BURN (7 page)

She could sense he was a demon, so he should know better than to invade the personal space of another demon uninvited. That had annoyed her, and because she was in a shitty mood after arguing with Royce again, she’d simply asked, “Who the fuck are you?”

He’d presented her with a huge grin, ignoring the disapproval radiating from her colleagues in the doorway. The grin was pleasant enough, yet…there was something sly in the curve of it. A cunningness that seemed to match the callous glint in his eyes. “Silas,” he’d replied in a British accent. “Silas Monroe.”

“What do you want?” She highly doubted it was a tattoo, since he could have discussed that with Raini or Devon – it was Khloë’s afternoon off. No, this wasn’t about a tattoo. Something was very weird here. She’d instantly called out to Knox, wondering if he knew the guy. She hadn’t expected Knox to declare he was coming, but maybe she should have.

You don’t have to come.
No answer. So she focused solely on Silas, who was glancing around the office, as if admiring the décor.

“He said he wanted to speak to you,” Raini told Harper, though she was glaring at his back. “I explained that you were busy right now, but he said he could smell you and then just barged right past me.”

Did he now? Harper slowly got to her feet as she repeated, “What do you want?”

He shrugged. “To have a little chat.”

“I don’t chat.”

“Really? That’s sad.”

“No, it’s not.”

Harper, don’t let Silas touch you
, said Knox, his voice hard.
I don’t think he’ll be stupid enough to try to harm you, but he’s obviously stupid enough to bother you.

If the fucker tried to touch her, he’d find her pen – which she’d infused with hellfire – lodged up his rectum. He cast the object a wary look as he said, “Come on, luv, there’s no call for rudeness. Let’s start again. Hello Miss Wallis, I’m Silas.”

“Yeah? Well, I’m bored. You can go now.”

He didn’t look in the slightest bit offended. “Now that wasn’t nice.”

“If you want ‘nice’, you came to the wrong fucking person. I’m a fully qualified bitch who’ll happily rip you another ass hole if you don’t get the fuck out of my office.” She arched a brow when he didn’t move. “Why are you still here?”

“More to the question,” began Tanner as he strolled past the girls and into the office, his gaze hard and intent as it locked on Silas, “why are you here at all?” No doubt Knox had sent him inside to protect her if necessary.

“Tanner,” Silas greeted pleasantly. “It’s a surprise to see you.” Yeah? He didn’t actually look all that surprised.

“I asked you a question. I never ask twice. So tell me, why are you here?” Tanner sounded more dangerous than she’d ever heard him.

Silas shrugged casually, though he no longer looked so relaxed. “I’m simply having a friendly chat with the little she-demon here.”

Tanner glanced at her briefly. “She doesn’t look like she considers you a friend.”

“I think I offended her by walking into the room without waiting for a ‘come in.’ I suppose it was kind of stupid.”

At that moment, another demon breezed inside. “Stupid is coming here in the first place.” Just like that, the atmosphere snapped taut with tension. How Knox got there so fast, she didn’t know. Some kind of teleportation, maybe…She didn’t care to figure it out right then.

As his dark eyes locked on hers, her body immediately responded – heating, burning, longing. Her inner demon perked right up, excited to see him, despite the circumstances. He scrutinized her from head to toe, as if checking that she was fine. Then his eyes slammed on Silas, instantly hardening.

“Knox,” mumbled Silas nervously.

When Knox arched a questioning brow at Tanner, the hellhound said, “Silas here claims to be having a friendly chat with Harper.”

Knox narrowed his eyes at Silas. “Just why would you concern yourself with my anchor?” He was so composed, it was chilling. Harper actually felt the room temperature lower.

“Anchor?” echoed Silas.

Tanner tilted his head. “You haven’t heard the rumors about Knox and Harper? Strange.”

Strange? More like doubtful, in Harper’s opinion. Knox had made it public, and news traveled fast in the demon world. But why would Silas play this weird game if he knew Knox was her anchor?

“I’m going to ask you a question,” Knox rumbled as he advanced on Silas. His inner demon wanted nothing more than to rip him apart, and Knox found the idea particularly tempting. But he needed something from the little shit, and he’d get it. “It would be good for you to answer me honestly. I don’t like it when people lie to me. It’s very disappointing.” Silas swallowed hard as Knox halted in front of him. He didn’t cower, to his credit. But his fear was easy to see, and it satisfied Knox’s demon. “Did someone put you up to this, Silas? Or was this little test your idea?”

“Test?” repeated Harper.

Knox didn’t move his gaze from Silas as he explained to Harper. “A test to see just how important you are to me. Just how protective I am and just how quick I’ll act on any issue you might have. The answer to that, Silas, is that she is very important to me. And it would be the height of stupidity to harm her by word or deed, because I
will
eviscerate anyone who dares to do so.”

Picking up movement near the doorway, Harper noticed that Raini was fanning her face; it was typical that she would find the dominant, protective routine arousing.

“This is the part where you assure me that you are no threat to Harper,” Knox told Silas.

“I’m no threat to her,” Silas swore.

“Good. Before you leave, I want the answer to my question.”

“This was my idea. It was wrong, and I apologize.”

Knox narrowed his eyes as he invaded the demon’s personal space. “I told you that I don’t like it when people lie to me. Why would you want to disappoint me so badly, Silas?”

Harper eyed Knox curiously. He looked merely mildly irritated, but his rage pulsed around the room, unnerving even her inner demon despite that it believed he wouldn’t harm it.

Silas, on the other hand, was sweating with fear. “I can’t tell you,” he mumbled, licking his lips nervously. “I would if I could, but I can’t. I’m under a compulsion.”

There was a long pause, so Harper asked, “Is he telling the truth?” That was when Silas fell to his knees, crying out in sheer agony. He rocked back and forth as he cradled his head, and she instantly knew what was happening. “You’ve thrust your mind into his,” she accused Knox. And that scared the shit out of her.

“The compulsion is strong,” commented Knox, withdrawing from Silas’ mind. “I sensed it. You
are
unable to give us a name. But I also learned something else, Silas. Do you know what that was? I learned that you were eager to do this. So eager that you volunteered.”

“He didn’t expect you to come,” Tanner theorized. “Did you?”

Silas got to his feet. “You don’t have loyalty to anyone outside your lair,” he said to Knox. “You don’t exactly keep people around you. I didn’t think you’d care.”

It was true that although Knox protected his lair fiercely, he only kept his sentinels around him. And now Harper.

“I didn’t think she’d be important to you,” continued Silas. “You’re too powerful to need an anchor.”

“Do you think flattery will get you out of this?” chuckled Tanner.

Drawing on every bit of strength he had, Knox resisted killing the bastard. His inner demon wanted it badly, reminded Knox how effortless and satisfying it would be. But Knox had to be smart about this. “There’s only one reason I’m allowing you to live…for now…and that’s that I need you to go back to whoever sent you and tell them just how suicidal it would be to harm my anchor. You should also let them know that if they or anyone else ever considers using her against me, they’ll pay in ways they don’t want to imagine.”

A paling Silas nodded and, after one last look at Harper, quickly scampered.

Devon stepped into the room with Raini. “That was really all a test?” Her face suddenly scrunched up and she hissed at Tanner, looking ready to pounce.

Pure male amusement took over the sentinel’s face. “What’s wrong, kitty?” Yeah, hellhounds and hellcats had an instinctive aversion to the other.

“Tanner, follow him,” ordered Knox. “I want to know who sent him.” The sentinel swiftly left and, taking a deep breath, Knox held out his hand to Harper. “Come.” He needed to get out of there, and he needed her with him to keep him calm. Levi should have arrived in the Bentley by now, considering the expertise of his driving skills.

“I’m at work,” she pointed out.

“But she can totally leave early.” Raini was such a bitch. “I’m Raini, by the way. That’s Devon.”

Knox gave them a simple nod of greeting before gripping Harper by the wrist. “Let’s go.”

Harper was impressed by how easily Knox shrugged off Raini’s succubae allure. Tanner, too, seemed to have withstood it very well. As Knox hauled her outside where Levi waited and practically shoved her into the Bentley, she cursed. “You might find this surprising, but I don’t like being dragged around.” He didn’t respond. “Where are we going?”

“My home.”

His ‘home’ turned out to be a goddamn mansion.
Holy fuck
.

They had barely reached the door when it opened wide, revealing a tall, elegant demon who nodded respectfully at Knox. “Evening, Mr. Thorne.”

“Dan, this is Harper Wallis, my anchor.”

Dan presented her with a polite smile. “I’m happy to meet you, Miss Wallis.”

Unaccustomed to gentility, Harper merely responded, “Um, you too.” No sooner had Dan taken her jacket in the marble foyer than Knox urged her into a high-ceiling living area that was like something out of a magazine. With its mahogany walls and light pine flooring, it might have looked plain if it wasn’t for the blue-tinted windows, the incredible paintings, the ocean blue Persian rug, and the spotlights in the ceiling and on the walls.

At Knox’s gesture, Harper gingerly sat on one of the two beige half-moon sofas that circled a pine coffee table, feeling completely out of place and unable to relax.

A few moments later, a small Hispanic woman appeared. “Mr. Thorne, dinner won’t be ready for another hour. Can I get you and your guest anything?”

“Meg, this is Harper Wallis, my anchor. Harper, this is Meg – the best cook you’ll ever have the pleasure of knowing.”

Flushing, Meg smiled at Harper. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Is there anything I can get for you?”

“I’m good, thanks.”

“We’re both fine for now, Meg.” With a respectful nod, the woman scurried away. When Knox saw Harper open her mouth – most likely to castigate him for not asking in advance what she’d like to eat – he said the one thing guaranteed to distract her. “I had a visit from Carla today.”

She blinked. “Really?”

“She wanted to know if there was any truth in the rumors that you’re my anchor. I confirmed that you are.”

“Did she cry?”

Her expression was so hopeful, he had to smile. “No.”

“Damn,” she muttered. Knox moved to a little bar behind them that she hadn’t even noticed until then.

“Drink?” She shook her head, so Knox simply prepared himself a small glass of gin and tonic. “What did your family tell you about her over the years?”

“Not much, actually. Just that I should never think there was anything wrong with me simply because my mother dumped me; that some people are just too selfish to care about anyone but themselves.”

“She claims she tried to see you over the years, that Jolene and Lucian kept her away.”

Harper snorted. “They probably
would
have kept her away if she’d tried. But I’m pretty sure she didn’t.” Knox’s expression was inscrutable, but she suspected, “You believe her.”

Knox lounged on the sofa, directly opposite her. “What I believe is that it’s important for you to have the facts about your life.”

“The fact is that the woman doesn’t, and never has, wanted me.”

“She asked me to tell you that she’s always loved you, thought of you often.”

“I’ll bet she did.” Carla was, according to Jolene, as cunning as they came. “She’s taking preemptive steps, worried I’ll switch to your lair and request for her to be cast out.”

Knox
did
want Harper to join his lair, but they’d get to that at a later point. He had to do things one step at a time with Harper or she’d withdraw from him rather than accept his place in her life. “You’re very sure she doesn’t care for you?”

“Since moving to Vegas, I saw her a couple of times. She dismissed me with a haughty look. So, yes, I’m very sure.”

That had anger bubbling inside of him. “Knowing that makes me want to cast her out.”

“Nah, it’ll be more fun to have her stick around. She likes to pretend I don’t exist. But you can’t pretend someone doesn’t exist if they’re being paraded in front of your entire lair, can you?”

Her impish grin made him smile. “You have a lot of Jolene in you.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”