if hellhound racing wasn’t so brutal and rife with cheating, vicious motherfuckers, I’d be a lot less tense.”
“You’ve been edgy all day,” said Khloë, slurping on her soda and pointedly ignoring that Keenan—who was on bodyguard duty—was frowning at her.
“People keep looking at me.” Devon scratched at her arm. “I don’t like it.” Which was why she was glad to be in the private box. It was sweet with its comfy seating, multiple TV screens, floor to ceiling view, and personal server who came and went.
Raini smiled, dipping a nacho in the cheese dip. “Well of course you keep getting funny looks. It’s not every day that a hellhound claims a hellcat, is it?”
No, it wasn’t. Tanner had instructed members of his lair’s Force to pass on the news, so it hadn’t been long before it became widespread. And it was clear to see that most were stunned.
Harper and Raini had been just as shocked when she told them. Khloë, however, had nodded and said, “I knew the canine would pull his head out of his ass sooner or later, now where’re the donuts?”
If the girls had possessed Devon’s sense of smell, they’d also know that she now wore his scent on her skin. Literally. The smell of Tanner was faint, but it was there, and no amount of soap would wash it away. That kind of thing happened sometimes with demons, but only when they were intimate on more than one level. That was why her scent was now embedded into his.
“Your feline is definitely okay with this?” asked Raini.
“Very okay with it, which surprises me. It wasn’t so long ago that it was directing lazy snarls his way. There was no aggression or malice in them. Just plain exasperation.” Devon’s brows lowered. “Now it’s sort of smug. But not smug that it has a mate. It’s something else, I’m just not understanding it.”
“Huh.” Harper twisted her mouth. “You don’t think your feline was testing him, do you?”
Devon tilted her head slightly. “What do you mean?”
“Well, hellbeasts look for strength in their partners,” the sphinx pointed out. “They tend to test them to be sure they’re worthy. Your demon would have known how interested you were in Tanner, and it would have sensed his interest in you. But it would also have considered any inaction on his part to be a show of weakness, right?”
“Right,” Devon agreed.
“So, maybe it started driving you to find a mate merely to see what Tanner would do about it. Your demon would have needed to know you were important enough to him that he’d push aside all his bullshit to have you. It would have needed to be sure you’d be his priority and that he’d be someone it could trust to give you what you needed.”
“That would explain your feline’s current mood,” said Raini. “It’s smug that its plan paid off.”
A smile tugged at Devon’s mouth. “That ruthless little shit.”
“It’ll always be ruthless when it comes to your well-being.” Harper shrugged. “That’s just the way our entities are.”
“What I really like is that you won’t have to worry about any other people trying to kidnap you.” Khloë slyly took one of Raini’s nachos. “The broker’s dead, so the deal is void. Whoever’s behind it—and I agree with Tanner’s theory that it’s probably Leticia or one of her vexing spawn—might make another move of some kind, but I doubt they’ll be able to recruit someone into helping them. Not now that Tanner’s made it clear to God and everyone that you’re his.”
“Whoever it was must have been responsible for the damage to your apartment,” said Keenan, stretching his legs out in front of him. “That seemed more like a feminine tantrum than a masculine one. Was there something in your living room that could have set them off? Like a photo of you and Finn together?”
Devon bit the inside of her cheek. “There were a few pictures of my mother in the framed collage I’d hung on the wall. There was also a pretty vase that Finn once bought me. It came with the bunch of flowers he sent for my birthday.”
“Maybe Finn also sent one to Leticia, Reena, or Kaye and they recognized it as a gift from him,” Keenan suggested. “Whoever it is, they’re probably of the view that you have no right to anything from him. Seeing your mother’s face on your wall would have exacerbated whatever anger or spite they were feeling.”
Khloë licked salt from her finger. “I think