Oath Bound
Page 123
My heart clawed its way up my throat, then got stuck there, where I had to speak around it. I stood, my hands out to show that I was unarmed. “Lynn?” Her name came out as a croak—that was all the sound I could force out.
“I’m sorry, Sera. You seem like a sweet girl. But there’s no place for sweet girls in this city, and there’s certainly no place for them in the Tower syndicate.”
“But...I don’t want the syndicate. If you’ll just listen...” If she’d just let me explain that I was going to set them all free, surely...
“That’s good. And if you’d been willing to give it up, I would have let you walk away. But rumor has it you want to disband the syndicate. Honestly, you’ve been difficult from the beginning, and that little stunt you pulled with the texting campaign...” Disgust shone in her eyes. “I can’t let you give it all away. This syndicate belongs to my children. It’s their father’s life’s work, and you are not going to take that from us.”
I heard her, but the part that kept playing over and over in my head was... “The beginning? What does that mean? What’s the beginning?”
Nonononono...! But I understood, even before she could say it.
“The hiding, Sera. You’ve been hiding from me for years. At least, that’s what I thought until Julia let it slip that you’re a Jammer. Just like Jake.”
“You were looking for me? Before Jake died?” The House of Crazy was full of guns. Any other time, I’d be tripping over them, but now, when I needed one, there were none to be found.
“At first. For nearly a decade,” Lynn admitted. “Then I gave up for a while. I thought maybe you were dead—how else could Tracker after Tracker fail to find you?”
“Did Jake know?”
“Of course not. If he’d known about you, he would have wanted you. To raise you. I only knew because Julia told me. To hurt me. On the morning of my wedding, that bitch leaned in like she’d hug me and instead told me that my husband had a lover and a bastard daughter.”
She’d known all along? She and Julia had both known about me?
“I made him swear an oath, right then and there, that he’d never touch another woman. I had it sealed in blood and everything. He didn’t know why, because he didn’t know about you. I guess I came off looking like a jealous, paranoid bride, but I wasn’t going to take the chance of him fathering any more of you.”
“My family...” I sank onto the chair arm again, struggling to think through this barrage of information. “Julia didn’t...”
“She tried to find you and your family, but she never could. I found your mother’s name and info in her stuff. In the documentation from when she’d tried to find them herself. And when I tried, I got lucky. You’d left for college.”
Leaving my family vulnerable, without me there to jam their psychic signals...
It was all my fault.
“You had them killed on the chance that I’d be there that weekend?”
Julia chuckled and stepped over the threshold into the living room, Sean close at her back, threatening me with his very presence, while Gran chopped ingredients, evidently oblivious. “That was another stroke of luck. My plan was to flush you out by killing them. Who else would you have had to turn to then, other than your real family? I didn’t know you were there that night until the man I hired showed up for his money.”
That’s why he didn’t look for me. Curtis hadn’t expected more than one daughter.
“So, what now? You’re just going to kill me? So your son can inherit?”
Before Lynn could answer, a streak of movement from behind her caught my eye. Sean made a strange, pain-filled sound and when Lynn turned, I saw Gran standing behind him, her hand still around the hilt of the knife she’d buried in his neck.
My heart nearly burst through my rib cage.
Gran let loose a primal scream of rage, then shoved the dying man at Lynn, who instinctively tried to catch him. But he was heavy, and she was wearing heels. She stumbled beneath his weight and went down on one hip. Without dropping my gun.
Gran stepped around her and I grabbed her hand, then hauled her down the hall with me, away from the psychotic bitch with the gun. “Good timing!” I said, following her into her room.
She frowned at me, confusion shining in her eyes. “Nikki’s dead, isn’t she?”
“Yes, Gran. I’m sorry. But thanks to you, so is that bastard in the kitchen.” I closed the bedroom door and twisted the doorknob lock. And jammed Gran’s rocker beneath the doorknob, for what little good it would do.
Then I lurched across the room toward the window and jerked it open. “Can you make it through?” I asked as Gran stepped into her slippers to protect her feet.
“I’m not that damn old, child!” She bent—she was nimble for a seventy-four-year-old—and I helped her get one leg out of the window, then the other. I lowered her slowly until her feet hit the ground, then handed her the cell phone from her dresser.
“Call Kris!” I said as the first bang of Lynn’s fist shook the bedroom door.
“Sera!” Lynn shouted. “Come out now, or I’ll go find Kenley.”
“You can’t kill her.” For the same reason Julia couldn’t—that would break the bindings she wanted her son to inherit.
“No, but I can take her. And if I do, she won’t be sleeping on silk sheets. I’m not going to pamper her like Jake did. I watched him for years, Sera. I saw every mistake he made.”
“I’m sorry, Sera. You seem like a sweet girl. But there’s no place for sweet girls in this city, and there’s certainly no place for them in the Tower syndicate.”
“But...I don’t want the syndicate. If you’ll just listen...” If she’d just let me explain that I was going to set them all free, surely...
“That’s good. And if you’d been willing to give it up, I would have let you walk away. But rumor has it you want to disband the syndicate. Honestly, you’ve been difficult from the beginning, and that little stunt you pulled with the texting campaign...” Disgust shone in her eyes. “I can’t let you give it all away. This syndicate belongs to my children. It’s their father’s life’s work, and you are not going to take that from us.”
I heard her, but the part that kept playing over and over in my head was... “The beginning? What does that mean? What’s the beginning?”
Nonononono...! But I understood, even before she could say it.
“The hiding, Sera. You’ve been hiding from me for years. At least, that’s what I thought until Julia let it slip that you’re a Jammer. Just like Jake.”
“You were looking for me? Before Jake died?” The House of Crazy was full of guns. Any other time, I’d be tripping over them, but now, when I needed one, there were none to be found.
“At first. For nearly a decade,” Lynn admitted. “Then I gave up for a while. I thought maybe you were dead—how else could Tracker after Tracker fail to find you?”
“Did Jake know?”
“Of course not. If he’d known about you, he would have wanted you. To raise you. I only knew because Julia told me. To hurt me. On the morning of my wedding, that bitch leaned in like she’d hug me and instead told me that my husband had a lover and a bastard daughter.”
She’d known all along? She and Julia had both known about me?
“I made him swear an oath, right then and there, that he’d never touch another woman. I had it sealed in blood and everything. He didn’t know why, because he didn’t know about you. I guess I came off looking like a jealous, paranoid bride, but I wasn’t going to take the chance of him fathering any more of you.”
“My family...” I sank onto the chair arm again, struggling to think through this barrage of information. “Julia didn’t...”
“She tried to find you and your family, but she never could. I found your mother’s name and info in her stuff. In the documentation from when she’d tried to find them herself. And when I tried, I got lucky. You’d left for college.”
Leaving my family vulnerable, without me there to jam their psychic signals...
It was all my fault.
“You had them killed on the chance that I’d be there that weekend?”
Julia chuckled and stepped over the threshold into the living room, Sean close at her back, threatening me with his very presence, while Gran chopped ingredients, evidently oblivious. “That was another stroke of luck. My plan was to flush you out by killing them. Who else would you have had to turn to then, other than your real family? I didn’t know you were there that night until the man I hired showed up for his money.”
That’s why he didn’t look for me. Curtis hadn’t expected more than one daughter.
“So, what now? You’re just going to kill me? So your son can inherit?”
Before Lynn could answer, a streak of movement from behind her caught my eye. Sean made a strange, pain-filled sound and when Lynn turned, I saw Gran standing behind him, her hand still around the hilt of the knife she’d buried in his neck.
My heart nearly burst through my rib cage.
Gran let loose a primal scream of rage, then shoved the dying man at Lynn, who instinctively tried to catch him. But he was heavy, and she was wearing heels. She stumbled beneath his weight and went down on one hip. Without dropping my gun.
Gran stepped around her and I grabbed her hand, then hauled her down the hall with me, away from the psychotic bitch with the gun. “Good timing!” I said, following her into her room.
She frowned at me, confusion shining in her eyes. “Nikki’s dead, isn’t she?”
“Yes, Gran. I’m sorry. But thanks to you, so is that bastard in the kitchen.” I closed the bedroom door and twisted the doorknob lock. And jammed Gran’s rocker beneath the doorknob, for what little good it would do.
Then I lurched across the room toward the window and jerked it open. “Can you make it through?” I asked as Gran stepped into her slippers to protect her feet.
“I’m not that damn old, child!” She bent—she was nimble for a seventy-four-year-old—and I helped her get one leg out of the window, then the other. I lowered her slowly until her feet hit the ground, then handed her the cell phone from her dresser.
“Call Kris!” I said as the first bang of Lynn’s fist shook the bedroom door.
“Sera!” Lynn shouted. “Come out now, or I’ll go find Kenley.”
“You can’t kill her.” For the same reason Julia couldn’t—that would break the bindings she wanted her son to inherit.
“No, but I can take her. And if I do, she won’t be sleeping on silk sheets. I’m not going to pamper her like Jake did. I watched him for years, Sera. I saw every mistake he made.”
