Page 61 of Danger and Dominance

Even worse was the way Cassidy lit up.

She was considering it.

Which made him feel a little better.

He didn’t want her afraid of him or feeling like she couldn’t sass him—and he didn’t know exactly how her ex had abused her.Whether or not he’d threatened her in that way.

Either he had not, or she trusted David more than he realized because the unholy light of mischief in her eyes said he’d just thrown down a challenge she was interested in accepting.His body tightened in interest, his cock stirring with anticipation.

He needed to shut this down before it went any further.And not just because he really didn’t want to hear about what shenanigans his grandparents had gotten up to.

“I will make you sit and do lines about oversharing.”

Immediately, the mischief went out of her eyes, and she pouted at him for cutting off her fun.At least now, he knew what was an actual punishment for her because a spanking clearly wasn’t.

“Do lines?”Mick asked, obviously confused.

“Like writing out ‘I will not share what I learn about Ginger’s grandmother’s sex life’ a hundred times,” Jensen explained, making David scowl at him.He grinned cheekily.Laps for him next workout session.Jensen liked lifting weights, but he hated running.

“Oh.That makes more sense.”

The tone of enlightenment had David wondering what kind of lines Mick had been thinking of.No, wait, scratch that.He was pretty sure he could guess.Inwardly, he sighed.As if he’d have Cassidy doing lines of cocaine or something.For fuck’s sake.

If he didn’t know any better, he’d think Mick didn’t have a thought in his head.

“Anyway.Anything weird happen this week?Anything that might make you think that Don is around?”

Cassidy shook her head, her expression sobering, which was unfortunate but necessary.He’d wanted to check in with her on multiple levels, and this was one of them.

“No.I’m hoping he’s gone somewhere else.”She put her fork down, even though it still had a bite of pancake on it.“Though, then I feel guilty because if he’s gone somewhere else, that means he might have found someone else to hurt.”

Which echoed David’s initial thoughts when he’d first gotten her file so much that now, he felt extra guilty.It wasn’t that she wanted someone else to suffer; it was just that she didn’t want to suffer, either.Which no one could possibly blame her for.

The only person to blame for all of it was Don.

“Or maybe he pissed off the wrong person, and now he’s sleeping with the fishes,” Mick mused.“That would solve all of our problems.Though I hope they find his body soon, if that’s the case, so you know you don’t have to worry anymore.”

Cassidy tilted her head at the other man, her expression lightening to one of amusement.

“That is very sweet in a very macabre sort of way.”

“I’m just saying.Doubt he would be missed by anyone.”Mick shrugged.

“He’d be missed by his mom.”Cassidy sighed, rolling her shoulders as if to roll some tension off her.

David squashed the impulse to reach out and rub them for her to help.Touching her outside the club wasn’t going to do either of them any good.

“She was not the type to see any fault in her baby boy.It was always my fault.”

“Sounds like she created the problem, so you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t care that she’d miss him.”

“He’s not wrong,” Jensen chimed in.

Cassidy pressed her lips together, as though she was trying to figure out if she should argue with them—or maybe how to argue with them—because they had a damn good point.Not that kids could never defy their parents even when they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth—David liked to think that he was proof of that—but some parents did not do their kids any favors.

He'd lost a number of friends over it over the years when they felt like just because they could get away with doing something, that meant they should do it.No matter if it hurt someone else.Which was probably part of why he’d ended up enlisting—he hadn’t wanted to go through life buying his way out of any trouble he was in; he’d wanted to help people.

Still did.