“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.