I shrugged, but she wasn’t buying my nonchalance. “I haven’t actually broken any of the rules yet.” Which meant precisely nothing. Exploiting the loopholes would only piss off Tower, and we both knew it.

“What’s the drill, Cam?” She dropped the soggy chip onto her plate and eyed me steadily. “What would he do to someone else in your position?”

I exhaled, long and slow. “You don’t want to know.” And neither did I.

“Okay.” Liv nodded decisively, as if she’d come to some sort of decision. Then she closed both the laptops and slid off of her stool. “I want you to take me back to my office, then I need you to come straight back here and forget about all of this.”

“Liv, wait…” I said, but she was already gathering her things.

“Every second I stay here is another second you are closer to death, or dismemberment, or whatever torture Tower saves for employees who plot against him.”

“Olivia.” She’d misunderstood the true threat.

I rounded the counter and grabbed her good arm before she could zip up her satchel, and she turned on me, ready to pull free from my grip. But she stopped with one look at my face. “Tower still needs me. He’s not going to kill me or do anything else that’ll affect my ability to do my job.” I hesitated, dreading the part I had yet to say.

“What does that mean?” Liv asked softly, and suddenly I was hyperaware of her arm in my hand, and of the warm smoothness of her skin. But that time, even touching her couldn’t distract me from the brutal truth—she needed to understand what was at stake.

“If he finds out what we’re doing, he’ll punish me by hurting the people I care about. And the only people in the world he’s going to be able to connect to me are you, Van and Annika.”

Liv’s face paled, and her eyes narrowed in protective rage. She was thinking of the risk to Anne, but had yet to consider the danger to herself. Cavalier heroism was as much a part of her as her thick brown hair or bright blue eyes.

“I can take care of myself, Cam,” she said, finally pulling her arm gently from my grip. “And I can take care of Anne and Hadley, too. So you worry about yourself and Van, and we’ll all be fine.” She frowned, as if something new had just occurred to her. “If I leave now, Tower may never know you were involved in this beyond helping me find Hunter. Especially if I take what’s left of his phone with me, so they can’t find it here.” She tried to step around me, heading for the kitchen trash can, but I stepped into her path.

“He’ll know because he’ll ask, and I’ll have to answer. And I don’t want you to go.” I lifted her chin until her gaze met mine—I needed her to see how important this was. “We’re of more use to Anne and Hadley as a team than we are on our own, and Van’s safer not knowing what’s going on. Plausible deniability is the best defense.”

“No, a loaded gun is the best defense.” She settled her satchel strap over one shoulder and reached for Hunter’s laptop. “Well, that and a good head start. So I have to go.”

“Please stay.” I grabbed the computer before she could reach it and held it against my chest. “If not for me, then stay for Anne and Hadley. We really are better for them as a team.”

“That might be true if we could trust each other. But we can’t.” She sighed and I reluctantly let her pull the laptop from my grip. “If he can hurt us to punish you, then he could just as easily make you into the weapon that does the hurting.n I’d have to defend myself, and Van, and Annika, and we’d all be hurt.”

Or worse. She didn’t say it, but we both heard it.

“And I can’t let that happen,” Liv concluded.

But there was more. There was something she wasn’t saying, and I could practically see it dangling from the end of her tongue, but she swallowed it. And whatever it was, it obviously tasted horrible.

“I gotta go. If you won’t drive me, I’m taking your car.” She glanced around for my keys, but I knew better than to leave them lying within reach. Olivia was an established flight risk.

For one long moment, I watched her, weighing the options and impossibilities in my head. What I was considering would never work. Mere determination—no matter how strong—could never overpower an oath willingly taken and sealed. Just trying it would probably kill me. But at least then I couldn’t be used against Liv, or anyone else.

“If you could trust me, you’d stay?” I said, staring straight into her eyes, trying to see past her defenses and distractions to the truth. “For good?”

Olivia frowned and seemed to think about it for a second. Then she shook her head slowly, wincing, as if her answer actually hurt. Or maybe it was my question that hurt. “No fair posing hypotheticals, Cam. What-ifs have no place in the real world. And I have no place in your life so long as Jake Tower is pulling your strings.”

But again, there was more she wanted to say. I could see it peeking out at me from behind the truth she wielded like a sword and hefted like a shield.

“This isn’t a what-if.” I stepped closer and she held her ground as the space between us disappeared.

“I don’t…” She cleared her throat and started over, staring up at me, each breath fast and shallow, as if she couldn’t get enough air. “I don’t know what that means.”

“It means that I’m with you, Liv. Screw Tower.” A brief bolt of pain lanced the center of my forehead at the minor mental infraction of my loyalty clause, but it was gone the instant the words left my mouth. Actual breach of contract would hurt a hell of a lot worse, I knew, but this first step felt invigorating. Liberating, as if I’d just taken back the reins of my own life, however briefly.