Jake sighed moments after Kara bolted out the reinforced door in his basement/armory.
And she runs..." he muttered, shaking his head.
Then he reached under the desk, pressing a red button, and slowly walked after her.
_____
Kara was relieved to see the door just ahead of her and looked back surprised the he wasn't there. When she thought she was home free with her hand on the handle, she saw the metal blinds securing themselves over the windows and trying to rip the door open but wouldn't budge. To her horror she could hear his footsteps echoing behind her.
"Don't bother, I put the house on lockdown, that door's not going anywhere." He said smugly, taking his time walking towards Kara.
"Get away from me, I'll scream, I swear!" Kara shouted, her face getting red from anger.
"Good luck with that. The closes neighbor I got is about ten miles away."
"Well what are you do you have in store for me, cause I'll kill myself before I let you near me!" She spouted out; ready to do whatever she could to suppress him. Then he trotted over to a [ shaped sofa and pated the cushion beside it.
"Sit down." He said calmly.
She was pissed off, but obeyed, still ready to pounce at any sign of trouble.
"So, I feel we need to come to an understanding."
"Fuck you." Kara said, folding arms and crossing her legs with a scowl on her face.
"Maybe you could tell me a little about yourself." He said, his eyebrow twitching a bit.
"No." Kara said plainly.
"For someone in a situation like this, your pretty rebellious." He told her. Kara just looked away, not wanting to see his face any longer.
That's when Sasha came down the stairs in her pajamas and tightly holding a blanket. Jake rose up and grabbed the child with ease.
"What are you doing up this late baby girl?" he asked her, sitting back down next to Kara with Sasha in his lap.
"The yelling scared me." The girl whimpered, looking close to crying. Kara's anger was immediately replaced with compassion.
"I'm sorry, but me and your daddy just had a little fight, don't cry." Kara said, smiling reassuringly at Sasha, her love for children changing the situation drastically.
"By the way my names Claire, but nobody calls me that, they call me Kara." She told Sasha, giving Jake a stare that said 'if you ever call me that I'll kill you'.
"Kara, that's a pretty name." Sasha said in a cute way that children naturally do, smiling back at Kara she giggled, "Jake, stop being a meany to Kara."
"Ok baby girl, will do." Jake said, putting Sasha in-between himself and Kara. He got up and said, "I'm going to the kitchen, want anything?" Kara and Sasha were too busy talking that Jake felt like he was being ignored. Jeezus, he thought, how the hell did it end up this way?
When Jake went to the kitchen, Kara immediately
looked around for a place to escape, but the rest of the windows were covered with metal.
"Did you lose something?" Sasha asked innocently.
"No, just looking around, its all just so new to me." She said, smiling again.
"Don't worry, Jakes a nice guy." The girl said. She seems like a smart girl. But there was something odd about why she always calls him Jake.
So Kara asked, "Why do you call him Jake all the time?"
Then Sasha looked sad, and answered, "He's actually my god father, my real daddy died, and he was my daddy's best friend."
She felt sympathy for the girl. Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy after all. Before Kara could ask Sasha more about the matter, Jake waltzed in with a bowl of popcorn. He set the bowl on the table in front of them and asked, "You wanna to watch a movie?"
He was trying to break the ice, but it seemed to work because Sasha agreed and afterwards begged to pick the movie, so Jake didn't really have a choice. She chose 'Charlotte's Web' which Kara had to watch with some discomfort. Wasn't I ready to run away a minute ago? During the movie, Kara noticed Jake glace at Sasha occasionally to see if she was enjoying the movie. He looked happy around her. Kara soon got engrossed into the movie laughing at something she thought was funny and got sad at the point of the mother of the spiders death.At the end, Sasha was asleep in Jakes lap and Kara got up to stretch.
"So, Sasha tells me you're quite the softy." She says to him, mockingly.
He laughed and said, "I guess I'm one big teddy bear aren't I?"
"A bear with scars and tattoos, that kills innocent people for a living." She added. Jake got up while gently picking Sasha up in his arms and shot back, "Trust me, if you met half the murderers, dictators, and gangbangers I've killed, you'd call them many things, but innocent aint one of 'em." He walked away up the stairs into what appeared to be Sasha's room, with Kara at his heels.
"We only take the jobs that doesn't make us go home and feel like assholes, we do the jobs that save people from some whack job group of dicks waving around guns thinking there all big and bad. So they rape, kill, or generally piss off everyone so much that they call us in to help them." He said.
Then he entered a room two doors down from where Kara rested up at and she was impressed at the décor. The room was colored purple with a white dresser, white end table with a lamp, a purple and white twin size bed, and stuffed animals cluttered around the room.
"I'm guessing she likes purple." Kara said, watching him put Sasha in bed, careful not to wake her.
"Painted it myself, made her real happy." Jake replied, turning around and motioning Kara out the room. After he closed the door quietly, he said, "Still pissed?"
"No, I cooled down, but don't think you can take advantage me cause your all some badass." Kara informed him, which made him smile.
"The old man didn't take me in to raise some trigger-happy serial killer." He told her. Who the this 'old man'?
"I might have a few tattoos and twice as much scars, but I aint all bad." He said. A few tattoos was a understatement, he had a big tattoo on his right arm of crossing guns with big letters RANGERS on it, another one on his left that looked like large lines of darkness rapping around his shoulder all the way around to his elbow, and angel wings with no feathers that looked to have been on fire and ash covering it on his back. As for the scars, they were scattered around his body, most vivid, but a few looked fresh.
"Anyway it's getting late we should get acquainted tomorrow." He said, walking to her room.
"I aint telling you shit." She told him, staying quite, so not to wake Sasha.
"Well, from what you told me this morning, you don't exactly have a place to stay or very much
money for that matter."
"Besides, you're not the first housekeeper to try for this job, and Sasha didn't like them very much. But you, you're different. And she needs someone who she can trust for the future. Like when she... you know..." He seemed embarrassed about the matter. He was right, Sasha would need a mother/sister figure around when she had her first period or boy problems. Jake would probably just get nervous and say something stupid and kill the first guy Sasha even mentions.
"Fine, but I need to go shopping for more clothes, I only have this and a few pairs of jeans and shirts." She informed him. Kara was devising a plan to break for it when the opportunity arose.
"If you say so, but if you run, which you will, I'm sure you'll give up eventually." He told her, smiling and opened her door, motioning like a servant inside.
When Kara entered he waved and said, "Good night, 'Kara'." Kara scowled at him before his face disappeared when he shut the door. Then she sighed and decided to change into her athletic shorts and a cleaner shirt for bed. She need all the rest she could get for tomorrow.
-----
Jake was flipping a pancake with Sasha drawing a picture on the kitchen when Kara strolled in yawning. He smiled, she looked cute with her messy hair down her shoulders. Kara looked around at the food he made; lots and lots of pancakes. She also smiled, "Is making pancakes all you can do?"
"No, but they're my favorite." He said, without turning around. Kara saw a bulge in the back of his pants going up to the back of his red shirt. It was a gun. She tried her best not to look scared, but failed because Jake laughed when he turned back.
"Don't worry, it's for both of your protection, never know what might happen in this cruel world." He said, with a look on his face that showed he was remembering something horrible. She felt flattered and mad at the same time.
"Don't bring that! It'll scare the hell out of everybody that sees!" She yelled, wondering what people would do when they see a man carrying a gun like a secret agent. He laughed again, putting the pancake on a plate and turned off the stove.
"Trust me, my reputation as the old man's kid needs me to have one on me or people wouldn't recognize me." He informed her, bringing the plate to the table and sitting down.
"I'll tell you who he is later; right now it's time to eat. Sasha, baby girl, pass the syrup."
-----
After breakfast Kara, Jake, and Sasha made their way to Jakes garage and it was even more spectacular than the rest of the house. It was big enough to house ten cars, but only had two and a chopper motorcycle; a white Land rover and a jeep, as for the chopper, it was definitely shiny almost brand new, it was painted orange with a crying fallen angel in the front of the seat. Since it was the first motorcycle Kara's ever seen, none the less a chopper, she still thought it looked more like a piece of art than some motorcycle.
"I see you looking at the old man's bike he rode that thing for hours just to get the wind on his face." He said, smiling about all those times he used to be rested on his lap with him smiling down on him. Kara sighed, "So when ARE you going to tell me about this 'old man' of yours?"
"Soon after were done shopping. But could you make them less... gothic?" He asked, hoping for a yes.
"Actually, I was looking for a wardrobe change, maybe one more colorful, I aint in California anymore." She said. She decided this might be a fresh start, might as well change the attitude.
