“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 oneof 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 theidea 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.
Chapter
Nine
January 5th
8:52 P.M.
Was he supposed to say something to her?
Offer wise words? Comfort? Reassurance?
Tell her he was sorry for not taking her opinions into consideration when she found out he and his team had something planned?
The problem was, he had no idea.
Cassandra had always seemed such an open book, it had been easy to read her emotions, but now she somehow seemed to have learned how to shield them from him. Something she shouldn’t be able to do with his ability to scent emotions on people much the same way a dog could.
If it wasn't for the fact that he could still scent emotions on every other person he came into contact with, he might have thought something had happened to his heightened sense of smell. But it was just Cassandra he could no longer scent. Well, his nostrils were invaded by her soft caramel smell, it was so uniquely Cassandra to him now that he found he kept a stash ofcaramels in his room to eat whenever he missed her too much. They couldn’t quite match her real scent, whatever shampoo, perfume, hand cream, or whatever other girly potion she used to smell so sweet was an artificial scent, but he much preferred it over the real thing.
