Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 111986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 373(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 373(@300wpm)
Larkin, who’d arrived half an hour earlier, raised her index finger. “Um… about people with issues.”
Knox turned to her. “Did you find a direct link between Thatcher and Harper?”
“Not one, so I checked to see if he’d had any problems with Jolene. I wondered if maybe he had beef with her and he was using Harper and Heidi to hurt her or something like that. Thatcher’s never had any major issues with Jolene, from what I can tell. But Jonas has.”
Keenan’s brows snapped together. “Jonas?”
Larkin nodded. “And it was very recent. It’s not clear what happened. Just that he wanted something from Jolene and she refused him, so he threatened to make her pay for it – something along those lines. I’m not saying this is related to everything that’s gone on lately, but I thought it was worth mentioning.”
Tanner’s eyes narrowed. “Jonas may have planned to hurt Jolene by taking Heidi and by hiring hunters to steal Harper’s wings.”
Larkin shrugged. “Possibly.”
“Fuck.” Knox pulled out his phone, dialed Jolene’s number, and stalked out of the room. He was in the hallway when she answered. He got straight to the point. “Why didn’t you tell me you had problems with Jonas?”
There was a silence of sheer surprise. “Why would I? That’s my business, not yours.”
“It is my business if he has something to do with your granddaughters being targeted, since one of them is my mate.”
Jolene sighed. “Knox, I’ve had problems with many Primes. It’s the curse of having a small lair. What’s this about? You really think Jonas is responsible?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. But I’m not willing to rule out any possibilities. I need to know what problem you two had.”
“Jonas saw me and members of my lair talking with Lou at the anniversary shindig you threw at the Underground.”
Knox ground his teeth. “It wasn’t a shindig.”
“In any case, he later came to me with a rather surprising request.”
As Jolene repeated her conversation with the Prime, Knox’s jaw hardened until it ached. “How long ago did he approach you with this?”
“A few weeks before the hunters went after Harper.”
“And you didn’t think the two things could be linked?”
“No. I assumed it was the Horsemen, given that they’d already targeted both of you twice before.”
Knox couldn’t even fault her for that, considering he’d done the same damn thing. “It was a reasonable assumption for you to make,” he allowed. “Jonas was no doubt counting on people to blame the Horsemen.”
“Can we be sure he’s our boy? We have to be completely certain before we take action, Knox.”
Halting, Knox inhaled deeply. “At the moment, no, we can’t be sure. I’ll be calling for all the Primes to meet with me tomorrow. I need to look him and Thatcher in the eye. I need to see how they react to me and what I have to say.” While the practical side of him believed that Thatcher wasn’t at fault, Knox’s emotional side wouldn’t allow him to take chances.
“I’ll be there. Now, why don’t you tell me what this has to do with Thatcher and why you sound as though you’d like to see someone drowning in a pool of their own blood?”
And here was where Jolene would lose her mind.
CHAPTER TWELVE
A steady, rhythmic beat woke her. A heartbeat, Harper quickly realized. She didn’t need to open her throbbing eyes to know that the arms wrapped around her, keeping her cradled against a warm solid body, belonged to Knox. She’d know the feel and scent of him anywhere.
Swallowing, Harper winced. It felt like someone had rubbed at the back of her throat with sandpaper. Her mouth was dry as a bone. Forcing her eyes open, she realized they were in their room and Knox was sitting upright against the headboard. “Why do I feel hungover?” she mumbled.
Knox kissed her hair and tightened his arms around her, so fucking glad she was awake. He’d known that she was fine, but he’d needed to hear her voice and look into her eyes before he could relax. At the moment, the eyes squinting up at him were a pretty amethyst shade. “Hungover has got to be better than fevered.”
Memories of the previous evening flickered through Harper’s mind. She tensed, sure she’d dreamed half of it, because it was simply too surreal. “Did someone really try to hurt me using magick?”
“Yes, you were hexed,” Knox confirmed, curling her hair around her ear. His mouth twitched as she let out a string of inventive curses that would have made even a sailor blink in shock. “We don’t know what type of hex it was. There’s no way of knowing because you fought it off before it could work.”
Sitting upright, Harper studied him closely. “But you think it was a death hex, don’t you?”
Knox shifted her to straddle him. “I don’t know. The hunter said that the person who hired him was very adamant that you weren’t to be killed. It could be that they simply wanted to weaken you, but the hex was so intense and you were in so much pain… I’m more inclined to think that they’re no longer so concerned about whether you’re alive or dead. Maybe because they’re pissed that their previous plans were foiled – I can only speculate.” His jaw hardened. “You should know that it’s possible that you were in close contact with whoever cast the hex – or, at least, with someone who worked for them.”