Chapter 8
Chapter
Eight
The second the scent invaded his nostrils, Dragon knew they were in trouble.
It was the unmistakable smell of the brake line fluid. And the only reason he’d be able to smell it the way he could was if someone had messed with the brakes and caused them to start leaking.
With Cassandra in the car with him, he didn't have many options. She noticed when he went stiff beside her, and he felt her eyes on him. Before she could ask what was going on, the steering wheel he was gripping tight enough his knuckles had blanched white began to wobble in his grip.
Great.
They’d messed with the steering as well.
Dragon took his foot off the gas, so at least when they hit whatever they were going to hit, it would be at the lowest speed possible.
Cassandra was the most precious cargo he was ever going to carry anywhere, and he only had her for a little while longer.
Once he dropped her off at her sister and stepbrother’s house, that was it.
She’d made it clear she didn't want anything to do with him going forward, and he wasn't going to force himself on her.
Neither could he stand to be around her, knowing she would never see him as anything but a monster.
So this was goodbye.
But it was going to be goodbye and not the final goodbye that signaled death.
Unable to control the vehicle in any way now, all Dragon could do was hope for the best as they slammed into a nearby fence. The impact of the crash threw his body forward, and he felt the airbag engage, but he cared only about Cassandra.
Turning sideways, he saw her slumped against her seatbelt. She wasn't moving, but he could smell her scent still strong, she wasn't dead. Still, the metallic scent of blood was also strong, and the reddening patch on her arm told him the jarring crash had reopened the wound.
“Dragon?” She moaned as she stirred.
“Right here, little rabbit. Where do you hurt?” he asked as he internally raked himself over the coals for not checking the vehicle before leaving this afternoon.
It didn't matter that he hadn't thought there was any need to. There had been no tail when he drove Cassandra to the motel. He’d been as careful as he could be to ensure it because no way was he putting her at risk all over again.
The chances of them being tracked to a random motel were slim, which meant the most likely scenario was that his car had been sabotaged last night.
If the man from Cassandra’s house had a partner waiting in the wings for the getaway, it was possible that person had messed with his car while he was inside killing the man who dared touch Cassandra.
When he’d jumped out of his car, his only intention had been to get to his little rabbit, he hadn't even closed his door.
It would have been obvious to any potential partner that someone had left the vehicle in a rush, and since he had crashed through the front door, it would be easy to assume that his vehicle belonged to someone connected to Cassandra.
“Are you okay?” Cassandra’s small hand brushed against his arm, and he blinked, realizing he’d zoned out.
What the hell was wrong with him?
Zoning out after crashing the car when Cassandra could still be in danger was unacceptable. What if someone had tagged his vehicle and was following him right now.
“Where are you hurt?” he growled, making her hand fall away.
Even as he wanted to mourn the loss of her touch, he couldn’t rein in his anger at himself for not taking Cassandra’s safety seriously enough.
Instead of being there to protect her, she’d been hurt twice now on his watch.
Didn't matter that her intruder had gone in through her back door, he should have been paying better attention, should have known, should have kept her safe.
“I'm not,” she assured him. “Not really. Just sore. What happened? You knew we were going to crash before we did. How?”
“Smelled the brake fluid leaking,” he replied as he unsnapped his seatbelt and then leaned over to undo Cassandra’s as well.
“Someone sabotaged your rental. Could it have been random? Maybe something was wrong with it before you even rented it?”
Hating to dispel the note of hope in her tone, Dragon shook her head. “No way I could have driven it all the way from the airport to your place, then from your place to the motel without the line already going empty.”
“So it happened while we were at the motel? If they knew we were there, why wouldn't they come in rather than just mess with your car? They could have gotten to us while we were sleeping.”
“Not possible.”
“How do you know? They could have just snuck in and—”
“Do you really think I would sleep while you’re with me and someone is out to use you to get to me and my team?” he growled, uncertain if he should be angry that she thought so little of him, or sad that he was such a coward he hadn't let her know that he cared deeply for her.
“Oh.” Cassandra’s eyes were wide as she stared up at him, but he would have sworn she relaxed slightly, and he hoped it was because she was happy to know that her safety would always take priority.
It was why he’d let her go without a fight.
Why force her to stay when he knew he would never be someone she would be safe around?
“If the hole they made in the line was small, it would have taken a while to leak out enough to be noticeable,” he explained.
“And I didn't check the car to make sure it was safe this morning.” Instead, he’d been throwing himself a pity party because Cassandra wanted to get away from him as quickly as she could.
“You couldn’t have known, Dragon. We got all the way to the motel this morning, then the car sat there for hours. Why would you think to check it out when there was no reason to think anyone knew where we were, or that another person was involved?”
Almost more than he loved the comfort Cassandra couldn’t help but offer, even though she hated him, Dragon loved that she was already putting two and two together.
So often Cassandra downplayed her own strengths to build up her family, like she didn't believe she measured up. But she was an intelligent woman who was every bit as tough and strong as her siblings. She’d just chosen a different path in life.
“When it comes to your safety, I should consider every possible scenario,” he told her, not willing to let himself off the hook as easily as Cassandra was apparently willing to.
Before she could reply, he shoved open his door and climbed out.
Other vehicles had stopped, and people were beginning to come to check on him and Cassandra.
While he didn't want anyone to get too close to her, he didn't smell anything other than worry from anyone, so he rounded the wrecked vehicle, opened Cassandra’s door, and helped her out.
Her legs were a little shaky, and he could see the wound on her leg had also been ripped back open, so he helped her to sit a short distance from the wreck, then stood beside her, prepared to act in an instant if a threat presented itself.
Steel’s name popped up on his cell phone, and because he knew he would have to tell the guys about the crash anyway, he answered and took a step or two away so no one would overhear the call.
“We have a problem,” he said as soon as he accepted the call.
“More than one, it seems,” Steel said.
“There was a partner. Someone messed with the brake line and the steering of the rental. We just crashed.”
“You need us to fly out there?”
“No. We’re both okay. Cassandra wanted me to take her to stay with Jax and Monique. They were going to go out to her animal sanctuary.”
“We’re not dragging Monique into this,” Lion’s voice spoke, and Dragon knew he was on speaker phone.
Lion and Monique had become good friends while she was staying with them, and Dragon completely agreed.
There was no point bringing anyone else into this mess, he just had to convince Cassandra of that.
“I’ll work on convincing her the safest place is with us,” he assured his team, praying it was possible that Cassandra’s love for her family outweighed her hatred for him.
“The guy who attacked her last night, he recently came into quite the sum of money,” Steel informed him, and he assumed that was the reason for the call.
“So, Dr. Gardner put out a contract on her, and some mercenary decided to take him up on it,” Dragon said, his blood heating as fear for Cassandra increased.
“You know what that means,” Voodoo said gently.
Unfortunately, he did. It meant there was no getting Cassandra out of the line of fire without taking off the head of the snake.
If there was a contract on her, it was a payday for anyone willing to try to abduct her and deliver her to the crazed scientist. It wasn't going away until the doctor was eliminated.
Convincing Cassandra to go back with him to the mansion was the only way to keep her safe, and Dragon wasn't sure he could convince her to do it.
January 5th
4:40 P.M.
Unable to take her eyes off Dragon, Cassandra tried to guess how bad whatever news he’d just gotten could possibly be.
Surely it couldn’t be worse than finding out there had been a second person involved in her almost abduction.
That the person had tampered with their vehicle.
Tampering with it didn't seem like the best idea when it had looked like her assailant wanted to abduct her, but maybe when that plan was foiled, he’d decided that just killing her was a better idea.
It was all so complicated, and her brain wasn't used to running scenarios like this.