Twenty-Seven
Kori
Flames licked my upper left arm, a brief burst of pain that died almost as soon as it had flared to life. I tried to touch it, to feel the heat, but I still held Harris’s gun, and that was just as well, because the burning had already stopped. But I could still feel the shape of it, like an echo on my skin, in the form of two chain links.
My headache was gone, in spite of the guns I still held. My stomach felt fine, though I’d disobeyed Jake on purpose this time.
My marks were dead.
“Kenley? What happened?” I demanded, trying to process her tears, and Ian’s look of shocked relief, and the newly dead marks on my arm, all while the clock ticked in my head, counting down the minutes until either Jake or the police came looking for me.
“Where’d you get those?” Ian rounded the end of the counter and crossed the room toward me, eyeing my new double handfuls of death. “Whose are they?”
“Jake sent a couple of men back with me. I ditched them at your hotel. What just happened to my arm?”
“Kenley broke the seal on your oath.”
I blinked, stunned, though I could feel the truth of his statement.
“You’re serious?” I hadn’t expected to see my marks die. Ever. I’d been sure I would die first.
“Of course I’m serious. Are Tower’s men alive?” Ian took Milligan’s gun from my left hand, checked the safety, then tucked it into the waistband of his pants.
“They were when I left. Hope you didn’t need anything from the suite. Pretty sure it’s all being logged into police evidence as we speak.” Ian’s eyes widened. “Don’t worry.” I stepped past him on my way to the kitchen, where my sister was bent over the counter clutching her head in both hands, eyes squeezed shut in pain. “They know you had nothing to do with it. I left a conscious witness.”
“Kori, what the hell happened?” Ian demanded, staring after me.
I set Harris’s gun on the counter, then pulled a clean rag from the drawer to the left of the sink and ran cold water on it. “Jake told me to bring you in. Immediately.” I helped Kenley onto the bar stool and pressed the cold rag to her forehead, offering what little comfort I could for what was obviously severe resistance pain from breaking her oath of loyalty to Jake.
I could hardly even process what she’d done, but I knew exactly how badly she must be hurting. “You okay? I need you to breathe through it, Kenni. We’re leaving in five minutes and you have to pack.”
“I’m trying.” Kenley took the rag from me, and her hand shook. “Are we running? There’s nowhere to go.” She moaned and clutched her stomach, and her rag fell to the floor. Then her hand slid into her back pocket and pulled out a folded scrap of paper, which she set on the counter, then pushed toward Ian. “Burn it.”
Ian grabbed a match from the box on the counter, then lit it and set the paper on fire. When the flames reached his finger and thumb, he dropped the charred scrap into the sink and exhaled slowly.
“What was that?” I asked, bending to pick up the rag.
“Nothing. How long will this last?” Ian asked, watching Kenley.
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen her disobey before, and she picked a hell of a way to start. Fortunately, it’s a terminal breach of her oath, so if she can ride this out, she’ll be fine.” Unlike an ongoing breach—such as refusing to obey an order—for which she’d suffer until she either gave in or died.
I contorted my shoulder for a good look at my left arm, where the two interlocking chain link tattoos had faded from iron-gray into a dull, muted gray. “How’d she do it? Did she burn my contract?” How the hell had she even gotten hold of it?
Kenley shook her head, one fist pressed against her gut, as if she could physically stop the pain. “I unsealed the binding.” Her voice was strained and her legs were shaking on the stool. “You’re free, Kori.”
I blinked at her. Then I glanced at Ian, brows raised in question. He nodded. I burst into tears. “How? Why?” Sniffling, I wiped my cheeks, but the girly fuckin’ tears just kept coming.
Kenley was crying now, too, but obviously trying to hold it back. “He said if I didn’t break your binding, Tower would kill you and put me…” Her words faded into unspoken thought and her mouth twisted into a grimace beneath another wave of agony. “So I just… I stopped wanting you to be bound to him.”
“What?” When had she ever wanted me bound to Jake?
“She removed her will from the seal,” Ian said as I rewet her rag and blotted her face. “The only way I could explain that to her was to tell her she had to stop wanting you to be bound to Tower.” He shrugged, hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans, claiming no credit for an event he’d obviously set into motion. “So, now you’re free.”
I smiled—I couldn’t help it—and for one short moment, I enjoyed the most wonderful words I’d ever heard.
Then I realized that in securing my freedom, Ian and Kenley had just screwed things up for his brother.
“Jake will never help you now.” I rubbed the dead marks on my arm, horrified by what my freedom had cost him.
Ian glanced at the ground, and guilt left deep lines in his forehead when he met my gaze again. “I don’t need him,” he said, his voice soft and low, like he was making a confession. “I never did. I need her.” He glanced at Kenley again, and I frowned as her grip on the countertop began to ease, the resistance pain finally ebbing.
Kenley’s mouth opened, and I could almost see the question hanging on her lips, but before she could ask what we both wanted to know, her front door opened and the guard-of-the-day stepped into the living room, gun drawn, but aimed at the floor.
“I’m supposed to take you all to Tower. Now.”
Shit. I was hoping to be gone before Jake got his ducks in a row.
“And if we won’t go?” I stepped in front of Harris’s gun on the counter, so he wouldn’t see it. If I used it, others would hear and come running. Ian had Milligan’s gun—also absent silencer—tucked into the back of his pants, out of view unless he turned.
“I shoot you and take them,” Kenley’s guard said. “You’re acceptable collateral damage.”
“Always good to hear.” I turned toward the hall. “Just let me grab my phone.”
“Stop.” He raised his gun, aiming for my chest, and I tried not to look like my breath had frozen in my throat. “One more step and I’ll shoot you.”
“I need my fucking phone. I want to talk to Jake on the way.”
“Let her get it.” He nodded at Kenley, his aim never wavering from my chest. “Jake said not to let you two out of my sight,” he added, glancing from me to Ian, who looked alert, but seemingly unarmed with his hands at his sides.
“Fine.” I turned to Kenley, so that the guard couldn’t see my face. She sat up straight, carefully hiding the last of her resistance pain. “The phone’s on my dresser. It’s on silent.” I didn’t dare emphasize that last word—even a stupid guard might pick up on what I was really asking for—so I lifted both brows instead, hoping she understood.
Kenley nodded solemnly, eyes wide with fear, hands still shaking as she stepped into my bedroom. The light went on, and I turned back to the guard, ready to capture and hold his attention.
“I can’t believe they let you carry a gun. I mean, how can you see where you’re aiming, with your head stuck so far up Jake’s ass?”
The guard glared at me and started to speak, then something over my shoulder caught his attention. He raised his gun, but before he could squeeze the trigger, a thwup echoed behind me and he stumbled backward into the door, one hand over the new hole in his gun arm, blood pouring between his fingers.
He started to raise his gun again, in spite of the pain. I turned and took the silenced nine millimeter from my sister and squeezed the trigger twice more. Two new holes appeared in the guard’s chest, and he slid down the door to sit on the tiled entry, his eyes sightless, his mouth hanging open. His fingers relaxed, and the gun fell to the tile between his thighs.
Something thumped behind me, and I turned to see my sister on the floor, leaning against the living room wall. “Kenley?” I crouched next to her as I flicked the safety on my gun, and Ian was there with us in an instant.
“I shot him,” she mumbled.
“Your aim’s definitely improving.”
“Kori, I shot the man who was here to protect me.” Her hands were shaking harder now, and I couldn’t tell how much of that was from resisting standing orders from Jake and how much was shock.
“You didn’t kill him,” Ian pointed out. “You just kept him from shooting Kori.”
“Anyway, he wasn’t here to protect you. He was here to do whatever Jake told him to do, and Jake told him to bring you in. That’s the opposite of protecting you.” I reached down for her arm and hauled her up. “Hold it together, Kenley. We have to get out of here.”
She tried to pull her arm free, but I held on to it, looking right into her eyes to emphasize the importance of what I was going to say. “Call Van, if you want to bring her with us. It’s her choice, but if you can break my binding, you can break hers, too, right? And your own? We’ll all run, and when we’re safe, we’ll see what we can do for Ian’s brother.”
My range wouldn’t be great with three other people in tow, but I could take them, even if we had to make several layovers to get where we were going.
“What’s wrong with his brother?” Kenley asked, already digging her phone from her pocket. But before I could answer, Ian shook his head.
“She can free…Van?”
He glanced at my sister, and she nodded. “Assuming she sealed Van’s contract and remembers enough specifics about it. But I’m guessing Kenley didn’t seal her own binding.” He turned to her again for confirmation, and Kenley nodded again.
“Barker did it.” He’d been Jake’s top Binder until Kenley was recruited as a naive, twenty-year-old prodigy.
“Then only Barker can break the seal.” Ian frowned at her. “How do you not know any of this?”
“Jake wouldn’t teach her anything she could use against him,” I said as the ramifications of what Ian had just explained sluggishly came together in my head. “So wait. I’m free, and Van can be free. But Kenley can’t?”
“Not right this minute, no.” Ian sighed and met my gaze with a somber one of his own, and the clock in my head kept ticking, driving me as surely as my own pulse did. “There are three ways to free Kenley. We can find her contract and burn it. We can kill the Binder who sealed the contract. Or—and this is a long shot—we can convince him to break the seal himself, just like Kenley did for you.”
“Okay, we don’t know where the contract is, and I don’t want to kill anyone,” Kenley said.
“Do you know where Barker is?” Ian asked, and we both nodded.
“Tower keeps him protected, but he’s not as hard to get at as Kenley is.” Especially for me.
“Do you think you can convince him to break the seal?”
I held up my silenced nine millimeter. “I can be pretty damn convincing.” But I was running out of places to stick guns. I needed a holster. A double.
Ian shook his head. “You can’t scare him into it. He can’t remove his will as long as he wants her to be bound to Jake, and scaring him won’t change that.”
“So we explain that he only lives if she goes free. He’ll want to break her binding to save his own life, right?”
Ian shrugged. “I guess it’s worth a try.”
I turned back to Kenley. “Throw some clothes and essentials into a bag and call Van while you pack. Don’t tell her what’s going on, though, or she’ll have to rat us out. Just tell her you want to see her. You can break her binding once we’re on our way.” I was afraid if she tried to break it without telling Vanessa what she was doing, Vanessa would feel the burn on her arm and accidentally give us away before she understood what was going on.
Kenley nodded sluggishly, and I laid one hand on her arm. “You okay? Resistance pain?” I asked. The pain from unsealing my oath had passed, but as long as we were actively working against Jake, she would be hurting, and if we couldn’t break her bindings soon, that hurt would quickly become unbearable.
“Just a headache so far.” Kenley dialed as she crossed the living room, then stopped cold less than a foot from the hall, phone pressed to her ear.
“Kenley? What’s wrong?” I asked, and she turned slowly, eyes wide in terror, index finger pressed to her lips in the universal sign for “shh.” She pressed a button on her phone, and Jake Tower’s voice greeted the entire room, on speakerphone.
“I heard her, Kenley. I know your sister’s there. Is Holt there with you?”
Kenley glanced at me, the phone shaking in her hand, and I shook my head.
“No,” she said, phone held near her mouth.
“I know you’re lying, but I’m not angry,” Jake said, and Kenley swallowed nervously. “I understand why you’d want to protect them both. I also understand that you’re not responsible for the massive clusterfuck your sister has just laid on my doorstep. Did she tell you what she did in Holt’s hotel suite?”
Kenley nodded, then when she realized he couldn’t see that, she whispered, “Yes.”
“Avoiding police interference cost me quite a bit of money. More than your sister’s service is worth to me. More than her life is worth. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Kenley said, her voice no stronger now.
“Good. Then you’ll understand how very generous I’m being with the offer I’m about to extend to her. Korinne, can you hear me?”
“Fuck off, Jake,” I snapped, picking up the gun on the counter, just for the comforting feel and weight of it.
“Kori, I’m willing to let you live if you bring your sister and Ian Holt to me right now. Walk them right into my darkroom, and you will all three live. You have my word.”
“No way in hell,” I said, more than loud enough to be heard.
Jake chuckled, but there was no true amusement in the sound. “That must hurt. Why don’t you be a good girl and do as you’re told, and that nasty headache will go away.”
I glanced from Kenley to Ian in surprise, and we all seemed to come to the same conclusion—Tower didn’t know my marks were dead. And I saw no need to tell him.
“I’d rather die from resistance pain than bring either of them to you,” I said, careful that every word I said was true, in case Julia was listening.
“Okay, we tried this the civilized way,” Tower said, evidently speaking to all three of us. “Now I’m going to give you one guess where I’m standing, and who’s with me. I’ll even give you a hint.”
There was a moment of quiet over the line, then a scream cut through the silence like a scalpel through flesh. I knew that voice.
“Vanessa!” Kenley screeched, and Tower laughed again.
“Good guess. Vanessa and I are in the basement, and she’s just had her first taste of my displeasure. Tell them what happened, Vanessa,” Tower said, and Van’s ragged, uneven breathing grew louder as the phone was moved closer to her.
“Cut,” she gasped, and the word was bitten off, like she’d swallowed back sobs. “Fucker cut me.”
“And I’ll let him do it again,” Tower said as Vanessa’s shocked pants faded. “Once every fifteen minutes until you show up. If the three of you aren’t here in ninety minutes, the last cut will be across her throat.”
“Kenley, don’t—” Vanessa shouted, but her words were swallowed by another scream of pain, and tears rolled down Kenley’s face.
“Ninety minutes,” Tower repeated. Then the phone went dead.
“Oh, shit. Shitshitshit.” Kenley sank onto the couch in shock, her phone still cradled in her hands. She was pale from ongoing resistance pain, and her hands were starting to shake again. “What are we going to do?”
“Surely he won’t kill her,” Ian said. “If she’s dead, what’s our motivation to turn ourselves in?”
If Jake said he’d kill her, he’d kill her. Then he’d find new motivation. But I couldn’t say that with my sister listening.
“But he’ll cut her!” Kenley shrieked.
“There’s nothing we can do about that,” I said, brushing past her and into my bedroom. “But we’re going to get her back, and then we’re out of here. All four of us. You can break her binding, and we’ll figure out how to break yours, even if it means killing Barker.”
“The minute someone sees your dead marks and reports them, Tower will know Kenley broke your binding,” Ian said, following me into my room. “And he’ll know you’re going after Barker to free Kenley. Beyond that, if we get caught and Vanessa’s binding is already broken, he’ll have no reason to keep her alive.”
I settled my double holster onto my shoulders and adjusted the straps, watching him in the mirror. “So Kenley won’t break Van’s binding yet, and he won’t know she broke mine.” I turned to my sister as I slid the silenced nine millimeter into the custom left hip holster. “Kenni, get a black permanent marker.”
While she rooted through kitchen drawers, I handed Ian a spare double holster and he chose one of my extras to go along with Milligan’s gun, which he obviously meant to keep.
When Kenley came back with the marker, I exchanged it for a slim folding knife. I would have given her a gun, except that she was still bound to Jake, and the gun would be easier for him to make her use against us.
Then I turned to Ian with my left sleeve pulled up over my shoulder and handed him the marker. “Try to stay inside the lines.”