There was no charm, Dragon wouldn't know charm if it came up to bite him on his deliciously toned butt. But she didn't need charm. All she wanted was someone who could see her.
Not the baby of the Charleston Holloway family.
Not the young woman who had been conceived via rape.
Not the girl who was the cause of all her family’s suffering.
Not the person others tiptoed around because they were worried about upsetting.
And definitely not someone who had shot and killed her own father.
Somehow, Dragon saw beneath all of that. He was as gruff and grumpy with her as he was with everybody else, but she caught the little looks he sent her way when he thought she wasn't looking. He looked at her like he’d spent the last year in a desert, and she was a glass of cold water.
Like she could give him something no one else could, and it was a heady feeling for someone who had always been seen as the helpless baby to six overprotective big brothers. There had definitely been a time when she had played up to that role in the family, but that was when she was younger. Now that she was all grown up, twenty-four years old, she wanted to stand on her own two feet, wanted to find what she had of value to offer to the world and find her place in it.
For a while there … she’d been sure there could be something real building between her and Dragon.
It certainly felt real.
But then he’d chosen a path that she couldn’t in good conscience support, so she’d had no choice but to leave.
And now here she was, drifting through life with nothing to anchor her, feeling like one strong gust of wind could send her flying off into space. Each day felt more pointless than the one before. What was she doing? What did she want out of life?
Who was Cassandra Charleston?
With a sigh, she shoved her hands into a pair of gloves, tugged on a beanie, and wrapped a scarf around her neck, tucking it into her sweater. These nightly runs were her way of clearing her mind or at least trying to.
In reality, it usually wound up more clogged than when she’d begun.
It felt like she was never going to find her way out of the maze life had dumped her in the middle of. How was one supposed to learn at twenty-four that your father wasn't really your father, that your mom had been gang raped, and once her assailants found out about the pregnancy, targeted her husband and his team, then had her locked up and faked her suicide, and know who you were?
The fact that she’d killed her biological father didn't even bother her.
He’d deserved to die, and she didn't regret what she’d done.
Pushing open her car door, she climbed out, enjoying the sting of the icy air against the exposed skin of her face. Maybe it wasn't really the fact that she could pretend she was clearing her mind with her runs that she enjoyed them so much, maybe it was really because the cold air was the only thing she felt all day that she knew without a shadow of a doubt was real.
While well-meaning, her six brothers and their girlfriends and fiancées hovered around her constantly. They were always checking in to make sure she was okay, which she appreciatedbecause she knew it came from love, but it was utterly exhausting. Between pretending she was handling everything better than she was, and the doubts about her own emotions, she struggled to read herself accurately.
Should she be more upset about shooting a man? Did her paternity really change who she was as a person? Should she have been so tough on Dragon?
Cassandra didn't know all the details because Dragon and the guys were pretty tight-lipped about their pasts, but she knew enough to know the revenge those six men craved was well deserved.
“I get that,” she whispered, looking around, still feeling eyes on her and assuming it was Dragon somehow hacked into CCTV cameras watching her. “But you did it the wrong way. I couldn’t stand by and be part of that. I don’t need any other black marks on my soul. Why couldn’t you have listened? Why couldn’t you have chosen a different path?”
Knowing she was never going to get answers to those questions, she took off for the entrance to the park. Even if she went back to the Gothic mansion where Delta Team lived, she wasn't going to get any real answers. Dragon wouldn't discuss anything with her, even though at times it felt like he truly saw her—maybe even better than she saw herself—at other times, he still fell into that same hole as everyone else and wanted to protect her.
“I don’t need protecting.”
No sooner had she muttered the words than a figure came rushing up toward her.
Startled, Cassandra let out a shriek that her brothers would never let her forget if they’d heard her, and stumbled back a step as a woman dressed all in black stood close by.
Blue eyes watched her warily, flaring with fear, and a lock of blonde hair escaped from a black beanie pulled low on thewoman’s head. The stranger looked to be about her age, and Cassandra wondered if something had happened to her. Had the woman been attacked?
“Are you Cassandra?” the woman whispered.
Ice flooded her veins. This wasn't random. This woman hadn't been hurt. She was there specifically looking for her. “Who are you?” she asked, taking another step back.
