Page 7 of Cassian
“I heard that she’d met someone but not that she’d married.”All the better for her.Her husband would make her listen to him because he’d know the value of having a good-paying job.If they were both working, that was great too.They’d need the money; instead of her not working, she could come back to the restaurant and work for him again.Wouldn’t that be the best thing ever?“Are they livingin her little apartment?I bet that’s sort of cramped up.”
“They have a house.Cassian purchased it before he met her, so it’s nice for the two of them.”A mortgage is even better for him.“Come on, and you can help me set up the meeting for tonight.”
He didn’t want to help out, but it was better that he did.He wanted to make sure that she was sitting close to him so that he could tell her the way things were going to go from now on.She’d be so twisted up with her new husband that they’d have her working for him again in no time at all.
After the chairs were set up, he looked around for the coffee.He’d become addicted to the stuff since he’d been in jail and the meetings.It was all that kept him awake during them.It wasn’t the greatest coffee that he’d ever drank, but it filled the need when he needed something to keep him awake, also to pretend to pay attention.
Daniel thought that he’d done well with the classes despite not wanting or understanding why he was taking them.Of course, he’d gotten a little upset at Raven for not doing what he wanted, and she had been off the clock, but that didn’t negate the fact that he’d given her plenty of opportunity to do what he wanted her to do before he’d knocked her around.He’d also enjoyed himself a little too much when she was down and bleeding.Hopefully, he’d be able to make her do both again.He so loved a challenge.
At a quarter to six, he was brought to the room again.He didn’t see Raven and her husband but was hoping that she’d be on time.Something else that he was going to make her do was to be on time in the future for meetings.He was never on time, but he was the boss, so it didn’t matter all that much.
When the meeting was called to order, he still hadn’t seen Raven.There were lots of people hanging around, and he ignored them for the most part.As they were taking their seats, a man took the chair next to his, and a woman sat on the other side.That was when it occurred to him that it was Raven and the man her supposed husband.
“Raven is supposed to sit next to me.It’s to give me a clear shot at her while I’m talking.”The man said he was lucky that she was there at all, much less sitting next to him.“But you don’t understand.She’s supposed to let me ask for forgiveness and give it to me because I had to take these classes.That’s the way it’s supposed to work.”
“Well, you’ll just have to be happy with it working this way.It’s doubtful that she’ll forgive you for your mistreatment of her, and she’s staying as far from you as she can and still be in the classroom with you.”He tried again to get the man to trade places with him, at least so that he was between them, and it wasn’t going to happen.Raising his hand, he told the teacher how they were messing up the plans that had been set in place from the beginning, and she told him to go with the flow; it didn’t matter where she was sitting, so long as she was there.
“But he said she’s not going to forgive me.”He found that he really wanted that too, to make sure that she was beholden to him for just a little while.“How am I supposed to work with this with so much negativity going on right now?I didn’t plan on things going this way.I have to have her sitting next to me.”
The teacher asked if he’d tried asking if he’d move, and the man simply said ‘no’.Once it was established that he wasn’t going to trade or move, Daniel felt his temper getting the better of him.The teacher was saying that he’d come so far that he should not let a little thing like setting arrangements get in the way.
“But it’s not the way that I have dreamed of this day.”He didn’t like that he sounded whiny, but things weren’t going his way.It was just a seat, he knew, but his temper was getting out of control until he had made himself slightly sick with it.“Make them trade places so that I can have it my way.Things will be just as I planned when things go my way.”
“Daniel, you’re being unreasonable.Just settle down and let the two of them sit where they want.It’s not going to be that big of a deal after you tell her what you’ve been practicing to tell her.”Even the teacher, he never knew her name, even if he’d been told it, was getting frustrated with the way things were going.“You start.Just tell her what you planned on telling her when you saw her again.And remember, this is your final meeting with us if things go well.”
“This is just unreasonable.I can’t tell her what I’ve been planning because she’s not close enough for me to pop in the mouth if she gets lippy with me.”Everyone turned to look at him.“Oh, like you care about how I conduct myself.None of you are going to get your jobs back for very long because you can’t hide your temper like I can.”
On some level, he knew that he was messing things up, but he couldn’t stop now.When the man sitting next to him stood, so did Raven.He thought for sure that he’d got his way and smiled at them when suddenly they were at the door to leave.If they left, he was going to be in this stupid class for another six weeks, and he’d not get his job back until he had finished them.Standing up, he went to the door with them and decided to talk to the man.
“How are you going to make it if she’s not working for me?You’re not, that’s how, and her stupid idea of going to college is just that, stupid.There is no way that the two of you are going to be able to afford the house you purchased with her going to ‘college’ to be an attorney.She’s not all that smart anyway.”He looked around the room when someone said his name.“I’m working right now.Just give me a few minutes to get things straightened out with her husband, and things will be back to normal.No man wants to see his wife wasting money on things like higher education when she should be working a good job for me.”
“She’s not going to be working for you anyhow, nor anyway.Even if we did need the money, which we do not.And if you don’t step back a few steps, I’m going to hit you again, and this time you won’t be so quick to have hospital care.You’ll be in the mortuary where you should have been put the first time I had anything to do with you.”The anger in his voice surpassed even his, and he did take a couple of steps back.But then he remembered who he was and where all this was going, and he drew back his fist to hit Raven.
She was the cause of all of them, and it was time that she realized he wasn’t one to mess with.His fist never got close enough for him to brush her hair away before his arm was up behind his back, and he was screaming in pain.
“What are you doing?I was going to make her see reason.No woman, especially not her, should ignore me when I have something to impart.Let me go.”He heard the pop in his arm, and the feeling of needing to throw up had him gagging.“I’m sick.You’ve broken me, and I demand that you let me go.”
He had no idea who was holding him, and he couldn’t make himself turn enough to see who it was.Just as he was feeling like he might pass out from the pain, he was jerked again, and that was it.His body just fell into itself, and he was out.
Chapter 3
Cassian needed to cool his temper, and standing around waiting on the police to handle things was making even his dragon pissy with him.He wanted blood, and he needed to protect his—Raven put her smaller hand into his, and all his anger just went away.He stood there staring at her while the others were talking about how Daniel Winters was going to be put back in jail and made to retake the classes that he’d only just failed.
“I thought he was doing much better.”Maria Santos, the teacher of the class, grabbed Daniel by the arm when it was apparent that he was going to hurt Raven.“You can bet this is going to look bad to his company.To think that all this time he was playing at me to get me to let him—what did he say he was going to do?Pop her a few times?I should have done something sooner rather than when he was ready to hit her.For that, I apologize profusely.”
“You think they’ll let him have his job back after trying to hurt me again?”Raven never let go of his hand, for which he was grateful.She had calmed him and his beast, and he couldn’t have been more in love with her.There is no telling what would have happened had she not touched him when she had.There wouldn’t have been a building left had she not, he knew that for sure.“I don’t think I’d go into a restaurant that would hire someone like him back after twice now that he’s tried to kill me.”
“I’m going to recommend just that.That they don’t hire him back for the reason that he has not learning anything from these classes.”Maria looked so distressed that he found himself wanting to comfort her and tell her that it wasn’t her fault.It was something that he saw in Daniel’s head just as they were pulling up to the front of the police station, where the meeting was going to be held.“He certainly had me fooled.And I’m not easily fooled.”
Cassian thought that she wanted people to learn the lessons that she was teaching, and she saw what she wanted to when asking them the questions at the end of each class.Daniel had been threatening Raven in his mind from the very beginning, and she’d chosen not to see it.But she did now, and he supposed that was all that mattered.
After Daniel was taken away in an ambulance, things started to settle down.The others in the classroom were doing what needed to be done about their asking for forgiveness for those that they hurt, and he and Raven left early.She was still shaken up a bit, but seemed to be holding onto her tears until they were alone.Not that he blamed her, she’d been hurt enough today, and no one had touched her.As soon as they were in the car, headed home, she put her hand on his as he was putting the car into gear to drive.
“Would you have killed him?”He didn’t hesitate but said that he would have if not for her.“Believe it or not, I wanted you to kill him, but I knew that wouldn’t have worked out well for either of us.So when I touched your hand in mine, it was like a calmness rolled over me, unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.If I didn’t believe that you’re my mate before, I do now.”
“I’m glad for us both.”He kissed her on the mouth and put the car in reverse.As he was backing up, he realized something else.She trusted him to not harm her either.And he might well have, being that she was so close to him, when he’d been ready to shift.He would have hurt a great many people had he shifted then to just take out the one man.
The rest of the ride home was done in silence.Both of them had a great deal on their mind; he knew that he did, and he wanted to sort through his emotions before he got angry again.He knew too that if Daniel had touched Raven, he would have ripped his throat out and killed him on the spot.
