It took most of my self-control to keep from laughing. Her gun was a peashooter, and if she’d been any good with it, she never would have set it within my reach. But I respected her intent.

“Good. You shouldn’t trust anyone.”

“I trust Kori,” she said, running water in the coffee carafe.

“And Kori trusts me,” I pointed out, voicing the part of the equation that was obviously troubling her.

She turned off the water and set the full carafe on the counter, eyeing me skeptically. Then she pulled a pushpin from the corkboard hanging on one side of the fridge, and before I realized what she was doing, she’d grabbed my left palm and shoved the pin into it.

“Whoa!” I tried to snatch my hand back, but she wouldn’t let go, and I couldn’t get loose without hurting her. Which was sorely tempting, considering she’d just breached my skin and spilled my blood—the greatest affront possible against anyone who understood the power inherent in blood. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Shh.” Kenley held her left index finger to her lips, smiling behind it with a glance at the front door, beyond which—I gathered—one of Tower’s men stood guard. Then she swiped that same finger across the drop of blood welling from the hole in my palm.

“Whatever you’re about to do, don’t,” I growled as she let go of my wrist and tossed me a paper tower for my bleeding hand. Instead of answering, she grabbed a notepad from the front of the fridge and a pen from the countertop and jotted three words on the paper.

“Speak only truth,” she mumbled as she scribbled, and my blood chilled in my veins.

“No!” I whispered fiercely, but before I could grab the paper, she pressed her bloody index finger onto it, leaving a smear of my blood beneath the words. Binding me to them.

“Son of a bitch!” I hissed. My heart beat against the inside of my chest like a captive beast demanding freedom. I’d never been bound to anyone or anything, and the sudden caged feeling pissed me off and made me want to strike out just to prove I still could. I lunged across the counter, grabbing for the impromptu binding, but she snatched the paper out of reach before my fingers had more than brushed the edge.

Kenley folded the paper and stuffed it into her back pocket, and I realized two things at once. First, I’d have to hurt her to take the binding and destroy it, and I’d sworn to Kori I wouldn’t let anyone hurt her sister. Second, Kenley Daniels was not the sweet, naive young woman her sister had described. Not entirely, anyway. She was fast, and she was smart. And she had guts.

Just like her sister.

“It won’t hold,” I said, though I was virtually certain I was wrong about that. An involuntary binding—especially one sealed without the Binder’s blood—wouldn’t hold for most Binders, but Kenley wasn’t most Binders. If she had been, neither of us would have been in Tower’s territory in the first place.

Kenley flipped open the top of the coffeepot and poured the water in without spilling a drop, though she watched me the whole time. “Based on your reaction, Mr. Holt, one might think you have something to hide.”

“Everyone has something to hide,” I growled, angry, but not sure what to do about it, a dilemma I’d only previously experienced with Kori, who was enough to drive a man mad and make him love the journey.

She set a coffee filter into its cup. “True. But some secrets can get you killed. Are you sleeping with my sister?”

“I don’t have to answer that,” I said when I realized she’d left me a loophole. Had she done that on purpose? If I spoke, I could only tell the truth. But I could choose not to speak at all.

“No, you don’t. But a refusal to answer is as revealing as the answer itself. So, have you had sex with my sister?”

“Yes.” She was right. Silence was as good as an admission. “But for the record, you’re invading her privacy as well as mine with questions like that.”

Kenley’s brows shot up in surprise, then she nodded again. “Fair enough. One more question, and we’ll leave that issue alone. Did she want it? Did she have the chance to say no?”

“That’s two questions. And yes to both.” I leaned closer to catch her gaze. I wanted her to understand that I was answering not because I had to, but because I wanted her to know. “I’m not one of your heartless syndicate thugs, Kenley. I would never hurt her. Never. In fact, that’s the only reason I haven’t already taken your juvenile little oath and burned it.”

Her gaze held mine, and I felt like we were facing off at high noon, in some long-abandoned Western town. “We all use the weapons at our disposal, Mr. Holt. This is the only way I have to look out for her, and I’m damn well going to do it.”

“Fine.” I could respect that. “Ask what you want to know.”

“Are you going to sign with Jake?” Kenley said, and I blinked in frustration. I’d expected more questions about me and Kori. Stuff I could answer without getting anyone hurt.

“No.” She’d know the truth whether I answered or not, and I didn’t like being forced into things any better than Kori did.

“Does Kori know that?”

“No. I had to tell her I would sign, to protect…her.” I’d almost said “you both.” To protect you both. But I couldn’t be sure Kenley knew she was in real danger, especially considering she didn’t know why Kori had brought me over in the first place. “I lied to keep her from having to tell Tower something he wouldn’t want to hear.”