loose.

Liam lunged at the man.

The man pulled out a weapon from his waistband and swung it at Liam.

It connected against Liam’s head with a sickening crunch, and he dropped, unconscious, to the ground.