Fateful Revenge (Prey Security: Delta Team #2)

Chapter 1

Chapter

One

The list of crimes he was guilty of was growing.

All the things he’d feared for so many years had come to fruition. All the reasons it was best for him to stay away from people, to shove them out of his life with a ruthlessness his cold-hearted parents would have been proud of, had turned out to be true.

All the reasons he’d given up on Cassandra Charleston proved true.

Dragon stared at the tablet he clutched in his hands as he watched footage from a CCTV camera.

It was almost impossible to drag his eyes away from the woman on the screen.

Not only was she drop-dead gorgeous, but she was one of the strongest people he had ever met in his life.

Given that he’d gone through rigorous special ops training, that was saying something.

Even after all the revelations of who she was and what had happened to her parents, in part because of her very existence, Cassandra still stood tall and proud.

She hadn't crumpled and fallen apart after learning she’d been conceived when her mother had been gang raped.

Or when she learned that the man she considered her father had been targeted and killed along with his SEAL team to set up her mother as a traitor.

Or when she learned that her mom and stepdad had been arrested and killed to shut them up, so the truth could never come out.

Her entire life had been upended, and yet she kept moving forward, putting one foot in front of the other, as she figured out what she wanted the rest of her life to look like.

With the maturity and grace with which she’d handled finding out the horrific truth, Cassandra seemed so much older than her twenty-four years.

But he’d smelled the tears she shed in the middle of the night when she thought no one was paying attention.

“I hear you, Cassandra, I see you,” he murmured as he watched her cross the street.

As though she somehow heard his words, she suddenly looked up, checking all around her to see who had spoken.

It wasn't possible that she’d heard him speak, several states were between them, and even if he’d been close by, he wouldn't have let on that he’d intruded in her quiet moments of weakness by standing outside her bedroom door.

Those months that Cassandra had stayed with them had changed something inside him.

Something he had fought tooth and nail against.

“Keep moving, little rabbit,” he urged when he saw that Cassandra was still standing in the middle of the street. “Don’t want you to get hurt.” She needed to finish crossing the street before the traffic started moving.

Thankfully, the universe somehow pushed those words into her mind because she shook her head as though to clear it, then quickly crossed to the other side of the street just as the lights turned green and traffic began to roll.

Since he was watching her through a camera, he couldn’t get a clear shot of her face, couldn’t stare into her light green eyes, couldn’t see her long chestnut locks that were tucked beneath a beanie.

With her bulky winter coat, he couldn’t get a clear view of her soft curves and slim legs.

Cassandra was a vision, and he’d been hooked the moment he first laid eyes on her.

“Why couldn’t you have been more like Steel?” Dragon asked himself, but the too-silent room offered no answer as he watched Cassandra disappear inside a store.

There was another woman with green eyes he was forced to offer begrudging respect to.

Rose Gardner was the younger sister of the man who had played God with their lives.

Ridge Gardner had turned them into monsters and cost him the future he could have had with Cassandra if he didn't sicken and terrify her.

Using Rose was supposed to be easy. Abduct her, terrify her into breaking, video it all, and send it to her brother to lure the cowardly scientist into a trap.

It all would have worked if Rose hadn't turned out to be a little bit psycho, too.

The crazy woman had turned their plans on their heads, and in doing so, she’d bought herself a reprieve when their team leader fell for her.

Despite Steel’s attachment to the woman, Dragon still would have been prepared to follow through with their plans, but he’d been outvoted and threatened that if he laid a single hand on Rose, he’d not only lose it but his life as well.

Taking out his anger on Rose for losing Cassandra because of their plan to use Rose wouldn't have been fair, but it hardly seemed fair either that Steel and his little ladybug had gotten their happy ending while he sat in his room alone.

Right now, the couple was downstairs getting tattoos to mark each other as theirs.

The thing was, even with the jealousy coursing through his veins, he was happy that Steel had found love. Happy even for Rose, who had suffered more at the hands of her deranged brother than any one of them. She’d put her life on the line to help them get revenge and almost lost it.

Her brother might be on the run again, slithering back under whatever rock he had been hiding under, but they were going to find him. When they did, the man’s screams would soothe that fury that raged inside him every second of the day.

Most days, Dragon could barely keep it under control.

The only reprieve he’d had in the last decade was the months when Cassandra’s warm spirit filled the cold, dark rooms of the Gothic mansion where he and his team lived.

Even after the threat against the Charleston Holloway family had been eliminated, Cassandra had chosen to stay.

He knew it was because of him and the attraction that hummed between them.

There had been no more than a single kiss shared between them, but it had been all it took for him to know that she was his.

His, and yet he’d allowed her to walk away without a fight.

She’d known that he and his team were planning something that would turn them into the monsters they’d always feared they were. She just hadn't known it was abducting Dr. Gardner’s innocent little sister.

Without even knowing the details, she’d looked at him with disgust and betrayal, like he wasn't the man she’d thought he was.

“Tried to warn you I was a monster and not good enough for you, little rabbit,” he said as Cassandra appeared on the screen again. “You saw something in me that doesn’t exist, and once you realized that, you left.”

Not just left, but left with an ultimatum.

Trust Prey to help them get their revenge and not give into the darkness that wanted to claim him, or she’d leave and never see him again.

What did it say about him that he’d chosen vengeance over redemption?

Steel hadn't. He’d chosen Rose over her psychopath brother. Instead of focusing on finding Ridge Gardner when he’d taken Rose and run, ensuring that the doctor would now be locked up in their basement, enjoying Delta Team’s special brand of hospitality, he’d put Rose’s life first.

Why hadn't he been strong enough to do the same with Cassandra?

Already she hated him, thought he was a twisted monster. How much more would she hate him if she knew he’d kidnapped an innocent woman, participated in torturing her, and continued to threaten her life even when it was clear one of the men he considered a brother had caught feelings for her?

Even though Cassandra was hiding it from everyone she loved, he knew she was struggling. And since he spent hours a day watching her, Dragon knew she would be heading home now, ready to change into running clothes and head to the local park for her daily run.

He hated that she was alone, so vulnerable, an easy target.

It was winter, and it was already dark by the time she got to the park. Knowing she was so exposed out there, and he couldn’t properly watch over her because there weren't any cameras inside the park was hell.

Didn't she know how many evil people lived in the world?

If anyone should know that, it was Cassandra.

Her own biological father was the reason behind all the hell her family had lived through.

He wished she would take her safety more seriously.

If she needed to go running, she had a new half-sister, or five new almost sisters-in-law who would go with her.

“Why do you have to be so stubborn?” he asked the screen as he switched to a different camera to follow her journey home.

Watching over her like this wasn't any real protection. If something happened to her, he couldn’t get to her in time to save her. Even calling one of her six brothers who all lived close to her wouldn't get her help in time.

Minutes ticked by as he watched her get home, disappear inside for a short time, then come back out. She drove to the park, and when he watched her climb out of the car, he felt that familiar ball of tension tighten in his gut.

So damn vulnerable.

Like he did whenever he could, he sat there, watching the camera by her car and waited until she was safely back inside it. Then he followed her journey home. Dragon was so deep in stalker territory he had no hope of digging himself back out.

Nor did he want to.

As he watched Cassandra park and climb out of her car, he noticed a shadowy figure in black approach her, and the bottom dropped out of his world as his worst fears sprang to life in front of him, while he was powerless to do anything about it.

January 3rd

7:19 P.M.

All day, she’d felt like she was being watched.

Not just all day, Cassandra Charleston thought with a shiver as she parked her car in the small parking lot of the local park. Ever since she’d walked away from Dragon and the rest of Prey Security’s Delta Team, she would have sworn that someone was monitoring her every move.

Well, not really someone. Cassandra knew exactly who was watching her.

Dragon.