Reaper (Dark in You 8)

Pausing, Knox slid his gaze to Sefton. “And you will watch. You will watch your brother suffer, and then maybe you will feel motivated to ensure he doesn’t earn himself another punishment. Because we both fucking know you could have dragged him away from Piper last night if you had really wanted to. You chose not to.” He looked from Tanner to Larkin. “Take them.”

The two sentinels dragged the brothers out of the office.

Levi scraped his hand over his jaw. “Jasper made some good points.”

“He did,” said Knox.

“I’m still not ready to scrub the brothers off the suspect list. They could have loaned money from someone or offered a service of some sort in trade.”

“You think they might have worked together on this?”

“If it was Jasper’s idea, no. He’s protective of his brother, he wouldn’t ask Sefton to involve himself in anything that could put him in the line of fire. But if Sefton came up with the idea, he’d have had no problem trying to get Jasper on board. He’s a self-centered prick.”

Knox nodded. “Jasper’s not much better, but he at least feels family loyalty. I don’t think Sefton’s loyal to anyone but himself.”

Irritated that he still had so many unanswered questions, Levi thrust a hand through his hair as he pushed away from the wall. He needed to get back to Piper but, unwilling to leave Knox without protection, he didn’t move until Larkin returned. Levi then finally left the Underground and headed straight to his complex. Entering his apartment, he was greeted by silence. Apparently Harper and the others had left.

Frustration still beating in his blood, he stalked through the place in search of Piper. He found her in his spare bedroom, setting clothes into a drawer. The sight made his stomach drop. His demon narrowed its eyes, displeased that she’d set up camp somewhere other than the master bedroom.

She peered up at Levi and blinked. “Oh, hey.”

He took a few steps forward. “Everyone left, I see.”

“Yep.” She slipped her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and began rocking back and forth on her heels, looking awkward and uncertain. “My, uh, my mom brought my stuff about half an hour ago. I figured I’d unpack. So I am. Is that okay?”

“Of course. I wouldn’t want you to live out of a suitcase.”

“I was just, you know, checking.” She gave him a polite smile and looked away, biting her lower lip.

He backed out of the room. “I’ll leave you to it. When you’re done, come find me, we’ll have dinner.”

She nodded. “Sure. Will do.”

Dinner went exactly as breakfast had. They ate, made small-talk, and each did their best to ignore the discomfiture in the air.

He hated that she didn’t feel at ease around him anymore. He understood it would only be temporary, but that didn’t make it any less agitating.

Determined to get rid of the awkwardness, Levi proposed they try a TV series that Larkin recommended. He and Piper needed to spend time together as friends so they could get on the right foot.

Piper accepted his proposal, so they binge-watched the entire series in his living room while munching on snacks and, six hours later, a pizza. Well, it was a long-ass series.

His plan paid off. The weird vibe between them disappeared. Their smiles were no longer stiff. Their chuckles were no longer hollow. But the moment they halted at her bedroom door that night, all the work was undone.

She cleared her throat. “Night, Levi.” She pushed open the door and padded into the room.

He wanted to follow her. He didn’t know if he could sleep under the same roof as her and not be beside her. But like he’d told Knox, the situation was what it was. Levi needed to suck it up and deal with it. “Night, Piper.”

He walked away. Not to his room, but in the direction of his home gym. There was a punchbag in there that would help him get out his frustrations. His demon rather thought sex would be the better option, and the sneaky little fucker began sending Levi mental snapshots of Piper beneath them … above them … on her hands and knees in front of them.

Levi cursed the entity to hell and back. It shrugged, unperturbed by his anger. In its opinion, Levi had no one to blame for his current mood but himself. The entity wasn’t even wrong.

After his workout, Levi showered and slipped into bed. He didn’t sleep, though. He simply wasn’t tired. So the feel of Knox’s mind brushing his didn’t snap Levi out of a peaceful sleep.

A male demon from our lair was found loitering outside Sera Browne’s home, said the Prime, referring to a single mother within their lair.

Levi tensed. Who was it?

Dez’s brother, Marshall.

Levi narrowed his eyes as he remembered … Sera is his ex-girlfriend.