Page 35 of Danger and Dominance (Black Fox Security Doms #1)

Cassidy

Someone was tailgating her again. Another man with a baseball cap and glasses on. But it was a different car. Different baseball cap. This one was black. So, it made no sense to think it was the same man.

Yet she couldn’t shake the idea.

Because her anxiety sucked, and she was a paranoid mess.

Every street that he followed her, she wound tighter and tighter, especially as she got closer to Jensen’s house.

Should I call David?

It was probably just a coincidence.

Maybe she should call Jensen. Or Mick. Hopefully, one of them would be home.

I should probably call someone, right? Or should I? And tell them what—I’m being tailgated, as if that’s not something that happens to everyone who gets on the road, every single day.

Her heart felt like it was slowly working its way up from her chest and into her throat, making it hard for her to swallow.

If she hadn’t been gripping the steering wheel so tightly, her hands would have been shaking.

It felt like sweat was starting to pop out around her hairline as her pulse raced.

She could feel a single drop trickle down the side of her temple.

Who do I call?

What if I’m wrong?

Mick. She should call Mick. Out of everyone she could call, he was the most likely to be home and not doing something important.

She was just reaching for her phone when the car suddenly moved into the left lane and out from behind her. It sped past as all her muscles turned watery with relief, racing ahead to make the left turn at the yellow light before it could turn red.

Coming to a halt, Cassidy felt tears spark in her eyes as she sucked in deep breaths to calm her nervous system. Since she was at a red light, she put her head against the steering wheel.

Maybe she should see if someone could start driving her again.

But no. They were busy. That was the whole point of driving herself. And it wasn’t like she had to go far. She just needed to get herself together and stop being such a drama queen about someone riding her bumper, especially since it had been two different cars.

Of course, two white guys wearing baseball caps and sunglasses would look similar. But she’d been making up a whole scenario in her head because she couldn’t just be normal.

That or both times it’s been Don, and he’s trying to lull me into a sense of complacency about being tailgated, so I don’t get suspicious when he follows me all the way somewhere.

Or it’s Don, and he’s trying to scare me. To panic me. Just for fun or because he’s hoping I’ll make a mistake.

Yes, thank you, brain, for both of those scenarios .

As if Don was some kind of mastermind who had figured out where she was and was so obsessed with her, he had followed her just to mess with her.

The far more logical explanation was that it had been two totally different cars driven by impatient jerks who didn’t care about tailgating people. It happened every day, all the time, to lots of drivers. There was no reason to get worked up about it.

She didn’t need to bother David or Jensen with her drama, but she was definitely going to be bringing it up during her next session with her therapist. Mistress Julie had already helped a lot with Cassidy’s anxiety.

She could reassure Cassidy that she was overreacting, then help her with regulating herself when her brain wouldn’t leave things alone.

David

Walking into Black Fox’s office, David nodded hello to Jennifer. She was on the phone with someone, her register higher than normal in the chirpy tone she used for customer service.

Jensen was just coming out from the hall on their side of the office, and he grinned when he saw David.

“Hey, Ginger.”

“Baby. How’s Cassidy doing?” He hadn’t seen her or talked to her since the night he’d given her a foot massage, then put her in her bed and manfully walked away. Just to prove that he could. Which he had. So, he was doing a good job of not doing anything he wasn’t supposed to do.

“Good.” Jensen hesitated, and David’s senses went on high alert.

“What?”

“It’s probably nothing, but Mick said she was acting a little weird when she got home the other day.”

“Which day?” He knew his tone had changed to a little aggressive, but he’d caught Jensen’s smirk on Monday when he’d asked about her, after giving her a foot massage on Saturday, and he’d forced himself to back off asking every day. Now, he was wondering if that had been a mistake.

“Wednesday night.”

“I was going to say it couldn’t have been yesterday,” Jennifer said. She’d gotten off the phone. “She was totally normal at game night.”

“Which is why I didn’t report anything.” Jensen shrugged, leaning against the large wooden frame wrapped around Jennifer's desk and propping his elbow on it to make himself look more casual. “She was fine. I didn’t notice anything. Mick said it was just when she first got home, she was kind of snappish and seemed a little shaken. When I checked in with her after he told me that, she just said she was fine.”

‘Fine’ was such a loaded word that could mean so many things. Or it could mean that she was fine.

“She really did seem fine yesterday,” Jennifer said, looking back and forth between David and Jensen with a slightly worried expression on her face. Like she thought Jensen might be in trouble or something. “She was laughing and enjoying herself. She didn’t say anything had happened.”

Which meant it was probably nothing. Maybe Mick was just misreading things.

Maybe she’d been experiencing a bout of homesickness and hadn’t wanted to talk about it.

David rolled his shoulders. There was no reason to get all worked up over what could have been literally anything, not something necessarily nefarious.

Rolling his shoulders only loosened some of his tension, and he gave his neck a quick jerk, making it crack. Jennifer made a face.

“I hate it when you do that,” she muttered.

“Sorry.” He wasn’t really, though. He did feel a little better now. He looked at Jensen. “Do you know if she’s going to the club tonight?”

“She is.” Jennifer answered him rather than Jensen, who had opened his mouth but closed it again when Jennifer got there before him. “We were talking about it yesterday at game night.”

“Does that mean you’re finally coming, too?” Jensen asked, so nonchalantly that he might have well screamed that he was invested in the answer. David had been watching the two of them tiptoe around each other for ages. “Master Gavin is supposed to be out of town this weekend.”

“Why do you want to know?” Jennifer asked, tilting her head and focusing on him.

Jensen shrugged with one shoulder.

“You know. So I can keep an eye on you.”

If David could have face-palmed without being obvious, he would have.

While he understood Jensen’s reasons for not asking Jennifer out—her age, her position at the company, the fact that they had to see each other on a daily basis—it was clear they were attracted to each other.

Which meant that was not the answer she was looking for.

Her eyes narrowed at Jensen, and she sniffed derisively, tossing her long black hair over one shoulder.

“Keep an eye on me. You mean like, watch me if I decide to scene with someone?”

“Like making sure you don’t choose the wrong person to scene with. Keep you from getting in over your head on your first visit. You know, like a big brother.”

Oh, shit. David froze in place. He should start backing away, but he was afraid that would draw attention to him.

“You want to be my big brother in a BDSM sex club?” Derision dripped from her voice.

David eased back, just shifting his weight, waiting to see if either of them noticed his movement, but they were too locked in on each other. Jensen’s skin was brown enough that he couldn’t really flush, not like David, but David was pretty sure he would be blushing if he could.

“I mean, not like in an incestuous way.”

“It doesn’t matter, anyway.” She waved her hand at him, turning her attention back to the computer to her right and away from both Jensen and David. David took a cautious step back. “I’m not going tomorrow night because I have a date.”

“You have a date?” Jensen straightened up immediately, glaring at the back of her head. David took another step back. And then another.

“Yes, Jensen, I have a date. Some men are willing to admit that their feelings for me are more than brotherly.”

Oh, shit.

David backed up as fast as he could to get himself out of the danger zone. Every good soldier knew when it was time to beat a strategic retreat.

Cassidy

“Thanks for the ride today,” Cassidy said to Naomi as she got into the car. Buckling in her seatbelt, she waved goodbye to Brenda, who was watching from her front door. Brenda waved back, smiling cheerfully, then turned to go inside, shutting the door behind her.

“No problem,” Naomi replied cheerfully. She was still in her work clothes, though she’d taken off the jacket to her grey suit and was wearing just the peach shell that had been underneath.

Her hair was pulled back in a neat bun. “It’s not out of my way at all.

Plus, it’s not like you can control when you get a flat tire. ”

“At least we made it back to Brenda’s.” Cassidy sighed.

She’d taken the older woman out for a quick stop to get an ice cream.

It wasn’t at the retirement community, but she figured that since it was also out of their routine and no one would be able to predict it, it would be safe enough.

At some point, she must have run over a nail or something because, by the time they got back to Brenda’s, the tire was already low on air.

While she waited for the tow truck to come get it, it completely ran out of air.

She’d called in to Black Fox when it first happened.

Jennifer had been concerned, but Cassidy reassured her that there was no reason to think it was anything other than happenstance.

Neither she nor Brenda had seen anything suspicious while they were out.

Cassidy couldn’t imagine how Don could have known where she’d be to do something like that when it had been an impulse trip.

Drew had come out to take a look, then reassured Cassidy that everything seemed fine and that Naomi would come pick her up at the end of the workday.

He had another job to get to. Cassidy had been grateful he’d taken the time out of his day to come look at it personally before arranging for the tow.

“Thank Drew for me, when you see him, for looking after me today.”

“You can thank him yourself.” Naomi turned onto the next street. “We’ll be at the club tonight.”

“Oh, good.” Cassidy slid her sneakers off, resting her feet on top of them.

She’d had them forever, and they’d always been very comfortable, but they were starting to wear out…

and sometimes, after a day of wearing any shoes, she just needed to feel free of them.

“Um… do you know if David will be there?”

Noami smirked, shooting her a sidelong glance.

“I happen to know that he will, yes. I also happen to know that he asked Jennifer if you would be there.”

“Oh. Um. Great.” Cassidy gave her a thumbs-up, trying to ignore the red-hot blush now heating her cheeks and making Naomi laugh.

It was good to see her laugh. She’d still been a little down last night at game night, but it seemed that today, she was feeling better.

Cassidy couldn’t imagine how hard the ups and downs of IVF were, but she hoped that it would be permanently up for Naomi and Drew soon.

She’d rather be embarrassed and see Naomi laugh again.

“So, are you finally going to admit that there’s something going on between you two?” Naomi asked, grinning widely, though her focus was on the road.

“I don’t know what’s going on between us or if anything even is.

” Cassidy sighed. “I’m not going to deny that I’m attracted to him and that I would like to get to know him better.

” Though their conversation on Saturday night after the fundraiser had done nothing to make her like him less, that was for sure.

And he’d given her a foot massage. And carried her to bed.

If she spent too long thinking about what it all might mean, she’d drive herself crazy.

“The fact that he’s asking if you’ll be at the club is a good sign.

He’s always so controlled—he normally doesn’t do anything without thinking it through thoroughly—but with you, he doesn’t seem to be able to help himself.

He could have just waited ‘til he got to the club to see if you came, too, but he wanted to know beforehand.”

Hm. Did that mean that he’d thought through giving her a foot rub and decided it was the course of action he wanted to take? Or was it like Naomi said, and he hadn’t been able to help himself?

Which was better?

She was about to tell Naomi about Saturday night when the other woman cursed under her breath, glancing up into the rearview mirror.

“What?” Cassidy asked, all of her nerves going on high alert. She twisted in her seat, trying to see behind them.

“Just some jerk riding my bumper. He’s already moving, though.” Naomi shook her head.

The grey car was in the other lane, zooming past them as Naomi spoke, going so fast that Cassidy couldn’t get a good look at the driver. He might have been wearing a hat and sunglasses… it was too fast, though, and Naomi partially obstructed her view… she couldn’t really tell.

“I hate jerks who do that. There was plenty of room in the other lane for him to move over. He didn’t have to try to go straight up my tailpipe.”

“Right.” Cassidy sat back in her seat, her heart rapidly pounding in her chest.

It probably wasn’t the same person who had tailgated her before, even though it was a grey car again.

She was just being paranoid. The cars had been different.

And this wasn’t even her car. It was Naomi’s.

How could anyone know she was inside it?

She was just overthinking everything because she was scared.

Naomi obviously didn’t think two thoughts about it.

She was already back to chatting about the office gossip.

Apparently, Jensen hadn’t been too happy that Jennifer was going out on a date tonight.

Last night, Jennifer had told them she’d been asked out, but she hadn’t accepted yet. She’d been thinking about it. Obviously, Jensen had done something or said something to change that.

Cassidy pushed a smile onto her lips and tried to focus on Naomi.

She needed to stop freaking out over nothing.