“No,” agreed Dean. “But he is,” he added, tipping his chin at Knox.
Knox narrowed his eyes. “You think they were hoping to extort money from me?” It didn’t seem likely to him.
Dean shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe it wasn’t money that they wanted from you – I don’t know. That’s really all I can tell you.”
Sensing that was the truth, Knox drawled, “All right.” He licked his teeth. “You’ve been very helpful, Mr. Bannon. Cooperative.” Which thoroughly disappointed Knox’s demon. “If you’re lucky, your death might be a quick one.”
“Not exactly surprised you’re reneging on your deal,” clipped Dean.
“I’m not going to kill you. I just needed to question you. No, it’s the Wallis imps that are going to kill you. Considering you tried to kidnap one of their own, I’d say they have the right to give you what you’ve got coming.”
Harper nodded. Grams, he’s ready for you.
Mere moments later, Ciaran, Jolene, and Richie appeared a few feet away. “Thank you, Knox,” said Jolene, eyes hard on Dean. “Mind if we take the chair?”
Knox swept out a hand in invitation. “Not at all.”
“Grab him,” she told the other imps.
“Wait,” Dean said to the imps. “I told him what you need to know!”
“You also tried to kidnap my daughter,” snarled Richie. “At what point did you think that would go unpunished?”
Dean’s gaze darted from face to face, as if searching for an ally. When he looked at Harper, she shrugged and said, “You really should have known better than to fuck with my family.” And then they were gone.
Knox turned to Harper and drew her close. Her scent dulled the rage that seemed his constant companion these days. She slid her arms around him and smoothed them up and down his back, comforting him and taking comfort. Sweeping a hand down her hair, he kissed her temple. “I wanted to kill that fucker so bad.”
“So did I.” Harper leaned into him. “But Jolene needs to do this. It’s hard for her to stand back while we deal with the person who sent those hunters after me.”
Knox nodded. “Killing Bannon allows her to get vengeance for both you and Heidi. I know she needs that. I know Richie has more of a right to punish Bannon than I do.” He rested his forehead on hers. “That didn’t make it any easier not to slice his throat open.”
She pressed a kiss to his neck. “Your restraint was appreciated.”
As the two sentinels joined them, Tanner scraped a hand over his jaw and said, “You know… I’ve been thinking.”
“Did it hurt?” Harper quipped, hoping to lighten Knox’s mood.
Tanner shot her a mock glare. “As I was saying… it’s possible that they’re not targeting you to get to Knox. Maybe this is about you.”
Knox had been considering that since the moment he heard that Heidi had almost been taken. “I’d like to disagree, but it does make sense,” he told Harper. “At first, I thought the person who hired the hunters was most likely one of the Horsemen and had made yet another attempt to make me lose my control by hurting the only thing that matters to me. Now, I’m not so sure.”
She tilted her head. “You don’t think the Horsemen are behind the recent events?”
“I think we’ve assumed that they are,” Tanner replied. “Maybe we shouldn’t have. If I were one of the Horsemen, I would keep a low profile for a while. A lot of our kind are investigating the matter. Would it be wise of them to strike out at you during this time? I don’t believe so.”
“He’s right,” Levi told her. “Look at Heidi – what would the kidnapping have truly achieved? Sure, Knox would have paid ransom money, but it’s not a matter that would have hurt him. Pissed him off, yeah, but not hurt him. If the idea was to ask you to switch places with Heidi, you would have been prepared to do it.” Levi turned to Knox. “But would you have let her, or would you have found another way to get Heidi back?”
Knox said nothing. That question didn’t require an answer. Everyone there knew that Knox would never have allowed Harper to trade herself for another, not even for a child, not even for a child of her own blood. He would have done whatever it took to get Heidi back, but he would not have handed his mate over to anyone. Every single demon would know that.
Tanner nodded at Levi. “The hunter said that the person who hired them doesn’t want Harper dead. But taking into account the pain she went through and that they wanted her cousin kidnapped, they clearly want her to suffer. That sounds personal to me. Still, I’m not saying we should rule out that Thatcher has anything to do with all this – his name has cropped up twice now. Even if these attacks are personal to Harper, it’s possible that he’s involved.”
“Would Thatcher have any reason to be angry at you?” Levi asked her.
“I don’t think so,” replied Harper. “I barely know him. I get the feeling he looks down on me, but many demons do – I’m a Wallis, after all. Do you think that whoever’s behind all this is counting on us to blame it on the Horsemen?”
“Yes,” replied Knox. “That’s exactly what we did, isn’t it?”
“My main enemy is Alethea – she would love to see me reduced to nothing but a pile of ashes. But as Tanner pointed out, this person doesn’t want me dead. Could Carla or Bray want to hurt me for what my demon did to Roan? Sure. But I don’t think they’re smart enough to do all this and remain undetected.”
“You’re probably right,” said Levi. “But we won’t dismiss any of them as suspects.”
“If the Horsemen are hoping to fly under the radar for a while, they won’t be happy that they’re being blamed for something they didn’t do,” Keenan pointed out.
Agreeing with that, Knox nodded. He telepathically reached out to Larkin and informed her of the day’s events. After the harpy was done cursing, he said, We need to explore the idea that this person wants to hurt Harper, not me. Still, everything keeps leading us back to Thatcher. Find out as much as you can about him. Dig as deep as you can go. If he has any link whatsoever to Harper, I want to know about it.
If there is one, I’ll find it, Larkin promised.
Turning Harper toward the exit, Knox said, “Come on, let’s get you to bed.”
“Who were you talking to?” Harper asked him. As their psyches were connected, she could feel the echo of his telepathic conversations; she simply couldn’t understand the words.
“Larkin,” he replied. “She’s going to search for any possible link between you and Thatcher. If he has any sort of grievance with you, we need to know what it is. And we need to know before he acts again.”
Nodding at that, Harper slipped her arm around his waist as they began a slow walk out of the boathouse. “Onto another subject, how did your meeting with Dion go?”
“Well…”
CHAPTER EIGHT
The sting of teeth biting into the back of her shoulder snapped Harper out of sleep. Before she could wince, a hot tongue lapped and swirled over the mark to soothe the hurt. She realized that she was lying on her stomach while Knox was draped over her like a blanket, caging her in.
“Morning,” she purred. Her demon stretched, luxuriating in his attention.
“Morning, baby,” he said against her skin.
The throaty rumble made her stomach clench and her nipples tighten. “I hope you’re hungry.”
Understanding her meaning, Knox smiled. “I’m starving.” But he wouldn’t give her what she wanted just yet. He wanted to play first. Before Harper, he hadn’t “played”. Sex had never been anything but a basic need until she came along. He’d never cared for any of his partners. Never needed or craved them. Never been so focused on ensuring that they loved every minute of it. But it was different with Harper. Everything was different with her.
Harper fisted the bedsheet as his mouth traveled lower down her back and left another suckling bite that seemed to send a dart of pleasure directly to her pussy. His mouth explored her back, leaving little marks everywhere and licking along the sensitive lines of her wings. Wet and restless, she squirmed and tried arching into him. A hand pressed down on her lower back, keeping her flat against the bed.