Burn

No, he couldn’t. It didn’t mean he had to like it.

“Are you going to tell her the truth about Carla?”

“We’re both going to tell her.” Knox opened the door and swept out a hand. Jolene didn’t move. “If it doesn’t come from both of us, the truth will hurt her even more. I won’t have that.” After a long silence, Jolene grabbed her purse and followed him out of the suite.

Once in the elevator, Knox told her, “Tonight, someone put a death spell on Harper’s apartment.”

Jolene’s face hardened and the elevator began to slightly rattle. Quick enough, the rattling stopped. “She’s fine.” It was a ‘she’d better be fine’ statement.

“Of course,” he said. “Shit would be burning down if she wasn’t. That’s twice now that dark practitioners have targeted Harper. So it would seem that the culprit likes to use magick to get what they want, especially when what they want is vengeance. A little like Carla.”

“You think she could have sent the practitioners?”

“You don’t?”

Jolene’s expression turned pensive. “She tried to kill Harper once before. I guess it wouldn’t be a shocker if she tried it again.”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Jolene. You’re an astute, shrewd woman. I don’t believe for one second that you haven’t already considered it might be Carla.”

“I have her watched, much like you. But she’ll be expecting that, so she’s not going to do anything incriminating. She’ll be very careful about who she’s seen to associate with. But you don’t have to see someone in person to associate with them, do you?”

“You’re monitoring her calls and emails, aren’t you?”

“Of course. But she’ll be expecting that too. She’s telepathic, so it’s possible that she’s communicating with unsavory people that way.” Jolene pointed a finger. “Don’t let this blind you to the fact that it’s equally possible that Kendra or Isla is the mastermind.”

Reaching the top floor, they exited the elevator and headed for Knox’s suite. “Kendra went to North Las Vegas last night.”

“Yes, she’s looking for information on Lucian’s whereabouts.”

He smiled. “Her informant works for you, doesn’t he?”

“Imps are liars and cheaters by nature. But we don’t betray our own. He’ll send her on a wild goose chase, which will hopefully get her away from Harper.”

Tanner, who was guarding the door, frowned at Knox. “Everything okay? You have some serious anger radiating from you.”

Of course he did. “Levi will fill you in on the details. I need to talk to Harper.” With that, he left his sentinels outside and led Jolene into the suite. They found Harper in the living area, talking on her cell phone. Knox picked up Raini’s voice, but he didn’t hear the words. He was a little distracted by how stunning Harper looked in a pastel blue dress.

Looking up, she smiled. “Hey, Grams. Raini, I’ll call you later.” Glancing from Jolene to Knox, she said, “All right, what’s going on?”

Jolene sat on the sofa opposite Harper. “I won’t begin this by saying ‘there’s something you should know,’ because honestly, sweetheart, I don’t think you need to know this. It will only hurt you. But Knox insists that you should have the truth. So if that’s what you want, you can have it.”

Harper again looked from Jolene to Knox, who was now sitting beside her. “The truth about what?”

When Jolene didn’t respond, Knox spoke. “Carla.”

Harper twisted her mouth. “Let’s hear it.”

Jolene flicked her hair away from her face. “She didn’t dump you on my doorstep. I’ve had you in my care since the day you were born. I was actually at the birth.” She paused. “I paid her to carry you to term and hand you over.”

“You paid her?” Harper easily read between the lines. “She wanted to abort me.” Her grandmother nodded. While that didn’t exactly make her feel warm inside…“I could have handled that, Grams. Why not just tell me?” But there was only one reason Jolene would have kept it to herself. “It gets worse, doesn’t it?”

“Carla sought out an incantor’s help when the abortion didn’t work. She didn’t just want you dead, she wanted to trap your soul.”

Nice. Her inner demon curled her upper lip, ready to hunt down the bitch.

“It wasn’t to hurt you,” Jolene quickly added. “I don’t think she even saw you as a person. She’s so self-centered that she couldn’t see past her own desperate need for vengeance.”

“I was a pawn she was hoping to use to hurt Lucian.”

“It wasn’t a story I wanted you to hear as a child. But I had to give you a story that was close to the truth – close enough that you would never wish Carla was in your life, that you knew you were better off without her.”

“You could have told me everything when I grew up.”

“You’d been hurt enough. I didn’t think telling you the rest would serve any purpose other than to hurt you more.”

While a part of Harper was pissed that Jolene had withheld the truth, she understood. She also understood something else. “I was wrong.”

“About what?” Knox asked, waiting for Harper to start ranting. She seemed too calm.