Page 3 of Danger and Dominance (Black Fox Security Doms #1)

Cassidy

Walking into the main office of Black Fox Security, Cassidy took a good look around. She’d never been inside a security firm before. There hadn’t been a sign on the outside of the building, but there was one above the receptionist’s head as they walked in.

The receptionist was a very pretty, very young Black woman.

Not that Cassidy was that old at twenty-eight, but she was pretty sure she was a few years older than the young woman behind the desk, which surprised her.

She’d been expecting someone older, maybe a little hardened in personality. Check your assumptions at the door.

They’d had to come up to the second floor of the building to where the offices were. Kincaid explained that the first floor was dedicated to various training facilities and a locker room. The top floor was storage.

Cassidy clung to the bag she had over her shoulder because she didn’t know what else to do with her hands. If Kincaid didn’t have a boyfriend, she might have tried to cling to him, but she didn’t want to be that person.

“Hello,” the young woman chirped, smiling broadly. Her navy-blue suit dress was professional-looking, conservatively cut but also flattering. She had very straight black hair that brushed against the shoulders of her jacket. “How can I help you?”

Wait, shouldn’t she know?

“Kincaid Cavill,” Kincaid said, looking at the younger woman with curiosity. Apparently, he hadn’t met her before, either. Was that usual? “I’m bringing in Cassidy Simone to meet Lincoln.”

The young woman brightened and hopped to her feet, leaning forward to reach across the desk. Kincaid immediately stepped forward to take her hand and shake it.

“Oh, hi! I’m Jennifer Johnson. I just started last week. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too. Does this mean Mrs. Dartmouth is officially retired?” Kincaid let go of the younger woman’s hand and stepped back again, glancing at Cassidy.

“Not yet, just on vacation this week to see if I can handle things on my own.” Jennifer grinned, obviously not at all worried about her ability to do so. “She’ll be back next week for her final week. There’s going to be a retirement party if you want to come.”

“Maybe.” Kincaid smiled, but his tone was completely noncommittal. “I just met her pretty recently myself, and it’s a bit of a drive.”

Around three hours, give or take some for traffic. They’d had it lucky, coming up on a Saturday afternoon when there wasn’t some kind of event.

“Makes sense.” Jennifer turned to Cassidy, still smiling but appearing apologetic. “Sorry, not trying to ignore you. I’ll let Mr. Black know you’re here. He’s expecting you.”

“Thank you,” Cassidy said softly.

“Come on, let’s sit down,” Kincaid said, gesturing.

There were four chairs and a large couch across from the desk where Jennifer was sitting, to the right of the doors she and Kincaid had come in through.

The news was playing on the television on the wall beside them, but all they were showing was a video clip of a waterskiing squirrel.

Cassidy couldn’t help but smile. It was nice knowing that there was so little going on in the world that they were taking the time to show something so silly. The squirrel looked like it was having fun.

She’d barely had time to sit down before two men came striding down the hall to the right of Jennifer’s desk.

Their footsteps weren’t very loud, but even with the television on, Cassidy was so attuned to her surroundings, she heard the padding of their shoes against the carpet and immediately turned to look to see who was there.

Kincaid jumped to his feet as the two men reached them.

Both of them were tall and very handsome.

The older one was wearing a suit. He was much older, with a deep laugh and frown lines, salt and pepper hair, and an air of authority that would have a lot of the submissives at Stronghold staring at him with stars in their eyes.

If he wasn’t a Daddy, he was definitely a Zaddy.

The other man made her more nervous. He was almost as tall as Kincaid, almost as broad-shouldered, but somehow seemed to take up more space.

A redhead with a shortly cropped ginger beard that covered his jawline, his hard blue eyes met hers with an electric sizzle that had her dropping her gaze immediately.

Good grief, what was wrong with her?

She hadn’t felt an actual attraction to a man in months. She’d stopped being attracted to Don long before their relationship had ended, and even though she’d scened at the club, she hadn’t been attracted to any of the men she’d scened with. All the scenes had been purely platonic.

Why now?

He wasn’t even her type. He was too big. Too muscular.

Too threatening.

And she was hyperaware of him and the way he was studying her, even though she wasn’t looking at him.

“Kincaid, good to see you,” the older man said, smiling widely before he turned his attention to Cassidy. When she peeked at him, she could see soft encouragement in his expression. “And this must be Cassidy.”

“Hi,” she said quietly, still avoiding the redhead’s gaze, though she did her best to meet Lincoln Black’s. “I’m sorry about this.”

She didn’t know what else to say. She was sorry because she couldn’t help but feel like a lot of people were having to shift their lives around just because of her. And unlike the people back in D.C., no one in Black Fox had even met her before. It seemed like a lot to ask of complete strangers.

“It’s not your fault,” Lincoln reassured her, patting her hand. “And we’re going to keep you safe. This is David. He’s my team captain.” He turned to gesture to the redhead, dropping her hand as he did so. “He’s going to help you get settled.”

“We’ve found a place for you to stay with some housemates, so your name won’t be on the lease,” David said briskly.

He was staring at her. She could feel it. But she couldn’t make herself look at him. His voice was deeper than she’d expected, gruffer.

“You’ll have to find a job yourself, but Jennifer… you met Jennifer?” She nodded. “Okay, Jennifer has bookmarked a bunch of listings you might be interested in. The first three months of your rent have been paid for, so you have a bit of time before you have to look.”

Wasn’t she supposed to not be using her driver’s license or social security number?

They must have some way around that. Kincaid had mentioned an ID…

She didn’t ask because she didn’t want to seem like she was questioning him. They were the professionals, after all. She was just the dumbass who got involved with the wrong guy, excused the red flags, and had to be rescued because of it.

So, she just nodded in response.

“Who is she going to be living with?” Kincaid asked, though there was a bit of an edge to his voice. She got the impression he was going to make sure he was satisfied with the arrangements before he left her there, which she appreciated.

“One of our team, the youngest, but he’s solid, so don’t worry about that,” David replied.

She wondered how old he was. Older than her, she was pretty sure, but she couldn’t begin to try to figure out by how much.

He had one of those ageless faces that meant he could be in his twenties or his forties or anywhere in between.

“He has a housemate, and they had an empty room. The house has a solid security system, and Jensen knows that as long as she’s there, he’ll be spending every night there.

If something comes up where he’s unable to, another team member will take his place. ”

Cassidy wasn’t sure how she felt about someone else always being around.

She’d been scared of living alone the past year, but when Don had started harassing her again, someone was always with her, and that had been hard to deal with, too.

She hated the idea that someone might get hurt because they were staying with her.

It made her feel responsible, and all the darker daydreams she had—the ones where she didn’t manage to fight off Don and she was killed or worse—all involved her friends also dying while trying to defend her.

That was another reason she’d agreed to move.

She couldn’t let her friends keep staying with her. She couldn’t sleep while they were there, in the line of fire. When Kincaid was around, that had helped, because she trusted he knew how to defend himself.

Maybe the fact that it was security guys would help her relax.

“Good,” Kincaid said. “If Don figures out where she is and follows her up here, you’ll need to warn Jensen that he may become a target, too. Several members of our club had strange things happening to them, along with the escalation directed at Cassidy.”

She could feel her shoulders bowing inward before Kincaid put his hand on the small of her back, and she deliberately straightened up.

She didn’t need another lecture about how this wasn’t her fault.

Of course, it was her fault. But everyone wanted to absolve her of the guilt she carried and for the burden she was placing on everyone, and she didn’t like making them feel like they hadn’t succeeded. Even though they hadn’t.

Lincoln stepped forward.

“Okay, Cassidy, why don’t I take you around to meet the rest of the team?” He offered his arm to her with a charming smile. She managed a small one back. “We’ll let Kincaid and David talk through any further details, then Jensen will take you to the house to get settled in.”

Taking his arm, Cassidy nodded. If she was disappointed that it wasn’t going to be David showing her around, she definitely wasn’t going to show it.

She felt oddly safe here. If Don somehow followed her in here, there was a wall of highly trained muscle between him and her. People who could take care of themselves.

She wondered if any of them were armed.

Part of her, the part that she was the most ashamed of, really hoped they were.

David