Fallen by Suzanne Wright

CHAPTER TEN

“You let Maddox go paddling up Coochie Creek, didn’t you?”

Devon nearly choked on her herbal tea. Sitting beside the hellcat, Tanner patted her back and shook his head at Khloë, like she was beyond help.

Harper gave the imp a pained look. “Can you stop using that phrase, please?”

Ignoring her, Khloë focused on Raini. “You have that ‘I got laid’ glow right now. Was it good?”

“Better than,” Raini admitted, carefully lifting her hot cup; the cappuccino-scented steam rose to greet her. As per usual of a morning, they’d met up at the coffeehouse next door to Urban Ink. The place was always busy, so it was pretty noisy with the murmur of voices, hum of machines, and clatter of dishware.

Devon grinned. “Does that mean you’re glad you took my advice and let it happen?”

Considering the man’s tongue possessed some dark pussy-eating magic … “Oh, yeah.” Maddox had taken her twice more before leaving in the early hours of this morning, and his demon had briefly surfaced each time.

Maddox hadn’t been lying when he said that neither he nor the entity would go easy on her. She had no complaints about that, and nor did her demon. It still wasn’t happy with him, but it did like that he hadn’t just gotten himself off and then left. It liked that Raini’s pleasure had been important to him.

“Will it be a one-time thing?” asked Harper.

“No.” Raini sipped at her drink. “It’ll be an anchors-with-benefits thing.” Until Maddox got tired of her, that was. It probably wouldn’t take long. Demons got bored easily.

She figured she might as well get her kicks while she could, because the novelty of having someone in her bed who wasn’t under any preternatural influence wasn’t something to sniff at. Plus, she may never experience it again.

Harper’s steady gaze took her in. “You’re definitely okay with that?”

Raini felt her brows draw together. “You don’t think I should be?”

“I didn’t say that,” replied Harper. “I just want to be sure you won’t be hurt when the fling comes to an end. I know you told us the other day that you didn’t think he had the potential to hurt you, but that was before you slept with him. Sometimes people can feel a slight connection with someone during moments like that.”

Raini felt her nose wrinkle. “I wouldn’t say I felt a connection with him. You know trust and emotional intimacy go hand in hand for me. If I don’t trust someone, my guard won’t lower around them. It just doesn’t happen.” She supposed it was a self-defense mechanism. “I trust Maddox in some ways, but not in all.”

“I only wanted to check you’re good.”

Raini smiled. “And I adore you for caring.”

“But you adore me more, right?” asked Khloë, stirring her frozen latte with her straw.

Raini looked at the imp. “I love you all equally.” They’d kind of been over this before.

Khloë’s brow furrowed. “Why? I’m more awesome than they are. And I bought you a donut. Doesn’t that count for anything?”

“Actually, you stole the donut,” Raini reminded her.

“Which amazes me, since no one noticed her go behind the counter and swipe food from the glass display case,” said Tanner without even looking up from the newspaper he’d taken from a nearby table.

“Imps could steal the shirt off your back before you’d even realized it,” said Devon. “Or purloin, as Lachlan would say.”

Khloë chuckled. “He’s a blast. I love your dad, Raini.”

“So do I, but I wouldn’t love for him to find out that me and Maddox currently have a thing going on,” said Raini. “He’d get it all twisted in his head. He’d claim Maddox is using me and all that stuff. Then he’d go into pyro mode. So we keep this information to ourselves, yes? Of course you can tell your mates, but no one else. I mean it, Khloë.”

The imp’s eyes widened. “Why would you think I need a double-warning?”

“Because although you’re good at keeping secrets, you often choose to share them,” replied Raini. “No, don’t say it isn’t true—we kind of know you.”

Khloë sighed and set down her frozen latte. “I won’t tell anyone other than Keenan.”

“Not even Teague,” Raini pushed, referring to Khloë’s anchor.

The imp nodded. “Not even Teague.”

“Thank you.” Raini took another sip of her drink. “Now maybe we could talk about something else. Like the new brand on Harper’s palm that she thinks we haven’t noticed.”

The sphinx’s lips thinned. “At this rate, it’ll only be a year or so before I barely have an inch of unbranded skin.”

Raini chuckled. If a person’s inner demon was possessive of someone, it often branded them. The marks looked like tattoos, and they only faded when the entity’s interest in the person they’d branded faded.

Devon tossed her mate an exasperated look. “Tanner’s demon branded my ankles. My ankles. It looks like they’ve been shackled.”

“Let me see.” Raini looked down as the hellcat twisted in her seat and tugged up her jeans a little. “Damn, they really do look like shackles.”

Tanner shrugged. “My demon’s very possessive.”

“Knox’s takes the cake,” said Harper. “Each time it leaves a new one, I sigh in relief that it doesn’t say ‘Chattel of Knox Thorne’ or some shit like that. It’s always … crap, we need to finish up here, it’s time to open the studio.”

They finished their drinks, put their rubbish in the trash, and headed to Urban Ink. Tanner smacked a kiss on Devon’s mouth, patted her ass, and then left.

The day went like any other. The phone repeatedly rang. Clients came and went. People came in to check out the portfolios and enquire about making a booking. It was a normal, restful day. So as they were readying the studio to be closed, Raini almost jumped when Khloë burst out, “You’ve got. To be. Kidding the shit out of me.”

Raini frowned. “What? What’s wrong?”

Khloë jabbed a finger at the computer monitor. “One of our clients forwarded this email to me. Mara said she received it just now and thought we ought to know.”

Raini crossed to the reception desk, along with Devon and Harper.

Reading the email, Raini felt her mouth drop open. Someone who’d signed the email “Emmett” claimed they’d heard from a friend that Mara was a regular here and thought she should be warned that Urban Ink had “gone downhill.” Emmett told quite a story of a “horrendous experience” he’d allegedly had where Raini had made several passes at him throughout an unnecessarily long session during which she’d given him not only the wrong back tattoo but a crooked one that got hideously infected.

He also said that when he’d complained and asked for a refund, Harper had yelled at him and threatened to send Knox his way. Emmett also mentioned hearing from others that they’d had bad experiences at Urban Ink—dirty needles, misspellings, wonky tattoos, overpricing, shitty customer service, tattooists trying to bully them into tipping. Emmett had topped it all off by advising Mara to spend her money elsewhere in future.

“Lying bastard,” Raini bit out, just as furious as her inner entity. “It’s got to be our friend the fucking boycotter.”

Khloë nodded, her mouth a harsh line. “What I’m wondering is … has he sent this email only to Mara, or has he sent it to others too? Like our entire goddamn client base. I’ll make some calls and find out.”

“We also need to email this asshole at some point,” said Devon. “Then again, that would be awarding his bullshit with attention. I’d much rather yank out his teeth. We didn’t manage to track him through the post he put on the forum, but maybe we can track him through that email address and make him see the error of his ways.”

Oh, Raini and her demon were all for that plan. “This person definitely needs something thick and sharp rammed up their colon.” She looked at Harper. “Do you think it could be one of Knox’s jealous exes? They do like to annoy you.”

Her expression pensive, Harper stared at the computer. “Khloë, remember all those canceled appointments?”

“Yeah,” the imp all but grunted.

“A few of the clients were mine, but not many, right?” asked Harper.

Khloë nodded. “Right. A couple were Devon’s, but most were Raini’s.”

“And the person who posted the bullshit review on the forum blamed Raini,” said Harper. “This, again, is mostly directed at Raini. Mara is one of her regular clients. Although this email briefly mentions me, Raini seems to be the main focus here.” Harper shook her head, adding, “I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before. I originally thought the boycotting was an indirect attack on my lair due to how many enemies Knox has. But now I’m rethinking that theory.”

Raini frowned. “Wait, you think this is all personal to me?”

“I do,” said Harper, folding her arms. “I think this Emmett person somehow managed to get hold of our client base and specifically targeted the majority of your clients, only including a few of mine and Devon’s to muddy the water so we’d do exactly what we did—not realize this is all directed at you.”

“I’d have to agree with Harper on this one,” Khloë cut in. “She’s right; you’re the main focus, Raini. That sort of got lost among everything else at first.”

“No,” said Raini. “Emmett claimed I was his tattooist, yes, but he talked more about Urban Ink itself, painting a really awful and utterly false picture of it.”

Devon nodded. “True, but the studio is half your baby. By hurting the business, he’s hurting you. I didn’t see it before, but I see it now—this person is trying to sabotage you.”

Raini gave her head a shake. “I hear what you’re saying and I get why you’d think that. But it doesn’t make sense. I’m only little ole me. I don’t have big, bad enemies.”

“Emmett—or whatever the fuck their real name is—doesn’t have to be a big, bad enemy,” said Devon. “He just has to be someone who wants to fuck you over. Which is why you need to call Jolene. As your Prime, she needs to know about this.”

Knowing her friend was right, Raini contacted Jolene, who had Ciaran teleport her to the studio.

Her face hard, Jolene said, “It would be nice if we could get through at least a month without someone targeting Raini in some way. Don’t worry, it will be dealt with,” she assured Raini, her tone somewhat menacing. “Now, someone read out this email to me.”

Khloë quickly did so, her tone clipped.

Ciaran cursed. “Motherfucker.”

“Ain’t he, though?” said Devon, locking the front door.

“I say we head to the break room while we discuss this,” said Raini. “I feel the need for a cup of tea coming on.”

Khloë lifted the phone. “I’ll join you once I’ve called some clients. We need to know if others have been sent this email.”

A few minutes later, Raini, Harper, Devon, Jolene, and Ciaran were gathered around the break room table, drinks in hand.

“Now that it’s clear the attempt to boycott the business is a stab at Raini,” began Ciaran, “do we think that the person behind it could have orchestrated the whole dagger incident? That it was never meant to hit Knox?”

“I do,” said Devon. “And I think it was Dwain. He has motive—that being revenge. I think he resents Raini’s succubae powers, so he sent Dagger Guy to take them from her.”

While Dwain most likely did resent them … “I don’t think what happened all those years ago warrants this kind of reaction. It’s not like I broke his heart. His feelings weren’t real. Yeah, okay, it would be a bitch to realize you thought you loved someone when, in fact, your mind had been preternaturally manipulated. But you wouldn’t one day set out to ruin them, would you? Plus, it was a long time ago.”

Harper lifted her finger. “Firstly, demons always get even, Raini. They’ll wait years if they have to, but they’ll get it. Secondly, what happened wasn’t that simple. I agree that you probably didn’t break Dwain’s heart when you rejected him. But his pain will have been real right up until the moment he was free of the snare.”

“If I realized I’d been weak enough to get caught up in one, I’d feel fucking humiliated,” said Ciaran. “Even a little emasculated. It would make it worse that everyone in my lair knew about it, including my family, my Prime, and my friends. In Dwain’s case, it also included his anchor.”

Devon rested her hand on Raini’s arm. “It isn’t your fault that he left, so it isn’t your fault that he gave up his job and moved out of his home, or that his relationships with Demi and his loved ones suffered due to him not being around much. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t hold you accountable for it.”

“He’s mated now, though; he’s happy,” Raini pointed out.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean he isn’t still itching to get some revenge,” said Harper. “That whole ‘love heals all’ phrase? It doesn’t always work that way.”

Raini bit her lower lip. “I’d like to think that, if for no other reason than that I’m Demi’s family, he’d let the past go. But if it is him, it doesn’t make sense that he came back to visit. Surely he’d have wanted to lay low, hoping we wouldn’t think to pin anything on him. Out of sight, out of mind, right?”

Just then, Khloë barged into the break room. “Several others confirmed they’d received the same bullshit email. Most were Raini’s clients.” She dragged a chair toward her, making the feet scrape along the floor, and plonked herself on it. “That motherfucker needs to pay for this shit. I typed up an email explaining the boycotting attempt—without going into too much detail, of course—and sent it to all our clients.”

“Good,” said Harper. “And you’re right. He is a motherfucker.”

Khloë folded her arms. “It’s got to be Dwain, right?”

“I would say so,” Jolene told her. “But we shouldn’t rule out others. And I hate to say it, Raini, but Demi is someone we should be looking at.”

Raini stilled, balking at that. Her demon, however, agreed with Jolene. “She’s my sister. Which doesn’t mean much to her a lot of the time, I know. Same as I know that she blames me for Dwain being mated and would probably like me to suffer for it. But she didn’t know he was mated until he showed up with Harmony. The boycotting started before that, right?”

“It did,” Harper confirmed. “But Demi also blames you for how she and Dwain are no longer close. I remember how she used to whine that she’d lost her anchor because of you. I know she technically didn’t lose him—he stayed in contact with her over the years—but she lost the closeness they once had; lost the chance to make him love her as more than his anchor. So she probably thought it karma that your own anchor didn’t appear to want you. She’ll have been pissed to later hear that Maddox is in the picture. Maybe even so pissed that she decided to fuck with your life.”

“She might have even hired Dagger Guy to strip you of power,” Devon speculated. “Maybe because, like Dwain himself, she resented that you were able to snare him.”

Raini’s entire being rebelled at that theory. “She wouldn’t go that far. The demon world is a brutal place. She wouldn’t want me completely helpless.”

Jolene hummed. “How long is she away on her cruise for?”

“Three weeks,” Raini replied.

“If need be, I can send Ciaran to retrieve her from the ship and bring her here for questioning,” said Jolene. “But right now, I’m leaning toward our culprit being Dwain. I want to question him first. Ciaran, I’ll need you to teleport to his house and dump his ass in our penal complex.”

Ciaran pushed out of his chair. “It’ll be my pleasure.” With that, he disappeared.

Jolene picked up her drink, her shrewd eyes on Raini. “Have you told Maddox about the boycotting?”

“No,” she replied. “I know he’s my anchor, but we don’t confide in each other about stuff. And I consider this to be Urban Ink business.”

“It is, but you should tell him,” said Jolene. “Maybe one of his demons doesn’t like that you let him halfway into your life—or, more to the point, that he let you halfway into his.”

Raini instantly thought of Marcella, which made her demon snarl. “Maybe.” What had Maddox said? That Marcella didn’t like to give up or back down? Perhaps she still had her sights set on being his co-Prime.

“You’ll also need to tell your parents,” Jolene went on. “They’ll be upset if they later find out you kept this from them—especially if it comes to a point where I have to question your sister.”

Raini groaned. “My dad and my uncles are going to freak. They’ll never agree that the culprit could be Demi. They’ll either blame Dwain or Maddox’s demons, and they’ll want blood. You’ll stop them from doing something stupid, right?”

Jolene arched a brow. “That would require the sort of power no demon on this Earth possesses. Once the Campbell men get something into their heads, there’s no getting it back out.”

Sighing, Raini slumped in her chair. “Yeah, I know.”

Ciaran reappeared, his face a mask of frustration. “Dwain wasn’t at his home, Grams. And get this … I don’t think Harmony even lives there.”

Jolene’s brow creased. “Why?”

“I noticed it had a real bachelor pad feel,” replied Ciaran, retaking his seat. “It rubbed my instincts wrong, because I remember him telling me how much he loved living with Harmony, so I had a look around. There were no pictures of the two of them, no women’s ‘touches’ to the place. And when I checked the master bedroom, I didn’t find a single item of women’s clothing. There was no extra toothbrush, no women’s shampoo, no perfumes or cosmetics lying around—nothing. Now, sure, she would have packed some of her stuff for her visit here, but surely there would have been bits and pieces of hers still in the house.”

Devon blinked. “Why would he say he lived with her if he didn’t?”

“And if they don’t live together, why would he at least not let his mate leave some of her things at his home?” asked Jolene. “It’s possible that she hadn’t wanted to, of course, but I don’t see why that would be.”

Raini narrowed her eyes at her Prime, sensing … “You think they aren’t mates.”

“I think they’re not even a true couple,” said Jolene. “I think he came here and lied his ass off. He had to have known we might at some point realize the boycotting is personal to you, and so he’d also known that we’d then consider him a suspect. He thought if he looked happily mated, no one would think he was behind the things that were happening.”

“I’ll bet that’s also why he wanted you two to ‘clear the air,’ Raini,” said Harper. “He thought if you bought that he held no grudges against you, you wouldn’t consider him a suspect.”

“Maybe he also came here to get a front seat to the show; to see how his actions were affecting you on a personal level; to see the damage for himself,” Devon mused.

Raini frowned. “But wouldn’t he have stayed longer, if that were the case?”

“Who says he hasn’t?” asked Harper. “Ciaran said he wasn’t home. It might not be that he’s simply out grocery shopping. It might be that he never left Vegas.”

“Unfortunately, Harper is right,” said Jolene. “I’ll station someone at his house. If he returns, they’ll notify me. We need to find out more about Harmony, if that’s even her name. We have questions she might be able to answer.”

“Leave it with me,” said Khloë. “I’ll consult my sources.”

Jolene nodded. “If it’s not Dwain or Demi, it has to be one of Maddox’s lair.” She looked at Raini. “It’s quite a coincidence that the boycotting started near the time you and Maddox made your deal. I don’t believe in coincidences. My guess is he’ll find it just as suspicious. Ensure he looks into it, Raini. If he doesn’t, I will. And he won’t like how I go about doing it.”