“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 messwith 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.
