“The hellcat’s alive,” Knox told her, sensing she wanted to know. He’d dumped Clarke on Jolene’s doorstep; trembling, teeth chattering, sweat and blood gleaming on his back—and minus a series of memories, including the one of Knox’s ability to pyroport. And Knox felt absolutely no remorse for it.

He’d given Clarke enough warnings. The male’s sister had warned him. His own Prime had warned him. Still, Clarke had ignored them all. It wasn’t like the hellcat was unaware of Knox’s merciless nature. He’d known what he was risking. If he’d thought that Harper would save him from Knox, he’d thought wrong.

Hiding her relief in case he misinterpreted it as her caring for Drew, Harper said, “I’m guessing the tattoo is gone.”

“You guessed correctly.” Knox took a swig from his tumbler. He’d exorcised much of his anger when he “toyed” with the hellcat. But as he looked down at his calm and collected mate, who didn’t appear in the slightest bit remorseful, he felt that anger building once again. “You should have called for me when you realized that Jolene and Drew had played you. At the very least, you should have walked out of that bedroom.”

From the way he was glaring at her, looking all self-righteous, it was clear to Harper that he expected her to feel guilty. While he had reason to be upset, she refused to feel shamefaced when she’d only been trying to fix the complicated situation they were in. It wasn’t like she’d arranged some kind of secret meeting with Drew, was it?

She was betting there had been numerous times when Knox had been alone with women who coveted him. She hadn’t freaked out on him, and it pissed her off that he was looking at her like she’d cheated on him or something.

Feigning calm, Harper rummaged through her box in search of a tiny skull head. “I decided to hear him out because I wanted him gone. This whole thing isn’t just hurting you, Knox, it’s hurting Devon. I wanted to save you both that pain.”

“It didn’t work, did it?” Knox clipped. “Drew had no intention of leaving Vegas, Harper. He simply wanted an opportunity to convince you to leave me.”

“Well, I know that now. But I didn’t then.”

“Would you even have told me about it if Tanner hadn’t already done so?”

“Of course I would have told you—I had nothing to hide.” Putting her jeans aside, Harper crossed her legs and folded her arms. “I also have nothing to prove or justify, so you can stop looking at me like I somehow betrayed you.”

But that was exactly what Knox felt: betrayed. “I told you that I didn’t want you near him. I made that very clear. And what did you do? You had a private conversation with him in your old bedroom. I swear, Harper, if I ever hear that you’re alone with him again—”

“Don’t threaten me,” she hissed. Bristling, her inner demon unfurled and pushed against Harper’s skin, ready to jump in and defend her.

“I’m not threatening you,” he said, voice low. “I’m making the situation abundantly clear, since it seems that you haven’t listened to a single word I fucking said on this. I didn’t kill Clarke just now for the simple reason that I don’t want him on your mind or to impact your life. But I only have so much restraint in me. If he tries to get you alone again, I will kill him.”

“You don’t think you’re overreacting just a little?”

“Overreacting?” Knox’s hands curled. “He wants to take you from me.”

“Just like Alethea and plenty of other women wanted to take you from me.”

“If you’d wanted to kill them for it, you would have had every right. An ‘overreaction’ is the very last thing I would have called it. You chose to deal with it in a different way—I respected that decision, even though I hated what their actions did to you.”

“But you didn’t order them to stay away from you, did you?” Raising her chin in challenge, Harper rose from the sofa. “You expect me to stay clear of Drew, but I’m sure there were times when Isla or Alethea or other women that wanted to get in your pants went to see you at one of your offices. I’ll bet you didn’t tell them to fuck off and keep their distance. Am I right?” He didn’t respond, but she knew she was right. “Thought so. You certainly never called out to me, so why the fuck would you expect me to call out to you? It’s not like Drew’s a physical threat to me.”

“Those situations were different.”

Her inner demon curled its upper lip in disgust. “Really? How? You knew the women wanted you; you knew they wanted me out of the picture, but you didn’t call out to me or send them on their way immediately. No, you knew you could deal with those situations alone, so you did. How is that any different from what I did?”

“For one thing, I didn’t have them in my old fucking bedroom.”

“Like them being in your office makes much of a difference. You fucked me in there not long ago so, yeah, you don’t get to use that one.”

He advanced on her, closing the distance between them, and pushed into her personal space. “How many times did you imagine those women touching me or vice versa, Harper? Hurt, didn’t it? You didn’t want those pictures in your head, but your imagination went wild on you. What if those pictures hadn’t simply been your imagination at work? What if they had been actual memories that belonged to those women and you knew exactly what I did to them and what they did to me? How well would you have dealt with that?”

Not well at all. Harper would have hated having that shit in her head, but she’d like to think that she wouldn’t have made Knox suffer for it. “Look, I’m sorry you have Drew’s memories—”

“They’re no longer his memories.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I erased them. He no longer remembers what you taste like, how your pussy feels around his fingers, how your breasts felt in his hands, or what you look and sound like when you come.” Knox had thoroughly enjoyed snipping each thread of memory. Drew also had no memory of his reservations about Asher. As long as the hellcat didn’t come into contact with Asher again, Drew never would. “That drunken encounter no longer has a place in his mind.”

It kind of scared Harper that he could completely erase an event from a person’s mind. It made her extremely grateful that she had tough psychic shields that he couldn’t penetrate without shredding his own psyche.

“If Jolene has any sense, she’ll put him on a plane tomorrow and he’ll be gone. But maybe you’re not relieved by that. Maybe you like the attention he gives you. Maybe you even want him.”

Her head jerked back. For a moment, words failed Harper. “Repeat that.” It was a dare. Although he didn’t repeat it, he gave her a look that said he meant every fucking word. An angry flush heated her cheeks. “You son of a bitch.”

“Why else would you willingly be alone with him?”

“I already told you why, so stop with this crap. I won’t pay for your pointless jealousy. I’ve given you no reason not to trust me.”

“Except that you were in a bedroom with another man.”

“Fully dressed. Arguing, because he’d called our son ‘unnatural’ and claimed that he wasn’t a sphinx. I’m assuming he said the same thing to you, since you don’t look surprised by that.”

“Yes, he did. But we’re not talking about Asher, we’re talking about you.”

Harper froze. There had been a brief flash of something in his eyes just then that made a tingling sensation creep up her neck and face. “You were always careful about what you said whenever I mentioned how relieved the Primes were that Asher was a sphinx. You never once referred to him as a sphinx. And whenever Jolene made jokes about how much trouble baby sphinxes were, you never said a word. Just smiled absently or changed the subject.”

Knox said nothing. Just casually tossed back the rest of his gin and tonic.

“You suspect that Asher might not be a sphinx, don’t you? You motherfucker, you do. And you said nothing.” Her demon bared her teeth in the same fury that bubbled through Harper’s veins. It lunged to the surface and glared at him. “You had no right to keep such a thing from us. It’s time you got off your high horse and stopped trying to make her hurt as you hurt. I will put you through a world of pain if you do not.”