Page 48 of Danger and Dominance (Black Fox Security Doms #1)

Cassidy

Saturday, the flowers had been sent to Jensen’s house. Sunday was Mason’s. Monday wasn’t even their team’s; the black roses were delivered to Seth, a member of the other BFS team Cassidy hadn’t met yet, and Tuesday was Jaxon, the tech guy on the other team.

Today, Wednesday, they’d been delivered to Claudia’s house, which was how Cassidy found out that today was Claudia’s birthday. Apparently, she hadn’t been planning on celebrating.

The security camera caught every delivery.

It was always by a different courier or messenger service.

All of them had been paid in either cash or with a gift card.

None of them knew who the sender was. Even the ones that required a name and address—they didn’t ask for ID, and all the listed names and addresses belonged to someone at Black Fox.

It was utterly baffling and frustrating, though not as frustrating as waiting for Don to show up.

David had reassured her that they were using her shoes to try to draw Don out of hiding, but so far, he hadn’t fallen for the bait.

The prevailing theory was that it was out of her normal pattern, though it could also be something else.

Anything else. They just couldn’t know for sure.

Which made her want to bury her face in a pillow and scream—and not at all in the same way that David made her do that.

She also wasn’t entirely sure how to feel.

The flowers didn’t seem to have anything to do with her. But Don had put trackers in her shoes. Had he used them to follow her? Had he been tailgating her? Had he put the nail in her tire?

Or, like the flowers, were those just things happening around her that she attributed to him?

She hated not knowing.

“You’re tensing up again, dear,” Brenda said, reaching out to pat Cassidy’s hand. Sympathy showed in her eyes, and she cast a worried glance up at Cassidy. “We can go if you’ll be more comfortable.”

“No, I’m fine. You wanted to get yarn. This is out of our normal pattern of behavior. We’ve never been here before. I’m just jumpy.” She also felt incredibly guilty because they’d spent the past two days at David’s apartment.

Brenda said she didn’t mind at all. In fact, she’d been the one to insist on staying in, but Cassidy could tell she missed seeing her friends.

They’d missed two days of afternoon activities at the retirement center.

The whole point of Cassidy being her companion was to make sure she could do the things she wanted to do, not prevent her from doing them.

The very least she could do was take Brenda out to a store. They should be safe here. It met all the parameters David had given her. The likelihood of Don knowing she was here was incredibly low, especially since her shoes were elsewhere.

Unfortunately, being out in the store meant her brain wouldn’t shut up and wouldn’t stop running through the possibilities, no matter how ludicrous they were. In fact, the more ridiculous, the more her mind seemed to latch onto them.

What if the flowers were a distraction?

What if Don knew everything about Black Fox and where she was?

What if he’d put trackers in other places? Some kind of special tracker that the Black Fox tech hadn’t been able to pick up?

What if he’d put a tracker inside her? Obviously, it couldn’t have been while she was awake because she would know.

She hadn’t usually slept soundly enough for him to do it then.

But there had been a few times when he’d gotten her drunk, or she’d been sick and taken medicine…

He could have drugged her to make her sleep really soundly, then injected it into her.

Who’s crazier… Don for possibly doing it or me for coming up with these scenarios?

While Brenda looked at yarn, Cassidy’s brain was on overdrive. It was like having double vision. She could see Brenda looking at the yarn, knew that’s what was actually happening, but her brain was playing out different scenarios that felt so real that tears sprang to her eyes.

Don appearing at the end of the aisle, and Brenda putting herself between Cassidy and Don, and Don realizing that he could use her to keep Cassidy under control… and taking both of them.

Don appearing at the end of the aisle with a knife, and when Brenda tries to stop him from taking Cassidy, he stabs her, and she falls to the floor. Cassidy dragged away, not knowing if Brenda’s dead or alive.

Don appearing at the end of the aisle and shooting Brenda, and Cassidy not running because she was trying to help, then Don dragging her away while her hands were covered with Brenda’s blood. Brenda’s dead eyes staring up at the ceiling.

Cassidy’s breath caught in her throat, and she turned away from Brenda, blinking rapidly, trying to get the tears out of her eyes and the images out of her head.

It was so much worse today than usual. She took in a deep breath and lifted her fingers up to her forehead, tapping the tips of them against her skin.

That’s what Mistress Julie had recommended during their last appointment. Grounding exercises. She had to work on calming her nervous system.

I can’t always control what’s happening around me, but I can control how I react to it.

She knew the imaginings of her brain weren’t real. She knew Don wasn’t about to pop out at the end of the aisle like some kind of cartoon villain. She knew Brenda was aware of the drill.

She also knew she was a lot stronger and more capable than she had been before. If Don tried to drag her away now, she wouldn’t just put up a fight, she knew how to fight, thanks to all the self-defense classes.

If I don’t freeze.

She wouldn’t freeze. She wouldn’t let him take her to a second location. If she was going down, she was going down here, in the yarn aisle of a superstore.

Never let someone take you to a second location.

There were things worse than death.

Was it strange that these were the thoughts that made her feel stronger? Her biggest fear wasn’t for herself; it was for Brenda. But if she could fight back against Don, Brenda could run for help.

That’s what she would do.

“What do you think of this one?” Brenda asked.

Cassidy turned back to face her, quickly swiping away the lingering tears and hoping the older woman didn’t notice. Thankfully, Brenda’s attention was focused on the yarn she was holding, which was beautiful. Multihued green that made it look like an ombre and speckled with other colors.

“It’s beautiful,” Cassidy replied honestly. “It reminds me of a meadow.”

“Me, too.” Brenda inspected it carefully, then put it in her basket, adding a second one right after that. “Plus, it will look nice with Audrey’s hair. I want to make her a scarf and hat for the winter.”

Her excitement about her granddaughter moving to the area made Cassidy smile. She was both nervous and looking forward to meeting Audrey.

Brenda said they would get along like a house on fire, but it was different meeting someone as a potential friend than it was as an undefined sexual partner’s sibling. What she and David were, she wasn’t sure, other than living together for the foreseeable future.

She’d like more—a lot more—but she wasn’t sure how he felt about her.

“Do you think I should make one for David, too? He probably doesn’t need it, but I don’t want him to feel left out.

” Brenda hummed under her breath. “All he ever wears is black. He needs some color in his life. Maybe a nice blue to match his eyes. I’m glad he has you around.

Maybe you can get his buttstick out permanently. ”

Cassidy pressed her lips together.

She was pretty sure the reason Brenda kept saying ‘buttstick’ was because she found everyone’s reactions hilarious.

The first time Cassidy had heard her say it this morning, she’d nearly choked.

David had made a strategic retreat almost immediately afterward.

Something that she fully planned on teasing him about later.

“I will do my best to keep his buttstick out of his butt,” she replied solemnly, making Brenda cackle.

“See that you do.”

Brenda moved down the aisle, inspecting the array of blue yarn.

A little tingle on the back of Cassidy’s neck made her turn around. Paranoia’r’Us. Nothing was there. She was just letting her brain get the best of her.

Again.

But as she was turning away, someone walked across the aisle fast enough—and it was out of the corner of her eye—she couldn’t see exactly what they looked like.

Her head whipped around so fast, her neck cracked, and she put her hand up to the side of it where the sudden ache was.

Her pulse fluttered against her fingers as her breath caught in her throat.

A man. Tall. Blond.

There were a lot of tall blond men out in the world. Seeing one out of the corner of her eye didn’t mean it was Don.

She was just worked up.

‘Don’t ignore your instincts.’ Claudia’s voice echoed in her head. ‘They’re there for a reason.’

Cassidy shifted uncomfortably because she didn’t trust her instincts. She didn’t trust her brain. The most likely scenario was that it was just a tall blond man walking through the store who was not Don and had nothing to do with her, and she was freaking out over nothing.

Knowing that didn’t stop her heart from racing, her breath from coming faster, or her hands from going clammy.

“Okay. That’s everything I need,” Brenda said cheerfully.

Cassidy relaxed as she turned to look at Brenda. As much as she didn’t want to hold Brenda back, she also was going to be relieved to get back to David’s apartment. She felt safe there, despite everything that was going on.

David

When his phone rang with his grandmother’s ringtone, David frowned and immediately reached into his pocket, effectively cutting off the conversation he and Lincoln were having about a potential new hire.

He held up his left hand with one finger up, indicating he needed Lincoln to give him a minute while he answered the phone.

“Hello?”

Hearing a man’s voice on the other end of his grandmother’s phone gave him a shock.

“David?” The thick Scottish brogue should have been a clue, but the surprise had him so off-center that he didn’t place the voice immediately.

“Yes.”

“It’s Gavin.” A distressed Gavin, going by his accent having deepened.

“I’m with your grandmother and Cassidy at the store.

Cassidy seems to be having a panic attack.

She’s also insisting that she can’t go to the hospital, and your grandmother is backing her up.

I tried calling you on my phone, but when you didn’t pick up, your grandmother gave me hers. ”

“Shit. Yes.” David lifted his hand to rub his forehead, doing his best to remain in place instead of pacing the way his body was suddenly urging him to. “I have it on Do Not Disturb except for specific phone numbers… not important. Is Cassidy okay, other than the panic attack?”

“She doesn’t seem to be injured.” Gavin’s voice got quieter, as though he’d turned his head away from the phone as he asked if Cassidy was hurt.

A feminine voice, calm and controlled, answered him, then he responded back into the phone.

“Leah says she’s not hurt, just freaked out.

She saw someone who she thought could be her ex as she and your grandmother were checking out.

They got a few steps outside the store when she collapsed.

Leah and I were on our way in, and we actually saw her go down and came running. ”

Leah, Gavin’s wife, was exactly the kind of person Cassidy needed now. David blew out a long breath, trying to get his roiling emotions under control. She wasn’t in any danger.

But she was in distress.

“Can you bring her to the Black Fox office?” he asked. “Her and my grandmother?”

“Of course. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

Hanging up the phone, David tightly relayed the situation to Lincoln, who nodded somberly.

“Poor Cassidy. The toll this shit takes on a person…” Lincoln shook his head grimly. “She doesn’t deserve this. Hopefully, that asshole takes the bait soon, and we can finish this.”

David didn’t bother to question how Lincoln expected to finish it. One way or another, Don wasn’t going to bother Cassidy anymore. He was going to make sure of that.

“I need to tell Jennifer to call down and give security Gavin, Leah, and my grandmother’s names.

” His grandmother was already on the approved list, but it didn’t hurt to give them a heads-up, especially since she was technically on the ‘approved but call first’ list. Once they arrived, he wanted them to be able to come up straight away, and Cassidy was the only one on that list.

Lincoln nodded. “We’ll talk about Zeus later.”

Yes, yes, they would. David was not convinced hiring one of Marshall’s team was a good idea, even if the man had quit not long after Marshall was ousted from the firm.

His priority right now was Cassidy.

Getting up from the chair across from Lincoln, David stalked out of the office and down the hall.

It might have been the fastest he’d ever walked, even though he knew it was going to take some time for Gavin to arrive.

He wanted everything ready for them, so Cassidy didn’t have to wait even a second to feel safe.