“I’d have to agree with Harper on this one,” Khloë cut in. “She’s right; you’re the main focus, Raini. That sort of got lost among everything else at first.”
“No,” said Raini. “Emmett claimed I was his tattooist, yes, but he talked more about Urban Ink itself, painting a really awful and utterly false picture of it.”
Devon nodded. “True, but the studio is half your baby. By hurting the business, he’s hurting you. I didn’t see it before, but I see it now—this person is trying to sabotage you.”
Raini gave her head a shake. “I hear what you’re saying and I get why you’d think that. But it doesn’t make sense. I’m only little ole me. I don’t have big, bad enemies.”
“Emmett—or whatever the fuck their real name is—doesn’t have to be a big, bad enemy,” said Devon. “He just has to be someone who wants to fuck you over. Which is why you need to call Jolene. As your Prime, she needs to know about this.”
Knowing her friend was right, Raini contacted Jolene, who had Ciaran teleport her to the studio.
Her face hard, Jolene said, “It would be nice if we could get through at least a month without someone targeting Raini in some way. Don’t worry, it will be dealt with,” she assured Raini, her tone somewhat menacing. “Now, someone read out this email to me.”
Khloë quickly did so, her tone clipped.
Ciaran cursed. “Motherfucker.”
“Ain’t he, though?” said Devon, locking the front door.
“I say we head to the break room while we discuss this,” said Raini. “I feel the need for a cup of tea coming on.”
Khloë lifted the phone. “I’ll join you once I’ve called some clients. We need to know if others have been sent this email.”
A few minutes later, Raini, Harper, Devon, Jolene, and Ciaran were gathered around the break room table, drinks in hand.
“Now that it’s clear the attempt to boycott the business is a stab at Raini,” began Ciaran, “do we think that the person behind it could have orchestrated the whole dagger incident? That it was never meant to hit Knox?”
“I do,” said Devon. “And I think it was Dwain. He has motive—that being revenge. I think he resents Raini’s succubae powers, so he sent Dagger Guy to take them from her.”
While Dwain most likely did resent them … “I don’t think what happened all those years ago warrants this kind of reaction. It’s not like I broke his heart. His feelings weren’t real. Yeah, okay, it would be a bitch to realize you thought you loved someone when, in fact, your mind had been preternaturally manipulated. But you wouldn’t one day set out to ruin them, would you? Plus, it was a long time ago.”
Harper lifted her finger. “Firstly, demons always get even, Raini. They’ll wait years if they have to, but they’ll get it. Secondly, what happened wasn’t that simple. I agree that you probably didn’t break Dwain’s heart when you rejected him. But his pain will have been real right up until the moment he was free of the snare.”
“If I realized I’d been weak enough to get caught up in one, I’d feel fucking humiliated,” said Ciaran. “Even a little emasculated. It would make it worse that everyone in my lair knew about it, including my family, my Prime, and my friends. In Dwain’s case, it also included his anchor.”
Devon rested her hand on Raini’s arm. “It isn’t your fault that he left, so it isn’t your fault that he gave up his job and moved out of his home, or that his relationships with Demi and his loved ones suffered due to him not being around much. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t hold you accountable for it.”
“He’s mated now, though; he’s happy,” Raini pointed out.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean he isn’t still itching to get some revenge,” said Harper. “That whole ‘love heals all’ phrase? It doesn’t always work that way.”
Raini bit her lower lip. “I’d like to think that, if for no other reason than that I’m Demi’s family, he’d let the past go. But if it is him, it doesn’t make sense that he came back to visit. Surely he’d have wanted to lay low, hoping we wouldn’t think to pin anything on him. Out of sight, out of mind, right?”
Just then, Khloë barged into the break room. “Several others confirmed they’d received the same bullshit email. Most were Raini’s clients.” She dragged a chair toward her, making the feet scrape along the floor, and plonked herself on it. “That motherfucker needs to pay for this shit. I typed up an email explaining the boycotting attempt—without going into too much detail, of course—and sent it to all our clients.”
“Good,” said Harper. “And you’re right. He is a motherfucker.”
Khloë folded her arms. “It’s got to be Dwain, right?”
“I would say so,” Jolene told her. “But we shouldn’t rule out others. And I hate to say it, Raini, but Demi is someone we should be looking at.”