Chapter 8 #2
She worked in a library. A library. Her life was about information, about helping people learn, about knowledge.
She spent her days running toddler and preschool story time sessions, after-school programs for kids who were struggling at school, for kids who were excelling and needed to be further challenged, and for kids who didn't have someone waiting at home for them and whose parents wanted to ensure they had a safe place to go.
What she didn't spend her days doing was foiling would-be kidnappers and trying to figure out what their next move was. She was so far out of her league that her head throbbed with the beginnings of a headache.
“Are you okay, miss? Ambulance should be here soon,” a well-meaning woman—who had introduced herself, but Cassandra hadn't been paying enough attention to absorb the information—assured her.
Giving a distracted nod, she watched as Dragon ended the call and slid his phone back into his pocket.
Their gazes met, and for a second his violet eyes softened, and she could almost feel the gentle caress as he examined her from head to toe, likely in search of any injuries he might have missed when he helped her out of the car.
By some miracle, neither of them appeared to have been hurt, other than some bumps and bruises, but she knew that didn't mean they were safe. Dr. Gardner was a more dangerous man than she’d grasped, and it seemed she had been dragged into that mess now.
Closing the distance between them in two long strides, Dragon reached down and curled his long fingers around her elbow, gently tugging her to her feet. “We have to go,” he informed her.
So the news was that bad.
There were a million questions she wanted to ask, but Cassandra got that now wasn't the time. Too many people were about, and this wasn't the kind of thing you could just talk about in front of anyone.
“Uh, I don’t think you can leave the scene of an accident,” a middle-aged man piped up.
Dragon shot him a glare that had the man taking a small step back, and Cassandra quickly placed a calming hand on Dragon’s forearm.
The last thing they needed was for him to view any of these well-meaning motorists as a threat.
After all, none of them could be the mysterious partner because there had been no tail when they went to the motel, and none following them this afternoon.
“Maybe we should wait, just till the cops come,” she said softly to Dragon.
“Not safe,” he muttered, glancing around them like he expected someone to come jumping out at any second.
Remembering his fierce declaration that when it came to her safety, he had to consider every conceivable threat, she let her fingers trail down his arm until they reached his hand, then she twined them with his.
“Safest place for me right now is here. Cops will be here soon, and medics. Besides, we don’t even have a car anymore, so we’d either have to walk or call a cab or an Uber.”
A low growl rumbled through his chest, causing all four of the drivers who had stopped to check on them to cast wary glances Dragon’s way. If he kept behaving like this, they were going to think he was the source of danger.
“Need to get you somewhere safe.”
“We can call Jax. They’re expecting us anyway and—”
“No.”
There was more finality in that one word than she would have expected, and the abrupt way he once again cut her off without even listening to her, especially when once again she was trying to help him, had Cassandra trying to tug her hand free from Dragon’s hold.
His fingers tightened around hers, and he tugged her with him as he tried to move back from the small group of people.
“Sir, I think you should let go of her,” the middle-aged man piped up again, and she wanted to yell at him to stop talking. She got that he was trying to help her, but he was only making things worse and kicking Dragon’s already protective instincts into overdrive.
“It’s fine,” she rushed to assure him before he could do something even stupider, like actually try to physically prevent Dragon from touching her. “He’s just shaken up by the accident. We aren't going to leave before the cops show up.”
Ignoring Dragon’s huff, she quickly led him away from the gathered group, ignoring the pain pulsing through her leg as she walked on it. The stitches had all popped in the crash, and it was going to need to be stitched again before she went to her sister and brother’s house.
“Who was on the phone?” she asked once they had a few yards between them and the others.
“My team.”
“And what did they want?” Sometimes getting information out of this man was like pulling teeth. But since this involved her now, she wasn't backing down without all the information. If it affected her, she deserved to know.
“The man who attacked you last night, they found out that he recently came into a large sum of money.”
“Okay,” she said slowly, not getting exactly what that meant. “And how does that change things from what we already knew?”
“We thought he was one of Dr. Gardner’s men.
In the ten years since he started experimenting on us, he hasn’t stopped.
The woman who came up to you the other night must be one of his employees.
Maybe she’s just trying to throw us off our game, maybe she really is doubting her boss’ plans and decided to finally do the right thing, we don’t know.
But we assumed the man who broke into your place was another of Dr. Gardner’s employees. ”
“Now you don’t think that?”
“If he was one of Dr. Gardner’s employees, he wouldn't have just come into a sum of money the very same day he broke into your place.”
“Okay,” she said once again, still struggling to follow along.
“It is highly likely that Dr. Gardner didn't send one of his own people after you.”
“Then who did he send?”
“We’re guessing he’s put out a contract on you.”
“Like to kill me?” Cassandra wasn't completely unaware of what a contract meant, past the obvious that it was one person ordering the death for money of another person.
Her own biological father had put out bounties on her family.
Mercenaries had started coming after them time and time again, which was how she, and then later the rest of her family, had wound up staying with Dragon and the guys to begin with.
“A contract isn’t always to have someone killed. Chances are, he’s put it out there on the dark web that he’ll pay for your capture. Prey will keep digging, see if we can find proof of that, but from what we already know it’s the most likely scenario.”
Pieces of the puzzle began to click into place. “So there’s more than just the partner of the man who attacked me last night after me now?”
“Which means going to Monique and Jax’s house isn’t just potentially bringing trouble to their door, it absolutely one hundred percent certainly is.
” Already Dragon had talked her out of going to stay with one of her brothers once, but then the idea of going to the sanctuary had seemed to negate that threat.
Now she knew that likely wasn't the case.
“If there’s money to be had from kidnapping you, then trust me, there are any number of mercenaries willing to come after you.
Since we don’t know the details of the contract, we don’t know if you're to be delivered uninjured, or if Dr. Gardner doesn’t care about your condition when he gets you so long as he gets you. ”
The words behind what Dragon didn't say came through just as loudly as the ones he did say.
If the scientist didn't care about her condition when he got her, it meant the men who abducted her could rape her, torture her, do whatever they wanted to her as long as she was still breathing when they handed her over.
“He had a knife last night,” she whispered, feeling the blood drain from her head as shock made her feel cold and shaky.
“He didn't just stick me with the syringe, he intended to hurt me first.” Which meant that even without seeing exactly what Dr. Gardner had put out there, they knew he didn't care if whoever found her first hurt her.
Dragon’s expression was a mixture of grim, angry, and protective.
“Everything about you will be known, including the location of your family. If I take you to Jax and Monique’s, then there is every chance someone could be waiting there in the hope of spotting you.
It would be like handing you over on a silver platter. ”
“Which means I no longer have a choice.” It was stay with Dragon or get him, and possibly her brothers and their partners, killed when they tried to protect her from whatever mercenaries were coming for her.