Page 30 of In the Shadows

“I want a family meeting tonight. There’s a lot going on in the business right now, and I want to make sure we’re all on the same page.”

His eyes flicker to Camilla, and I wait for him to argue. He doesn’t like leaving her when she’s hurt, especially when she hasn’t dealt with the fact her father is dead. Those emotions are bound to come because when you lose someone close to you, lose the person who raised you, it breaks a part of you that you never get back. I understand that better than most after losing my brother.

I shake myself off just in time for Bishop to sigh. “We can set it up for tonight when Camilla is asleep.”

I nod and turn on my heel to leave. I can’t stay in this room another moment. It’s fucking stifling being in an enclosed space with her, even when she doesn’t know I’m there.

“Dad?” Bishop calls after me, and I look over my shoulder at him. “For what it’s worth, I think she’s the perfect fit for us.”

I steel my face, not giving anything away, even to the man who can see through every lie. “That remains to be seen.”

Before he can respond, I wrench the door open and slip out into the hallway, dragging in a breath.

Camilla may not realize it, but she just might be the only thing that can kill the demons inside us.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

KOVU

My obsession with Camilla only seems to grow by the day.

Every day I wake up thinking I can’t crave her any more than I did the day before, and every night I realize that was a false hope.

My mind is almost as clear as it normally is after a fresh kill. Blood has always been what settled my racing thoughts, the thoughts and memories that have always made living and breathing hard. But my little lamb seems to be the same kind of antidote.

It probably helps that every night I sleep beside her, I sleep soundly. The only thing that’s ever helped me sleep before is a handful of prescription pills, and even then, it’s a fifty-fifty chance whether it will work or not.

Bishop is working in the armchair when I slip out of the guest room and head for the gym. As much as I love spending time with Camilla, I’m not used to being still for long periods of time, and I need to keep my reflexes fast if Davenport is going to keep up his vendetta to get us out of the position he helped vote us into.

The sound of fists on a punching bag and loud metal music is all the evidence I need that Kaos has beaten me in this morning. Usually it’s me in here at the asscrack of dawn because I can’t sleep for more than a few hours at a time, but I’ve been sleeping later this week, basking in the time with Camilla even when she’s still fast asleep.

I spot Kaos on the other side of the room the moment I shove through the door. The gym is fucking massive, but it needs to be to hold a fighting ring, cardio and weights equipment, and a sparring space big enough for men the size of us.

His fists slam into the bag over and over again, anger etched into his brow as he throws everything he has into every punch. I try to think back to a time when he was this worked up, but I come up empty. The last time he was like this was when his father died. It was a rough time for all of us, but for obvious reasons, he took it the hardest.

He didn’t eat or sleep. All he did was kill and drink. He wanted answers that we were never going to get, and the rest of us were beyond being able to save him from himself. We were all dealing in our own way.

I was never as close to Caleb as I am to Crew. Crew was the one who found me, who helped me, who gave me a place to live and taught me how to channel my anger in a productive way. But Caleb was always there as someone I could turn to when I had no one. He and Crew raised the three of us, they dragged us up from poverty to where we are now. They worked tirelessly to make sure we always ate, even if it meant they didn’t. He deserved more than the end he got.

I cross the gym and turn the music down to a decibel that doesn’t give me a headache. Our music tastes are similar, but he tends to turn it up much louder than I do.

“Hey,” he snaps. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“You know, listening to metal at that volume isn’t going to drown out the voices in your head.” I cross my arms over my T-shirt covered chest.

“Fuck off, Kovu. Don’t act like you know it all just because a tiny piece of ass is letting you sleep next to her every night.”

I blow out a breath to disperse the red creeping into my vision. He’s lashing out. He’s trying to hurt me because he’s hurting. Kids who grow up surrounded by violence are known to do shit like this. I sure as hell do it myself.

“What crawled up your ass and died this morning?” I smirk.

He turns his body toward mine, the punching bag all but forgotten. His glare would probably knock a lesser man on his ass, but Kaos and I are best friends, brothers even, and I’m not scared of him, even if he wishes I was. “You fucking know what, Kovu. Don’t act like her being here isn’t dangerous for us all. She could fucking end us, don’t you see that?”

I remain rooted in place, the same smile playing on my lips knowing it will rile him further. He needs to hit someone, and it’s been too long since I’ve felt pain. My skin is starting to itch with the need for it.

“If you and Bishop could think without your cocks, we wouldn’t be in this mess. He should have just left her in the fucking alley to die. It would have been better for all of us.” He steps closer to me. He’s making himself angrier with every vile thing that spews from his mouth, so I don’t bother fueling the fire.

“Are you going to say something?” he snaps.

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