“Most don’t believe either rumor,” added Larkin.
Without proof, Knox wouldn’t believe them either.
Levi got to his feet. “Unless you need anything else, we’ll take off.”
“We’ll talk again tomorrow,” Knox told them.
Keenan and Larkin left the room, but Levi lingered at the doorway and turned to Knox. “I couldn’t help but overhear what got said upstairs… go easy on Harper.”
“Easy?” Knox echoed in disbelief.
“There are many things you’ll get Harper to compromise on,” said Levi. “But ignoring the urge to protect people she cares about is not something she’ll agree to do – not even for you.”
Jaw tight, Knox said, “You were right there in that office with me, Levi. You saw her on that floor.” Pale. Unmoving. His demon had lost its fucking mind.
“Yeah. And like you, I panicked. And I was angry with her,” Levi admitted. “So fucking angry. But then I reminded myself who I was dealing with. You know her better than anyone. You know that underneath that hard shell is a soft heart that feels deeply.”
He did know that. He loved that about her.
“She’s protective to the core. You can’t expect a person like that to put someone they care for in danger.”
“I can expect her to value her own life.”
“She does value it. But she also values yours, and clearly she values your safety more than she does her own. That’s a special thing, Knox.”
Yes, it was, but it didn’t change one very simple fact. “Her safety is more important than mine.”
“To you, but not to her. Tonight, she only did what you would have done in her position.”
Fuck if he wasn’t right.
“She’s the best thing that ever happened to you, Knox. Don’t fuck this up,” Levi called over his shoulder as he left.
Raking a hand through his hair, Knox sighed. He’d messed up. Royally. And now he needed to fix it. He headed upstairs and into the bedroom. Harper still hadn’t come out of the bathroom.
He wrapped his knuckles on the door. “Open up, Harper.” Nothing. “Baby, we need to talk.” Still nothing. Knowing that barging in wouldn’t earn him any points, he said, “You have until the count of five to open the door or I’m coming in, baby. One. Two. Three. Four. Five.”
But she didn’t come out. Stubborn through and through. It had to make him weird that he liked that about her. He turned the knob and walked inside… only to freeze as he found the room empty. “Fuck.”
Jolene placed two steaming mugs on the square coasters of the mahogany coffee table. “Drink your tea, sweetheart. It’ll relax you.” She then sat on the couch beside Martina and crossed her legs. “Feeling any calmer?”
Holding a soft cushion to her chest, Harper settled deeper into the overstuffed armchair. “Not really.” She’d tucked a fleecy blanket around her legs, just as she’d often done as a child. When she’d visited Jolene over the years, she’d curled up in that chair many times – sometimes with a book, sometimes snacks, while she watched a movie with her cousins.
She loved her grandmother’s house. Loved the welcoming feel of it. It always smelled of cookies, coffee, and lavender. Tonight, there were also a hint of the light rain coming through a partially open window.
It wasn’t a quiet house, since her relatives were always waltzing in and out for one reason or another. The kids in particular showed up a lot, hoping Jolene had made her famous cookies. But even though it was a constant hub of activity, it was relaxing. Maybe because it was so homey with all the throw cushions, blankets, and the earthy colors. There were framed photos, keepsakes, and knickknacks everywhere. Like Harper, Jolene treasured memories.
“You know why he’s angry,” said Jolene.
“Sure I do. But I’ll be damned if I apologize for what I did.” Or for being who she was.
“I wouldn’t expect you to. But imagine being in his position.” Jolene picked up her coffee. “Imagine you received a weak telepathic call from him. Imagine you then arrived at his office to find him sprawled on the floor, not moving. Tanner’s been shot, and Crow has a gun. How would you react?”
In a word, badly.
“Knox was scared, sweetheart.” Jolene blew over the rim of her mug. “Now, sure, he knew you were alive because the anchor bond was still in place. But I’ll bet he wasn’t thinking of that when he saw you lying there. Panic and fear probably took over.”
Harper could understand that, could even sympathize. But it didn’t erase how much his words hurt. Her demon was imagining lots of wonderful ways it could make him suffer. “It still doesn’t give him or his demon the right to be an asshole.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Jolene agreed. “Which was why I sent Ciaran to teleport you here. That comment about you not being someone who keeps their word was a shitty thing to say.”
Martina nodded, painting her long acrylic nails red. “People say things they don’t mean when they’re angry, but that’s no excuse.”
“It pisses me off that he said that,” Ciaran told Harper, his eyes glued to the TV as he lounged on the reclining chair; beer in hand, remote controls on his lap. “But I don’t believe he really thinks that of you.”
“Neither do I,” said Jolene.
Harper tightened her hold on the cushion. “Maybe. Maybe not. But if he can’t accept that I’ll do what I have to do to protect him, consequences be damned, then he doesn’t accept me.”
Jolene sipped at her coffee. “He accepts you, Harper. He just doesn’t know what to do with you. He’s used to things and people being under his control.”
Yeah, she knew that. “I warned him over and over that he’d never control me.”
“Maybe some really, really dumb part of him thought it wasn’t true,” suggested Ciaran.
“Men,” scoffed Martina. “You’re attacked, but does he hug you? Kiss you? Reassure you that you’re fine? No, he behaves like a dick.”
Ciaran tore his eyes away from the wall-mounted TV. “That’s not because he’s a man,” he said, offended on behalf of his gender. “It’s because he isn’t good at handling fear.”
Whatever. Harper sighed. “Let’s just talk about something else.”
Jolene patted her hand. “Of course.”
Harper leaned her head on the cushion, listening to the kids laughing as they jumped in the puddles in the front yard. Each time she heard a car approaching, she panicked; wondering if Knox had come for her. But then the car would drive by, and her heart rate would slow down.
“I’m glad they’ve caught Crow,” said Jolene.
That had Harper thinking. “Something he said bothered me.”
“Knox or Crow?” asked Martina.
“Crow,” Harper replied.
Martina blew on her nails to dry the paint. “You mean the demon baby thing?” She said it with no concern whatsoever.
“No. He said he was on a mission; that someone told him to do this.”
“He’s suffering from delusions, sweetheart,” said Jolene.
“I know.” Harper lifted her mug and took a sip of her tea. “It was just something about the way he said it. What if he didn’t have a true vision? What if someone manipulated his mental state and put the idea in his head?”
“Crow isn’t even close to a real match for Knox,” said Ciaran, frowning. “It doesn’t make sense that someone would try to kill Knox using a mentally unstable demon who’s not powerful enough to really be a threat.”
Martina nodded. “It does seem like a rather bad plan.”
“So poor it wouldn’t be worth trying,” added Jolene. “Believing he was ‘given’ the mission is part of his delusion.”
That made sense. And yet, Harper wasn’t convinced.
She tensed as she heard another car approaching. Not just approaching, slowing down. Please, no, don’t be him. It could just be a neighbor’s car, she thought as it came to a stop. Or it could be someone visiting one of the neighbors. There was really no need
to panic… even though the sound of a door slamming shut was followed by footsteps coming up the gravelly path. It could be Beck. Or one of her cousins. Or —
The doorbell peeled.
“That’s probably Knox,” said Jolene. “I take it you don’t wish to see him.”
Harper shook her head. “I’m too tired for him, Grams.” A girl needed to be at her sharpest when dealing with someone like Knox Thorne. Right then, she was emotionally drained and way too angry to have an actual conversation with him.
“Sending him away won’t be easy,” Ciaran warned.
Jolene rose from the couch, determination etched into every line of her face. “No, but it will be done.” Her heels click-clacked on the hardwood floor as she strode out into the hallway and to the front door. “Well, hello, Knox.”
Even from the living area, Harper could hear his response perfectly.
“Jolene,” he greeted. “I’ve come for Harper.”
“Yes,” said Jolene, “I gathered that.”
A sigh. “If you’re not going to invite me in, send her out.”
“She said she’d follow me to the door, but it seems she hasn’t. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised, since she’s not a woman of her word.”
Harper’s mouth quirked, in spite of her dull mood.
Jolene spoke again. “It might be a good idea if you give her some space.” It wasn’t a suggestion; it was an instruction. And it no doubt made him bristle.
“I’m not leaving without her, Jolene.”
“Well, I can assure you right now that you won’t leave with her,” stated Jolene, voice hardening. “You promised me she would be safe with you. You promised that you wouldn’t hurt her.”
“I’d never hurt her,” Knox immediately responded. Harper, come to me.
Harper snorted. He couldn’t be serious.
“There are different types of pain, Knox,” said Jolene. “You didn’t hurt her physically, which is the only reason you’re breathing. But you hurt her heart – something you should have protected with everything in you.”
A pause. “Jolene, this is between me and Harper.”
“No, it isn’t, because she doesn’t want to see you.”
Harper, unless you want your grandmother and me fighting, come to the door.
Cursing to herself, Harper stalked out of the room and down the hallway.
“It would seem she does keep her word after all,” Jolene said to him.
Harper came to a stop behind Jolene, and his gaze boldly locked with hers. Her chest hurt just looking at him. He was so achingly good-looking. Living, breathing seduction. And a total asshole. Her demon glared at him, upper lip curled.
He held out his hand. “Come on.”
She shook her head. “Go home.” Looking at him was pissing her off all over again.
Harper —
Just. Leave.
Knox inwardly cursed. His mate was a lot of things, but not cold or distant. At that moment, she seemed both those things. The short physical distance between them might as well have been an ocean. She was lost to him right then. And he didn’t know how to bring her back.
He did know that it would be a lot fucking easier if her family backed off and let them deal with it. Jolene, however, still stood there like a sentry. Martina and Ciaran were at Harper’s back, scowling at him. What’s more, other demons were gathering in the yard, watching with shrewd eyes.
That was the thing about imps. You took on one; you took on them all.
Not that Knox was worried. He could kill them all with minimal effort. He wouldn’t, of course, since they were Harper’s family. But a display of power would serve as a decent enough warning to make them back off. And he would have made such a display if two little girls hadn’t dashed into the house and coiled themselves around Harper’s legs… which was no doubt why they’d done that. Imps of all ages were as cunning as they came.
His demon growled at the scene. It wanted its mate. Wanted to smash down the wall she’d erected between them. Wanted to grab her and haul her home. But Knox knew better than to even attempt to touch her right then. Besides, he’d messed up enough already. So he sighed and said to her, “I’ll be back in the morning. Be ready.”
Harper stayed where she was as Knox prowled to the Bentley, where Levi was waiting. The reaper gave her a “take pity on him” look, but she ignored it.
“I really didn’t expect him to leave,” said Martina as the car disappeared down the street.
“He’s respecting her wishes,” said Jolene. “There’s hope for him yet.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Silky, fiery heat licked at Harper’s skin. It shocked a gasp out of her and tugged at her consciousness, pulling her out of her sleep.
“Shush, baby.”
Her demon snarled at the sound of his voice, making the memory of the argument blast to the front of Harper’s mind. Her eyes snapped open, and she glared at the fucking asshole holding her possessively against him on their – no, his – bed. “Are you kidding me?” He had to be. Or he’d lost all sense of self-preservation, whichever.
“You didn’t think I’d really spend the night away from you, did you?” Knox had waited until she was asleep before taking her from Jolene’s spare bedroom.
“If I’d wanted to come here, I’d have left with you!” Growling, she struggled against him. She was getting out of there. She was going back to Jolene’s house. She was —
Knox rolled her onto her back and used his psychic hands to pin her wrists above her head. “I fucked up.” She stilled, so he continued. “I know that. But you didn’t call me, baby. You didn’t trust me to protect us both.”
“You should have just stuck with ‘I fucked up.’” The rest canceled out his admission and made Harper want to punch him in the face, which would be mega hard while she couldn’t move her hands. And, seriously, who would ever be dumb enough to subdue someone they had majorly pissed off?
“I fucked up,” he repeated.
“Yeah, you did,” she clipped. And he needn’t think that was enough to make her forgive him.
“You weren’t moving, Harper. You didn’t look like you were breathing. For a few seconds, I thought you were dead. My demon went ape-shit. If I hadn’t felt your pulse beating against my fingers, everyone in that office would have been dead within seconds.” He would have lost every ounce of control.
The pain in his tone took a tiny bit of the wind from Harper’s sails. Her demon, however, had no sympathy for him whatsoever.
“Even when I realized you were alive, I was still so frantic that I would have killed Crow right then if my priority hadn’t been getting you someplace safe, far away from him.” Knox combed his fingers through her hair. “At that point, it didn’t matter to me that killing him would be the wrong thing to do; that I would have been undermining myself to my own lair if I’d done for you what I wouldn’t do for another. All I could think was that you could have died.”
“I get that you were scared. I do. But if you think that gives you a free pass to be a shithead and question my integrity, you’re out of your mind.”