Page 52

A voice from the hallway. Arlo, in a T-shirt and boxers, rubbing his face. A third crew member drifted in behind him.

“What the hell is happening? It’s five in the morning.”

“Evidently, Sutton decided to bring in some company,” Heath said.

Arlo looked at Ryder. Looked at Cassandra pressed against his side. “Company?”

“Yeah, my girlfriend. She surprised me. It was stupid, and it won’t happen again. Just let me get her out of here.”

“Your girlfriend.” Arlo was waking up now, taking in the scene. “She drove all the way down here in the middle of the night?”

“She thought this was a game that we played.”

The kitchen was filling up. Five men plus Cassandra, who was tucked against his right side with his arm still around her waist.

He felt her go rigid against him first. A full-body tightening, like a wire being wound. He looked down. Her chin was dropping. Her breathing had gone shallow and quick, and her hands, pressed flat against his chest, were starting to shake.

Then he saw her eyes.

They were jumping. Catching on one face and then skipping to the next, pulling in too much, too fast, each new person in the room feeding whatever was happening inside her head.

Fuck. She was doing that spiraling thing like she had in the café.

Every stranger in this room was feeding it. She didn’t have her dark glasses or anything to help her. It wouldn’t take long before she collapsed or froze or did something that the girlfriend story could not explain.

Because a shy girlfriend might avoid eye contact, but she wouldn’t go glassy-eyed and rigid and start looking like she was having a medical episode. These men were going to start asking questions, and Ryder didn’t have answers unless he gave them a framework that made sense of everything.

He had to do something and had no idea what.

But he knew the first thing was getting her gaze off them before they misread it as interest or she collapsed on the floor. Or fucking both.

He cupped her face with his hands, but her eyes kept jumping from man to man. Sweat was breaking out on her brow. She couldn’t stop.

“Cassandra.”

Her eyes jumped to his but then back to everyone else. Damn it. He had to do something.

“Eyes on me, princess. Now. No one else.”

The words came out low and firm and carrying an authority he didn’t plan.

Cassandra’s gaze snapped to his. The jumping stopped. Her eyes locked on him, and he watched the cascade break in real time, her pupils steadying, her breathing catching and then slowing. She was looking at him and only him.

He held her there. Kept his eyes steady on hers. This was working.

“That’s it. Stay right here with me. Only me.”

The kitchen went quiet. Ryder didn’t look away from Cassandra, but he could feel the room recalibrating. The energy shifting from suspicion to something else.

He needed to focus his attention on Cassandra to keep her grounded, but doing so meant he wasn’t able to watch the Diehl brothers or their men.

“Now look at my chest and nowhere else.”

She did so immediately.

“Looks like you’ve got yourself a well-trained pet there, Ryder.” Arlo chuckled. The others joined in.

Ryder wanted to punch the man in his teeth but…maybe what Arlo was insinuating was what he needed to lean into. Cassandra wasn’t shaking as much, and her eyes were still focused on his chest like he’d told her. Her breathing was more even.