Page 42 of Danger and Dominance (Black Fox Security Doms #1)

“They were moving too fast after they came up behind me, and once they passed me, they turned off the road… and I’ll be honest, I wasn’t really thinking of it.

I should have.” Shrugging, she took another sip of her coffee, watching him warily, like she was waiting for him to either laugh at her or freak out.

“I know it sounds paranoid to be frazzled over a few tailgaters. If it wasn’t for Don disappearing, I would have just shaken my head at the drivers being jerks. ”

Rubbing his hand on his chin, David had to nod.

It sounded like they were probably different people.

“Next time, especially if someone else is in the car, mention it and try to get at least a partial license plate. Anything helps… though don’t chase after the car.

” He gave her a strict look, and her expression was almost hilariously bewildered.

Good, she hadn’t been thinking about that.

“It’s probably nothing, but I prefer an abundance of caution to a lack. ”

Cassidy’s shoulders relaxed—he hadn’t realized how tense she was until they did—and she smiled at him as her expression softened.

“I didn’t use to, but right now… my brain is constantly running a mile a minute with possible scenarios, all the time.” She looked sheepish but also tired, and David couldn’t help himself anymore. Moving around the island, he came to her side and put his arm around her.

She leaned into him, sagging even more as he held up some of her weight.

Fuck.

“One of my exes was stalked,” he admitted.

He hadn’t meant to talk about Tasha, but he wanted Cassidy to know that she didn’t need to be ashamed of being scared.

He got it. “She ended up in the hospital after she got a restraining order. At the trial, he had several previous girlfriends come forward, too.”

With a shuddering sigh, she put down her coffee cup on the island and fully turned into him, pressing her face against his chest and wrapping her arms around his middle. David hugged her back, holding her up and comforting her at the same time.

“I keep worrying about that,” she whispered.

“What if he goes after someone else? Kincaid said they were keeping an eye on him, but now that he’s disappeared…

what if he’s not after me? What if he’s just gone somewhere so he can start over where no one is watching him?

What if he hurts the next woman even worse, and there’s no one to help her? ”

He could feel her trembling against him, and he tightened his grip on her. A little wave of guilt went through him as he remembered his first conversation with Lincoln about her. He’d wondered if she’d even considered what might happen to the women who came after her.

Now he knew.

It wasn’t her fault, though. She wasn’t responsible for Don’s actions.

She wasn’t the one causing the problems. If he hurt another woman, it wasn’t because of anything she did or didn’t do.

It was because he was a shithead, and society and the justice system were set up to allow him to get away with it.

Just as he’d been thinking that it would be her fault for not going to the police, even though he’d known that far too often, the system didn’t work.

Even if she’d come out on top and he’d gone away for assault, the likelihood of him spending any real time in jail was small. And then when he’d gotten out? What was to stop him from coming after her again? A piece of paper?

Yeah, the ‘right’ thing to do might be to press charges, but it wasn’t a black-and-white scenario. Especially with how little use doing the ‘right’ thing actually was.

“All you can control is what you do,” he murmured, smoothing his hand over her hair. “You’re doing your best, and you need to keep yourself safe, too. You can’t do anything about what he might do, though we’re all doing our best there, too.”

That was the honest truth.

The doorbell rang, and Cassidy startled, trying to pull away. David held her for another moment, then let her go, but he caught her hand. She already knew he liked her. They’d already bent the rules some.

“Are you expecting anyone this morning?” he asked. She shook her head, trying to peer around him. They could hear Jensen answering the door, talking to someone. It sounded like a woman. David turned to try to look out the doorway to the hall, keeping Cassidy behind him.

A moment later, the front door closed, and footsteps started coming down the hall.

David frowned as Jensen came into view, a bouquet of black roses in a black vase held out in front of him. Over the top of the funereal flowers, his face was set in a frown.

“Hey, guys. We have a problem.” Jensen glanced at Cassidy. “There’s no note, and the woman said the person who ordered them put in the order and paid for them by messenger. We’ll have to see if we can track the messenger down, but…”

Shit.

It looked like Cassidy didn’t have to worry about Don having moved on to someone else. She just had to worry about the fact that, somehow, he knew where she was.