Blood Bound (48 page)

“Down the hall, playing with Isabel. She seems to like having a little sister. Don’t worry, though,” he said, before I could ask. “Cavazos is sending her home with Anne, as soon as she’s well enough to go. Michaela agreed to finally let his affair with Elle go, if he’d agree not to press for full custody of Hadley.”

“I hope he got that in writing….” I mumbled, wondering just how much drama I’d slept through.

“You know he did. He’s having Anne’s house retro fitted with an infrared grid and assigning full-time security to them both.”

“Wow.” Anne probably wasn’t happy about the 24/7 guard, but she wouldn’t turn down anything that would help keep Hadley safe. I wondered if she’d had any idea what she was getting into that day in junior high, when she introduced Noelle to me and Kori.

She couldn’t have. None of us could have. Except maybe Elle.

“Cam, how long was I out?” I’d evidently missed quite a bit.

He glanced at the comforter and only looked up when I took his hand, and that’s when I noticed the dark bags beneath his eyes. “Four days,” he admitted at last. “Cavazos wasn’t sure you were going to wake up, but I never doubted it.” His smile that time was wistful. “You survived me killing you, so I knew you could beat some stupid coma.”

Death. Coma. A sick room at the Cavazos estate. I couldn’t decide which was worse. And all of it less than a week since I’d first found Cam leaning against my car in the middle of the night.

“This can’t have been cheap.” I refused to let go of his hand when he tried to pull it away. Private doctor. Operation to remove the bullet. Maybe another to stop the bleeding or repair the damage. Aftercare. Antibiotics. Medical supplies and equipment. Room and board.

The bill would easily run mid-five figures at any public hospital. Here, it was probably more.

I didn’t have money.

Cam didn’t have
that
kind of money.

“What do we owe him, Cam?”

“You don’t owe him anything,” he insisted, meeting my gaze steadily. “I covered it.”

“No.” I shook my head, and darkness crept in on the edges of my vision. “
No.
You can get out of it, whatever it is.” I threw back the covers and winced at the pain in my stomach when I tried to move my legs. Then I moved them anyway. “We’re leaving, and you’re going to get out of this if I have to kill the Binder myself.”

“Olivia, stop.” Cam gently lifted my legs back into the bed. “It’s done.”

“No!” I shouted, and the tears were part physical pain, part denial. “I signed with him in the first place to keep you away from him, and it was all for nothing!” I swiped angrily at my cheeks. “It
can’t
be for nothing.” I was free from Ruben, and in four years—less, if possible—Cam would be free from Tower, and we’d both survived Elle’s prediction. We were supposed to have our forever, damn it, and I wasn’t going to let Ruben take that away!

“It wasn’t for nothing, Liv. It was for you.” Cam held me by my shoulders, and I didn’t know whether to shove him away or pull him closer. “I killed you. Your heart stopped on Cavazos’s front yard. I couldn’t just let it end like that. I couldn’t let you die.”

“What did you do?” I ran my hand slowly up his arm to the edge of his left sleeve and lifted the material with my eyes closed. It couldn’t be true. He couldn’t serve Cavazos. He was bound to Tower, and he’d signed a noncompetition clause.

My fingers brushed smooth medical tape, then the rough grid of a gauze bandage. I opened my eyes, and there it was. Proof of the price he’d paid for my life.

I peeled back the bandage and blinked away more tears. The black chain links were a faded, lifeless gray. Dead marks, all three of them.

Below them were three freshly inked, black interlocking rings.

Three rings at once. Five years each. Cam had committed to fifteen years up front, waiving his right to decline reenlistment after each of the first two terms. He’d paid for my life with fifteen years of his own.

Ruben, you hell-spawn son of a bitch.

“How?” I demanded, and my voice carried almost no sound. “What about Tower?”

“Cavazos bought my contract.”

“No.” I shook my head, insistent. That made no sense. “Tower would never sell you. Not after what went down in his house. He’d want your head, and Ruben’s, too.”

Cam shrugged. “I don’t know how he did it. All I know is that he bought out my contract with Tower and saved your life. All for three little black rings.”

And fifteen years of service and abuse.

Muneris. Oboedientia.

Fucking
fidelitas.

Hell. No.

I sucked in a deep breath, and Cam realized what I was going to do an instant too late. “Ruben!” I shouted, but my bellow ended sooner than I’d intended. I was shocked silent by the agony in my abdomen. I drew in another shaky breath, but my next words held little strength. “Ruben, get your ass in here.”

“Liv, whatever you’re about to do…don’t,” Cam insisted, already backing toward the door.

“Ruben!” I shouted again, in spite of the pain.

Cam tried to close the door, but it bounced off a shiny black dress shoe.

Cavazos leaned against the door facing and gave me a slimy smile. “You rang?”

I turned to Cam. “Get out.”

“I’m not going anywh—”

“Wait in the hall,” Cavazos said softly, and Cam scowled, then turned and stepped into the hallway. Because he had no choice. The binding had already been sealed. Cam leaned against the wall opposite my room, arms crossed over his chest, face flushed and fists clenched with anger.

“Take it back,” I said, as Cavazos settled onto the side of my bed.

“No.”

“You son of a bitch. I found your daughter. I got her out Tower’s house. You fucking owe me.”

“You were paid up front for your services.” He put one hand on my knee, like a doctor trying to calm his patient, and I jerked free from his touch. He’d lost that right. “Cam Caballero went free—you served in his place.”

I tried to back away from him, but there was nowhere to go. “Then you turned around and signed him for fifteen years!”

“As was my legal right. You should be thanking me—I saved his life. Tower was ready to kill him, and your friend Kori, too.”

Kori.
She’d helped us, in spite of her loyalty to Tower, and probably paid for it with resistance pain far beyond her gunshot wound. “Is she okay?”

“Caballero says she’s alive and still in the city, though I can’t imagine why Tower let her live. I wouldn’t have.” He shrugged. “Still, I’m sure she’s far from comfortable ae moment.” Cavazos cleared his throat and leaned closer, lowering his voice so Cam wouldn’t hear. “Do you have any idea how hard it was to buy out Caballero’s contract? I had to give Tower another Seer to replace Hadley, and they’re not exactly a dime a dozen.”

“You sold someone else to Tower? You supplemented his blood-donor project?” I hadn’t just slept through drama, I’d slept through the end of the world as I knew it!

“I traded Caballero’s contract for one I already held, and I let Tower keep the Blinder, Jammer and Binder he’d already taken from me, as a sort of peace offering. Unrest between his syndicate and mine is the last thing this city needs right now, don’t you agree?”

“
You
are the last thing this city needs.”

“That is a matter of opinion, Olivia. But because I like you—because you
did
serve me faithfully and find my missing daughter—I’m going to make you an offer I wouldn’t make for anyone else.” Cavazos opened his suit jacket and pulled out a thick stack of papers, folded in half. His other hand produced a pen from some unseen pocket, and my blood pressure spiked at just the sight of him wielding that particular weapon.

“Caballero signed away fifteen years of his life. For you. Are you going to let him serve it alone? Or will you share his burden?”

I exhaled slowly and hated myself for what I was about to ask. “What are you offering?”

“You take half his time. Seven and a half years, from the day you sign. You can serve together and watch Hadley grow up. Then you can leave, if that’s what you want. Together.”

I looked at Cam and found him watching us both from the hall, but Cavazos was angled away from him. Cam couldn’t see the contract or the pen. He stood stiff and angry—already mentally fighting Ruben’s orders. Serving Tower had been hard for him, but submitting to Cavazos would be hell. Ruben wouldn’t just employ him—he’d humiliate and exploit Cam for his personal entertainment. And Cam would fight, because he couldn’t not fight. And when he couldn’t be bent, Ruben would break him. Or kill him. Either way, the Cam I knew and loved would be destroyed.

Or I could join him. I could take half of his pain and humiliation. Serve half his time. We could be each other’s lifeline in a sea of misery. We could suffer together, then be free together. But for a price I’d sworn never to pay again.

I thought about Cam, and the life I wanted with him.

I thought about the words tattooed on my back—the words I wanted to live by.

Cavazos watched me closely. Then he held out the pen.

Acknowledgments

Thanks first and foremost to my husband, my #1 fan, for listening to all the crazy brainstorming that went into this book without betraying any hint that the author may be as crazy as the ideas. You’re the most wonderful sounding board ever.

Thanks as always to Rinda Elliott, my longtime critique partner and the first to see every book I write. You’re my second pair of eyes, and I always appreciate the fresh viewpoint.

Thanks to my editor, Mary-Theresa Hussey, for guidance and patience. And for pronouncing this manuscript “twisted,” then liking it anyway.

And thanks to everyone at MIRA Books, who made it all happen. There are so many more of you behind me than I would ever have guessed when I was first starting out, and I sometimes think books should get credit reels, like movies.

ISBN: 978-1-4592-1177-3

BLOOD BOUND

Copyright © 2011 by Rachel Vincent

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