Embers (Dark in You 4)

“She’d never keep something like this from you, not even to stop you from hurting him.” Levi slowed the car as they approached a red light. “There’s something I really don’t get. If he wanted her bad enough to brand himself for her, why stay away from her?”

“I don’t know.” Reining in his anger, Knox cricked his neck. “But I know someone who’s likely to have the answer.”

A little while later, they were stood on Jolene Wallis’s porch. Opening the front door, she smiled. “Knox, always a pleasure.” She stepped aside, allowing him and Levi to enter. Her brow creased. “No Harper or Asher?”

“They’re at the studio.”

“Ah. I was just about to make coffee for me and Ciaran. He’s in the living area, watching TV.” She gestured for them to follow her down the hallway, adding, “Come tell me what brings you here.”

Following her into the kitchen, Knox positioned himself next to the island. He politely turned down her offer of a drink. Likewise, leaning against the doorjamb, Levi gave a quick shake of the head to her offer.

As Jolene pottered around the kitchen, Knox simply said, “Drew Clarke.”

Jolene spared him a brief look. “What about him?”

“He wants Harper, but he stayed away from her. Why is that?”

With a sigh, Jolene turned to face Knox. “Because I told him to.”

He’d suspected as much. “Why?”

Pouring coffee into her mug, Jolene explained, “Harper needed—and deserved—someone who would put her first. Someone who would stay in one place and build a life with her. Drew is not that person. Like Lucian, he’s very self-focused, enjoys partying and—though his base is in Cuba—he also travels a lot. Harper did enjoy her years of traveling with Lucian, but what she needed was roots, not someone who she’d come second to. So I told Drew to keep his distance until he was ready to give her what she did need.”

“You were testing him to see if he’d step up,” Knox guessed.

“Yes.” Jolene’s lips thinned. “He failed the test, just as I’

d figured he would. He stayed in Cuba, living the regular bachelor lifestyle. I think he believed he had all the time in the world to take before offering Harper anything serious—back then, she only dated humans. Drew didn’t feel threatened by that. He hadn’t counted on her ever dating another demon, let alone mating with him.”

“And yet, he didn’t appear when I began dating Harper.” Which made no sense, unless … “You told Devon not to tell him.”

“Of course I did.” Jolene blew over the rim of the steaming cup. “I didn’t know how serious you were about Harper, but I knew that if Drew heard another demon was pursuing her, he’d have returned to stake his claim. He would have staked that claim for the wrong reason—not because he was ready for more, but because he didn’t want to see her with another.

“I also knew that you, being possessive and a lover of challenges, would have fought for her. But I couldn’t be sure whether it would have been because she meant something to you or because you simply weren’t prepared to lose a challenge. You and Harper needed time without outside interference to see just whether you had anything worth keeping. So I told the lair not to mention your relationship with Harper to Drew.”

Stuffing his hands in his pockets, Knox tilted his head. “Why keep it from him for so long? She’s been fully mine for a while now.”

“I didn’t plan to keep it from him for so long. He went on a trip to some God-forsaken place where he wouldn’t be ‘tethered by technology’. No one heard from him for two years, and he didn’t hear from us. Which suited me fine, because I know he doesn’t have a chance of luring her away from you. What I need is for him to know that. Once upon a time, he might have stupidly fought you and inevitably died. I’m fond of the boy, I don’t want him dead. I also wouldn’t want to deal with the clusterfuck it would cause.”

Knox understood what she meant. If he killed the brother of Harper’s close friend, it would drive a wedge between the two females. Harper would feel torn between her loyalty to Devon and her loyalty to him. Some of her lair would understand Knox’s actions; the others would hate him for it. And Jolene, a master manipulator who was madly protective of her lair, would naturally do what it took to ensure such a future didn’t come to pass—including keeping Drew blind.

“Like I said, he might have once fought you for her. Not now. The black diamond wouldn’t have stopped him. But seeing her holding a baby boy, being part of a family? That screams to Drew that he lost his chance. He’ll know that he has no one to blame but himself.” Jolene sipped her coffee. “He’ll brood and stew and whine, but he’ll move on.”

Knox wasn’t so sure about that. “He has a tattoo of a sphinx snuggled up to a hellcat. A sphinx without wings.”

Shock stiffened Jolene’s shoulders. She sighed. “The dumb bastard.”

Levi snickered. “He’ll be a dead dumb bastard if he doesn’t get rid of it soon.”

Jolene went rigid. “Don’t, Knox. Don’t kill him. You’re understandably angry. But think what it would do to Harper and Devon’s relationship if you were responsible for Drew’s death.”

Knox stared at her, incredulous. “You’re asking me to drop this?”

“Of course not. I’m asking that you give me a chance to deal with this. I’ll talk to him. I’ll make him see sense and have the tattoo removed.”

“You truly think you can?”

“I won’t know until I try. Grant me this. For Harper’s sake.”