Page 91 of Danger and Dominance
“It can also mean death or farewell, a symbol of the final act of saying goodbye forever.”
“As in, he’s given up on getting her back, and now he’s saying his final goodbye because he’s going to kill her,” Drew muttered.David elbowed him sharply, glancing over to where Ashley and Cassidy were still talking.Thankfully, they didn’t seem to have heard him.Drew looked up with a sheepish expression.“Sorry.I’m just… I’m still kicking myself over the flat tire.”
“I know.”David put his hand on Drew’s shoulder to reassure him.“You did exactly what you were supposed to do.More than.”Drew hadn’t waited until Monday to type up the report.He’d assumed he would have a chance to talk to David on Friday night, and when he hadn’t, he’d typed up the report this morning and sent it.
“It was still too late,” Drew muttered.Enough of his reflection was visible on the screen for David to see that he was scowling.
“It wasn’t.”David squeezed the other man’s shoulder.“Even if you’d told me about it the second it happened, we wouldn’t have moved her.It didn’t happen at Jensen’s.It could have been coincidence.Hell, it still could be.”
Did he believe it was?No.But it could be.
Just like the tailgating.
That was the shitty thing about stalkers.They didn’t even have to be doing everything to instill fear and anxiety.Doing one or two things was enough to make a person look ateverythingaskance.
“The roses are the first clear sign we’ve gotten that he knows where she is,” Mason agreed, obviously having listened.David knew he would probably make a point to talk to Drew about it later.“If it’s him.”
“Who else?”Jensen muttered, even though Mason sounded doubtful.It was more like he was playing devil’s advocate just to keep them on their toes.Mason shrugged, and Jensen sighed.“I’ll talk to Mick, just in case.It would be just like him to pick up some whacked-out chick at the worst time possible.”
He wasn’t wrong, but David couldn’t shake the feeling that the flowers weren’t some new girlfriend gone wrong.
Regardless, he was going to keep Cassidy safe from any threat.He almost hoped her ex would show up to claim responsibility.David would be very happy to explain to Don the Douchebag why he needed to leave Cassidy, and every other woman on the planet, alone.
33
Cassidy
By the late afternoon, when nothing else had happened, and they hadn’t found anything, everyone else cleared out from the apartment, leaving her alone with David.She kind of missed Jensen’s house and how comfortable and unique it was, but she had to admit, having David there helped make up for a lot of that.
Though, at the moment, he was going over the security footage again rather than talking to her.Which was fine.She was sitting on one of his armchairs, earbuds in, listening to the latest upload from her favorite true crime podcast and pretending she wasn’t watching him.Truthfully, she was only half-listening because her brain was going a mile a minute.
Mostly, she was worried about Brenda, and she wasn’t sure she was going to be able to go to work on Monday.David hadn’t said anything about it yet, but she figured they’d talk about it this evening.They still had Sunday to get through.
Maybe she’d get lucky, and Don would do something monumentally stupid.Like, get pulled over for a traffic ticket and try to run instead of complying.Then he could get arrested for that.
Unlikely.He’s a good-looking white guy.He’d probably have to do something a lot stupider to actually get arrested.
It wouldn’t solve the long-term problem anyway, though at least she’d be able to sleep a little easier.Plus, just knowing where he was would be a bonus.
The not knowing was driving her crazy.
Part of her wanted to believe Mason that it could be someone else.Don had hardly been the type to buy flowers for any reason.Spending money on her?Absolutely not.Now, if they’d been dead flowers that he’d pulled out of the garbage bin… she could believe he’d send to the house to mess with her.
But the roses had been beautiful in their own way, if terrifying.They’d been fully in bloom, beautifully arranged, and in a vase.
It just didn’t feel like Don.
On the other hand, she had no idea what his state of mind was like.She would never have guessed he’d become fixated on her the way he had or that he’d start stalking her or slashing people’s tires.Truthfully, she didn’t think she’d mattered enough to him for him to care that she was out of his life.
“Hey.”David appeared in front of her, frowning down at her.“What are you listening to?”
“Um…” She didn’t want to say.It had really weirded Jensen and Mick out when she’d told them she liked to listen to true crime to unwind.Hitting the pause button on her phone, she popped her earbuds out.“I wasn’t really listening.Honestly, I was kind of lost in thought.”
He looked her over, examining her for a long moment before nodding in acceptance of her answer.
“What do you want to eat for dinner?”he asked.
Holy crap, was it that time already?She glanced at the clock.Apparently, it was.
