The first thing I noticed was a pile of broken glass next to the end table holding the lamp. Something had been knocked off and shattered on the floor. The second thing I noticed were the bodies. Two of them. Even in the deep shadows cast by the table lamp, I recognized the one on the left. His light eyes were still open, now staring at nothing. But now he had two mouths, one gaping open below his chin, above the blood soaking his clothes.
Curtis wasn’t smiling now.
“Sera?” Ian said while Kori headed into the short hallway, gun drawn. She was checking for bad guys, though we all knew the place was deserted. Kris was gone.
“I’m okay,” I whispered, though I was anything but. Curtis was dead, but I didn’t see it happen. I didn’t get to see his life spilled along with his blood. I didn’t see recognition of me in his eyes as they lost focus.
He was dead, but he hadn’t died paying for his crimes against my family. I knew because Kris hadn’t killed him. The spiderweb was a trap. And now Kris was missing.
Somehow, that was worse than how Curtis had died. Without me.
“Kris didn’t do this.” I stood far enough away from the bodies that I could see what had happened to them, but didn’t have to see. Kris was right. Death is a horrible thing to see, even on those who deserve it. “He’s more of a gun man, right?”
“From what I’ve seen, yes.” Ian stood at my side, his weapon still drawn, but aimed at the floor. “Kori’s slit a few throats, but she doesn’t enjoy it, and I’d bet money this was done by a man who enjoys his work. Notice the details.”
But I didn’t want to notice the details.
I wanted to find Kris.
“The apartment’s empty,” Kori said, stepping back into the living room from the hall. But we all already knew that.
“Why didn’t they stay?” I holstered my gun, relieved more by its absence from my hand than by its comforting weight at my side. “If this trap was for me, and Kris showed up instead, they had to know we’d come after him, right? So why are they all gone?”
“Julia’s already lost half a dozen perfectly good gunmen to our ragtag little band of outlaws,” Ian said. “I doubt she was eager to lose any more. Especially if she’s actually lost other employees, thanks to the viral campaign.”
That made sense. “So where’s Kris? She didn’t kill him, right? If so, she would have left him here with the Curtis brothers...” My words sounded like a guess, but felt more like fact. “Maybe Cam can track him again. Or Liv, if we have a sample of his blood.” I glanced at Kori with both brows raised. “Do we have a sample of his blood?”
She shook her head. “He’s careful to destroy every drop he loses. I think you’re right, though. He’s alive, but Cam won’t be able to track him if Julia still has him, and neither would Liv, even if we had a blood sample. Julia will be Jamming his psychic signature.”
“Why does she want him?” I couldn’t figure that out. She needed Kenley, but Kris should have held no value to her.
“She doesn’t.” Ian pulled a piece of paper off the fridge, and the watermelon-shaped magnet that had been holding it in place clattered to the floor. “She wants you.” He handed me the note. “Careful. It’s still wet.”
An inarticulate sound of disgust bubbled up from my throat as I realized that the note I now held had been written in blood. Literally. Chase Curtis’s blood, if I had to guess—there was plenty of it available.
But my disgust melted in the face of both fear and rage when I read the still-dripping words.
Let’s trade. Sera for Kris. I’ll be in touch.
“Is that irony?” I stared at the note, reading it for the third or fourth time. “I think that’s irony.” I’d thought Kris wanted to trade me for Kenley, but now Julia wanted to trade me for him.
“Okay. So...I’ll go. I mean, I was going to go in anyway.”
Kori shook her head, her jaw clenched in fury. “Doesn’t matter. She’s not going to trade him. She’ll kill him as soon as she has you.”
“No, she won’t. I won’t let her. She can’t hurt me and she has to do whatever I tell her to, right?” Surely the infamous bindings were going to work in our favor, for once....
Ian shook his head that time. “There are too many loopholes. She’s bound to you by the same contract that kept her bound to Jake—the same contract she worked around to have him killed. She could do the same to you.”
“And that could be as easy as not being there in person when we go for the trade,” Kori added. “If she’s not there, you can’t give her orders. And if her people have orders to kill whoever shows up, she’s not specifying that they kill you—thus she’s not violating her contract—but you’ll still be dead.”
Which was exactly how and why she’d had my family killed—hoping to catch me in the crossfire without actually putting a hit out on me.
“Shit.” How was it possible that the contracts and system of loyalties were so complicated, but the ways around them were so frustratingly simple?
“Okay. So, if she’s not going to give him back, we’ll have to take him back. Along with Kenley.”
“My thoughts exactly.” Kori knelt for a better look at Curtis, and my stomach churned. “Sorry you didn’t get your revenge killing. I know how bad that sucks. But you’re welcome to share mine. Julia Tower’s as responsible for what happened to your family as Curtis was, which means we both have a claim on her life.” She stood and met my gaze in the dull light from the table lamp. “Help us get Kris and Kenley back, and I’m willing to share the kill.”
“You couldn’t stop me from either one if you tried. How do you think she’ll be in touch? And when?”
“I don’t know, but we’re not going to wait—” Before she could even finish her sentence, Kori’s phone buzzed in her pocket. She frowned and pulled it out, then turned the cell around so Ian and I could see the screen. The text was from Kenley’s phone, but we both knew the Binder hadn’t sent the message.
Bring Sera to the warehouse at the corner of Bonner and Lexington. I will trade her for your brother.
“It can’t be that easy, right?” I said as Kori pocketed her phone without even considering a reply. “I know she’s not really going to trade, so what are the chances he’s really in that warehouse?”
“Slim to none.” Ian scrubbed one hand over his short-cropped hair. “We can try tracking him, but I’d bet my life she has a Jammer sitting right next to Kris. If he’s even still alive.” The words looked almost as painful for him to say as they were for me to hear, but he didn’t shy away from them.
“He’s alive,” Kori said. “She’ll know we’ll want proof of that before we agree to anything. And she won’t offer Kenley as part of the trade because she knows we’ll recognize that as a lie.”
“So, we find her and we take them both back.” I leaned against the fridge, careful not to touch anything for fear of leaving fingerprints at the scene of a crime. “We know where she’s not.” The warehouse on the corner of Bonner and Lexington. “That only leaves...the entire rest of the city for us to search.” I hoped I didn’t look as frustrated as I sounded.
Ian turned to Kori. “I assume she’s not at Tower’s house. For one thing, that’s too obvious. For another, if the viral campaign worked, they may have run her off. We have to assume she still has some loyal employees, otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to take Kris. But it’s entirely possible that she doesn’t have Kenley anymore.”
“Then who does?” Kori stepped over the pool of blood surrounding the Curtis brothers and sank onto the arm of their couch. “If she lost enough employees to lose control over Kenley, how long do you think it’ll be before whoever’s running the blood farm figures out that killing Kenni will free them all permanently? What if that’s already happened? Can it happen?” She stared at the shadowed carpet, lost in thought. “I can’t remember whether or not my oath to Jake prohibited me from killing his Binder— I wouldn’t have hurt her anyway.”
“I think it’s time w
e make some calls and find out exactly what our viral campaign has done to the Tower infrastructure,” I said, and Kori looked up at me, drawn from her thoughts by the possibility. “Worst-case scenario—we’ll find out it failed entirely. Which means Kenley’s still alive and Julia has her. And if it hasn’t failed, I can get information from anyone whose binding was transferred to me.”
Kori nodded, already pulling her phone from her pocket.
“I think I can save you a lot of trouble on that front.”
Ian whirled toward the new voice as Kori stood, and they were both already aiming guns at the man-shaped shadow in the short hallway before it even occurred to me to draw my weapon.
“Relax. I’m here to help.” Mitch stepped into the dimly lit living room, but no one relaxed. No guns were holstered.
Kori made a show of flipping the safety switch on her gun. “Go out the way you came in, or I will blow your brains out the back of your head.”
Mitch shrugged, still looking at me as he answered her. “That would make it hard for me to tell you what I know.”
“Wait. Let’s hear him out.” If he really had information, we needed it. Badly.
“He’s not bound to you anymore, Sera.” Ian glanced at me briefly, but his aim at Mitch never wavered. “He could be lying. He could be here to kill you.”
“I could,” Mitch confirmed with another shrug. “But that’s more work than I’m willing to do without a direct order or the promise of a paycheck, and since I’m a free man now...I’m actually on my way out of town. Which was your suggestion.”
“Then why are you here? How’d you know we’d be here?” I moved to stand between Kori and Ian, one hand on my own holstered gun, but the added threat wasn’t necessary. Either of them could blow him into several pieces before I could draw, much less aim.
“I’m here because I made a mistake after we parted ways, and I want to fix it. And I didn’t know for sure that you’d be here. It was an educated guess.”
“Educated?” Ian said.
“Yeah. That mistake I mentioned? After I left you guys on the east side yesterday, I went back to Julia.”
“Why?” I couldn’t make sense of it. Why would a free man go back to the woman who’d held his chains? And why would that woman let him live when she’d killed everyone else I’d freed?
“Because I’ve been bound to the Towers since I was nineteen years old. I wasn’t highly valued or promoted very quickly, but syndicate life is all I know, and my talents hold no value in any other line of work. When you let me go, I didn’t understand what you were giving me. I felt as if I’d been thrown out on my ass with nowhere to go. So I went back to what I knew.”
“Why didn’t she kill you?” Kori demanded, gaze narrowed in suspicion we all seemed to share.
“Because I didn’t tell her what you did. Fortunately, she never actually asked me if my binding was converted. She only asked if I’d gotten a text from any of you, and my answer to that was an honest ‘no.’”
“So she thinks you’re still bound to her?” Ian didn’t lower his aim, but he no longer looked likely to shoot in the next few seconds.
“Yeah. I figured that was the safest bet.”
“So you knew we’d be here because you knew how Julia got Kris?”
“I was here when she took him. I knew you’d follow him eventually and my plan was to wait for you here—half an hour would have been my limit, since I’m on my way out of town—and as fortune would have it, here you are. No waiting necessary.”
“He’s lying,” Kori said. “We should kill him.”
“Let’s hear what he has to say first,” I said. “We can always kill him afterward.”
Ian glanced at me in surprise, but Kori just looked mollified. “Fine.” She gestured at his torso with her free hand. “But first, strip.”
Mitch frowned. “Strip?”
“Down to your shorts,” Ian added. “The TSA has X-rays. We only have our eyes.”
Grumbling beneath his breath about how ungrateful we were, Mitch pulled his shirt over his head, then dropped it on the floor. Next he took off his shoes and tossed them into the corner, on Ian’s orders. His pants were the last to go, and when he stood in only a pair of green boxer briefs, Kori made him turn a full circle, so we could see that he was unarmed. And had chicken legs.
“Okay.” Ian lowered his aim, but kept his gun at the ready. “Talk fast.”
Mitch scowled at Kori, who refused to lower her gun. “You just got a text from Julia, right? From your sister’s phone?”
I started to nod, but one glance from Kori stopped me, and I realized that the flow of information would only go one way.
“Fine. Don’t answer.” Mitch shrugged. “I know you got a text, because I saw her send it. But the information she sent is false. Kris isn’t at that warehouse, and neither is she. It’s a trap.”
“We know,” I said, and Kori frowned at me, which is when I realized I’d confirmed that we had received that text.
“How do you know?”
“Julia would never give away her position.”
“Well, fortunately for you, I would. She’s at the Eight Street warehouse. Your brother and sister are both with her.”
My pulse leaped at the thought—could we really get them both back in one shot?—but Kori only frowned. “Why would she keep both her eggs in one basket?”
“Because it’s the only basket she has. Your mass texting initiative worked. She only has a handful of employees left. You’ve practically won already. Why do you think I’m leaving?”
“You’re deserting the sinking ship...” Kori’s frown became a sneer of contempt. “Like any rat would do.”
“Fuck you.” But Mitch’s profanity just sounded silly, with him still in his underwear. “I’ve paid my debt.” He bent to pick up his clothes, then met my gaze boldly. “Do what you want with the information—I don’t give a shit anymore. I’m out of here.”
“Don’t move.” Ian aimed at Mitch’s head, and Mitch froze. “Ladies? Verdict?”
Kori glanced at me, and I hid the jolt of glee surging through me over the fact that she was consulting me about a strategic decision. “He did pay his debt.” With information that may or may not prove valid.
“Fine.” Kori turned back to Mitch and lowered her aim to his feet. “Let the rat scurry into his corner.”
Mitch glared at her, but wasted no time retrieving his shoes. Then he backed into the dark hall, and a second later I felt his absence, though I hadn’t actually seen him disappear.
“So, now what?” I asked as Ian and Kori holstered their guns.
“Now we rally the troops.” Kori pulled her phone from her pocket, ready to dial. “If Julia really is at the Eighth Street warehouse, she’s about to wish she’d preceded her brothers into the afterlife.”
I stared at the Curtis brothers while she made her first call, recruiting friends and allies to our purpose, thinking about Julia, and how her death was so long overdue.
Better late than never...
Twenty-One
Kris
My eyes opened, then closed again before the world could come into focus. Two half-blinks later, I managed to keep them open, but then exposure to the bright light brought pain roaring to life all over my body.
The headache was the worst. The pain at the back of my skull was sharp and intense, but another pain mirrored it behind my forehead, dull but persistent. A sure sign that I had a concussion—that my brain had been bounced around by whoever had hit me from behind.
But for another couple of seconds, I couldn’t remember actually being hit. Or where that had happened. All I knew was that I was now tied to a chair, my hands behind my back, my wrists already chafed by my bonds.
Having been in a similar position once before, I already knew that panicking would be a very bad idea. My energy would be better spent finding a way to free myself.
“Good morning, sunshine,” a familiar voice said, and when I looked up to find Jul
ia Tower watching me from a folding chair four feet away, the rest of my memories slid into place.
A dark apartment.
The Curtis brothers, one dead, one tied up.
Then something had hit me from behind, and as I’d crumpled to the floor, struggling to keep my eyes open, someone had stepped up behind Chase Curtis and pulled a knife across his throat.
He’d died choking on his own blood as I lost consciousness.
I’d failed Sera again.
“Time to wake up now,” Julia sang in a falsely cheerful voice, tapping pointy-toed, high-heeled shoes on the stained concrete floor, and I forced my eyes to focus. “You and I are going to have a little chat.”
“I have nothing to say to you until you send Kenley home.” My voice was hoarse, and my throat was sore, and I wondered briefly if someone had tried to choke me while I was unconscious. Or maybe my throat had dried out from lack of use. How long had I been out?
Julia made a show of sniffing the air, which was completely unnecessary for Reading. “That smells like a lie.” Her forehead furrowed, perfectly manicured eyebrows dipping in disappointment with me. “Doesn’t matter, though. I didn’t expect you to cooperate without the proper motivation. Which is why we’ve brought your sister in to help motivate you.” She gestured with one hand, and movement to my left drew my gaze toward a typically beefy guard as he pulled a curtain back from the wall to reveal a long window.
Beyond the window, Kenley sat in a folding chair, in an otherwise empty room, which had probably once been an office. She was blindfolded, hands bound behind her back just like mine, and her head was slumped as if she was sleepy. But she looked otherwise unhurt.
My relief at seeing her intact was accompanied by a mental asterisk and the certainty that that fact was about to change. Why else would Julia show me my sister?
“When Korinne was still in our company, there was nothing she wouldn’t do to protect the baby of the family, and I’m betting the same goes for you.” Julia glanced from Kenley to me, her neatly painted lips curled in derision. “The Daniels’ family really believes that blood is thicker than water. Doesn’t it?”
Oath Bound (An Unbound Novel) Page 34