The Hired Help

"Mommy do I have a daddy?" Little Claire asked her mother, gripping her hand while looking up to Janice Rickets for an answer. Janice swallowed, looking for a good way to avoid the truth to her 6 year old daughter who was to young to be told what really happened. She remembered that night, the knife to her trough, the man ripping of her cloths, then...NO! She shivered, knowing full well that monster was her beautiful little girl's father.

"Your father was a good man, but he died in a car accident, that's why he's not around." Janice said giving her a fake smile, this lie is way better then the truth.

"Oh, okay." The girl replied with a disappointed expression on her face.

Let's hope you don't ever have to know baby girl, lets hope.

______

Claire woke up sweating and panting startled by her surroundings. She found herself in a big bedroom that looked like it had been put together with lots of effort. Clair tried to get up but realized that her body was sore and just dropped again. She heard the door creak open a bit and saw a portion of a girl's face that didn't look older than 4 years old, the girl shyly opened the door slowly and saw her features more clearly. The girl had blond hair with big blue eyes; she was cubby like most children her age and wore overalls with a pink shirt underneath, and she was staring at her curiously.

Claire couldn't help but smile at the girl and said, "Hi there, can you get your parents for me please?" That obviously scared her because she scurried back to the door again which made only her left side visible. Claire smiled again, she's just so cute!

"I see that your awake." Said a man at the door, "Sasha, baby girl, why don't you play with your dolls?" He said nicely squatting to give her a grin. Sasha nodded and left obediently, then he walked towards Claire letting her see him easier. He was big, at 6'5 and built like a wide receiver with brown curly hair and blue eyes on his roundish face, then looked to see he was wearing nothing but athletic shorts.

"Now don't be thinkin' I raped you or nothin', I was just being a good citizen and took care of you." He said folding his arms to show he wasn't lying.

"So where the hell am I and who are you?" She said in a hurtful manner she had used on all men she met, you can never trust a man, that's what her mom taught her.

"Well, you're in Greywood, Oregon and I'm Jake Riley, but you don't really sound like your thankful for someone saving you, sweetheart, I could just have left you there on the side of the road all night if that's what you wanted." Jake said smiling like it wasn't an insult.

"How did you find me anyway?"

"You were just in a ditch on the side of the road inside your car and unconscious, Miss Claire Rickets." He said, that made her flinch, how does he know my name. Then it hit her, Jake Riley, that's the guy she was looking for!

"Wait, I came here looking for you, for the job to be your housekeeper." Claire said, that's when he smiled and said, "I knew you were coming soon, but didn't expect to be the one to take care of you."

"But don't worry, you might be sore now but you'll be fine tomorrow, I'll give you a tour of the ranch tomorrow and talk about your position as the new housekeeper." He told her before walking out the door leaving her to rest.

______

Damn, this is going to be tougher then I thought.

Jake was up early doing his workout routine and was in the martial arts practice potion of it with Sasha watching in the corner. She's been doing that ever since she woke up one day to find him in the room that he converted into a gym. One of these days he was going to teach her self defense, he might not be around when some asshole tries something, thinking of it made him hit the punching bag harder.

After about an hour more of training, Jake was getting fatigued and walked off to the kitchen to make breakfast with Sasha skipping along beside him. What he gazed at amazed him, on the table was bacon, eggs, sausage, hash browns, and pancakes all cooked perfectly. Kara walked out the kitchen into the dining room with her black hair tied in a ponytail and wore all black jeans, slim black jacket over a black blouse, and black and white sneakers, she was a stereotype goth girl!

"How did you make all this," he asked, "I mean you don't strike me the type to cook."

"Well, I spent lots of times cooking dinner for my mom because she worked a lot and I kinda like it to for your information, you think just cause I dress like this I spend my time complaining about 'conformists'." She answer, smiling after to show it was a joke.

"Well then, shall we eat, I hope it tastes just as good as it looks." Jake picked up Sasha making her giggle and put her into her seat to the left of him as Kara sat down to his right. During breakfast Kara told him that she loved to cook as well as clean and had financial trouble so she needed a job that paid well and it was something that she actually wanted to do and a place to stay wasn't so bad either. After Kara cleaned up breakfast, Jake showed Kara around the house while cradling Sasha in his arm; there was the pool in the back with a huge field of grass beyond it giving it a great view, the gym that was body builders dream, the down stairs living room totally modernized, and the bed rooms upstairs. When they past a metal reinforced door leading down to what looked like a basement, she asked, "What's down there, an armory?" He replied in a serious tone, "Yep..."

Her eyes widened, "What?"

"Let me put Sasha in the living room and I'll explain." He said walking off with Sasha looking like she was about to drift off to sleep. Kara had the idea to either run or stay. She was ready to jump out the window and hope for the best when Jake came back.

"Follow me." He said, motioning her to follow regardless. She didn't want to know what would happen if she didn't, so she watched him punch in some numbers in a key pad that made the door open slowly. What was inside amazed and scared her at same time; the white painted walls had guns hanging everywhere, from pistols to machine guns in all different shapes and sizes; to the right was a door leading to a 4-booth gun range stretching half a length of a football field; to her left was a computer station with a McDonalds bag on it.

"I-Is this what you do on your spare time?" She asked nervously which made him laugh.

"No, but since you're my housekeeper, I should at least tell you where I am half the time."

"Why are you telling me this, aren't you afraid I could tell the police or something?" She said, which made him laugh even more.

"Sweetheart, you'd be dead before you even thing about that." He said while walking over to the computer desk and rummaging in the McDonalds bag.

"What I do is I'm a mercenary, a gun for hire or somethin' like that." He took out a Big Mac and sat on the corner of the desk munching on it in big chunks.

"Anyway, I'll be gone on missions occasionally, and I need you to look after Sasha, cook, and clean, including this place down here. It can get messy with crumbles and guns and gun attachments lying everywhere. But don't worry you'll get the hang of things soon." He said reassuringly, eating the last piece of the Big Mac and patting his hands together to get rid of some crumbles.

"So, any questions?" And that's when she ran.