David threw his hands in the air in defeat. It was easier than arguing, and he knew they were right. He wasn’t really pissed at them; he was pissed because Cassidy should be able to go to the police and have them take her seriously. She shouldn’t be judged because she was in a kink club when the assault happened.

  It offended every single one of his sensibilities that women trying to get away from abusers had so much of the system working against them instead of for them. He didn’t like it, but he also didn’t have to live in it personally.

  “You’re right. No, I know. I see it sometimes, but I am always on the outside.” He sighed, rubbing his forehead. “I’ll try to be nicer to Cassidy.”

  “Glad to hear it,” Kincaid said. “She deserves a break.”

  With that, Kincaid spun on his heel and stomped down the hall Lincoln and Cassidy had gone down. David should, too, but he wasn’t ready yet.

  This morning was hell, and he’d been completely thrown not only by the case but by his reaction to Cassidy in person. And he had the unhappy feeling that both Kincaid and Jennifer now thought a lot less of him because he wanted to be able to do the right thing and have the goddamn system, which he’d fought and bled to protect, do the right thing, too.

  So, he stood there in the lobby, trying to gather his thoughts and remember that wanting justice wasn’t a bad thing in and of itself.

  “You okay there, Ginger?” Jennifer asked, using his call name, her voice full of false sympathy. Little brat. A rush of affection went through him. One of the reasons she’d been hired was because, despite her youth, she didn’t take shit from any of them. Which they all needed.

  “Yeah, I’m good.” He glanced at Jennifer. She beamed at him.

  “That’s what I like about you, Ginger. You handle criticism well.” She was completely sincere, which helped soothe some of his ire.

  “Thanks,” he said dryly. “I aim to please.” With a sigh, he straightened up.

  Time to get his game face on.

  Be nice to the client. But not too nice.

  Do not get emotionally or physically involved with the client.

  3

  Cassidy

  Lincoln escorted her through what he called ‘his’ side of the building to introduce her to the rest of the team. She was both relieved and reluctant to be walking away from David. A one-sided attraction to one of the men guarding her did not seem like a serendipitous start. Part of her was happy to know that she could still feel attraction, so maybe Don hadn’t totally broken her, but another part of her was incredibly uncomfortable.

  They stopped briefly in Lincoln’s office, and he gave her a panic button, taking a few minutes to show her how to use it. It would alert him, David, and whoever was at the front desk if she pushed it.

  There were office spaces for the whole team, but no one was in them. They were in the breakroom. It was a beige and grey breakroom, just like any other, but all the tables and chairs had been pushed to the side to make more floor space. There was a fridge, a bunch of cabinets, and a few baskets with snacks on the counters, though she couldn’t see what was in them because she and Lincoln had to stand in the doorway.

  Two of the men were in the middle of the open space, hands pressed flat against the floor, bodies moving up and down in unison with a fluidness that was beautiful to watch. Cassidy stared at all the rippling muscles, her mouth slightly dropping open.

  One of them was Black, with long dreads that had been pulled up into a bun on his head. He was shirtless and wearing sweatpants on his lower half. The other was brown-skinned, but she didn’t think he was Black—though she couldn’t see his face, his hair made her think he was either South Asian or Latino or possibly mixed. He was wearing jeans and a white wife-beater tank top.

  In front of them, near their heads, another man was standing. Like Lincoln, he was wearing a jacket and button-down shirt with dress pants, but he didn’t have on a tie and the top button of his shirt was unbuttoned. His head was bent down, his focus on the watch he was holding up in front of him, making it impossible to see his face, though she could see that he was wearing thin, wire-frame glasses. She’d been around Kincaid long enough to know that he was probably just as well muscled as the men doing the push-ups, just from the way his jacket hung from his broad shoulders.

  The only other woman in the room was perched on the countertop next to the fridge, which was behind and a little to the left of the man in the suit. She had long dark hair that had been pulled back into a ponytail and was eating from a small bag of popcorn as she watched the show with gleaming dark eyes. She was wearing black leggings and a red tank top with a black sports bra underneath, which showed off her own muscles. Cassidy couldn’t help but stare with envy.

  The whole scene helped her feel a little better. If Don suddenly burst through the door, every single person in there looked like they could wipe the floor with him without even breathing hard.

  It also made her feel like she needed to work out more. She wanted muscles. She wanted to be able to wipe the floor with Don—or anyone who threatened her—without breathing hard.

  “Come on, Jensen, you’ve got this!” The woman cheered, popping a piece of popcorn in her mouth. She was the only one who seemed to have noticed Lincoln and Cassidy’s appearance in the doorway, and she winked at them as she spoke.

  One of the men doing push-ups, Cassidy couldn’t tell which one, grunted.

  “I hate to interrupt,” Lincoln drawled, “but our new client is here to meet you.”

  Sudden groans echoed through the room as the two men stopped their push-ups and rolled into sitting positions. Sweat glistened on both of them, and they were panting for breath. Still, neither of them took her attention. Nope, her full attention went to the man in the suit, who had been timing them, as he looked up.

  He looked almost identical to Master Asad from Stronghold. Other than the glasses and a slight difference in the way he held himself, she would have sworn they were twins. Well, that and she’d never seen Master Asad wearing a suit.

  “We knew you were there. Jensen and Drew just wanted to see if they could finish their competition first,” he said, grinning as he stepped between the bodies of his tired friends, holding out his hand. Seeing Cassidy’s expression, he winked at her. “Don’t tell me, Asad didn’t mention that he had an older, better-looking cousin.”

  “Um, he did not,” Cassidy answered truthfully, and literally, because Master Asad would never describe anyone as better-looking than him. It seemed that he and his cousin had a similar sense of humor.

  “I’m Mason Bahrami, at your service.”

  “Mason is our profiler and psychologist, and he also sometimes serves as Claudia’s spotter,” Lincoln said, gesturing to the woman who had hopped down from the counter and come to say hello. She had a wide smile as she held out her hand.

  Cassidy had no idea what a spotter was, but she nodded. She could look it up later.

  The other woman nudged Mason out of the way with her shoulder, and he smoothly stepped to the side, unperturbed by her literally barging through him. She was petite, several inches shorter than Cassidy, yet she walked with an assurance that Cassidy was used to seeing from the club dominatrixes.

  “Claudia Delgado, sniper and wrangler of these twits,” she said cheerfully, taking Cassidy’s hand to shake. “I told them they didn’t have time to finish this before you came back to meet us. Jensen’s been practicing, and he’s lasting a lot longer than he used to. In more ways than one.”

  “Claudia!” Shaking his head, the man in the tank top got to his feet as he complained. He flashed a brilliant smile at Cassidy. Now that she could see his face, she was pretty sure he was Filipino. He was very handsome in a boyish way. She would guess he was about her age or maybe a year or two older. “Jensen Reyes, nice to meet you. Please ignore everything they say about me.”

  He winked at her as he held out his hand, and Cassidy found herself smiling back, even though her body didn’t light up the way it had for David.

  “And Drew is the last member of my team,” Lincoln said, gesturing at the last man as he was getting to his feet. “He is Patrick’s cousin, so I’m not sure if you’ve met before.”

  Cassidy shook her head. They had not, but she could see the similarities between the two. Drew towered over her, easily the tallest person in the room, even without his hair adding to his height. He also had a similar, easy smile as he shook her hand.

  “It’s nice to finally meet you, Cassidy,” he said in a deep voice that very much reminded her of Patrick.

  Huh.

  She glanced back and forth between Drew and Asad.

  “You both have cousins at Stronghold.” She shook her head in amazement.

  “It’s a really small world, sometimes,” Lincoln said, chuckling. “We were surprised when we realized it. Did Patrick or Kincaid explain that we’re all also members of the local club, the Outlands?”

  “Yes.” It had been a relief to hear because it lessened the chance of anyone judging her for being kinky. That had been part of the reason she’d felt comfortable coming here.

  Of course, Patrick hadn’t said whether they were dominants, submissives, switches, or anything in between, but if there was a single submissive in this room other than her, Cassidy would be shocked. The whole room fairly sizzled with protective dominant energy, all of it focused on her. A feeling that was familiar, yet this also felt like more because the people in this room had the training to back it up, and she didn’t have to worry as much about them getting hurt.

  Although she still would worry some. She already, immediately, liked all of them, and therefore, she didn’t want any of them to get hurt, but they also seemed a lot less likely to be.

  “Any time you want to go, someone from the team will go with you,” Lincoln told her. “Someone is there most of the open nights, anyway. Bunch of perverts.” He said it affectionally, obviously including himself in the grouping.

  “Thanks, Head Pervert,” Jensen joked, saluting him and making the others laugh. Cassidy giggled.

  “Baby pervert there is who you’ll be staying with,” Lincoln continued, ignoring Jensen’s indignant ‘hey!’ and talking over him. Claudia and Drew both snickered. “Just ignore the flirting and the posturing. Underneath that, he’s a solid guard.”

  As if reminded of the seriousness of the situation, Jensen sobered, the smile immediately wiped from his face.

  “We’ll take care of you, Cassidy, don’t worry.” The corners of his mouth turned up. “But I’m sure we can find a way to make it fun while we do it.”

  “Of course you are,” Mason murmured, giving him a look of fond resignation. Personally, Cassidy wasn’t so sure, but she had to admit it seemed like it might be an actual possibility. If she wasn’t so emotionally drained, she might have cried right then and there from relief.

  Which, thankfully, she didn’t because Kincaid joined them a moment later, and she was pretty sure he’d be upset if he’d let her out of his sight only to find her crying a few minutes later.

  David

  Jensen’s house was in Regent Square, about fifteen minutes outside of downtown. The houses were big and drafty, the yards were small, and there were still little bakeries, shops, and a park within walking distance. A lot of young families lived there because of its location. Drew and Naomi lived about a mile away, easily within walking distance.

  When Jensen had moved in, he and his brother had started doing a lot of work on their house, fixing it up. The house was historical, originally built in the 1920s, and had a lot of beautiful carved wooden detailing on the wainscotting that went throughout the house and on the staircase banister. There were also several original stained-glass windows.

  They hadn’t taken any of it out; instead, they’d been refinishing and enhancing what was already there. The front porch had needed some shoring up and repainting, as had the back. As security went, they’d installed an alarm system on every single one of the doors and windows up all three stories. The closeness of the neighbors also meant that people noticed when someone new was around. Several were out on their front porch watching with interest as Jensen parked his car, followed by Kincaid and Cassidy, and finally David.

  He waved at old Mrs. Tulieman when he got out of the car, and she waved back, grinning. He gave it twenty minutes before she was knocking on Jensen’s door, pie in hand, wanting to find out what was going on. Thirty at the most. He swore she kept a freezer stock full of them to excuse her nosiness.

  Nosiness they were counting on, along with several of the other neighbors. If Cassidy’s shitty ex somehow found out where she was and started hanging around the neighborhood, these were the kinds of neighbors who would notice. Unlike the condo building where David lived—half of the condos were rented out to tourists regularly. No one paid attention to each other, much less to who belonged there and who didn’t.

  He'd liked the anonymity, but it made for a less secure place.

  Something that he hadn’t minded up until now.

  Though he had to admit, it wasn’t like his sterile, millennial gray décor was going to get the same reaction from Cassidy as Jensen and Mick’s house did. Even before they went inside, he could see her wide-eyed reaction to the gigantic house, staring up at it from the street.

  “Damn.” Even Kincaid was impressed. “This place is huge.”

  “Just wait till you get inside,” Jensen said, grinning as he came up beside them where Kincaid was opening the trunk. David got there before him, though, pulling the large suitcase from the interior. It had wheels, but he held it by the handle. While it wasn’t exactly light, he could bench a hell of a lot more than its weight. Jensen grabbed the smaller duffel bag instead, leaving Kincaid to take the slightly larger duffel.

  They trooped up to the front porch, which had a table and benches on the right-hand side and a porch swing on the left. David saw Cassidy looking at the swing wistfully, like she wanted to try it out immediately.

  Not advisable, considering it was on the front porch, in full view of anyone driving by on the street. On the other hand, as long as her ex wasn’t driving around the suburbs of Pittsburgh, and why would he be…

  No. Stop it. She needs to start as she means to go on. And why do I care whether she wants to sit on a front porch swing?

  Yeah, he did not want to examine the answer to that question too closely.

  “Let’s get inside and off the street,” he said gruffly, gesturing as he moved. Jensen opened the door, and David was the first one through, taking a moment to look around and make sure the area was clear, even though Jensen had a top-notch security system.

  It was just habit.

  It also meant he got to see Cassidy’s face when she walked inside and saw the interior for the first time. The way she lit up, her mouth dropping open as she took in the chandelier hanging from the copper ceiling over the foyer, the ornate staircase coming from the back of the house, and the colorful wallpaper lining the walls, made something in his gut stir.

  She looked more like her picture and less like the frightened little mouse who had shown up at Black Fox Security’s door.

  “Oh my God…” Slowly spinning in a circle, she took in the entire foyer and the rooms beside it. Jensen had a home office off to the right, and the living room was on the left. He and his brother had chosen to furnish the first floor with heavy antiques, adding to the overall atmosphere. “This is incredible.”

  Pure joy had lit up her face, and she walked forward as if in a trance, going straight for the staircase and placing her hand on the end of the banister, tracing her fingers over the carved decoration on the top of the column.

  “I’ve never seen anything like this outside of a movie,” she said. “It’s beautiful. And you just live here?”

  “Yup. My brother and I like old stuff.” Jensen grinned.

  “Me, too.” She turned and beamed at Jensen.

  Yeah, she would not have liked his apartment at all. Not that it mattered, and it should definitely not make him feel jealous of her reaction to Jensen’s house. Jensen’s house was amazing. Everyone always agreed on that.

  “Then you’ll definitely love this place.” Jensen chuckled. “So, you have your choice of where to sleep. My brother and I are both on the second floor, and there is a third bedroom there, but we also have the third floor, which is set up for guests. We figured you can pick wherever you feel most comfortable.”

  David set down the suitcase when Cassidy hesitated.

  “Why don’t we have a look around,” he said, walking toward her, gesturing to the stairs. “I can show you around and show you all the security, and you can make your decision once you’ve seen the house.”

  Immediately, Cassidy nodded, looking up at him with not just relief but trust brimming in her hazel eyes. Trust that he knew what he was doing. Trust that he would keep her safe.

  Something squeezed inside his chest.

  He was so fucked.

  4

  Cassidy

  The house was stunning. When she pictured a safehouse, she’d been picturing living inside a safe or something. A lot fewer windows. Less furniture. Definitely not somewhere that was beautiful, inside and out. Or somewhere that felt more temporary. Like a rental.

  The second-floor room David showed her was nice, but the third floor was even better. It was obviously set up for guests, with two smaller rooms furnished with beds, a bathroom, and a huge rec-type room complete with a kitchenette. It was almost like an apartment unto itself; the only thing it was missing was a stove and oven, though there was a toaster oven and a microwave. If she wanted to, she could stay up here and be completely private, though if she wanted to actually cook, she would need to go down to the first floor.

  “I think I’d like to stay up here,” she said, standing in the middle of the rec room. The house beside this one was close enough that she could see their windows, though their shades were drawn. Somehow, she liked the closeness. When she looked down, she saw nothing but yard on both sides. The bushes that divided them were too low for anyone to hide behind.

 

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