Meika shoved Kori’s ankle against the leg of the chair and reached up for the strip of tape her husband held ready. Kori’s free foot shot up. The toe of her boot slammed into Meika’s chin. Meika fell backward with an “oof” of pain, then rolled onto her knees holding her jaw, eyes flashing in fury. “Puta!”

She stood, fist pulled back for a blow, and I stepped in front of Kori, hoping she wouldn’t kick me, too. “Meika, back off! You’d do the same thing in her position.”

“I will go through you to get to her.”

“No, you won’t,” Cavazos said, and when Anne gasped, I glanced up to find him holding a knife to Kori’s throat, her chin gripped tightly in his other hand. I didn’t think he’d really kill her, but he’d definitely cut her if he had to. The boat had sailed on “playing nice.” “Tape her legd keep your hands to yourself.”

“Liv, what’s your plan?” Kori asked while Meika taped her to the chair, her words kind of mushed together by Ruben’s grip on her face. “If you go in guns ablazin’, they’ll mow you down.”

“They’ll never know we’ve been there until Hadley’s back with her mom. After that—” I glanced at Cavazos and he released Kori’s head while I threaded a second holster onto my shoulder harness at the table “—I don’t care what you do to Tower. Stomp him into the ground. Just don’t touch the kids.”

“No!” Kori shouted. “You can’t kill Tower!” she insisted, and the thin thread of panic in her voice rang a harmonic note in me. I glanced up to find her eyes swimming in fear as she strained against the chair she was taped to.

“Oh, I assure you I can.” Cavazos knelt in front of her, hands on her knees for balance. Or maybe just because he wanted them there. “And I plan to enjoy it.”

Kori craned her neck to see me around him. “Liv, if Tower dies, his bindings will all be transferred to someone else. To his successor.”

Oh, shit. I hesitated and lost count of the 9mm rounds I’d been counting. I’d thought that if Cavazos killed his longtime rival, all Tower’s people would be free of their bonds. Including both Kori and Cam.

“Clever,” Ruben said, and I could practically see the gears turning in his head. No doubt his team of lawyers would soon have a new clause to draft. “Who’s his successor?”

Kori looked at him as if he’d just asked her who shot Kennedy. “I couldn’t tell you even if I wanted to.” She dismissed him again and her gaze pleaded with me as I loaded an extra clip. “Liv, if you let him kill Tower, I’ll wind up…in a very bad position. And so will Cam.”

“A bad position? Like…working for someone you hate?” With a glance at Cavazos, I dropped the clip from my gun and slid a fresh one into place until it clicked home.

“Married to someone you want to kill?” Meika suggested.

Kori actually rolled her eyes. “No, much fuckin’ worse than those.”

“Like missing your daughter?” Anne asked softly, and the entire room fell silent.

Kori slumped against her bindings, as Ruben knelt to clean up his own spilled blood. “Yes, actually. Kinda like that. Only I don’t have a daughter,” she added, before any of us could ask. Then she turned to me again. “You may think you and Cam are star-crossed now, but if you kill Tower, things will be worse for the two of you than you can even fucking imagine.”

I dropped the newly loaded gun into my left holster. “I have a pretty good imagination.” Which was why the drawer full of ropes and handcuffs bothered me.

“Olivia. Nothing good will happen if Tower dies.” She closed her eyes, then met my gaze again. “Take Hadley home—I’d help you if I could. But don’t kill Jake Tower. You have to trust me on this.”

And the funny thing was that I did. I believed her.

“Okay,” I said finally, dropping the second pistol into the holster beneath my right arm, and Meika propped both hands on her hips, scowling at me.

“Niña, I don’t think you understand how this works. La puta in the chair doesn’t get to say how things go.”

“Neither does the bitch who killed Hadley’s mother,” I snapped, and Kori glanced at Meika in surprise, which morphed quickly into fury.

“Is there anything else we should know? Anything you can tell us?” I asked

“Yes, and no,” Kori said. “In that order.”

“Great.” I pulled my jacket on over the shoulder holsters and grabbed my smallest duffel, then glanced at the others. “Let’s go.”

“Olivia!” Kori called, as I headed toward the brightly lit hall, Cavazos close at my back. I stopped, but didn’t turn. “What?”

“He’ll kill you if he catches you.”

“Oh, good,” I said, already walking again, as Anne slapped another piece of tape over Kori’s mouth. “No one’s tried to kill me in hours.”

Twenty-Nine

In the hall, I turned to make a shh gesture to Ruben, Meika and Anne, then pushed the bedroom door open. The motion caught Cam’s eye and he took his headphones off, but didn’t rise from the edge of the bed, the only piece of furniture in the room.

“I need you to stay here,” I said, when he shot me a nervous, questioning look.

He nodded reluctantly and took his cell back when I handed it to him. “You know I wish I could help with…whatever you’re doing.”