“Parenthood has been known to center people who don’t have an anchor. Eleanor said—” Devon clamped her mouth shut and averted her gaze, thinking how unfair it was that she was fishing for information on a subject that could be a sore one.
He gently cupped her chin. “Eleanor said what? Tell me, kitten. What did she say?”
Knowing he wouldn’t drop it, she said, “That you’ll never have your anchor. I didn’t get what she meant. But you don’t have to tell me; it’s fine. Really.” It wasn’t as if she didn’t have secrets of her own.
Scraping his jaw with his hand, Tanner looked away. “Eleanor must have done a real thorough check on me.” He sighed, sliding his gaze back to Devon’s. “I found my anchor shortly after I became a sentinel. We didn’t form the bond, because her mate was jealous. He didn’t want her having such a close tie to another man. He made her choose—me or him. She chose him, which was understandable.”
“But you’ve kept watch over her, haven’t you?” Devon guessed, because she knew him too well.
“I did until she and her mate died in a plane crash.”
Devon winced, wishing she hadn’t brought it up. “Shit, I’m sorry. Maybe it was a blessing, then, that you hadn’t formed the bond. I’ve heard the breaking of it is painful.” She gave his shoulder a squeeze. “Thank you for telling me.” One large hand spanned the back of her head, fingers sifting through her hair to dig into her scalp—God, that felt good.
“Eleanor only told you about it because she’s trying to make you feel that I keep shit from you. She wants you to feel unsure of me.” He briefly brushed his mouth over hers. “Forget about her. Ignore the crap she says. She’s not important. Okay?”
Devon gave a slow nod. “Okay.”
“Good girl.” He gave her ass a pat. “Let’s go get your things.”
*
As she didn’t have an awful lot of stuff and plenty of people pitched in to help, it didn’t take long to move her things into his building. In terms of furniture, she only took her bed and a few other pieces, since her stay would most likely be a short one. Her helpers also assisted her in unpacking once she arrived, which was very much appreciated.
As a thank you, she later bought a takeout for everyone, which was quickly demolished. People slowly began to leave over the following hour, until only Devon and Tanner were left. It was while they were cleaning up the kitchen that Finn called her, and it quickly became apparent that he wasn’t happy with her for not calling him about the second attempted kidnapping.
“Jolene told me that she’d call you with the entire story,” Devon told him.
“And she did. Five minutes ago. I should have been told of it immediately. I’m your father. You think I wouldn’t want to know that you went through hell yesterday?”
Her father? Biologically, sure, but that was all. “I did send a text message to your phone last night,” she reminded him.
“Oh yeah—Finn, some shit went down between me and a group of demons but don’t worry I’m not dead.”
She shrugged. “I thought it was pretty succinct.”
“You know it can take me a while to sift through my text messages—it’s why I tell you to leave a voicemail if it’s urgent. This counts as urgent. Look, I can understand if you’re upset with me for not handing Asa over to Jolene to be interrogated, but I shouldn’t have heard about the attempted kidnapping from her. I should have heard it from you. And I should have heard of it straight away.”
A growl rumbled out of Tanner, who was bagging up the trash, totally eavesdropping. “If he yells at you one more time, I’m ending that fucking call.”
No, Devon would do that herself. “Finn, you’ll be kept in the loop, but Jolene isn’t going to be in any rush to call you with news, because she feels that you’re not invested in finding out what’s going on here. If you were, you’d have given someone else a shot at Asa.”
A brief pause. “It’s not that simple, Devon. I’d make myself look weak if I surrendered him to another Prime for questioning. No Prime can afford to demonstrate weakness.”
“She said you didn’t need to hand him over; she said she’d be content enough with going to wherever you’re keeping him and having a chat with him.”
He made a sound that was close to a snort. “Jolene is an imp. Imps can get in and out of anywhere. If she knew Asa’s location, she’d send some of her lair to retrieve him. We both know that.”
Okay, that most likely would happen.
“Believe me when I say we’re doing everything we can to get answers from Asa.” He paused as a female voice spoke in the background. “In a minute, Reena, I’m on the phone.”