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Tanner stroked her arm again. “So smooth.” Tracing her navel tattoo with his finger, he asked, “Are you going to put some ink on me?”
She blinked. “You want a tattoo?”
“I want a tattoo from you.” Wanted her to mark him.
Surprise lit her eyes, and she smiled. “Hmm, that’s doable. What do you have in mind?”
He hummed. “I want your hellcat on the back of my shoulder. I want it prowling out of high grass or flames or something like that.”
Face softening, she asked, “Why on the back of your shoulder?”
“Because my hellcat watches my back,” he said softly. “And I trust it to do so.” He dropped his mouth to hers and gave her a quick kiss. “I did think of having a tattoo of it clawing its way out of my skin, because you and your demon are firmly under there. You always have been. Like a splinter.”
She snorted, eyes gleaming. “Oh, thanks.” Doodling circles on the back of his shoulder, she said, “I’ll draw up a few designs for you to look at.” Hearing her phone beep, she grabbed it from the nightstand and swiped her thumb over the screen. “It’s a message from Jolene. She says Pamela’s condition is improving.”
“We can go see her again today, if you want.”
Devon returned the phone to the nightstand. “Can’t. Jolene’s put the ward on lockdown until she’s caught whoever poisoned Pamela—no one’s getting in or out. I’m glad. I want to see Pamela, but this puts my mind at ease.”
Just then, Levi’s mind touched his, humming with anticipation. The facial recognition software got a lock on Muriel. Get this: she’s at fucking Crimson Grove. She checked in an hour ago.
Tanner stilled. Fuck, we should have guessed she might go back to the beginning.
I don’t see the point in her doing it. Knox tore Ramsbrook House down; there’s nothing left of the original building. The hotel is something wholly new.
I’m not sure that matters to Muriel. The hotel was built on Ramsbrook grounds—that will probably be enough for her, even if it all now belongs to Knox and looks totally different.
Knox had security personnel detain her. I don’t know what she meant to do there—possibly commit suicide or something. Antonio is going to teleport me, Knox, and you to the hotel. Larkin is going to hold the fort here, and Keenan will stay with Harper and Asher. We could ask Antonio to teleport Devon to Harper if you like, but I think she’ll be safe in your building.
The thought of leaving Devon made his stomach knot. It played on his mind constantly that the threat to her hadn’t yet been eliminated. But Levi was right, she’d be safe at his building. I’ll ask her what she wants to do and get back to you.
Looking down at her, he saw a grim realization on her face.
“We’re not gonna have our naked day, are we?” she asked, but it wasn’t really a question.
“No. Knox found Muriel.”
Her lips parted on a soft gasp. “Really? That’s good.”
He quickly brought her up to speed. “I’d rather stay here with you, but this needs to be dealt with.”
“Well, of course you have to go.” There was no aggravation or resentment in her words, just pure understanding. “You’re looking at me like you expect me to curse you for leaving. I knew coming into this that your position of sentinel is super important to you; I knew you’d be on call, even on your days off. I’m not mad that you need to go, I get it.”
He let out a long breath he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding. “Hopefully, I won’t be too long.”
“I’ll be fine here.”
“Are you sure?” He palmed her cheek. “You could spend some time with Harper and Asher while I’m gone.”
Her nose wrinkled. “That would require getting dressed and slapping on some makeup. I don’t have the energy for that. I’d rather just stay home, and maybe binge watch a TV series.”
That made the corner of his mouth hitch up. “I like that you call this ‘home’ already.”
“It is home.”
“Yeah.” He sipped from her mouth, silently cursing the fact that he had to leave. “I had plans for this body this morning. So many, many plans.”
“You can carry them out later,” she whispered.
“Later.” He kissed her again and then edged out of bed. In the bathroom, he went through his morning ritual, telepathed Levi to say that Devon would be staying here, and then returned to the bedroom. She was sitting cross-legged on the bed, the sheets pulled up to cover her breasts, reading something on her phone.
Pulling on his clothes, he asked, “You’re sure you’ll be okay here?”
She looked up at him—didn’t give him a brief glance or answer without moving her gaze from her cell. No, she gave him her full attention. He fucking loved that.
