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Maddox felt anger bubble up inside him. He knew she sensed it. He knew she’d think he was pissed that Jolene would imply that one of his demons had targeted his anchor. And yeah, the implication did fucking rankle. What really pissed him off was that he was only learning of all this now. “Why didn’t you tell me about any of this sooner?”
Lounging on the sofa looking infuriatingly casual, Raini frowned. “It wasn’t part of our deal that I tell you about every little hiccup in my life. Initially, that was all this seemed to be.”
“But I would have wanted to know about it. You know that.”
“Only because you’re nosy as hell. That isn’t my problem. I’m not going to cater to it. There was no reason to tell you. It didn’t affect you.”
Anger again spiked through him. Maddox took a step toward her. “Anything that affects you affects me.”
“And if your club was having problems, you’d have told me all about it, would you? No, of course you wouldn’t have. Because it simply has nothing to do with me. What goes on with Urban Ink has nothing to do with you.”
“This isn’t some issue about overheads or even rude clients. Someone has been shitting all over your name in an attempt to disparage you. You, my anchor. So it has everything to do with me.” And it was an insult he’d have wanted to address, because absolutely fucking no one got to target her this way—he and his equally pissed-off demon intended to communicate that message to whoever had dared do it. “This shouldn’t be the first I’m hearing about it.”
The air cooled as her eyes bled to black. “You seem so surprised that she did not immediately spill all of this to you,” her demon said. “Why? Because she has been so cooperative in other ways?” It gave him a look of disdain. “You have been too arrogant to see why she has given you so little trouble.”
Maddox squinted. “What does that mean?”
“You think you understand her. Wrong. You see only what she wants you to see. You will never see more, because you have chosen to never earn that privilege. That is your choice. But never think you have, or ever will, coerce her to do anything. She is smarter and more cunning than you have given her credit for. You underestimate her, and she allows it. Just as she allows you to believe that you are running this show. Each time she made a concession, she furthered that illusion for you. But that is all it has ever been—an illusion.
“I tell you all this for one reason only: I am sick and tired of watching you sing a tune and insist that she dance to it. She deserves better. If the only way you can accept her is if she is firmly under your control, then you need to exit her life. Because you will never control her. Make your choice. Take her as she is or leave her be.”
Once her demon subsided, Raini sighed in annoyance. Why did the entity keep warning him that there were things he didn’t know? Why would it not just let him stay in the goddamn dark? Her demon only shrugged, seeing no need to justify itself. Maybe it was simply that, unlike Raini, the demon did not like that others underestimated it. Perhaps the entity had wanted its anchor to know it was stronger than he believed.
Maddox tilted his head. “I could be wrong, but I think your demon would happily dismember me.”
Raini rubbed her temple. “It did want to do that at one point. Now it wants to incinerate you and dance around your ashes.” God, she needed a drink. Preferably one that was high in alcohol. She stood, meaning to head to the kitchen, but Maddox’s hand shot out and grabbed her wrist.
“Your demon was wrong to think that I underestimate you and haven’t seen that you hide parts of yourself from me,” he said. “I didn’t miss that cunning streak either. Nor was I surprised by it—all offspring of imps are calculating whether they’re imps themselves or not. And despite what your demon insists on believing, I don’t wish to rule you. If I did, I’d have made you my own personal puppet.”
It was honestly unnerving to know he had the ability to reduce her to that. “I know. But you do expect more of me than what you’re entitled to get, and that’s not going to fly with me or my demon. I’ve told you before, you can’t be the main figure in my life when you only have one foot in it. That’s not how this is going to work. And even if I did make you the center of everything—which is never gonna happen, by the way—it still wouldn’t make you any less edgy. You try to take charge because you think you can control the bond’s draw. You can’t, Maddox. It will always call to you. It’ll never ease up. It’ll never go away.”
