Twenty-Six
Ian
When Kori was gone, her sister glared into the dark bedroom at me, though I was pretty sure she couldn’t actually see me. And for just a moment, the opportunity I was passing up made my head hurt and my fingers itch for action. I was alone with Kenley Daniels. I could kill her in seconds, and my brother’s body would stop shutting itself down and finally start to heal.
As a bonus, I’d be permanently crippling Tower’s empire. He’d never find another Binder as strong as Kenley, and with her blood no longer flowing, actively reinforcing the bindings she’d sealed for him, most of them would break. Flesh marks would die. People would go free.
That was the very least he deserved, for what he’d done to Kori.
But if I killed Kenley, I wouldn’t just be crippling one monster—Tower—I’d be creating another one. Myself. And Kori would never forgive me.
Before I could master my thoughts enough to speak, Kenley stomped out of sight and I followed her through the tiny square of hallway, across a small living area and into the kitchen, where she waved one hand at a bar stool across the counter. I sat, and she watched me, assessing me, like I was an obstacle to be overcome. Though she probably had no idea how close to right she was.
“Coffee?” she said at last, and I nodded. Kenley opened a drawer and pulled out both a bag of coffee grounds and the cutest little .22 pistol, then set them side by side on the counter. “I don’t trust you.”
It took most of my self-control to keep from laughing. Her gun was a peashooter, and if she’d been any good with it, she never would have set it within my reach. But I respected her intent.
“Good. You shouldn’t trust anyone.”
“I trust Kori,” she said, running water in the coffee carafe.
“And Kori trusts me,” I pointed out, voicing the part of the equation that was obviously troubling her.
She turned off the water and set the full carafe on the counter, eyeing me skeptically. Then she pulled a pushpin from the corkboard hanging on one side of the fridge, and before I realized what she was doing, she’d grabbed my left palm and shoved the pin into it.
“Whoa!” I tried to snatch my hand back, but she wouldn’t let go, and I couldn’t get loose without hurting her. Which was sorely tempting, considering she’d just breached my skin and spilled my blood—the greatest affront possible against anyone who understood the power inherent in blood. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Shh.” Kenley held her left index finger to her lips, smiling behind it with a glance at the front door, beyond which—I gathered—one of Tower’s men stood guard. Then she swiped that same finger across the drop of blood welling from the hole in my palm.
“Whatever you’re about to do, don’t,” I growled as she let go of my wrist and tossed me a paper tower for my bleeding hand. Instead of answering, she grabbed a notepad from the front of the fridge and a pen from the countertop and jotted three words on the paper.
“Speak only truth,” she mumbled as she scribbled, and my blood chilled in my veins.
“No!” I whispered fiercely, but before I could grab the paper, she pressed her bloody index finger onto it, leaving a smear of my blood beneath the words. Binding me to them.
“Son of a bitch!” I hissed. My heart beat against the inside of my chest like a captive beast demanding freedom. I’d never been bound to anyone or anything, and the sudden caged feeling pissed me off and made me want to strike out just to prove I still could. I lunged across the counter, grabbing for the impromptu binding, but she snatched the paper out of reach before my fingers had more than brushed the edge.
Kenley folded the paper and stuffed it into her back pocket, and I realized two things at once. First, I’d have to hurt her to take the binding and destroy it, and I’d sworn to Kori I wouldn’t let anyone hurt her sister. Second, Kenley Daniels was not the sweet, naive young woman her sister had described. Not entirely, anyway. She was fast, and she was smart. And she had guts.
Just like her sister.
“It won’t hold,” I said, though I was virtually certain I was wrong about that. An involuntary binding—especially one sealed without the Binder’s blood—wouldn’t hold for most Binders, but Kenley wasn’t most Binders. If she had been, neither of us would have been in Tower’s territory in the first place.
Kenley flipped open the top of the coffeepot and poured the water in without spilling a drop, though she watched me the whole time. “Based on your reaction, Mr. Holt, one might think you have something to hide.”
“Everyone has something to hide,” I growled, angry, but not sure what to do about it, a dilemma I’d only previously experienced with Kori, who was enough to drive a man mad and make him love the journey.
She set a coffee filter into its cup. “True. But some secrets can get you killed. Are you sleeping with my sister?”
“I don’t have to answer that,” I said when I realized she’d left me a loophole. Had she done that on purpose? If I spoke, I could only tell the truth. But I could choose not to speak at all.
“No, you don’t. But a refusal to answer is as revealing as the answer itself. So, have you had sex with my sister?”
“Yes.” She was right. Silence was as good as an admission. “But for the record, you’re invading her privacy as well as mine with questions like that.”
Kenley’s brows shot up in surprise, then she nodded again. “Fair enough. One more question, and we’ll leave that issue alone. Did she want it? Did she have the chance to say no?”
“That’s two questions. And yes to both.” I leaned closer to catch her gaze. I wanted her to understand that I was answering not because I had to, but because I wanted her to know. “I’m not one of your heartless syndicate thugs, Kenley. I would never hurt her. Never. In fact, that’s the only reason I haven’t already taken your juvenile little oath and burned it.”
Her gaze held mine, and I felt like we were facing off at high noon, in some long-abandoned Western town. “We all use the weapons at our disposal, Mr. Holt. This is the only way I have to look out for her, and I’m damn well going to do it.”
“Fine.” I could respect that. “Ask what you want to know.”
“Are you going to sign with Jake?” Kenley said, and I blinked in frustration. I’d expected more questions about me and Kori. Stuff I could answer without getting anyone hurt.
“No.” She’d know the truth whether I answered or not, and I didn’t like being forced into things any better than Kori did.
“Does Kori know that?”
“No. I had to tell her I would sign, to protect…her.” I’d almost said “you both.” To protect you both. But I couldn’t be sure Kenley knew she was in real danger, especially considering she didn’t know why Kori had brought me over in the first place. “I lied to keep her from having to tell Tower something he wouldn’t want to hear.”
“If you’re not going to sign, why did you come here?”
I exhaled, suddenly eager for some of the coffee she hadn’t yet started brewing. “I won’t answer that, and for the record, you’re putting all three of us at risk with this line of questioning.” She now knew I was in Tower’s territory under false pretenses, and if and when he asked her, she’d have to tell him what she knew.
“Something’s wrong,” Kenley said. “More wrong than usual. How am I supposed to know how much danger any of us are in if I don’t ask questions?” She pressed the brew button and coffee began to drip into the pot. Kenley stared at it, her forehead furrowed, her lips pressed together as she thought, obviously trying to decide which verbal land mines to avoid and which to hit head-on. “Does you being here have something to do with my sister?”
“She’s not the reason I came to the city. But she’s the reason for nearly everything I’ve done since I met her.”
“Why does Kori think I need to be protected, today in particular?” she asked, and I picked at the edge of the Formica where it was starting to lift from the countertop, trying to decide whether or not to answer that. “Please. If it involves me, I have a right to know.”
“Because Tower threatens you to keep Kori in line.”
Kenley rolled her eyes. “I’ve known that from the beginning. What’s different about today? What does any of it have to do with you?”
I exhaled slowly, hoping Kori wouldn’t hate me for what I was about to say. Because Kenley was right—she did have a right to know. “If I don’t sign on, Tower’s going to kill Kori and put you in the basement in her place.”
Her face paled so fast I thought for a minute that she’d pass out. “I don’t… I can’t…” She didn’t seem to know how to finish either sentence.
I carried my stool into the kitchen and set it on the floor behind her, then started opening cabinets in search of coffee mugs.
“Kill Kori?” she said, sinking onto the stool, and I could only nod. “And put me…?”
“In the basement. But we’re not going to let that happen.” I pulled two mugs from the third cabinet I’d tried and pressed the pause button on the coffeepot, then filled them both.
“You can’t stop it,” she whispered, accepting the mug I pushed toward her. “You can’t stop Jake.”
“No. Not on my own, anyway. At first I thought I could just kill Tower, but—”
“No, you can’t!”
“Because of his successor. I know.”
“You know who it is?” She reached absently for a container of powdered creamer, and her hand shook as she lifted it.
“No. Do you?”
Kenley nodded. “I can’t tell you who it is, but I can tell you that things will be worse for us both—maybe for all three of us—if Jake dies.”
Jonah. It had to be. Who else would both Kori and her sister be so terrified of?
“We don’t have to kill Jake.” Though, personally, I was on board with killing both him and Jonah. “I can stop him from hurting Kori—with your help.” And if she could break the seal binding Kori, she could break the seal binding Steven, too.
She poured the creamer but forgot to stir it. “How?”
But she wasn’t ready to hear that just yet. I’d have to work up to it. “Kori loves you more than anything, you know,” I said, and Kenley nodded, still dazed with shock, sipping from her mug, and when she lowered it, a clump of powdered creamer stuck to her upper lip. “She’s given up her whole life to protect you, and because of that, she’s been through things I can’t imagine.”
“There was nothing I could do.” Her voice shook. “Jake wouldn’t tell me where she was. I couldn’t help her.”
“She’s melting down, Kenley. They fucked her up in that cell. She’s out now, but it’s not over for her. One minute, she’s spitting nails and throwing punches, and the next, she’s cowering in the corner, fighting flashbacks and panic attacks.”
Kenley nodded miserably. “I know. She screams in the middle of the night, and the first time I tried to wake her up, she punched me before she even had her eyes open. I’ve done everything I can think of to help her, but she won’t talk about what happened, and therapy isn’t covered under Tower’s medical plan. Not that she’d go if it was. Not that he’d let her. He wants her to suffer.”
“We can help her. You and I.” I held her gaze, trying to emphasize the importance of what I was saying. “She’s given up everything for you. It’s time to give something back.”
“How?” Her mug shook in her hands.
“Let her go, Kenley. Break the binding keeping her here.”
Her head swiveled back and forth, her eyes wide with terror. “I can’t.”
“Yes, you can. You’re the only one who can. It’s time to set her free.”
She shook her head, and I could see her thoughts flicker over her face before they fell from her tongue. “I can’t. I can’t be here alone. I’m not strong like she is.”
“Bullshit.” My hand slammed into the counter. “You pulled a gun on me, then stole my blood. You are as strong as you need to be, and you can survive this place. I couldn’t say it if I didn’t believe it was true, right?” I said, holding up my palm to remind her of the binding she’d sealed without my consent. “You can even survive the basement. But if you free Kori, she and I will do everything within our power to make sure you never wind up there. You know she’d never abandon you, and she’ll be even better able to help you when she isn’t bound to obey Tower. Do this for her. Do this for all three of us.”
Kenley studied whatever she saw in my eyes for one long moment, then she closed her own in thought. Or maybe in prayer. “Yes,” she said finally, and when her gaze met mine again, I recognized the determination shining in her eyes. I’d seen that same look on Kori at least a dozen times since we’d met. “What do I have to do?”
“I’ve heard that a Binder can break her own seal if she remembers enough specifics about the particular contract.” Which was what worried me about Steven’s binding—if my hunch was correct, she’d never even seen the binding her blood had sealed.
But Kenley shook her head. “I’ve tried. I tried for years to break the seal binding Kori to three of her friends, and I can’t do it. And I remember every word of that oath. I wrote it.”
“Try it,” I insisted. “Just think about Kori’s contract, as specifically as you can, and remove your will from the seal.”
“Okay.” She set her coffee down and took a deep breath, then closed her eyes and laid her hands flat on the counter. Her forehead furrowed and her lips pressed together. And she sat like that for nearly a minute, her eyes rolling behind closed lids as she thought.
Then, finally, she looked at me again, and I could read the outcome in her slumped shoulders and the disheartened way she rubbed her forehead, fighting resistance pain, because what we were attempting was no doubt a violation of her oath of loyalty to Tower. “Try it again,” I said, before she could tell me she’d failed. “You have to do it. You have to set her free, or she’s going to die.”
“I tried!” Kenley’s eyes watered, and though she and Kori were only two years apart, she suddenly looked much younger than her twenty-six years. “I don’t know how to remove my will. I don’t even know what that means.”
“It means you have to want to break the seal.” And as soon as the words left my mouth, I realized what was wrong. “You don’t want to, do you? Deep down, you don’t want to break the seal because you’re scared of being alone here.”
She blinked and those tears rolled down her cheeks. “What they did to her in the basement—they broke her. And if they can break Kori—the strongest person I’ve ever known—they can break me. I want her to be free. But I’m terrified of being here without her.”
“Okay.” Patience, Ian. I’d been a soldier when I was younger than Kenley, and Kori had obviously been fighting all her life. But we were the exceptions, right? Kenley’s fears were rational; who wouldn’t be scared of what Kori had been through? She just needed the proper motivation—a dose of the raw truth.
“If you don’t set her free, you’re going to be alone anyway, because they’ll kill her. They’ll fucking kill her, Kenley, and then you will be sent to the basement. And there’s nothing she can do for you from beyond the grave.”
More tears fell, and her chin started to quiver.
“Try it again,” I insisted, and she closed her eyes as the first tear rolled down her cheek and fell onto the countertop. “This is what she needs,” I whispered, as she breathed slowly in and out. “This is what you need. You have to want this.”
“I’m trying…”
“Try harder,” I demanded. “If you don’t free her, they will lock Kori in a basement cell and they’ll put you in the one next to her. They’ll shoot her, or stab her, but somewhere not immediately fatal, because they want her to suffer awhile. They want you to hear her scream.”
“Stop,” Kenley whispered, clutching the edge of the counter.
“That’s good. Get used to saying that, because it’ll be the last thing Kori hears. You, screaming for it to stop. Because whoever Tower sends into that cell with you will beat you to within an inch of your life. He’ll strip you and humiliate you. He will fuck you while you scream, and Kori will hear it all while she bleeds out on the floor in the room next door, and she’ll know exactly what’s happening to you, because that’s what happened to her.”
“Stop it!” Kenley cried, tears pouring down her face, the guard outside forgotten.
“You stop it!” I hated myself for what I was saying almost as much as I hated her in that moment. I hated us both for our inability to help Kori, not to mention Steven and Meghan. For our weakness, where they had nothing but strength and sheer determination to live. But their own strength wasn’t enough to save them. They needed help. “You make it stop, Kenley. Only you can do it. Free her so she can fight, and we can help her. Break the binding, for both of your sakes. Save your sister. You owe it to her.”
Kenley gasped, and her eyes flew open. She turned to me, eyes wide, jaw slack, tears still running down her face. “I think I did it. Something…snapped. Inside. I think I broke the seal.”
A rustling noise drew my gaze up, and I found Kori staring at us from across the room, a gun clutched in each fist, the back of one hand pressed to the chain marks tattooed on her upper arm. “What the fuck did you just do?”