Oath Bound (An Unbound Novel) (15 page)

“Cam’s her boyfriend,” Hadley said, and I looked down to see her smiling up at Olivia. “He works for my biological father, too.”

“Your biological father?” That struck a little too close to home.

The child nodded, and brown hair fell over her forehead. “Ruben. He lives in a big house, and there’s a
huge
TV in my room there.” She glanced at her mother and frowned at Anne’s stiff expression. “But I still like it better at home.”

“Your dad is Ruben Cavazos?”

“Not her dad,” Anne corrected. “Her father.”

Damn, could I ever identify with
that
statement.

I already knew about Kris and Kori Daniels, and their missing sister, Kenley, who was a Binder. Ian introduced himself as Ian Holt, a Blinder—he could pull darkness from...wherever and make shadows wherever he wanted. He and Kori kind of seemed made for each other.

Vanessa was unSkilled. She was also Kenley’s girlfriend, though it didn’t take long for me to realize that Gran seemed to think Van and Kris were an item.

“Your turn,” Kris said when everyone else was done making formal introductions. “Who are you? Who are you
really?
” he added for emphasis.

“Sera Brandt.”

“And...” Liv prompted.

I sighed and sank on the edge of the couch cushion behind me. “And...I’m a Jammer. But I don’t tell people that.” Then I told them what my mother had told me when I was eighteen and we’d finally figured out that I was, indeed, Skilled, even though she wasn’t. “I’m fortunate enough to have escaped syndicate notice so far, both because I live as far from organized syndicate activity as I can, and because I’m naturally hard to find. That’s part of being a Jammer.” The very
best
part of being a Jammer, and the only reason my mother had been able to hide me as well as she had. I shrugged. “That’s it. All that’s worth telling, anyway.”

Anne shook her head. “There’s more,” she said and they all turned to me expectantly. Again.

“What, you think I’m just going to bare my soul to a room full of strangers? Not gonna happen. The interrogation’s over. We’re either going to have a civil discussion, or none at all.”

“I’m fine with that,” Kris said with a shrug, and I glanced at him in surprise.

“Good. But to be clear, in a legitimate conversation, both sides get to ask questions and no one monitors the truth in their answers.” I shot a pointed glance at Anne, who shrugged, and I wondered if her ability was impossible to turn off, like mine. If so, was it even realistic of me to expect her to keep a perfect stranger’s secrets?

“I think we can all respect that,” Kris said. “What do you want to know?”

“What are you all doing here? Why are you hiding out in a house locked up from the inside? What is the ‘higher purpose’ you mentioned earlier? Why does Julia Tower need your sister?” I hadn’t realized I had so many questions for them, until the words tumbled from my mouth.

“Okay.” Kris took a deep breath. “Every one of those questions has a complicated answer, and when you put them together...the explanation is pretty involved. But the short version is this—we’re trying to take the Towers down.”

“Take them down? Like, kill them?” I wasn’t sure whether to be thrilled by the prospect—considering Julia’s willingness to take
me
down—or horrified.

“Put them out of business,” Ian clarified. “We’re trying to end their syndicate.”

“Which will mean killing some of them,” Kori added. “Most notably, Julia.”

Olivia sank into the chair where Kris still perched on the arm. “Kenley’s an important part of the effort. Julia took her to stop her from working against the syndicate.”

“But you’re sure she won’t kill Kenley?”

Kris gave me a grim nod. “She can’t afford to, at least for the moment.”

“Okay.” I stared at the floor, still processing most of what I’d just heard. “Your turn.”

“What do you want from Julia?” Ian asked. “What could possibly be worth putting yourself on their radar?”

“I need her to do something for me. Something personal and very important, that I can’t do for myself. But you don’t have to worry about them recruiting me. She doesn’t know I’m a Jammer.”
And she wants me as far away from her borrowed empire as possible.
“So I think I’m safe in that respect.”

“Some people are never safe,” Vanessa whispered. “Even when they legitimately have no Skill.”

“Anyway, she’ll figure it out if you wind up working with her.” Kris shrugged. “She’s a Reader. She’ll know if you lie.”

So they knew her Skill. But they hadn’t yet realized I knew ways around the truth.

“What did you want from her?” Kori asked. But instead of answering, I stood and wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans.

“That’s all I can afford to tell you, and I don’t want to insult you with a lie.”
Again.
Though, if they were smart, they’d search for my name online the moment I was gone, and from there it would be easy to guess what I’d wanted from Julia. But at least if they found the information themselves, I wouldn’t have to say the words. I wouldn’t have to remember it again for them, like I’d remembered it for Julia. “I need to go now. Please. That’s as nice as I’m gonna ask.”

Now that I knew Anne’s last name, I could contact her on my own. Later. Maybe she’d actually let me talk to her daughter again.

“Wait, Sera.” Kris stepped forward, and his eyes seemed to see nothing else. Nothing but me. “Please. I have a proposition for you.”

Anne’s brows rose.

“What proposition?” Kori asked, scowling, but her brother didn’t even glance at her.

“Work with us. Please. Work
for
us, if you need to see this as a real job. We’ll pay you. We need you.”

Olivia frowned. “Do you really think that’s a good idea?”

“I don’t want your money,” I said before he could answer her. “I don’t want anything from you, except for an
open door.
” And another chat with Hadley, when I was ready. When I’d had time to prepare myself for what I might hear.

“Fine. Then let us work for
you.
As payment.” Kris stepped closer, and his gaze intensified. This meant something to him. “An exchange of services.”

I have to admit, I was curious. “Work for me...how?”

“However you need us. Whatever you wanted Julia to do for you. We’ll do it, and you won’t be indebted to the fucking mafia.”

“We don’t even know what she wants done,” Ian pointed out.

“We don’t have time to work for her!” Vanessa insisted. “We have to find Kenley. That’s top priority.”

“Agreed,” Kori said, and everyone else nodded.

“Of course.” Kris never even looked at them. “And Sera can help us with that. In return we’ll owe her.”

I shook my head slowly, thoroughly confused. “I can’t help you. For the last time, I don’t know anything about the Towers. I can’t find your sister.”

“No, but you can keep us hidden while
we
find her. All you’d have to do is hang out with us. Just...stay, and come with us when we go out.” He turned to the rest of them then, glancing from face to face. “Julia won’t stop looking for us just because she has Kenley. She wants most of us dead.” He aimed a pointed look at Kori and Ian, who—I remembered—had killed Julia’s brothers. My biological father and uncle. “Sera can virtually hide us in plain sight.”

They seemed to think about that for a moment.

“Then she could stay even after we find Kenni...” Kori glanced at me. “If you
would
stay, and hide Kenley while she finishes...her work.”

I had no idea what that meant. I had no idea what Kenley’s work was, but I could certainly hide her. However... “What makes you think you can do what I need done?”

Kris actually smiled. “You happen to be in the presence of a sort of Skilled syndicate microcosm. Kori is a former syndicate bodyguard/hit man.”

“Not by choice,” she muttered. “And it’s hit
woman.
Though I prefer ‘badass assassin.’”

“Whatever you call her, she’s the best,” Kris said, and his sister looked somewhat mollified. “Liv and Cam are currently syndicate Trackers, on the other side of the city. Ian is a former Marine—Special Forces. There’s no skull he can’t bust.”

“It was a little more delicate of a job than
that.
” Ian looked insulted. “Though there was plenty of busting skulls.”

“Also, he can practically make his own damn eclipse. Which dovetails nicely with the Skill Kori and I share. Once we get Kenley back, we’ll have a Binder, and I—” He shrugged, not quite self-depreciatingly. “I’m good at finding things.”

“And finding
people...
” I remembered what he’d told me earlier. A people-finder was exactly what I needed. Also, a people-executioner.

Kris was right. Together, they represented a nearly complete cross-section of the Skilled population. And if I agreed, they’d have a Jammer.

But if we were going to do this...

I took a deep breath, then glanced around the room. “If I’m going to seriously consider working with you guys, you should know what you’re getting into.”

Kori shrugged. “Whatever it is, we’ve probably done it before.”

I hoped she was wrong. But then again, practical experience would come in handy.

I took another deep breath, but that one wasn’t enough to calm me. To fill the hole in my chest that had been growing since that horrible night. “A few months ago, my family...died.” I avoided the
M-
word at the last second, with a glance at Hadley. If she hadn’t seen any specifics of their murder, I wasn’t going to mentally lead her to the scene of the crime. “Unpleasantly. All of them.” I could tell from the looks of empathy and comprehension that the adults had all heard the part I hadn’t said. Even Gran. “I wanted Julia to find the man responsible. And end him.”

I waited for the objections, or at least some shocked protests. But none came.

Kori glanced at Ian, who glanced at Liv, who glanced at Kris, and they all seemed to come to the same conclusion at the exact same time.

Kris nodded. “Okay.”

I blinked at them. “That’s it? Just like that? You’re all okay with just...ending someone?”

“Just someone?” Kori met my gaze with a frank one of her own. “No. A cold-blooded murderer? Yeah. I’m good with it.”

“Oh.” I wasn’t sure why that surprised me as much as it did. Obviously, I was okay with it, too. It was my idea. The driving force behind my existence for the past few months. But I’d never expected to find a squad of assassins ready and willing to help me carry such a task out.

I made a mental note not to look that particular gift horse in the mouth.

“Okay, then. You have yourself a Jammer. Just so we’re clear, though, I’m free to leave whenever I want, right? This is no longer a hostage situation?”

Kris rolled his eyes. “It never was.”

“Then...can someone take me to get my stuff?”

Kori stood, but Kris was faster. “Yeah. The sooner the better.”

“Great.” I headed straight for the closet door with Kris behind me, but I turned back when I remembered what I’d never gotten a chance to say earlier. “Oh, Anne?” I said, and she looked up. “Your daughter is no ordinary Seer.”

“What do you mean?” She looked decidedly nervous.

“She doesn’t just see the future. She can also see the past.”

Eight

Kris

I
t was nearly midnight by the time we left the hideout house to go after Sera’s things, which meant the outside world would still be one big den of shadows. Including most of the Tower property, except where the perimeter lights would render my shadow-walking ability null around the exterior of the entire property.

According to my sisters, motion sensors were scattered throughout the grounds and if triggered, they would activate floodlights, which would both highlight our position and prevent our escape. Fortunately, Kori remembered enough to mark the motion sensors for me on a hand-drawn map of the property. She didn’t think Julia would have gotten around to changing the exterior security features, considering that so far, both of their breaches had originated from inside the house itself.

I held Sera’s hand as we stepped through the dark hall closet and into the cool fall night. Thanks to the moon, stars and lights from the Tower house, nature’s darkness wasn’t as black as the closet, but it was more than dark enough to accommodate my Skill. As we took our first step on Tower’s thick lawn, I had to remind myself to take my hand back. It didn’t want to let go of hers.

I was on alert, my every nerve ending buzzing from the knowledge that we could be discovered at any moment and that even if we weren’t shot on sight or imprisoned by light, Sera couldn’t escape without me and my Skill. I stayed as close to her as possible and told myself it was for her safety.

We started in a patch of deep shadows to the left of the rounded front porch, not close enough to trigger sensors built into the walls, but not exposed enough to be easily seen in dark clothes. Sera’s were borrowed from Kori. They clung to her in places they didn’t cling to my sister—thank goodness—and I almost wished for normal, non-shadow-walker night vision, to render me immune to the distraction.

“It’s gone,” she whispered, staring at the broad, semi-circular driveway, and I had to refocus my thoughts to remember why we were there. Sera was like a mental magnet, constantly pulling my focus off true north. She set me spinning, like a compass needle with no direction. She was a dangerous distraction. A beautiful, enigmatic distraction...who was saying something I should listen to. “My car is gone.”

I glanced at the front of the house. The driveway was empty. “They probably moved it around back.” Where most of the employees parked, according to Kori.

Rather than walk around the huge house and risk triggering an alarm, I took us through the shadows once more. This time we stepped out onto an open patch of grass behind the small, half-empty parking lot.

“That’s it.” She pointed to a small blue four-door sedan, one of only five cars on the lot, which gave me hope that Julia ran a skeleton crew at night. Sera’s car was parked next to the tall industrial lamp rising from the center of the lot. It was
completely
drenched in light. We couldn’t get to it without risking being seen by anyone patrolling the grounds. Or simply looking out a rear-facing window.

“Is there anything in there that can’t be replaced?” Shopping was much safer than sneaking around in Tower’s backyard. And considering that they’d already moved her car, Julia’s men could just as easily have taken her stuff to dig for private information. Middle names. Policy numbers. Receipts. Anything that could give them something to use against her.

“Pictures,” she whispered. “I brought my mom’s photo album. Those can’t be replaced. I don’t know if she even kept the negatives.”

Shit. Her dead mother’s photos.
Real
photos, with no digital footprint. “Okay. You have your key?” I asked, and she nodded, pulling the electronic key fob from her pocket. The gaze that met mine was scared, but steady. And intense. “When I say go, you’re going to run for it. Stay hunched over, to make as small a target as possible. Keep the car between you and the house. I’ll keep watch from here.”

Sera frowned and glanced back at her car, and hair fell across her face. “There has to be a better way,” she whispered. “I can’t fight a bullet. Can’t outrun one, either.”

I brushed that strand of hair behind her ear and looked directly into her eyes. “You won’t have to. I’m faster than anyone Julia has on staff, and more accurate than anyone she’s ever met. Including Kori.” I pulled back the side of my jacket to show her my gun, hoping the sight of it would reassure her the same way the feel of it reassured me.

She actually grinned, and something in my throat tightened at the sight. “Not exactly modest, are you?”

“Modesty is for the mediocre. Now, when you get there, use the key to unlock the car manually, so it doesn’t beep. Is the album in the trunk?”

Sera shook her head, her gaze glued to me, and I realized I liked having her full attention. A lot. “No. It’s in the backseat.”

“Good. Go in through the rear door and close it as softly as you can. Make sure the interior lights go off. You should be able to see fine with just the parking lot light. Sit on the floorboard and gather what you need—as much as you can carry without hampering your ability to run. You good so far?”

She nodded, and, though she still looked noticeably nervous, her hands were steady and her jaw set. I was impressed, considering that she’d probably never done anything like this before.

“When you have what you can carry, get out, close the door and run back to me.” I glanced around at the acres of shadowed lawn—my personal transit system. “I’ll have you out of here in a single step. Questions?”

She glanced at my gun. “You sure you’re not exaggerating your skill with that thing?”

“Anyone who so much as pokes his head out of that house before you get back here is going to get permanently ventilated. You have my word.”

“The word of a kidnapper?” She seemed
way
more amused by that than the situation warranted.

“I didn’t kidnap you. I—”

“I know. You liberated me from a den of evil. Or you anticipated my forthcoming desire to flee. Or maybe you released me from the burden of choice. Whatever it was, don’t do it again. Got it?”

“Got it.”

She still looked pissed off by the memory.

Pissed off
looked good on her.

“You ready?” She looked scared, but she also looked determined. Sera wasn’t fearless, by any means, but she wasn’t going to let fear stop her. I could respect that.

In answer to her question, I drew my gun.

She turned and ran. With no warning. One second she was standing next to me in the shadow-drenched grass and in the next instant, she was racing across the lawn toward the parking lot, a glaring island of light, as if she were being chased by hounds from hell.

I scanned the night, alert for movement, but I saw none.

Sera’s footsteps thumped softly from grass onto pavement and her speed increased. She was one hell of a sprinter—a black blur racing across the pale pavement, hunched over, just like I’d instructed.

When she reached her car, she dropped into a squat, shielded from view of the house. Sera fumbled with her keys for a second, then opened the front door and reached inside to unlock the back door. Then she closed the front door softly and climbed into the back of the car.

I lost sight of her then, but if I couldn’t see her, neither could anyone else.

The soft click of her door closing had just rolled into the still night when a man dressed all in black turned the corner from the east side of the huge house. He carried an automatic rifle. I couldn’t tell what kind from the shadow it cast against the wall, but it had a long barrel and a scope, which meant he could hit me—or Sera—from much farther away than we actually were.

Kori hadn’t mentioned guards with rifles walking the grounds. So much for a skeleton crew. My home invasion must have really spooked Julia.

I stepped back slowly, carefully, fading deeper into the darkness with one eye on the guard, the other on Sera’s car, waiting for her head to appear above the backseat. Hoping he wouldn’t notice her.

The guard walked slowly—too slowly—and with each of his steps, my blood pressure rose. My heart beat a little harder. I pulled my suppresser from my jacket pocket and quietly attached it to the end of my gun.

Halfway.
The guard was almost halfway across the yard, crossing the large covered patio, headed toward a pool, surrounded by its own privacy fence and adjoining pool house.

Then Sera sat up inside the car.

For the span of several held breaths, neither saw the other. I was the only one who knew how close to disaster we all sat. Sera’s head bobbed between the seats as she gathered her things, still oblivious. But her movement drew his eye.

The guard pulled a radio from his belt, swinging his rifle up with the other hand. But he couldn’t aim one-handed, and since the intruder hadn’t noticed him yet, policy dictated that he call for backup first.

I aimed.

I’m fast. But I’m not faster than the spoken word.

I could hear the static of his radio, but not what was said into it, or the reply that came back. I fired once. The gun
thwuped.
The guard tumbled backward and went down on the patio steps. I couldn’t see his wound from where I stood, but I knew he was dead before he hit the ground, because I knew where I’d hit him. The middle of his forehead.

Sera still hadn’t seen him, and more were surely on the way.

Shit!
I glanced at the house. No activity yet. But that wouldn’t last long.

Gun aimed at the ground to my left, I jogged across the grass and into the parking lot, where the light made me feel exposed. Naked. Vulnerable.

“Sera!” I hissed, but she didn’t hear me. She was below seat-level again, doing something I couldn’t see.

I scanned the back of the main house as I approached the car, then squatted next to the rear tire just as the back door of the house opened and two more guards came out. I pulled open the rear door of her car, and Sera’s squeal of surprise was swallowed by the shouts of the guards as they discovered their coworker’s body.

“It’s me!” I hissed, and Sera exhaled. “We gotta go!”

“Okay, just let me...” she whispered, bending again to gather her things.

“Now!” I snapped, and she flinched. And that’s when I realized what was taking her so long. She was gathering the photos that had fallen across the backseat and floorboard. Her mother’s album was old and worn out. It had practically fallen apart in her hands.

They must have looked through it all the time
.
That thought nearly broke my heart.

But then there was more shouting. More footsteps. I peeked through the rear windshield to see that three guards had become five, and they were fanning out across the porch, handguns and rifles drawn, prepared to search the property. They wouldn’t have to go far to find us.

“Sorry, Sera, but we have to go.” I sank out of sight again. She peeked over the backseat, then dropped onto her heels in the floorboard, air wheezing in and out of her lungs.

“Shit!” she whispered. “Do you have another gun?”

“Can you shoot?”

She shook her head, but her hands were steady as she gathered the photos. “But I’m a fast learner.”

“Good. I’ll teach you—if we get out of here.” I scooped the last of the loose photos into my left hand and dumped them into the computer bag she held open, then took it from her and slung the strap over my shoulder. I helped her out of the car—awkward, with us both squatting—then carefully, silently closed the door.

Then I peeked around the end of the car.

There were too many of them. They were all armed. Even if they were all horrible shots—and they wouldn’t be—they were close enough that it would take more effort for them to avoid hitting us than to hit us.

“Change of plans. Give me your keys.”

“What?” Her eyes were huge again. But her voice was steady. “We can’t drive out of here!”

“We can’t walk out, either, unless you’ve decided your body didn’t come with enough holes in it.” And that wasn’t possible, because her body was
perfect.
My job was to keep it that way.

She peeked through the rear window again, then dropped into a squat with her back against the car, eyes wide. “What’s the plan?”

“Give me your keys. Crawl into the backseat and stay down on the floorboard. I’ll drive us into the dark, then we get out and shadow-walk into the closet.”

She nodded. “Sounds easy enough.”

“Except for the part where you lose your car to a storm of bullet holes.”

“Can bullets penetrate a car?”

“
This
car? Yeah. So stay down. Ready?”

“No.”

“Too bad.” I plucked the keys from her hand and pulled open the back door. Three of the guards’ heads swiveled in our direction, but they weren’t at the right angle to see the open door.

Sera climbed onto the rear floorboard, then pulled the door mostly closed. I opened the front passenger door and crawled across the bucket seats, banging my knee on the center console. The interior light came on. And that’s when the bullets began to fly.

Rifles are loud. So is the collision of bullet and car.

Bent almost in half, I stepped on the brake pedal and shoved Sera’s key into the ignition. I turned the key, and when her engine growled to life, I shifted into Drive and stomped on the gas without even peeking through the windshield. It was a straight shot into the yard. The blissfully dark yard.

But I forgot about the curb. Tower’s stupid backyard parking lot had a stupid fucking curb all the way around it.

The front tires slammed into the raised concrete then rolled over it. My chest hit the steering wheel and Sera hit the back of my seat.

She screamed as more bullets ripped through the trunk. Several shattered the rear windshield and lodged in the headrest of the driver’s seat, and I hoped she’d stayed down and the bullets had all gone up.

I stomped the gas pedal again, and as soon as night washed over the windshield, I swerved sharply to the right and slammed the gearshift into Park. “Out!” I shouted as bullets ripped through the passenger side of the car. I dove out the driver’s door and rolled onto the grass as Sera’s door opened.