“Wow.” Anne probably wasn’t happy about the 24/7 guard, but she wouldn’t turn down anything that would help keep Hadley safe. I wondered if she’d had any idea what she was getting into that day in junior high, when she introduced Noelle to me and Kori.

She couldn’t have. None of us could have. Except maybe Elle.

“Cam, how long was I out?” I’d evidently missed quite a bit.

He glanced at the comforter and only looked up when I took his hand, and that’s when I noticed the dark bags beneath his eyes. “Four days,” he admitted at last. “Cavazos wasn’t sure you were going to wake up, but I never doubted it.” His smile that time was wistful. “You survived me killing you, so I knew you could beat some stupid coma.”

Death. Coma. A sick room at the Cavazos estate. I couldn’t decide which was worse. And all of it less than a week since I’d first found Cam leaning against my car in the middle of the night.

“This can’t have been cheap.” I refused to let go of his hand when he tried to pull it away. Private doctor. Operation to remove the bullet. Maybe another to stop the bleeding or repair the damage. Aftercare. Antibiotics. Medical supplies and equipment. Room and board.

The bill would easily run mid-five figures at any public hospital. Here, it was probably more.

I didn’t have money.

Cam didn’t have that kind of money.

“What do we owe him, Cam?”

“You don’t owe him anything,” he insisted, meeting my gaze steadily. “I covered it.”

“No.” I shook my head, and darkness crept in on the edges of my vision. “No. You can get out of it, whatever it is.” I threw back the covers and winced at the pain in my stomach when I tried to move my legs. Then I moved them anyway. “We’re leaving, and you’re going to get out of this if I have to kill the Binder myself.”

“Olivia, stop.” Cam gently lifted my legs back into the bed. “It’s done.”

“No!” I shouted, and the tears were part physical pain, part denial. “I signed with him in the first place to keep you away from him, and it was all for nothing!” I swiped angrily at my cheeks. “It can’t be for nothing.” I was free from Ruben, and in four years—less, if possible—Cam would be free from Tower, and we’d both survived Elle’s prediction. We were supposed to have our forever, damn it, and I wasn’t going to let Ruben take that away!

“It wasn’t for nothing, Liv. It was for you.” Cam held me by my shoulders, and I didn’t know whether to shove him away or pull him closer. “I killed you. Your heart stopped on Cavazos’s front yard. I couldn’t just let it end like that. I couldn’t let you die.”

“What did you do?” I ran my hand slowly up his arm to the edge of his left sleeve and lifted the material with my eyes closed. It couldn’t be true. He couldn’t serve Cavazos. He was bound to Tower, and he’d signed a noncompetition clause.

My fingers brushed smooth medical tape, then the rough grid of a gauze bandage. I opened my eyes, and there it was. Proof of the price he’d paid for my life.

I peeled back the bandage and blinked away more tears. The black chain links were a faded, lifeless gray. Dead marks, all three of them.

Below them were three freshly inked, black interlocking rings.

Three rings at once. Five years each. Cam had committed to fifteen years up front, waiving his right to decline reenlistment after each of the first two terms. He’d paid for my life with fifteen years of his own.

Ruben, you hell-spawn son of a bitch.

“How?” I demanded, and my voice carried almost no sound. “What about Tower?”

“Cavazos bought my contract.”

“No.” I shook my head, insistent. That made no sense. “Tower would never sell you. Not after what went down in his house. He’d want your head, and Ruben’s, too.”

Cam shrugged. “I don’t know how he did it. All I know is that he bought out my contract with Tower and saved your life. All for three little black rings.”

And fifteen years of service and abuse.

Muneris. Oboedientia.

Fucking fidelitas.

Hell. No.

I sucked in a deep breath, and Cam realized what I was going to do an instant too late. “Ruben!” I shouted, but my bellow ended sooner than I’d intended. I was shocked silent by the agony in my abdomen. I drew in another shaky breath, but my next words held little strength. “Ruben, get your ass in here.”

“Liv, whatever you’re about to do…don’t,” Cam insisted, already backing toward the door.

“Ruben!” I shouted again, in spite of the pain.

Cam tried to close the door, but it bounced off a shiny black dress shoe.

Cavazos leaned against the door facing and gave me a slimy smile. “You rang?”

I turned to Cam. “Get out.”

“I’m not going anywh—”

“Wait in the hall,” Cavazos said softly, and Cam scowled, then turned and stepped into the hallway. Because he had no choice. The binding had already been sealed. Cam leaned against the wall opposite my room, arms crossed over his chest, face flushed and fists clenched with anger.

“Take it back,” I said, as Cavazos settled onto the side of my bed.

“No.”

“You son of a bitch. I found your daughter. I got her out Tower’s house. You fucking owe me.”