His tone was…off. “Something wrong?” His hesitation made her tense. “Don’t lie.”
“Carla told Levi that she past Kendra on her way to your apartment.” Keenan, find Kendra and bring her to the boathouse. The building was on the same grounds as his mansion.
Will do, Keenan replied.
Harper frowned thoughtfully. “Odd that Kendra would be in North Las Vegas. She considers the place and everyone in it to be very much beneath her. But if you’re thinking she had something to do with those snakes, I really doubt it.”
“Why?”
“I’ve been thinking a lot about the things that have been going on, and about just how each of the suspects operate. Kendra has a serious issue with me – there’s no denying that. And she seems to think we’re competing in life somehow. But that’s exactly why I think that if she did something, she’d want me to know for a fact that it was her. She’d want me to know how smart she is, that she won. I don’t think she’d hide behind compulsions and dark practitioners.”
“She’d have to if she wanted to live,” Knox pointed out. “She knows that killing you is a death sentence simply because you’re my anchor.” He wondered how Kendra would take hearing that Harper was now also his mate.
“Maybe. But I wouldn’t put it past Carla to lie about seeing Kendra just to shift the suspicion onto someone else. Don’t overlook that possibility.”
“I won’t,” he assured her. Still, Carla was the least likely suspect to him. Harper was undeniably a threat to Carla’s world, and there was a possibility that the people so curious about Harper would uncover Carla’s connection to her. But there were easier ways for the woman to deal with this than to get rid of Harper. She could instead do damage control and make peace with Harper so that if the truth came out, Carla could act the regretful mother who did love her child. It did appear that, by approaching Harper, it was in fact her plan.
Isla and Kendra had more reason to want Harper dead. Both resented her because both believed she had something that should have been theirs – in Isla’s case, her anchor; in Kendra’s case, her father. Isla was cold and cunning, and she would think nothing of ridding the world of Harper. Kendra was angry, jealous, spiteful, and bitter; that was a bad combination that could drive someone to do cruel things, including kill her half-sister for having everything she didn’t.
One thing was for certain: Whoever was targeting his mate would soon know a pain like no other.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Harper was surprised when Tanner pulled up at the mansion, since she’d expected them to go straight back to the Underground. As usual, Dan gave Harper a big smile as he opened the front door. “Good to see you again, Miss Wallis.”
“Thanks.” She still wasn’t all that great at dealing with the courteousness. “One question,” she said to Knox as he guided her through the mansion. “Why did we come here instead of going back to the hotel?” Dario would be giving his speech later.
Knox led her into his bathroom, and she gasped. “I asked Meg to get a bath ready for you.” Meg had clearly taken it upon herself to add jasmine-scented candles and a glass of red wine.
“Not that I’m not eager to hop into that thing but…Why?”
Pulling her flush against him, he pressed a lingering kiss to her mouth. “You’re upset.” She didn’t show it, but he knew well that she was hurting at the idea that her own mother might want her dead. “As I mentioned before, you relax here.” And he wanted to take care of her. But she was so damn self-sufficient, so used to having only herself to depend on, that she always turned a little awkward when he tried to take care of her. She didn’t quite know how to handle it. He watched an array of emotions cross her face as she held back the awkwardness, rolling back her shoulders to push away her tension.
“Thank you,” she finally said.
He smiled in amusement. “Hard, wasn’t it?”
She gave him a mock scowl that turned into a grimace. “Shit, I didn’t bring any clothes with me.”
“You have clothes here.”
“You mean all the expensive designer stuff you bought that I told you to take back?”
“They’re just clothes, Harper.” Before she could rant, he sucked her bottom lip into his mouth. “Hear me now, because this is important. I know you feel uncomfortable about this and I understand why, but I am going to buy you things. I am going to spoil you. I am going to take care of you when you need me to. Because I want to. Because you deserve it. Because that’s what mates do. Rejecting the things I do or give you is much like pushing me away.”
“You know that’s not what I’m trying to do.”
“I do know that, which is why I’m not mad. You wouldn’t like it if anything I did made you feel that I was holding you at a distance.”
“You do hold me at a distance. You’re very tight-lipped about your past and what you are. I get it,” she quickly assured him. “I really do. It’s nothing personal to me, it’s just that you’re so used to keeping secrets it’s uncomfortable for you to share, and it’s not like your secrets are small. But you can’t call someone your mate and keep important things from them. I’m not saying you have to spill your guts here and now. I wouldn’t ask that of you. But if we’re really going to build something, you’re gonna have to do a little sharing.”