Chapter Thirteen

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“Ninth,” Harper chipped in.

“—I’m not massaging your feet.”

Khloë pouted. “You did it for Devon yesterday.”

“She’s pregnant,” said Raini. “When you’re knocked up, I’ll … well, I’ll light a candle for your poor unborn child.”

“I would make a wonderful mother,” declared Khloë.

Everyone simply stared at her.

The imp raised her shoulders. “What?”

Devon cleared her throat. “So, Piper, how does it feel to be anchored?” she asked, relaxing into the armchair that was a carbon copy of the one on which Piper herself sat.

Aside from the fact that being bonded to Levi this way had a sting in its tail … “I feel stronger. Steadier. And it’s a relief to know that although my demon can still reach for supremacy sometimes, it can never have full power over me.” Piper would always remain the dominant of the two. “I still can’t quite get used to how my mind reaches for Levi’s all the time, though.”

“It’ll become metaphorical white noise eventually,” said Harper, sitting on the rug near the toys her son had abandoned when he raced out of the room to go exploring the apartment with Keenan close behind him. “Have you told your family yet?”

“My mom and stepfather know,” said Piper. “They’re pleased for me. They’re actually planning to drop off some of my stuff so I can stay here until the danger passes. Which reminds me that I’ll have to pick a room to sleep in.”

Raini’s brow furrowed. “Pick a room?”

“Yeah.” Noticing the women exchange odd looks, Piper frowned. “What?”

Harper scratched her cheek. “I figured you’d be sharing Levi’s room, that’s all.”

Ah, so they were aware that he and Piper did the dirty. Bouncing her gaze from female to female, Piper said, “I didn’t think you knew.”

Khloë lifted one shoulder. “We kind of guessed.”

“You never mentioned it,” said Piper.

“We didn’t think there was any point,” Devon told her. “You and Levi were never couple-y, so it was clear that you were intent on keeping the fling on the down-low.”

Piper fiddled with her fingers. “It wasn’t a fling. We just had sex occasionally. We’re not anymore, though. We agreed beforehand that we’d stop when we bonded.”

“Ah.” Raini bit her lip. “I gotta admit, what with how intense he is around you, I wouldn’t have thought he’d be good with that. Are you?”

“It’s better this way.” Piper looked from Harper to Raini. “I know you two mated with your anchors, and I know it’s not really unusual. But it won’t work that way for me and Levi. You can’t begin a relationship with someone who isn’t open to having one. He’s not.”

Harper inclined her head. “He does tend to keep his relationships the epitome of casual.” She twisted her mouth. “I don’t think he’ll find it easy to stick to this agreement you two made. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. It totally gives me tingles.”

“Attraction fades,” said Piper. “Haven’t we all been attracted to people who we later look at and feel absolutely nothing around?”

Harper nodded hard. “Oh, definitely.”

“I’m not saying it won’t take a little effort for me to view him through purely platonic lenses, but it will happen eventually.” Piper would make sure of it. “It’s hard right now because we take up so much of each other’s time and space. It won’t always be that way.”

“True.” Harper bit on the inside of her cheek. “How does your demon feel about all this?”

“It’s happy about the bond, but it’s not impressed that me and Levi are choosing to go back to the way things initially were.” It was pleased about his demon’s brands, but Piper saw no need to talk about those with anyone. “It’ll get used to it, though.”

Raini gave her a sympathetic smile. “I know things must feel a little awkward at the moment, but you two can still be tight. You were friends first. You’ll get things back on the platonic track soon enough.”

Just then, Asher stomped into the room, a dark scowl on his adorable face.

“Why are you sulking, little man?” Harper asked him.

Asher jabbed a finger at Keenan, who was coming up behind him. “He’s a meanie-weenie.”

The incubus sighed. “I made him put Levi’s lamp back on the nightstand. Asher wanted to take it home. And no, I don’t have any clue why.”

Harper gave her son a look that said she meant business. “You know the rules, Asher. You can’t take people’s things without asking first.”

Asher’s scowl stayed firmly in place. “Heidi duz it. Koey duz it. Grams duz—”

“We’re not talking about them,” Harper interrupted. “Why do you even want a lamp?”

“It’s blue,” he replied. “I likes blue.”

As Harper went on to lecture him, Raini turned to Khloë and asked, “Remember you went through a phase of stealing anything silver? Ribbons, screws, paperclips, even hair ties?”

Khloë pursed her lips. “No, not really.”

“Well it was a hell of a phase,” said Raini. “No one cared much about it until you started steeling wheel trims too.”

Khloë’s brows inched up. “That I remember.”

Asher sighed long and loud. “I sorry.”

“Good boy.” Harper held her arms out to him. “Now give Mommy a hug.”

“Uh … no.” Giggling, he hurried off on those little legs, and Keenan quickly trailed after him.

Smiling at the sight, Piper asked, “Has Keenan found his psi-mate?”

It was Khloë who answered, “No, not yet. I hope he does. Not all demons are so lucky.”

Piper slanted her head. “You don’t think you’ll find it hard to see him bound tight to someone else?”

“Nope.” Khloë tucked her hair behind her ear. “I get why some people do feel that way when their mate finds their anchor, but I don’t operate like that. Not all do.”

“I get along great with my anchor’s mate,” said Devon. “Hunter’s the best. He and Adam—that’s my anchor—are almost as excited about my pregnancy as I am. They’ve proclaimed themselves the baby’s honorary uncles.”

Piper smiled. “Aw, how sweet.” She could only pray she’d be on such good terms with whoever Levi took as his mate. As things stood, though, Piper would be more likely to set the bitch on fire.

“You’re zoning out again.”

Snapping out of his thoughts, Levi blinked at his Prime. “Got a lot on my mind.” Or, more accurately, he was striving to ignore how his bastard of a demon kept sending him mental images of Piper naked with faceless men. It wasn’t necessarily trying to provoke Levi, it mostly just wanted him to feel the bite of jealousy; wanted him to declare that he’d scrap the agreement if only to ensure that no one else would have her.

Levi rolled back his shoulders. “How much longer are Tanner and Larkin going to be?”

“Mere minutes, I’d say.” Knox sank deeper into the chair behind his desk, eyeing Levi carefully. “I would have thought you’d be more relaxed today, given you and Piper officially claimed each other as anchors.”

Levi felt his back teeth lock. “I’ll be relaxed when I’ve detained whoever wants her dead.”

“That’s not all you’re mentally chewing on. Tell me what has you so distracted.”

“Someone wants to wipe my anchor from the face of the Earth. You think that isn’t going to distract me?”

“I think there’s more. I also think you don’t want to talk to me about it.”

“Then why bug me?”

Humor briefly lit Knox’s eyes. “You’re only ever this defensive when you feel trapped or stuck or restricted.”

It was true. And right then, Levi did feel stuck. There was no escaping that he had to stick to his word and cease sharing a bed with Piper, because there was no other option. Not realistically. So now there were boundaries and limits that weren’t there before, and he knew he’d be shit at dealing with them.

“Is there no way I can help?” asked Knox.

Levi leaned back against the wall. “No. No, there’s no help for it. The situation is what it is and that’s that. I don’t want to talk any more about it.”

“Fair enough. Come to me if you change your mind.”

Levi grunted.

“You must be relieved that you were able to convince Piper to temporarily move into your apartment.”

“I didn’t need to convince her. She’d already anticipated that I’d ask, and she said she thought it was a smart move.”

“She trusts you with her safety, then. Good. I suppose it’s easier for her that she’s already well-acquainted with your apartment.” Knox drummed his fingers on his desk. “Just be careful, Levi.”

“With what?”

“With Piper’s feelings. You two are sleeping together, and it’s clear you like her a great deal—I’ve never known you to spend as much time with anyone as you do her. Now you want her living with you. That could give her the wrong idea.”

No, it couldn’t, because … “We’re both clear on how things are. We’re also not fucking anymore. And no, I don’t want to talk about that either.”

Knuckles rapped on the office door.

“Come in,” Knox called out.

Tanner strolled in first, followed closely by Jasper and Sefton. Larkin came in behind them, closed the door, and took up position there.

“Hello, Jasper, Sefton.” Knox flicked his fingers, urging them to come closer.

“We had nothing to do with whatever happened to Piper last night,” said Jasper, halting in front of the desk. He was doing his best to look sure and confident, but the fine line of tension in his body gave him away.

Knox lifted a brow. “No?”

“No, nothing,” Jasper stated.

Sefton swallowed. “Nothing,” he reiterated.

Knox cocked his head. “You didn’t confront her at the Xpress bar, Jasper?”

His brows pulling together, Jasper said, “It wasn’t a confrontation.”

Levi folded his arms. “Then what was it?”

“I’d had a few drinks, I sniped at her a little,” replied Jasper. “It was stupid, yeah, but I didn’t hurt her or anything. I definitely didn’t teleport her out of the damn bar.”

Knox hummed. “But could you or your brother here have arranged for someone else to do so? Yes, that’s a definite possibility.”

Sefton shook his head. “We didn’t, Knox, I swear. We wouldn’t.”

“We’re not fans of Piper, but we don’t want her dead,” said Jasper. “All I want is for her to admit that she lied about my brother—that’s it.”

Knox locked his gaze on Sefton. “You still insist to your family that you’re innocent?”

Avoiding eye-contact, he replied, “I admitted my guilt—”

“So that I’d let it alone,” began Jasper, “because you don’t want me to end up in the damn Chamber.”

“Blind faith can be a dangerous thing, Jasper,” said Knox. “As can targeting the psi-mate of someone like Levi.”

“Even if we wanted to hire a person to teleport her somewhere—which we don’t—we couldn’t have done it,” Jasper clipped. “We don’t have the cash. The way I see it, a person would charge a hell of a fee to kidnap the anchor of one of your sentinels. We’d have no way of paying that.”

Valid point, but … “Not all fees are cash-based.”

Jasper raised his shoulders. “What else could we offer someone in payment? Nothing. We don’t own our homes. We have no assets. Our cars are pieces of shit. An IOU wouldn’t be enough of an incentive for someone to snatch a person as well-protected as Piper.”

“Maybe you never intended to pay anyone,” mused Knox. “Maybe your plan was to kill your hirelings once they delivered Piper to you.”

“It would have been a shit plan,” said Levi, dancing his gaze from one brother to the other. “But neither of you is the brightest bulb.”

Jasper’s mouth tightened. “It wasn’t us. The only thing I’m guilty of is acting like a dick last night at the bar and … fuck, I don’t even remember all I said.”

“I have plenty of witnesses who do,” Knox told him. “The words most used to describe your manner during that encounter were ‘ugly,’ ‘aggressive,’ and ‘threatening.’”

Jasper’s brow pinched. “I didn’t threaten her.”

“How do you know?” challenged Levi. “According to you, you don’t recall everything you said.”

“I’d remember that.” Jasper softly cursed. “Look, I was rude and out of line. I wouldn’t have said anything to her if I hadn’t been drunk.”

“And as I said to your brother last night,” Larkin cut in, “I’ve never considered ‘drunk’ a valid excuse for any form of behavior.”

“Neither have I,” said Knox. “Speaking of Sefton—”

“He didn’t do nothing,” Jasper insisted. “It was all me. He tried to pull me away.”

“He made a show of it, yes,” Knox agreed. “But he was also overheard by a patron telling you that someone needed to give Piper a reality check.” Knox pinned the other brother with a glare. “You goaded him.”

Sefton’s eyes widened. “No, no, it wasn’t like that. Someone said they were surprised that Celeste hadn’t screamed bloody murder over Piper and Levi being anchors. I said Celeste would probably do something sooner or later; that she’d never give them her blessing and that Piper needed a reality check if she thought differently. I wasn’t trying to rile my brother. I wouldn’t.”

“There was no riling,” said Jasper. “He had nothing to do with this.”

Ignoring him, Knox spoke again to Sefton. “I think you like that your brother insists on being so mouthy. He says all the things you’re too scared to say yourself. The risk is all his. That suits you just fine.”

Both Sefton and Jasper began profusely objecting.

“Quiet,” clipped Knox, and the protests abruptly died. He narrowed his eyes on Jasper. “You knew what would happen if you didn’t keep your distance from Piper. It doesn’t matter to me what state you were in last night, you have no excuse for disobeying my orders or ignoring Levi’s warnings. You will be punished.”

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.

Yes. He ran when one of the Force members on patrol spotted him. He didn’t run fast enough. Marshall claims he was hanging near her house because he worries she’ll be targeted.

I’d say it’s suspicious that he ran, but it’s not for Marshall.The man was so used to being in trouble that he fled on instinct these days. Do you believe him?

I do. Although, really, I don’t think he’s as concerned for Sera as he is for their son. She won’t allow Marshall to stay at the house until the killer’s been apprehended, so he apparently decided he’d instead monitor the place from outside. I’ll be taking a dip into his mind to ensure his story checks out. I would rather Dez didn’t hear of this through the grapevine, so fill him in on what happened.

Levi flipped back the coverlet. Will do.

He could simply call the Force member, but Levi decided to instead speak with him face-to-face. It gave him something to do.

Opening the front door to his apartment, he nodded at both Dez and Enzo, who were on guard duty.

“Everything okay?” asked Dez.

“That depends,” said Levi. “Marshall was found hanging around Sera’s house tonight. He ran when a Force member came upon him but was subsequently caught.”

Enzo sighed at Dez. “I told you he wouldn’t listen to us. The man never does.”

Grunting, Dez scrubbed a hand over his face.

“Marshall said he planned on keeping a very close watch on Sera and their boy,” Enzo told Levi. “Given that she wouldn’t react well—and what woman would be cool with a cheating ex lurking outside her home?—we recommended that he didn’t. We assured him that all single mothers were being monitored.”

“Does Knox think my brother’s the one who killed Diem and Emma?” Dez asked.

“Not at present,” Levi replied. “Knox will know for sure once he reads his mind.”

Dez rubbed the back of his neck. “I know it looks bad that he fled, but my brother’s not a killer. Yeah, I know Marshall’s no angel. But neither was Enzo, once upon a time.”

True. When it came to punishments, they only had a temporary effect on Marshall. Still, he was nowhere near as wild and rebellious as he was years ago.

“Knox’s walk through Marshall’s mind will hopefully confirm that he’s innocent,” said Levi, feeling pretty certain that would be the case. Petty crimes were the man’s style, not cold-blooded murders. And, given Marshall wasn’t alive when Moira was murdered, he would only be guilty of the recent killings if he was a copycat. Levi could see no reason why Marshall would bother to do any such thing.

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t pull a stunt like this again,” said Dez. “Really, though, I can’t say I blame him for wanting to protect his son.”

Neither could Levi.