Page 1 of Danger and Dominance (Black Fox Security Doms #1)

David

Looking at the report in front of him, David couldn’t help but frown. He didn’t want to complain about the assignment his boss, Lincoln Black, the owner of Black Fox Security, was giving him and his team, but…

“This is outside our usual wheelhouse,” he said finally, putting down the file on Cassidy Simone.

She was a pretty woman with long dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and very girl-next-door features in the picture that came with the file.

She was smiling in the picture, eyes bright and sparkling with joy, bow-shaped lips spread wide to show off her grin.

“It is,” Lincoln agreed amiably from where he was seated behind his desk, watching David’s reaction.

About fifteen years older than David, Lincoln’s salt and pepper hair was mostly salt, and he’d lost some of the muscle tone he’d once had from sitting behind the desk.

He was still fit, though, and kept his skills sharp.

Black Fox Security provided a variety of services, from short-term contracts for visiting, high-profile clients, to advising large corporations on their security, to training, and sometimes taking on government contracts that made use of the team’s special forces backgrounds…

but this was the first time that they would be protecting a woman from her ex-boyfriend.

Lincoln didn’t even usually take these cases when the people involved were celebrities, though he was always happy to give recommendations to fulfill their needs.

“Why are you making an exception for her?” David asked when Lincoln didn’t seem inclined to elaborate further.

David didn’t usually question him. Lincoln had been his commander in the field and had literally held David’s life in his hands.

He’d been a damn good commander, too, which was why David and his entire team had been happy to come work for him after being discharged.

“Because Drew and Naomi asked me to.” Lincoln raised his eyebrow when David just stared at him. Drew was another member of his team and Naomi was his wife, who worked for a non-profit that helped abused women.

“Why isn’t Naomi helping her?” They all supported Naomi’s work in various ways and had even provided protection for the shelter in the past when it had been warranted, but they’d never done one-on-one work like this before. Especially since there was no saying when it would end.

“There isn’t room for her at the shelter while they’re undergoing renovations. If this is still a problem when they’re done, Cassidy can move there. In the meantime, Drew asked me for help.” Lincoln studied him. “Is there a problem?”

“No.” David managed to keep himself from shifting in his seat as Lincoln gave him a hard stare. Sometimes, his dark eyes took in a lot more than David would like. “I’m just confused as to why we’re putting resources toward this, which is not our specialty, when we’re already short-staffed.”

He hated to bring that up, but it had to be said.

Black Fox Security was currently run by Lincoln and Harris Black, two brothers who had started the company with Lincoln’s best friend, Marshall Devlin.

Each partner had their own team they were in charge of.

Unfortunately, last year, they’d discovered that Marshall was stealing money from the firm as well as sleeping with Lincoln’s wife.

They’d managed to cut him out of the firm, and Lincoln was now divorced, but Marshall’s entire team had left with him.

There were still contracts to be upheld that had been put in place when they had three teams, and they were all still scrambling to play catch up.

“That’s why she’s going to live with Jensen for the time being.

He has an extra room, top-of-the-line security, plus his brother lives there, so an extra guard of sorts.

” Lincoln was still studying him in a manner that was making David increasingly uncomfortable.

“She’s coming from Stronghold, that club Drew’s cousin owns, and he feels personally responsible for ensuring she’s protected. ”

David grunted. He’d seen that in the file as well.

Cassidy and her ex, Don Reeve, had been members at the kink club in Washington, D.C.

, before Don ignored her safe word in the middle of a scene at the club, and he’d been immediately kicked out.

Which was when it was discovered that his and Cassidy’s relationship was abusive, and the club had come together to keep her safe over the past year.

Unfortunately, Don hadn’t forgotten about his ex, and he’d started stalking her, showing signs of escalation.

Recently, several club members had seen him near both Stronghold and Marquis, Stronghold’s sister club, and the manager of Marquis’ tires had been slashed.

The general consensus was that Cassidy was in danger.

David didn’t disagree with the general consensus; he just wasn’t sure why they had her running to a different state to be hidden by an elite security firm rather than just facing the douchebag and putting him in jail.

Then Cassidy would be safe, and so would any other woman who might make the mistake of dating the asshole.

Douchebag’s picture was also in the file.

David wasn’t exactly the right person to ask about another man’s attractiveness, but he had a younger sister, so he had some idea of what women looked for.

The guy was blond, with dark eyes and a fairly muscular body.

He looked like an All-American boy. He was probably pretty good at faking it at first, too.

The desire to find the asshole and pound him into the ground until he promised to leave Cassidy alone was strong enough to have David flexing his fingers, but he also had to think about his team.

They were already working overtime, keeping up with all the contracts.

Adding something else to their plates could end up being dangerous.

They needed rest. They needed sleep.

If they didn’t get those things, reflexes were affected. Attention was affected. Someone could get hurt.

There were places better able to deal with Cassidy’s situation than they were—Naomi’s shelter being one of them.

But he also knew that Drew would do what his cousin asked of him. Unlike David, Drew was close to his family. A family member had asked him for help with Cassidy, and for some reason, they’d come to Lincoln instead of the shelter.

He still didn’t know why Lincoln had agreed, though.

“Why didn’t they go to the police? Get the asshole up on charges?”

“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask her.” Lincoln seemed bemused.

“I do know that they’re hoping she won’t need to be here for too long.

Her ex is escalating, and they’re hoping with her out of the picture, he’ll either forget about her or he’ll do something that allows them to bring charges against him without involving Cassidy. ”

That made David throw his hands in the air as he jumped to his feet and started pacing, trying to shake off some of the angry energy that was building up in his body. Losing his temper on a woman who had been abused was the last thing he wanted, but the whole situation was pissing him off.

“He was abusing her. Why didn’t she file a report when they rescued her?

” Instead, they’d used his assault on another club member to threaten him, telling him to stay away from Cassidy.

But once the statute of limitations on filing charges was up, he’d come right back like a bad penny.

“What happens if, instead of escalating when he can’t find her, he just gets some other girlfriend who doesn’t realize what she’s getting into? ”

Lincoln shot him a sympathetic look from where he was still sitting.

“This isn’t the same situation as Tasha, David,” he said gently.

Of course, he would remember.

“Not yet, but it could be.” He could still remember the sight of his ex in the hospital bed, face battered blue and purple, lip split, bandages over the stitches in her stomach where she’d been stabbed.

He’d been her ex, but she hadn’t changed her emergency contact number.

David rubbed his hands on his pants, trying to rub away the sweat that always immediately sprung to his palms at the memory.

They’d broken up, but he’d still cared about her.

He’d still gone running when he’d gotten the call from the hospital, then he’d been there for her through her recovery and the trial.

It was five years ago, and he could still remember every second of how helpless he’d felt. How enraged he’d felt. Especially when the bastard’s ex-girlfriends had lined up to testify at the trial. Tasha’s lawyer had found them and convinced them to testify, to show a pattern of abuse, and they had.

Not one of them had filed a report. If they had, Tasha never would have dated the man. She always ran her dates, doing her best to stay safe. She almost hadn’t dated David because, as special forces, there had been a lot about his past that she couldn’t look up.

She’d tried so hard.

The bastard was behind bars now, while Tasha had moved to California and was happily married with one kid and another on the way. He should have been past this reaction, but he wasn’t. Abuse cases always made him edgy, which was why he normally stayed away from Naomi’s shelter.

Tilting his head back and forth, he cracked his neck, then rolled his shoulders, pushing some of the tension from them. Lincoln was looking at him with sympathy.

“Are you going to be okay?” Lincoln asked. “I can have someone else run lead on this. Mason, perhaps.” Their resident psychologist and profiler.

Temptation to hand it off to someone else beckoned for just a moment, but he knew his duty. Temptation passed, and David shook his head.

“I’m team captain. It’s my responsibility.” He made it a point never to ask his team to do something he wouldn’t.

Lincoln nodded slowly. He might have said something more, but the phone on his desk rang. His gaze flicked to the phone, to the caller ID, and he leaned over to pick it up.