Page 2 of Danger and Dominance (Black Fox Security Doms #1)

“Yes, Jennifer.” He paused. “Okay, thank you. We’ll be right there.” He looked at David as he hung up the phone.

It was time to go meet their newest client.

Cassidy

The drive up to Pittsburgh had been odd.

Scary in its way because she was going into the unknown.

New city, new people, new club… she’d made some friends while she was in Maryland, once she no longer had Don controlling her every move.

She’d felt comfortable and safe at Stronghold, but she’d never felt safe when she was at home, school, or work because she knew Don was still out there.

Over the past few months, she’d felt less and less safe until she’d finally agreed that getting out of town was the best move.

She didn’t want to leave, but it wasn’t just her own life at stake.

Don had been messing with the people who had saved her.

If he was going to hurt someone, she’d rather it be her than any of them.

Although she didn’t want to be hurt, either.

Why can’t he just leave me alone?

That was the thought running through her head over and over again, then she’d feel awful because if he was leaving her alone, that might mean he had moved on to someone else. That he might be hurting another woman.

She wished he would just get hit by a bus.

Sometimes, when she was thinking about what she would do if he ever showed up in front of her again, she pictured killing him.

He would come at her, and she would stab him, right through the heart, over and over again.

Running him over with a car. Getting a lucky shot in and breaking his nose, hitting him in the exact right way to send bone splinters into his brain—though she wasn’t actually sure if that was a real thing or not, she’d read about it once.

Or shooting him. She’d been taking shooting lessons.

She didn’t have a carry permit, which was why she only ever pictured that happening if he broke into her house.

Self-defense.

Maybe she’d end up in jail, maybe she wouldn’t.

But she’d be safe because he would be gone.

Mistress Julie, who was also her therapist, had told her it was perfectly normal to fantasize about situations that would make her feel safe again.

Though she hadn’t told Mistress Julie exactly how often she had that particular fantasy.

Constantly. Daily. Every time she stepped into a new space, she would end up with a new one—how he might appear, how he might attack her, how she would defend herself.

How she might be proactive.

She couldn’t help it. Her brain just did it. Every time.

But coming to Pennsylvania, sneaking away so he didn’t know where she was, maybe her brain would finally stop.

Maybe she’d finally be able to sleep.

“What do you think?” Kincaid—her current bodyguard, Dom from the club she went to, and friend—asked as they crossed over a huge bridge.

Tall, dark-haired, and handsome, the former police detective was a big, broad-shouldered guy whose self-assurance made it easy to feel like he had everything under control. His very presence was calming.

Cassidy took in her first view of the city.

Things were lower than she’d expected. Not a ton of skyscrapers.

She’d been thinking it would be more like New York City, but it wasn’t like D.C.

either. The huge river through the center of the buildings, the hills and dips, and the darker colors of the buildings made it nothing like the place where she’d been living the past few years.

“It’s pretty.” Which was true enough.

“It is.”

Kincaid let them lapse into silence again, driving through the streets as Cassidy studied her new home.

The streets were narrower than she expected.

More like Georgetown than downtown D.C. Lots of brick.

There were some tall buildings, casting long shadows over the streets, but there were a lot that were only a few stories high as well.

A sense of calm settled over her. Everything was so unfamiliar, so foreign, she couldn’t imagine Don here as easily as she did back home.

The idea of him jumping out of one of the alleys, of him being in the car behind them—or somehow devious enough to be in the car in front of them—seemed impossible.

She sighed in pure relief.

Pulling up in front of a fairly nondescript brick building, Kincaid turned the car into a parking lot.

There was a security guard in a little booth next to the entry gate.

Cassidy watched in bemusement as Kincaid signed them in, handing over his driver’s license.

The guard’s eyebrows rose, and he glanced at her, but when he scanned Kincaid’s ID, he nodded and handed it back.

The barrier arm rose, and Kincaid pulled into the parking lot. The entire interaction had been conducted in total silence.

“Was I supposed to give him my license, too?” she asked nervously.

“If you were anyone else, yes, but we’re trying to keep your license completely off the radar, remember?” Kincaid pulled smoothly into one of the open spots. “They’re going to get an ID made for you that will get you in and out of this building that no one will be able to track.”

A little chill went up and down her spine.

Cassidy hated to think that this was necessary.

That Don might find some way of tracking her through her driver’s license, her credit card, or her social security number.

She was going as off-grid as they could get her, and it was a constant reminder of how unsafe she was.

“Right,” she muttered.

Kincaid reached over, putting his hand atop hers when she went to undo her seatbelt. His dark eyes bore into hers, firm but kind.

“It’s going to be okay, Cassidy. It’s to keep you safe, but it won’t be for forever.”

God, she hoped he was right.