It was the only explanation.
It wasn’t like her door could unlock and open itself.
If it was Dragon, he would have announced himself. And he wouldn't have broken in anyway. He would have just knocked on her front door and demanded she open up if she ignored him. If she persisted in ignoring him, he would have just gone ahead and broken her door down, there would have been no need for sneaking around, arrogant man that he was.
Fighting against whoever it was never even entered her mind. She wasn't going to risk it when this person—or possibly people—would be bigger and stronger than her. Sitting just outside, she already had the best defense anyone could ever ask for.
Snatching up the knife she’d just been using to cut the chicken from the kitchen counter, Cassandra darted for the front of the house. She didn't see the person hiding in the shadows until she felt the slight shift of air.
Even though she spun, lifted the knife she gripped tightly in her hand, it didn't stop the sharp sting of pain as the person who had broken into her home sliced her open with a knife of their own.
Chapter
Five
January 5th
2:22 A.M.
For the first time in months, Dragon felt an element of peace slip into his soul.
Cassandra hated him, that much was clear. His decision to prioritize revenge for himself and his team over listening to her and her concerns had derailed any shot at … anything they might have had before it even got up off the ground. She wasn't pleased to have him hanging around, nor did she think it was necessary, and yet he was there. Sitting outside her house, close enough that he could breathe in her sweet caramel scent and be content to watch over her from a distance.
Content wasn’t something he could ever recall experiencing. It hadn't even been on his radar. He’d gotten so used to being unsettled, always on edge, always searching for threats, always stuck in survival mode that he’d been blinded to how badly he needed something calming in his life.
Those months when Cassandra had been in the house, he’d not just become accustomed to her presence, but the peaceshe brought with her. Even though she had just learned some devastating truths about how she was conceived and what her existence had led to for her family, she’d been a breath of fresh air.
She’d breathed life back into him, and it wasn't until he’d lost her that he’d even realized the full extent of what it was exactly that he had lost.
A future with someone like Cassandra should be impossible.
This wasn't like Steel with Rose. While he hated that Rose had been suffering basically since birth at the hands of her deranged family, it was all the woman had known. Darkness lived inside her the same way those years they’d lived under Ridge Gardner’s thumb, kept locked in a cage, had planted darkness inside them. They might have been bred from different circumstances, but deep down, they were all the same.
It made sense that Steel and Rose clicked, even if he wasn't used to seeing one of the men he considered a brother obsessed with a woman. The two of them could barely keep their hands off each other, and Rose’s presence also breathed life into their home.
But Cassandra was everything good and sweet in the world. Despite losing her parents at such a young age, being raised by her grandparents and brothers, the weight of her mom and stepdad’s apparent suicides hanging heavily above them, she was pure joy. That darkness hadn't tainted her soul, and he knew that he would never be good enough for her.
She deserved the world, and all he would ever be able to offer her were the broken parts left of his soul.
Which she didn't even want.
Even if he wanted her.
And he didn't. Well, he did, but he didn't. His soul craved her light, her soothing touch, her calming scent, the peace shecarried so effortlessly, but his brain knew it was never going to happen.
Never should happen.
The most he could ever have was exactly what he was doing right now, what he’d been doing ever since she packed up her stuff and went back home. Watching over her from afar, protecting her as best he could, finding a way to accept it when she found a man worthy of her and moved on with her life to find the happiness she deserved.
While he wasn't kidding himself, Cassandra wanted him gone sooner rather than later, he also knew she was affected by his presence. She kept drifting to one of the front windows of her home, looking out to see if he was still out there. Even now, in the middle of the night, he’d seen her at her bedroom window, staring out at him.
What’s running through your head, little rabbit?
Do you really want me to go, or do you wish you wanted me to go?
Can you ever forgive me for pushing you away?
Will you ever see me as anything other than a monster who hurts others to get what he wants?
