“I’m totally fine with having a break,” said Ciaran, who was no doubt stiff after leaning forward for so long while she worked on the tattoo on his back. “Besides, this looks like it will be fun to watch.”
It might be fun to watch, but it wouldn’t be fun to have any part in. Putting down the tattoo gun, Harper removed her plastic gloves, put them in the trash can, and strode over to the reception desk. Raini and Devon moved to flank her, their expressions hard. Harper almost recoiled from the cloying rose perfume wafting from the dolphin.
Alethea gave her a beautiful smile. “Harper, how are you today?”
God, it was just too freaking hot for mind games. Although they had the air conditioning on full blast, there was really no escaping the heat. It made the air feel heavy and dry as a bone.
Alethea was also showing the effects of the heatwave – sweat beaded on her face, spoiling her make-up, and her sleek hair had a slight frizz to it. Harper was petty enough to find that amusing. Bluntly, she asked, “Why are you here?”
Alethea gave an innocent shrug. “I thought we could have lunch.”
“I’ve already eaten.” Actually, she hadn’t, but she’d sooner starve than go anywhere with this particular she-demon.
“How about coffee, then?”
Harper narrowed her eyes. “Why?”
“I was just hoping we could have a little chat.”
“I don’t chat.”
Alethea’s smile faded. “This is important.”
Harper folded her arms. “Then I guess you’ll just have to spill it right here.” There were no humans around, so neither of them would have to mind their words.
“Fine.” Alethea lifted her chin. “I came here to ask you to be careful with Knox.”
Okay, Harper didn’t have a clue what that meant. “I’m sorry, what?”
“He’s so tough that people don’t realize it’s possible to hurt him. They’re not careful with his feelings. I just don’t want you to make the same mistake I did.”
“You’re insinuating that you hurt Knox?”
“I didn’t do it deliberately. I didn’t think he cared about me. I didn’t think he’d care what I did or didn’t do, so I didn’t think of it as cheating on him. That was when we broke up. We still got together from time to time, but… I guess he just couldn’t forgive me enough to give me a real second chance. I’d like to see him happy. It seems like you’re capable of making him happy. So I wanted to give you some advice. I don’t want to see him hurt again.”
“So what you’re saying is… he was serious about you; he cared for you; and despite being hurt by you, he still wanted you so badly that he’s fucked you on many occasions since your betrayal – he just couldn’t help himself.” Harper turned to Khloë, who was fanning her flushed face. “I wasn’t aware before now that I looked gullible.”
“I don’t think you do,” said the imp.
“And yet, she clearly thinks I’ll believe that mound of bullshit.” Her demon would be pissed if the whole thing wasn’t so pitiful.
Alethea spluttered. “Excuse me?”
Raini snorted. “Oh come on, you didn’t honestly think Harper would believe that, did you?”
“Were you hoping to make her feel jealous and insecure, or are you trying to cause some kind of divide between her and Knox?” asked Devon, sounding tired. The poor hellcat was so lethargic from the heat, she made Harper think of a wilting plant.
“What I said was the truth,” Alethea stated. “His demon gets bored of females easily, but it never got bored of me. Knox came back to me time and time again. A lot of people thought he and I would one day finally get together for good.”
“Let me ask you something.” Harper leaned forward, elbows on the desk, and brought out the big guns. “Did his demon ever brand you?” Her tone said that it had sure branded her.
Alethea’s eyes flared and every line of her body tensed.
“Did Knox want you as his mate?” Harper held up a hand when the she-demon went to answer. “There’s really no sense in lying about either of those things. I already know the answers. And those answers tell me all I need to know about what Knox did or didn’t feel for you. They should also tell you all you need to know.”
Her beautiful face scrunched up into something bitter and hateful. “You think you can keep him?” she sneered. “You think this mating is real?”
“You do or you wouldn’t be here trying to stir shit. You know it’s real and you hate it.”
“It’s the way he looks at her, isn’t it?” Devon said to Alethea. “His face softens and his eyes smile… like he’s spent the whole day waiting to see her and his entire system relaxes as soon as he spots her. There’s no way to deny how he feels about her, so it’s sort of silly that you’d try, but whatever.”
Alethea gave Harper a withering look. “The Knox I know would never concern himself with a Wallis, let alone have one in his bed.”
“Then clearly you don’t know him at all,” said Harper. Knox had an alliance with Jolene well before he and Harper met.
“You’re not even his type,” spat Alethea. “For that matter, he’s not your type either. You prefer humans. In fact, Knox is the first demon you ever slept with. Before him, you were with the guy whose family owns the café over there.”
Harper raised her brows. The dolphin had been doing her homework.
Devon looked at Harper. “I’ve always said that a crazy ex can do better research than law enforcement.”
Alethea’s eyes widened. “Crazy ex?”
Khloë patted the bitch’s shoulder. “Don’t beat yourself up about being a nut job. Facebook’s made stalkers out of us all.”
Upper lip curling, Alethea backed away. “You and Knox won’t last.”
“Maybe you’re right,” said Harper. “Maybe he’ll decide he’s better off alone. Maybe he’ll then have you back in his bed. Maybe he’ll even do something as surreal as take you as his mate. But I’ll still be the first person his demon ever branded. I’ll still be the first female he wanted to take as a mate. And I’ll still be in his life because I’m his anchor. As he once said, he won’t walk away from what’s his. He’ll always be in my life, and I’ll always be in his. So no matter what you do, you can’t get rid of me.”
The front door swung open, and a wave of baking heat proceeded Tanner as he stalked inside. “Everything all right in here?”
Harper didn’t move her eyes from Alethea. “Everything’s fine, Tanner. The dolphin here just wanted to exercise her bitchy muscle. She’s done now.”
“Then it’s high time she left,” Tanner clipped, prowling to the desk.
Shooting glares at both him and Harper, Alethea spun on her heel and marched out of the studio. No one said a word until the bitch’s car disappeared with a screech of tires.
“All day I stay out there and nothing happens,” said Tanner. “The moment I leave to get a drink or something, a problem arises. What was that about?”
It was Ciaran who responded, moving to stand behind Khloë. “That was what Grams would call ‘sizing up your enemy.’”
Harper nodded. “She wasn’t so much trying to make me jealous as getting a feel for how easy I’d be to manipulate.”
“What exactly did she say?” asked Tanner, so Harper told him. And he laughed. “I don’t have to tell you she was talking out of her ass, do I?”
“Nope,” replied Harper, “I worked out that much for myself.”
“Good.” He tugged on one of Devon’s long ringlets, and she hissed. “Settle down, kitten,” he chuckled. With a wave, he returned to the car.
Devon’s hands curled. “Sometimes I just want to claw out his eyes.”
“His eyes,” began Khloë, “or the flesh of his back while your legs are wrapped around him and —”
“Don’t make me hurt you,” Devon snarled.
Innocence personified, Khloë said, “I was just asking. He is seriously hot. And he buys you gifts all the time.”
D
evon’s mouth fell open. “You call balls of yarn, toy mice, a plush fishbone, and a catnip plant gifts?”
Khloë shrugged. “It’s the thought that counts. And don’t forget that pretty collar he got you with the little bell that – hey, there’s no call for hissing.”
Devon turned to Ciaran, waving a hand in Khloë’s direction. “Deal with her. I can’t.”
Harper felt kind of sorry for her friend. There was definitely some sexual tension between Devon and Tanner, but nothing good could ever come of them acting on it. The fact was that hellcats and hellhounds had an instinctive aversion to each other. That meant that even if Devon and Tanner ignored it, their inner demons wouldn’t.
A mind slid against hers. Harper, meet me behind the studio.
You really don’t need to come here, she told Knox, guessing Tanner had informed him of what happened. Honestly, the dolphin is long gone and I’m not upset or jealous or anything.
She’s no one to me.
I know. Really, her petty behavior didn’t achieve anything. Apart from increase Harper’s temptation to slice her from groin to sternum, that was.
You’re sure you’re fine?
Positive.
All right, baby. His mind once again slid against hers; this time softly and slowly. Then he was gone.
“I take it you and Knox were having a little chat,” said Khloë. “You get this dazed, ‘Harper is unavailable right now’ expression on your face.”
“Tanner told him what just happened,” said Harper. “He was making sure I was okay.”
Leaning her hip on the desk, Raini smiled. “I like that he takes care of you. You know what I like even better? That you let him.”
“On another note, who keeps moving my stapler?” groused Khloë, as if it was a capital offense.
Harper looked at her cousin. “Sometimes I have to wonder if you have OCD.”
“I do not have OCD. I just value order and precision.”
Really? “When was the first time someone described you as OCD?”
“Eight years, six months, four days, and ninety minutes ago.”
“Yeah,” said Harper dryly. “Totally not OCD.”
As they drove toward the tattoo studio later that day, Levi met Knox’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “Tanner told me about Alethea. What was she thinking?”
“I believe Harper’s theory is that Alethea was trying to get a sense of just how simple it would be to manipulate her,” replied Knox. “One day, I am going to briefly run by a female from my past and she is not going to attempt to cause problems for my mate.”
Levi snorted. “I wouldn’t count on that. They see your claim on Harper as a personal insult to them.”
“Personal insult?”
“Before Harper, your demon was lonely and could fixate on a female, but it quickly got bored with every one of them because it was the challenge the demon really liked. Even though you warned the females in advance that it would happen and the fling would be short-lived, they were still extremely pissed when you walked away so soon. But as long as you continued living your life that way, never committing to anyone, it was something they could accept – though it was often done begrudgingly and with a little drama thrown in.”
A “little drama” was somewhat of an understatement.
“Now you’ve claimed a female as your mate, and they’re wondering what she has that they don’t. Harper isn’t from a high-class family, she doesn’t have a well-paid job, she wasn’t born into a large or powerful lair, and – to top it all off – she’s a Wallis. That you’ve chosen a female they believe is beneath them is something they feel insulted by and can’t quite wrap their heads around.”
“Harper isn’t beneath them.” It infuriated Knox that anyone could think differently.
“Not to us, no,” said Levi. “Honestly, I don’t think other breeds of demon truly look down on imps. I think they’re wary of them. Imps are scary in their own way. They’re cunning and daring and they can’t be controlled. Nobody ever knows how an imp will retaliate; they just know that they will and that it won’t be subtle. They’re wild cards. Jolene is the ultimate wild card. That woman drives even the Devil himself insane.”
According to Harper, Jolene had once fed Lucifer some drugged cookies; he’d later stripped down to his boxers and did a rendition of “Baby Got Back”.
“The point I’m making is that they see Harper as beneath them, but they’re also intimidated by her,” said Levi. “That elusive, aloof ‘I’m not interested and have better things to do with my time than talk to you’ air… it’s like she brushes people off before they’ve even spoken to her – which I find hilarious.”
So did Knox and his demon.
“It’s hard to approach someone like that. It’s hard to offend someone who simply doesn’t care what you think. And it’s hard to manipulate a person who you can’t understand. She’s not driven by power, greed, addictions, or the need for an adrenalin rush. They don’t get it, and they don’t like that they don’t get it. Nor do they like that she doesn’t care that they exist. They want her to be darkly jealous that they ‘had’ you before she did. It will make them feel better.”
“Even if Harper did feel any jealousy, she’d never let them see it.”
“Which infuriates them.” Levi paused as he shifted gears. “It’s a good thing that you rarely got involved with females from our lair. It means she doesn’t have to deal with bullshit from her own people. The few you were involved with are now mated and happily settled.” And once a demon fully committed themselves to someone, they had no interest in others.
Glancing out of the window, Knox saw that they were almost at the studio. Just like that, his demon’s agitation began to ease away. It had been in a bad mood all day, pissed that Crow had managed to evade the Force. Oh, the members of his Force had tracked down the cab quick enough, only to realize they had been following the wrong vehicle. There were just so many cabs around that Crow had found it simple enough to blend in and disappear.
The demon had wanted Harper; wanted to reach out to her telepathically and hear her voice. That alone would have helped both Knox and his demon calm, but Knox had resisted the urge. He hadn’t wanted to spoil her day with talk of Crow; he’d decided he would tell her face-to-face later on. Then he’d heard from Tanner that fucking Alethea had confronted Harper and the news had only served to enrage him further. He’d briefly reached out to her, wanting to be sure she was fine. That small conversation had cooled his demon’s anger a little, but not enough.
As Levi came to a stop outside the studio, he asked, “What are you going to do about Alethea?”
“That depends on Harper,” said Knox. “She’s been adamant since the beginning that it’s important for her to fight her own battles. I don’t like it. But I also know that Alethea is the type of person who finds bad attention better than no attention.”
“So if you call Alethea and threaten her, a part of her will get a kick out of it.”
“Exactly.” And Knox had no urge to please that she-demon in any way. Tanner, you can leave now. Harper’s coming with me.
Sliding out of the Bentley, Knox frowned under the weight of the dry heat. As the hellhound drove away, he pushed open the door of the studio and stepped into the air-conditioned building. He was instantly surrounded by the scents of paint, ink, coffee, and disinfectant. The receipt machine whirred as it printed a receipt for the human female standing at the desk, probing a bandage that was taped on her upper arm. Khloë gave Knox a brief salute, to which he nodded before turning his attention to his mate.