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There was a creak of leather as Knox sank into his chair behind the desk and invited Holt to take the seat opposite him.
“I hope all is well with you and your lair,” said Holt, oh so very formal.
“Do you?” It wasn’t a question from Knox. It was a bored statement that rang with skepticism.
A male sigh. “I’ll cut to the chase, shall I?”
“That would be best,” Knox told him.
“I’m here to talk about Larkin.”
Even though she’d suspected that would be the case, she felt her lips flatten. Likewise, her demon huffed at his nerve.
“I gathered that much,” said Knox, his tone clipped.
A long pause. “I realize that you’re likely as angry with me as she is. You may even share her opinion that I should simply return to Canada and leave her be. But you have an anchor, Knox. Can you imagine not having her in your life? Is there anything that anyone could do or say that would make you agree to keep your distance, to forsake the bond?”
“Admittedly, I cannot imagine not having my psi-mate in my life. No one—not even her—could make me stay away. But you did stay away from your anchor, Holt. You turned your back on Larkin and the bond over thirty years ago, and you’ve clearly had no issue being out of her life all this time.”
Larkin’s thoughts exactly.
“Not true,” Holt objected. “It was incredibly difficult to keep my distance—”
“And yet, you did,” Knox pointed out. “You managed it well enough.”
“There was nothing easy about staying away from her,” Holt refuted, a hint of impatience breaking into his voice.
“Perhaps not. But you did it anyway. You placed your personal wants and needs before Larkin, before the anchor bond, and before what your demon must have wanted. No way would the entity have been content with being without her. You probably made it a promise that you’d one day find her; probably dangled that promise on a string to keep your demon from taking the situation into its own hands.”
“I always intended to come back—my entity knew that. It understood that we merely needed to wait until our old Prime was out of the picture. He made things difficult.”
Uh, no, Holt made things difficult. He was the reason they were in this situation. And Larkin didn’t believe that he truly had always meant to return. But she’d bet he’d assured his entity that he would in order to keep it under control, just as Knox accused.
“My demon is not going to let me walk away from her again. Not that I will, in any case,” said Holt, the words pure steel. “I won’t deny that I was selfish, or that I fucked up majorly years ago. I won’t even dispute that she deserves a better anchor than me. But whether you like it or not, Knox, I’m the only psi-mate she’s ever going to have.”
“So?”
“So my hope is that you will facilitate a meeting between me and Larkin. My attempts to speak with her in public were fruitless. She might be more inclined to hear me out if she is in a place where she feels safe. If you wish to be present, I will not object. I merely wish to talk to her in an environment where we won’t be interrupted.”
That motherfucker. He thought to go around her like this to get his way? Thought he could manipulate her Prime into pushing her to talk to him?
Knox’s mind touched hers. I don’t suppose you’re open to that?
Not in the slightest, she replied.
“She would never agree to it, and I won’t force her,” Knox told him.
“You don’t know for sure that she wouldn’t consent,” Holt objected. “And I’m not asking that you force her. Only that you speak with her. She listens to you.”
“She does. But why would I tell her to give you time out of her day? What have you done to earn that?”
“Not one thing. But I’ll do what it takes to make up for that.” He said it like it would be easy enough.
Larkin could only shake her head in wonder. It was like he had no true concept of how significant psi-mates were, or no real grasp on why his past actions should have upset her so much. She wasn’t sure exactly what blocked him from fully appreciating the situation, but it was something.
“If she was to agree to a meeting, her partner would wish to be there,” Knox tossed out, no doubt to see how Holt would react.
Seconds of silence went by. “If that’s what she wants, I won’t object,” Holt finally said, a slight strain to his voice. “You can throw any number of conditions at me, Knox. I’m not going to be difficult about this. The important thing to me is that I get to speak with Larkin. That is all that matters.”
