I would pay for that later, but for the moment, I was grateful to have a loophole to exploit. Fortunately, no contract is ever truly ironclad.

Cam dropped onto my couch and looked at me across my desk. “Okay, so now what?”

“Now…we figure out why Tower wants Hadley dead, without using any of your syndicate connections or letting Tower know what we’re up to. And we figure out where Hunter was getting those injections, still operating under those same constraints, while simultaneously avoiding all contact from Cavazos.”

“So basically, we’re working against the syndicate I’m bound to while hiding from the one you’re bound to.”

“Technically, I’m bound to Cavazos, not to the syndicate. But yes. Also…” I sighed and leaned with both elbows on my desk, fighting the seductive lure of sleep. “We should probably steer clear of the west side entirely.”

His eyes narrowed. “Agreed, but why do you say that?”

“It turns out that Meika Cavazos is the one who started the rumor that I’m her husband’s bound concubine-slash-mole. She’s not allowed to kill me, so she’s hoping to have me hung as a spy. Or whatever the modern equivalent of that is.”

“The modern equivalent would be systematic dismemberment, followed by a bullet to the brain.” And I could tell from the way he said it that he’d actually seen the floor show. And that it left an impression.

“Wow. Tower puts some serious thought into his executions.”

“Evidently I’m taxing her creativity.” I shrugged. “She just had the first girl shot.”

“The first girl?”

“Ruben’s first mistress. At least, I assume she was the first. Not that I’m sleeping with him, but Meika thinks I am, and she and logic don’t exactly share closet space these days.”

“Sounds like she and sanity aren’t on very good terms, either.”

I was still laughing when my new cell phone rang. I glanced at it in surprise, then snatched it and pressed the button to accept the call. Only two people had the new number, and one of them was sitting on my couch.

“Liv, we’re headed your way.” Anne’s voice was tight with panic, and I recognized street noise and the rumble of an engine in the background.

“What? No. Tower wants to kill your daughter. The city’s the last place she should be. You need to hide her.”

“I did hide her, just like you said, and they found us.”

“They?” When I noticed Cam trying to eavesdrop, I put the call on speakerphone and set the new cell on the center of my desk.

“Just one, really. Another Traveler. But there will be more. He’s not going to give up.”

Cam and I exchanged a glance, then he returned his attention to the phone. “Okay, Anne, I need you to calm down and tell us what happened.”

Anne took a deep breath, and in the background, a little girl said something I couldn’t understand and was answered by an older man. She had her parents with her. “I put Hadley to bed at about eight-thirty. Then, maybe fifteen minutes ago, I went to check on her and found a man in the hall. He was just standing there, holding a gun. So I shot him, Liv.” Her voice splintered into broken, hiccuping half words, and an older woman reminded her gently to watch the road.

“You shot him?” I couldn’t believe it. I’d never even seen Anne hold a weapon, much less use one. “Where’d you get the gun?”

“It’s my dad’s. He brought it so we could protect Hadley, but I didn’t think I’d actually have to use it. But I did, and now someone’s dead.”

“Where?” Cam said. “Where were you?”

“At one of my mom’s show houses.”

“One of your…?” Cam frowned at me, silently asking for a translation.

“Her mother’s a real-estate agent,” I whispered. When we were in high school, Anne would sometimes borrow the keys to a show house and let us all in for a private party. The houses were fully furnished—the perfect place for kids to hang out and drink in private. But not a good place to hide from Skilled hit men. “Why the hell didn’t you leave town? That’s not running, it’s…burrowng.”

“A hotel seemed too obvious, and we needed someplace for Hadley to sleep. Someplace that felt like a home and wouldn’t scare her any more than she already is.”

“Well, scared is better than dead!” I snapped, then immediately wished I could take it back. Anne was a suburban wife and mother, not a trained bodyguard. She was new to all this, and obviously doing the best she could. “How did he get in? You had all the lights on, right?”

“Yes. All of them. There’s no way he could have come in through the shadows. He must have actually physically broken in.”

“But we would have heard that, Annika,” her mother said softly.

“What about the closets?” Cam asked. “And under the beds?”

“We opened all the closets, but…I forgot about the beds,” Anne groaned. “We’ve always used loft beds and captain’s beds.” To make sure there are never shadows beneath the beds—standard practice in Skilled homes; it’s like nailing your basement windows shut so you don’t have to remember to lock them. “It’s possible he could have come in under one of them….”

I exhaled, trying to control my temper, and noticed that Cam had closed his eyes. He was as frustrated by Anne’s survival skills—or lack thereof—as I was. “Okay, Anne…” Cam began, and I leaned back in my chair, happy to let him take over while I tried to gather my thoughts. “I understand that you were thinking about Hadley, but bringing her into the city is a bad idea. That’ll just make her easier to track.”