“And if we won’t go?” I stepped in front of Harris’s gun on the counter, so he wouldn’t see it. If I used it, others would hear and come running. Ian had Milligan’s gun—also absent silencer—tucked into the back of his pants, out of view unless he turned.

“I shoot you and take them,” Kenley’s guard said. “You’re acceptable collateral damage.”

“Always good to hear.” I turned toward the hall. “Just let me grab my phone.”

“Stop.” He raised his gun, aiming for my chest, and I tried not to look like my breath had frozen in my throat. “One more step and I’ll shoot you.”

“I need my fucking phone. I want to talk to Jake on the way.”

“Let her get it.” He nodded at Kenley, his aim never wavering from my chest. “Jake said not to let you two out of my sight,” he added, glancing from me to Ian, who looked alert, but seemingly unarmed with his hands at his sides.

“Fine.” I turned to Kenley, so that the guard couldn’t see my face. She sat up straight, carefully hiding the last of her resistance pain. “The phone’s on my dresser. It’s on silent.” I didn’t dare emphasize that last word—even a stupid guard might pick up on what I was really asking for—so I lifted both brows instead, hoping she understood.

Kenley nodded solemnly, eyes wide with fear, hands still shaking as she stepped into my bedroom. The light went on, and I turned back to the guard, ready to capture and hold his attention.

“I can’t believe they let you carry a gun. I mean, how can you see where you’re aiming, with your head stuck so far up Jake’s ass?”

The guard glared at me and started to speak, then something over my shoulder caught his attention. He raised his gun, but before he could squeeze the trigger, a thwup echoed behind me and he stumbled backward into the door, one hand over the new hole in his gun arm, blood pouring between his fingers.

He started to raise his gun again, in spite of the pain. I turned and took the silenced nine millimeter from my sister and squeezed the trigger twice more. Two new holes appeared in the guard’s chest, and he slid down the door to sit on the tiled entry, his eyes sightless, his mouth hanging open. His fingers relaxed, and the gun fell to the tile between his thighs.

Something thumped behind me, and I turned to see my sister on the floor, leaning against the living room wall. “Kenley?” I crouched next to her as I flicked the safety on my gun, and Ian was there with us in an instant.

“I shot him,” she mumbled.

“Your aim’s definitely improving.”

“Kori, I shot the man who was here to protect me.” Her hands were shaking harder now, and I couldn’t tell how much of that was from resisting standing orders from Jake and how much was shock.

“You didn’t kill him,” Ian pointed out. “You just kept him from shooting Kori.”

“Anyway, he wasn’t here to protect you. He was here to do whatever Jake told him to do, and Jake told him to bring you in. That’s the opposite of protecting you.” I reached down for her arm and hauled her up. “Hold it together, Kenley. We have to get out of here.”

She tried to pull her arm free, but I held on to it, looking right into her eyes to emphasize the importance of what I was going to say. “Call Van, if you want to bring her with us. It’s her choice, but if you can break my binding, you can break hers, too, right? And your own? We’ll all run, and when we’re safe, we’ll see what we can do for Ian’s brother.”

My range wouldn’t be great with three other people in tow, but I could take them, even if we had to make several layovers to get where we were going.

“What’s wrong with his brother?” Kenley asked, already digging her phone from her pocket. But before I could answer, Ian shook his head.

“She can free…Van?”

He glanced at my sister, and she nodded. “Assuming she sealed Van’s contract and remembers enough specifics about it. But I’m guessing Kenley didn’t seal her own binding.” He turned to her again for confirmation, and Kenley nodded again.

“Barker did it.” He’d been Jake’s top Binder until Kenley was recruited as a naive, twenty-year-old prodigy.

“Then only Barker can break the seal.” Ian frowned at her. “How do you not know any of this?”

“Jake wouldn’t teach her anything she could use against him,” I said as the ramifications of what Ian had just explained sluggishly came together in my head. “So wait. I’m free, and Van can be free. But Kenley can’t?”

“Not right this minute, no.” Ian sighed and met my gaze with a somber one of his own, and the clock in my head kept ticking, driving me as surely as my own pulse did. “There are three ways to free Kenley. We can find her contract and burn it. We can kill the Binder who sealed the contract. Or—and this is a long shot—we can convince him to break the seal himself, just like Kenley did for you.”

“Okay, we don’t know where the contract is, and I don’t want to kill anyone,” Kenley said.

“Do you know where Barker is?” Ian asked, and we both nodded.

“Tower keeps him protected, but he’s not as hard to get at as Kenley is.” Especially for me.

“Do you think you can convince him to break the seal?”

I held up my silenced nine millimeter. “I can be pretty damn convincing.” But I was running out of places to stick guns. I needed a holster. A double.