to hide my stunned reaction. “You can inherit someone else’s bindings?”
Kris shrugged. “Only under certain circumstances.”
“With very well-thought-out contracts,” Kori added.
Ian took her hand. “And the strength of one of the world’s best binders.”
“So...what you’re saying is that when Jake Tower died, his sister inherited all of the bindings that tied his employees to him? So they’re now her employees?” I’d known she’d taken over the business, but I’d assumed any employees blood bound to her had taken the oath voluntarily, after Jake died. But if I understood what they were saying, none of those employees had been given any choice in the matter. Their contracts had been transferred without their approval.
“Yes,” Kori said. “Which means she can’t kill Kenley without losing nearly every employee she has.”
But I hardly heard her. That made no sense. Why would Jake leave his employees to his sister, but his business assets—properties and capital, presumably—to his oldest living heir?
He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t leave the employees to Julia and the cash and infrastructure to...me. Those bindings were part of his business holdings. They had to be.
I sat back in my chair, stunned.
I hadn’t just inherited money and buildings, and whatever dummy corporations they were shielded by. I’d inherited people. Dozens of them. Hundreds, maybe.
I’d inherited the fucking mafia!
With sudden, nearly blinding clarity, I understood why Julia had wanted me to sign away any claim to my inheritance and why, when that fell through, she’d been willing to kill me. As long as I lived, the Tower empire wouldn’t truly be hers.
Kris saw the shock on my face and shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “I know. It’s kind of creepy to think about.” But he didn’t know. Not what I knew, anyway. “But those bindings are the only thing keeping Kenley breathing, and that’ll only last until Julia has a chance to rebind the employees to her directly, using another Binder. Cutting both Jake and Kenley out of the process. She’s already started, and once she’s finished, she won’t need Kenley alive.”
“Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t be able to rebind them,” Vanessa said. “We all signed non-competition clauses from the start. But since she’d be rebinding them to the same organization, just under different leadership, the noncompetition clause doesn’t seem to be functioning like we’d like it to.” She shrugged thin shoulders. “Or at all. Fortunately, it’ll take her a while to break all the bindings and institute new ones, making Kenley completely obsolete.”
“Okay. Give me a minute.” I gripped the edge of the table. My head was spinning. The whole damn room was spinning. “How sure are you that Julia Tower inherited all that from her brother?”
Kori and Kris glanced at one another and something unspoken passed between them, but it was his sister who answered. “Trust me—Jake’s people would never follow orders from Julia unless they had to.”
Okay, that made sense. But nothing else seemed to. I needed more information, but I couldn’t outright ask for it. “Why would he leave everything to his sister instead of his wife? Or his kids?” What I really wanted to know was how Julia had wound up with what he’d intended to leave to his children.
“He left some stuff to Lynn,” Kori said. “Personal stuff. The house is hers, but Julia gets to live and operate there, because it’s always been the home base of the syndicate. But Jake would never have left business stuff to Lynn. She knows next to nothing about what he does, other than that it’s illegal, immoral and pays very, very well.”
“And technically, he did leave the business to his kids. The oldest, anyway.” Kris looked disgusted by the mention of the little...rascal. “His name’s Kevin. But he can’t inherit until he’s twenty-one, and until then, Julia has total control.”
“Power of attorney?” That would explain her obvious authority.
“More like regent.” Kris scooted his chair closer to the table and met my gaze with a solemn one of his own. “No one thinks either of Jake’s kids will make it to twenty-one. Julia can’t afford to let that happen. She’s not allowed to hurt them, or outright ask anyone else to, but she had the same restrictions with Jake and still managed to have him assassinated.”
Everyone glanced at Ian, who nodded solemnly—Julia had used him to kill her brother.
“How do you know all this?” Surely the Towers hadn’t advertised the terms of Jake’s will...
“Kenley.” Kris smiled at the mention of her name. “She bound Julia as the executor of his will.”
The executor. Not