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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.”
