Thirty
Ian
After Kori left Kenley’s apartment, I double-checked the clips in both of the guns she’d lent me—not that I’d have a chance to use them—then took the jacket off the dead guard still slumped against the front door. The jacket was a size too large and had an uneven spot of blood near the hem on the right side and a blood-soaked bullet hole in the right sleeve, but neither would be easily visible in the dark material, which would hide the fully loaded double holster.
Satisfied with the functionality of the jacket, I hauled the guard into the kitchen, then went downstairs to catch a cab, intending to report to Tower’s fortress for Trojan horse duty. But as I stepped onto the sidewalk, a sleek black car pulled to a stop at the curb in front of me. The window rolled down to reveal Julia Tower. Alone, except for her faceless driver.
“Mr. Holt, may I offer you a ride?” Her head was tilted slightly to the left, but her cool smile was on straight.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “You say that like I have some choice in the matter.”
“In fact, you have three choices. You may ride in here with me, up front with the driver, or in the trunk.”
“And if I decline all three options?”
“My brother Jonah is in a basement cell right now, hoping that’s exactly what you’ll do. The young woman with him is no doubt praying you’ll show better sense.”
“Vanessa?” I asked, and Julia nodded. “What makes you think I care what happens to a woman I’ve never even met?”
“I know you care, because I know the real Ian Holt—the man who doesn’t own a personal computer and doesn’t even know what kind of systems he supposedly analyzes.” She paused a moment to let me truly experience the shock of her words. “I know Ian Holt, the soldier who defied a direct order to pull an injured friend out of the line of fire. The brother who rose from the grave—feigned though that grave was—and stepped back into his own identity to save his twin from certain agonizing death. That Ian Holt can’t help himself—he’s at the mercy of a ruthless hero complex.”
“How…?” I started to ask how she knew. Then I realized that didn’t matter. What mattered was, “How long have you known?”
“Mr. Holt, we would never have asked you to become one of us if we didn’t already know how many fillings are in your teeth and how you broke your arm in the third grade.”
I had broken my arm in the third grade… “Lila Sobresky—”
“Pushed you off the slide. I know.” She folded her hands in her lap, and I couldn’t take my gaze from her face. From eyes that saw more than they should and ears that seemed to hear my very thoughts. “I also know that your mother is first-generation Irish-American, which is where you get those striking green eyes, and your father is fifth-generation African-American, the source of your lovely dark skin. You and your brother are fraternal twins, but you looked virtually identical until he began wasting away in excruciating pain two weeks ago. Steven was named for your paternal grandfather, who spelled his name with a ph instead of a v. Your mother named you after her older brother. Sweet, but stupid. Almost as stupid as it was for you and your brother to keep the names. But switching them…?” Julia laughed, and the sound bounced around inside my head like nuts and bolts clanging in the dryer. “That was clever. We might never have figured that part out, if you and your brother hadn’t already pinged our radar years ago, thanks to the younger Miss Daniels.”
Her gaze trailed over my face and down the front of my shirt, like she could see the flesh beneath, and my teeth ground together so hard my jaw ached. “You are quite a prize, Mr. Holt. A soldier with a philosophy degree under a stolen identity. A thinker and a fighter, with a strong, thick—” her gaze traveled lower “—protective streak. No wonder Korinne fell for you.”
My anger built with every word she spoke, like my secrets were worth less than the lipstick staining the mouth that spilled them. I’d rarely wanted to punch a woman, but I wanted to drive Julia Tower’s straight, white teeth through the back of her skull, just so I wouldn’t have to hear another word come out of her mouth.
“Get in the car, or Vanessa loses a finger.”
I hesitated, gripping the car door where the window had receded into it, letting my anger swell a little more. Grow a little more useful. Then I opened the door, not because Julia had told me to, but because she represented the most direct path through Tower’s heavily guarded headquarters to the basement, where Vanessa and Kori needed me to be. But before I could sit, Julia held up a hand to stop me. “Place your weapons in the front seat.” Where they would be beyond my reach, thanks to the panel separating driver from passengers.
But that was not unexpected.
I opened the front door and dropped both guns on the seat, then slid onto the backseat next to Julia Tower. Before I’d even closed the door, I wondered if I’d made a tactical error. If bending to her will, even for my own purpose, was the first of many steps in the devouring of my soul by the beast that was her brother’s organization.
“Kori didn’t know any of that, did she?” I asked, twisting to face Julia on the bench seat. Why would they keep their recruiter in the dark about her own recruit?
“Korinne knew only what she needed to know,” Julia said as the car pulled away from the curb. “But Jake and I knew why you really accepted our invitation from the beginning. And we knew you would never go through with your cold-blooded mission because at your core, pulsing where your heart should be, is a stubborn kernel of chivalry, rotting you alive like a cancer. You didn’t kill Kenley Daniels when you had the chance because you couldn’t. And you fell for Kori like a schoolboy in love the moment you got that first glimpse of her poor, abused, damaged heart. Just like Jake knew you would.”
My fist clenched around the door handle. “If Tower knew I had no intention of joining, why send Kori to recruit me?”
Julia laughed, like she’d never heard anything truly amusing until that very moment. “Korinne wasn’t recruiting you. She was living out her sentence. Jake got bored with her in the basement.” Julia frowned in thought. “That’s what he says, anyway, but he’s lying.”
And suddenly, studying her expression—the first raw, unfiltered look I could remember seeing from Julia Tower—I understood what Kori hadn’t been free to tell me. Julia was a Reader. She’d heard—and no doubt reported—every lie she’d heard me tell. But now that I knew what she was, she’d lost her advantage. The key to fooling a Reader is to tell two lies at once, and make one of them obvious. That way the Reader doesn’t know there’s a bigger untruth buried beneath the surface lie. I’d learned that, if nothing else, from growing up with Steven.
“The truth is that he started to hate her, because Jonah couldn’t break her and Jake couldn’t do it himself. That’s in his vows, you know.” Julia’s eyes sparkled with bitter amusement. “The only thing he promised his wife—that he would never touch another woman. Not ever. So when you came along, he saw a possibility involving you both. For Kori, the impossible task. Recruit the man who cannot be recruited. The immovable object.”
My blood burned in my veins like liquid fire. “He set her up to fail.”
Julia nodded. “And to hate every single debasing, humiliating moment of it.”
“And me?”
Her smile grew smaller, tighter. “For you, the irresistible force. Korinne, our own shattered doll, pretty, yet fierce. Delicate, yet dangerous. The damaged woman who cannot be fixed—Kryptonite to any man with a hero complex.”
“He played us.” The truth of it echoed inside me, ringing over and over, resonating in every bone in my body.
She nodded again. “He did. And he watched you both struggle and flail for two days, butting heads and bruising egos for his entertainment, knowing that in the end, you would sign with him for the same reason you came out of hiding—to protect those you care about. My brother is cruel and smart, and he is without mercy. Which is why I can tell you without a doubt in my mind that if you don’t sign whatever contract he offers you, he will cut poor Vanessa in places that should never feel pain. And if that fails to motivate you, he will move on to your brother, and your brother’s fiancée, and—”
Before she could finish threatening everyone I’d ever met, Julia’s phone started ringing and she frowned, then reached into a slim purse and pulled out her cell. Her frown deepened when she glanced at the display, then she pressed a button and held the phone to her ear. “Hello?”
She listened in silence for several seconds while a voice I didn’t recognize said words I couldn’t understand. Then Julia’s brows rose in sudden interest. “Yes, I’ll show him. We’re on the way.”
She ended the call, then started pressing more buttons on her phone. “You’re a very lucky man, Mr. Holt. As it turns out, Jake won’t have to target what remains of your family after all,” she said, and a cold ball of dread formed in my stomach, growing with every second of silence from Julia Tower. But I wasn’t going to beg for information.
Finally she looked up and her usual smug smile was absent. She looked almost somber. Instead of offering me an explanation, Julia simply handed me her phone.
I took it, dread churning in my stomach. But when I glanced at the screen, my rage swallowed all other emotions like the ocean swallows a single raindrop. Kori stared out at me from the display on Julia Tower’s phone. She was shouting, but I couldn’t hear her, because there was no sound. But I could see her gesturing in fury, her mouth open wide with each enraged shout. Behind her were a toilet, a curtainless shower stall, and a rollout mattress on a raised concrete block.
“That’s a live feed. From Jake’s basement,” Julia said. And as badly as I wanted to believe this was old footage, even on the tiny black-and-white screen I could see that Kori was wearing what she’d put on that morning, including the double holster, though the guns—and no doubt the knives—were gone.
“Let her out.” I could hear the rage roiling in my voice.
“That’s beyond my authority. The only way for you to help Kori is to sign the contract.”
I pulled the phone out of reach when she tried to take it. “Can you honestly tell me that if I sign, he’ll let Kori out?”
Julia watched me closely for a second, like she was sizing me up. Trying to decide whether or not to gift me with the truth. Or maybe to curse me with it. “No,” she said at last. “We both know Korinne will never set foot outside that cell again. There’s nothing I can do about that.”
“Get her out, or I won’t sign.”
“Sign, or she’ll suffer before she dies,” Julia countered. “And if you do it quickly, I might be able to arrange a visit with her.”
“That’s not good enough.” I dropped the phone on the leather between us and grabbed her by the throat, pinning her to the opposite door, letting my fury echo in my growl. “Get. Her. Out.”
Something hard pressed into my stomach and I looked down to find her holding a gun, the barrel digging into my navel.
“You’re not going to shoot me. Your brother needs me.”
“And you’re not going kill me, because you need me,” she insisted hoarsely, using the fingers of her empty hand to pry at mine, trying to free her neck.
“You just said there’s nothing you can do for Kori.”
“There isn’t—as long as Jake’s in charge.”
I blinked in surprise. Then I frowned. Then I frowned harder and loosened my grip on her neck. It almost sounded like… “Are you asking me to kill your brother?”
“I’m not asking anything of the sort.” Because she couldn’t. She was no doubt contractually prohibited, just like the rest of Jake’s employees.
“But you can speak in hypotheticals, right?”
“As can you,” she said, and I let her go.
“If Jake were out of power, you could help Kori?”
“I could.” She rubbed her neck with her free hand, but her gun remained pointed at me.
“Why should I believe you care one way or another about what happens to her?”
“I don’t.” Julia shrugged, like that should have been obvious. “I care about what happens to me.” Her brows rose in question, silently asking if I was understanding the things she wasn’t allowed to say.
“You’re not happy under your brother’s reign?”
“You mean under his thumb? I’m chained to him just like Korinne is, only I’ve been serving since I was sixteen. Since before service came with a time limit.” She lifted her left sleeve to show me her binding marks, which seemed to ring her entire arm. “As long as these marks are live, I’ll never have a family or a home of my own. I can’t leave the city without authorization, which never comes. I can’t even leave the room without permission. All because of one stupid oath I took as a kid, in exchange for my older brother’s protection.”
“Protection from what?”
Her lips pressed together for a second before she answered. “There’s a skeleton in every closet, Mr. Holt.”
“Fair enough. What about his heir? Do you honestly think it’ll be better with Jonah pulling your strings?”
Her brows rose again, and her smile was back, small and reticent this time, like she was about to tell me a secret. “I can handle Jonah, Mr. Holt. His bark and his bite are both fierce, but I know how to leash him.”
I thought about that for a moment, weighing my options and her sincerity. “If I were to give you that opportunity, you’d make sure Kori goes free? Immediately?”
“You have my word that if Jake is removed from power, Kori Daniels will go free immediately.” I wasn’t sure I believed her, but since I planned to kill both Jake and Jonah anyway, Kori would go free whether or not Julia kept her word. What I really needed to know was…
“Can you get me a second alone with Jake?”
She nodded without hesitation. “My contract predates time-in-service limits, but it also predates the stricter obedience clauses. I have more leeway than most employees. But I’m going to need some reassurance from you, Mr. Holt. A handshake won’t do.”
“What do you want?”
“Protection. When people find out that I helped rid the world of Jake Tower, those loyal to him—or to his wife—will be out for my head. I want your word—signed and sealed—that you’ll protect me until that threat is gone.”
“No bindings,” I insisted. Kori’s bindings had gotten her tortured. Kenley’s had gotten her caged. Steven’s had nearly gotten him killed.
“Then no deal,” Julia countered. “It’s a simple promise, Mr. Holt. Not a service agreement. Jake’s secondary Binder is bitter about being replaced by Kenley Daniels and he’s loyal to me.”
Secondary Binder? A glimmer of an idea surfaced on the horizon of this new complication. “Is his name Barker?”
Julia frowned. “Yes. And I assure you, he’s heavily guarded. Especially with Kenley currently on the run. Though that won’t last long.”
“I have no plans to harm your Binder.” Big lie—if Kori couldn’t take him out, I damn well would. “In fact, I’m looking forward to working with you both.” Smaller, obvious lie, to cover the larger fib.
Julia rolled her eyes, and I knew I had her. “I know you don’t want to be bound, Mr. Holt. But I assure you this is the least painful solution for all involved. I’ve already drafted the binding, and we can strike through and initial minor points of compromise before we sign. Then when we get to Jake’s house, you will play your part. After that, you and Kori can walk off into the sunset, if that’s the kind of cheesy, happy ending you sentimental types like.”
“Just like that?” I studied her face, searching for the catch. “It sounds too good to be true.”
“I assure you it’s not. Jake knows how to defend himself, and even if you’re successful, you’ll have to fight your way out. I’ll do my best to rein Jonah in immediately, but in moments of passion and fury, men are often uncontrollable.”
A fact I was personally familiar with. But if Jonah was so uncontrollable, what made her think she could control him? Especially once he’d inherited her binding from Jake?
There was something she wasn’t saying, and I wouldn’t trust Julia Tower even if my own marks had been tattooed on her arm.
“This Binder? How far away is he?” I asked as that idea on the horizon came into even clearer focus.
“Less than a mile.” She pressed a button on the glass separating us from the driver, then gave him an address. “I’m pleased we could come to an agreement.”
* * *
Barker turned out to be a grizzly looking man in his mid-sixties who subsisted on nothing but pizza and beer, if the garbage covering his kitchen counters was any evidence.
I was sorely tempted to kill him where he stood, to free Kenley, which would cut Kori’s last tie to Tower. But if I killed Barker, Vanessa was as good as dead, and Kenley would never forgive me. Which meant Kori might never forgive me. So I watched in silence as the Binder read aloud from the document Julia had produced from a briefcase taken from the trunk of her car.
The document was short and to the point. It said that I would protect Julia Tower from any threat rising from the demise of her brother until such threat was over. I insisted that Barker add an expiration date—Julia wanted five years, but I whittled her down to two, max—as well as a statement that both Vanessa and Kori would be released from the basement the moment Jake Tower died.
I tried to end their terms of service, too, along with Kenley’s—why not shoot for the moon?—but Julia insisted she didn’t have the authority to do that. And we both knew she wouldn’t have freed them even if she could have.
The phrasing was all very careful, because Julia could not actually ask me to kill her brother or offer to reward me directly for that service.
Julia signed. I signed. Barker stamped the agreement with a bloody thumbprint, symbolizing his own will to seal the deal. And after several tense moments, we agreed to leave the document with him, because neither of us was willing to trust the other with it. Then we got back in the car and rolled steadily toward Jake Tower’s fortress of a home, while I tried to think about exactly how I wanted to end his life instead of how dirty I felt, like I’d just signed over a piece of my own soul.