Page 109 of Danger and Dominance

The other man stepped back, holding his hands up and shaking his head as Don dragged her down the hall toward the door he’d been standing next to.It was him.It had been him.She wasn’t paranoid; she’d been right, and she could weep for it.

“Hey, man, sorry, I didn’t know.”

“No.”She managed to whisper the word, but it was drowned out by Don’s retort.

“Well, now you do, so fucking back off.”He was dragging her back, past the other doors, to the exit.

Never let them take you to a second location.

“No!”She heard Don hit the door, and she tried to kick him, hitting, struggling.Twisting in his grip, she saw the flirtatious man still watching.“Help me!”

“Hey, lady, this looks like a domestic thing.I don’t wanna get involved.”He still had his hands up in the air, like he was surrendering, shaking his head and backing away toward the restaurant.

“Please!”She started to scream, but it was cut off when Don pulled her back hard, slamming her head into the doorway.

“Hey, man, you don’t have to be so rough with her?—”

“Fuck off!”Don pulled her outside, and she stumbled, dizzy, as the pain throbbed through her head.She tried to kick him again, tears momentarily blinding her, and it pulled her off balance.Thankfully, it pulled him off balance, too, and she tumbled to the ground.“Fucking bitch!Fucking hold still before I fucking shoot you!”

Terror seized her as she looked up at him, elbows digging into the hard ground.The alleyway was well lit from light bulbs along the side of the building, so there was no missing the gun Don pulled out of the waistband of his pants.His blue eyes were cold, hard, as he glared down at her, and her mouth went utterly dry.

David

Walking back into the restaurant, David frowned when he saw the smaller group at the tables without Cassidy among them.They were all focused on Naomi, who had Drew beside her in the chair Cassidy had previously occupied, his hand on her back.Ashley and Jennifer were also missing from the table.

Ladies' trip to the bathroom.

Movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, something in his brain signaling a kind of warning.He turned to see Ashley and Jennifer emerging from the hallway without Cassidy.Neither of them looked to be in any distress; they had their arms linked together and were laughing about something, but… where was Cassidy?

Striding over to them, he met them on their way back to the table.

“Hey, David!”Ashley said, giggling.“Fancy meeting you here.”

The edges of a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, but the little alarm in his head was too strong to allow for a full grin, despite how cute she was.

“Hey, is Cassidy still in the bathroom?”

They both looked at him, smiles fading to be replaced by confused—and, in Jennifer’s case, concerned—frowns.

“No, she left before us,” Jennifer said, twisting to look back around at the hall.“When we came out, she wasn’t there, and we assumed she headed back to the table.”

Except she wasn’t at the table.

Instinct had David darting around them, running for the exit at the end of the hall.A sixth sense knew they were following behind him, but the alarm bells ringing in his head meant he didn’t look back to make sure.

Something was very, very wrong.

He plowed through the exit and into the alley beside the restaurant, pulling up when he saw the pair tussling about fifteen feet away.His brain took in the full scene, all at once, the way it had done so many times when he’d been on a mission.

Metal dumpsters to the left, two of them in a row.A stack of wooden crates on the right, stacked to about knee height, more of a tripping hazard than something that would offer any coverage.The target was fifteen feet away and about twenty feet from the end of the alley, where it emptied out onto the street.

Target was tall, muscular, and armed.He was also currently hindered by the fact the client had gone limp-legged, and he was trying to bodily drag her along the ground while she was fighting all the way.David’s heart leapt into his throat as Don lifted the gun—but he was pointing it at David, not Cassidy, thank God.

David put his hands up in front of him even as he reached out to kick the door shut behind him.He caught a glimpse of Jennifer and Ashley’s horrified faces before it slammed closed.

They would go get help.

“He has a gun!”Cassidy shrieked, twisting in Don’s grip, her foot lashing out and catching the man in the meaty chunk of his thigh.