“He doesn’t screw around on his wife,” I supplied.

Aaron nodded. “But he got a kick out of seeing her take down men twice her size. He treated her like a niece, and while she was in good standing, her sister was untouchable—a personal favor from Tower.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning hands-off. Completely. No one hit her, no one screwed her. No one so much as breathed too close to Kenley Daniels, like she was made of glass. It was like that for years. But then something went wrong.”

“She fell,” I whispered, hearing Kori say the words in my head. Aaron frowned at me in question, but I just waved him on. “What happened?”

“None of my sources were still active in the syndicate recently enough to tell me that, so I had to go digging on the other side of the river.” Aaron grinned. “You’re welcome.”

“Thanks. Now spill.”

“I found a loose tongue—one of Cavazos’s men—who claimed that a couple of months ago, Ruben Cavazos led a small team right into the heart of Tower’s territory. They broke into his fucking house, in the middle of the night. I haven’t been able to verify that with any secondary source—makes sense that Tower would have covered up an embarrassment that big—but the timing lines up.”

“You think Kori had something to do with the break-in?”

Aaron shrugged. “She was still working security at the time, and within days of when Cavazos’s man says this happened, she disappeared. I mean, gone. No one saw her. No one heard from her. I got ahold of her sister’s cell record—I’d tell you how, but then I’d have to kill you—and it looks like she was panicking. She called their brother several times a week, and she also called this chick who works for Cavazos, of all people. So I looked her up. Turns out this other chick—Olivia Warren—went to high school with your girl Kori.”

Olivia… Could this be the Olivia that Kenley bound Kori to when they were kids?

“Which gives Kori a connection to Tower’s biggest enemy,” I said, thinking aloud.

“Right. So what I’m thinking is that—intentional or not—Kori had something to do with Cavazos and his team getting into Tower’s house. And if I’m right about that, it’s a miracle she’s still alive.”

But I could still see her face when I closed my eyes. “I don’t think she’s feeling very miraculous.”

Aaron shrugged. “Well, I’m sure she’d feel better if she was free from Tower. And she will be, if you do what you came here to do.” Because killing Kenley would break Kori’s binding to Tower. “We’ll call that the bright side.”

“You’re an asshole.”

“Yeah, but I’m also a fucking genius with a Wi-Fi connection and a keyboard.”

I stood, pacing to burn off angry energy. “She’s messed up. I mean, she’s really messed up, and I think the only reason she’s still alive is because her sister needs her. If I kill Kenley, what does Kori have to live for?” I stopped pacing to look at him. “I can’t do that to her.”

“So you’re just going to let Steven and Meghan die?” he demanded. But I could see what he wasn’t saying—that he couldn’t let that happen. If I didn’t kill Kenley, he would try. Which would get him killed. Then I’d have all three of their deaths on my head.

“Hell no, I’m not going to let them die. But there has to be another way.”

“A way other than killing Kenley?” Aaron frowned. “If she’s half as powerful as word on the street says she is, there’s no other way, short of getting her to break her own bindings.”

“Can she do that?” I frowned at him. Why hadn’t anyone mentioned that possibility before?

“Is she physically capable?” Aaron shrugged, looking up at me from his chair. “In theory, yes. Is she allowed?” He shook his head firmly. “No way in hell. The first thing Tower would have prohibited her from doing is breaking her own bindings. That clause may only include the bindings she sealed for him specifically, but that depends on whether or not she insisted on tightening the language from the broad, basic phrasing.” Which, according to Kori, she had not.

“Okay, so she’s probably not allowed. What if she tried anyway? People breach sealed contracts all the time, right?”

“Yeah. There’d be resistance pain, but how strong that is depends on how strong the seal on her contract is, and whether or not she swore on her life not to breach it. If she just swore and signed, she’ll be in pain—probably a lot of pain—but it’ll eventually end. But if she swore on her life, then breaches the contract, she’ll die.”

Great. That was no better than shooting her myself.

“But, Ian, the consequences aren’t the problem here. The real hurdle is convincing her to break her own seal. Seals are held intact by will of the Binder. You can’t just hold a gun to her head and tell her to withdraw her will from the binding. She has to want to break the seal. And if you can’t get within shooting distance of her, what makes you think you can get close enough to explain what you want and convince her to want it, too? Steven doesn’t have forever, you know. Meghan can’t hold out much longer.”

I exhaled slowly, my brain racing. This should have been a no-brainer. My brother and his girlfriend—my best friend’s sister, whom I’d known her whole life—or a woman I’d known less than thirty-two hours. I couldn’t let Steven die, but every time I thought about killing to protect him, I saw Kori in my head. Pale hair, petite build and pixieish features alternately reflecting fierce determination and haunted pain. I wanted to touch her. I wanted to make her smile. I wanted to protect her.