“But he can’t…touch you?”

Shit. This was the part I really didn’t want Cam to know. “He gets to…um…” I closed my eyes, trying to remember the exact wording. “‘Physically express either his pleasure or displeasure with my performance.’”

“Which means he gets to feel you up and hit you.” Anger bled into his features and the couch groaned beneath him as he leaned back.

“Yes, up to a point. But I get to hit back.” Also up to a point.

“Damn it, Liv!” Cam stood and stomped across the room, a spring coiled tight and ready to burst free. “Why would you agree to that?”

“Because he had the advantage and I needed the job.” Worse than Cam would ever know. “At the time, I thought I was being smart for insisting on limits, but it turns out I’m not as good with contract language as I thought I was.”

“I hear some people spend years in law school studying that very thing.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t have years and I don’t know any lawyers. But I think I did pretty well, considering what I had to work with. He can’t make me sleep with him or with anyone else, and he can’t use weapons against me or do any permanent damage. Those were my deal-breakers.”

“I’d like to break him.” Cam pulled me up and wrapped his arms around me, speaking into my hair. “I can’t stand the thought of his hands on you.”

That made two of us. And that part would only get worse—if he knew Cam and I were together again, Ruben would get possessive and start pushing boundaries, just to demonstrate his own power. But Cam didn’t need to know that.

“And he has to let me make a living, even while the mark is live,” I said, to redirect the conversation. “That’s why I needed a retainer from Anne. Without it, she’s not an official client, and he can call me away from this little project anytime he wants, to put me back on his.”

“Oh.” Cam’s brows rose in an almost-grin. “If I didn’t think it’d offend you, I’d offer to pay for your time permanently, just so he’d have to let you see me.”

I laughed, in spite of the circumstances. “As insulting—yet sweet—as that is, it only works with tracking jobs. I can track for other people, as long as they’re paying me.”

“Funny you should say that. I just happen to have lost touch with my kindergarten teacher. And my girlfriend from fourth grade. And the obstetrician who delivered me. In fact, I’m pretty sure I could keep you busy—and officially employed—for the rest of your life.”

I laughed again, and it felt good. “You’re just stupid enough to try it, too, aren’t you?etrician w

“I think the word you’re looking for is brilliant. I’m brilliant enough to try it. And yes, I told you I’d do whatever it takes. Knowing about your mark doesn’t change that.”

I leaned forward and kissed him. And it felt so good, I did it again. And when he pulled me onto the couch with him, I went willingly, sparing a moment of pure gratitude for the fact that this stolen moment was even possible, in the midst of the violence and chaos defining both of our lives in general, and this job for Anne in particular.

“How long have you been bound to him?” Cam lay on his side against the back of the couch, and I lay on my back next to him. He ran his fingers slowly up and down my left arm, just brushing the lower edge of the bandage.

“A year and a half.”

His hand went still on my arm. “You’ve been looking for one person for a year and a half?”

“It’s pretty…complicated.” To say the very, very least.

“It’s busywork, Liv,” Cam insisted, frowning down at me from inches away. “He’s playing you. Whoever you’re looking for is dead. That’s why you can’t find him. Or her.”

I shook my head against the couch pillow, wishing we’d never have to move past that moment in time, with him pressed against me and the worst six years of my life rendered a distant memory, even if that meant having to talk about my work for Cavazos for eternity. “It’s a him. And he’s alive. Every time I try, I get just the faintest pull from his paternal middle name.”

“You’re name-tracking? Why would you even bother?” Cam asked. Then he realized what he’d said, and how I might take it, and shook his head, backtracking with an apologetic smile. “Not that you can’t track by name. But you’re so much better with blood…”

The story of my life…

“Unfortunately, we don’t have a blood sample, and even if we did, it’d be too old to be of much use. All we have to go on is one middle name.”

Cam stretched to prop himself on his elbow. “Liv, that’s crazy. I don’t know that I could find someone based only on a single middle name. How can he expect you to?”

He expected it because I’d sworn on my liberty that I could deliver within two years. “I’ll do it. I have to.” Because I wasn’t the only one who would pay if I defaulted on my contract.

“I don’t think he really wants you to,” Cam insisted. “He put his mark on your thigh and he’s obviously been pushing the boundaries of what he’s allowed to do to you.” He looked as if the mere thought made him want to vomit—as it did me. “He wants you to fail, so he can keep you indefinitely. He’s probably counting on you wanting to renegotiate down the road, when you realize you can’t find whatever obscure goose he’s picked for you to chase.”