It was the possibility that he’d pull rank, pull Cassie out by force. The possibility that we wouldn’t get to keep her after all.
Because as much as I hated to admit it, now that I had Cassie Montgomery in my clutches, I very much wanted to keep her.
Fuck.
23
CASSIE
It was barelylight out when I stopped outside the shop to unlock the door. Main Street was deserted and quiet, the street lamps flickering off as the sun came up, and I took extra pleasure in the familiar routine after the surreal quality of the last three days since the Hunt.
I bent my head to put the key in the lock, then caught sight of something drifting in the wind above my head.
I reached out to grab the hundred-dollar bill and shoved it in my pocket. It wasn’t the first time I’d found money floating through the air downtown.
I was glad to be opening up the shop alone, glad the Hawks had brought me in early on their way to a “work thing,” whatever that meant (I’d asked but Jagger had told me not to worry about it).
I’d always loved opening and closing the shop, those hours when the customers either hadn’t arrived or had left for the day. Now I felt like I actually needed the solitude just to process everything that had happened in the four days since I’d joined the Hunt.
I’d told Kaylee and Drew, my two part-time employees, that I was taking a few days off to attend a wellness retreat. It was the first time I’d ever left the shop to someone else for more than a day, and they’d been more than happy — even relieved, like they thought I needed the break — to take over.
Returning to the shop was like coming home, the pale green walls soothing and warm, the counter stretching along one end of the shop like an old friend. The smell of coffee and vanilla hung in the air, obvious after a days-long absence but something I hardly noticed most days.
Tables and chairs were scattered on one side of the large main room, out of the way of the lines that formed in the morning, at lunch, and in the late afternoon, and large stainless-steel canisters lined the wall behind the cash register, the coffee beans sheltered from oxygen, which would degrade their flavor.
The Cassie’s Cuppa logo, a steaming mug set against the peaks of a mountain in the background, was dark, and I walked over to turn it on, smiling when it lit up like an old friend.
The shop was as much a home to me as my apartment. I knew every crevice of the space, every box in the storeroom, every bottle of syrup, but now everything looked a little different even though it was exactly the same. It had only been four days since I’d last been to work and already I felt like a different person. The Cassie who’d opened four days ago had never done anything remotely risky or dangerous. That Cassie was Bram’s little sister, a good girl who played it safe, one who never even went to Southside unless it was to visit her brother or get ice cream.
The person who’d turned the key in the lock today was someone who let masked men hunt her. Who let them strip her and mark her. Who let them chain her and use her body like a plaything.
My nipples got hard when I remembered the interlude in the tunnel, Hawk’s face between my thighs while Vigo and Jagger played with my tits. And then my first night at the Hawks’, the way Vigo had stood behind me, making me come with his fingers.
“Morning!”
My face felt like it was on fire as Kaylee breezed into the shop, her hair (pink this month) in a ponytail, her tote bag (Might be books, Might be snacks) over her shoulder.
Like she’d interrupted me fucking the Hawks instead of just thinking about fucking the Hawks.
“Good morning,” I said, shoving the hundred-dollar bill into the tip jar.
“Are we in trouble?” she asked on her way to the back.
“Why would you be in trouble?”
“I don’t know. I feel like I just threw a rager while my mom was on vacation and now she’s checking the trash for empty beer bottles.”
I laughed. “Did you throw a rager while I was on vacation?”
“If by ‘rager’ you mean did Drew and I sling gallons of caffeine and sweet syrups to desperate customers, then yes, we raged.”
“I forgive you.”
She swiped a hand dramatically across her forehead. “Whew. Be right back.”
She disappeared into the back and I checked the airtight canisters filled with different coffee beans, then did the same with the syrups, making sure there was a backup for anything less than half-full so we didn’t have to leave the counter to resupply when it got busy.
Kaylee pushed through the door.
