Page 15 of They Will Burn

My phone buzzes around my desk, and I reach for it without checking the caller ID. “This is Crew.”

“Crew, it’s Noah, how are you?”

A loaded question if I’d ever heard one. Noah Thorne is the heir to his family’s business and has recently started taking some of the work off his father’s plate. The Thornes are the main source of arms in the city, and I think he’s exactly what the family and, by association, the Syndicate needs to breathe new life into the business.

“I’m fine. Yourself?”

“I’m good. I was just calling to check something with you.” His tone is uncertain, not exactly an emotion I’ve come to expect from him. “I just got an invite from Charles Davenport for his bachelor party. Were you aware he’s getting married?”

I tighten my hold on my phone until the device groans beneath the force, and I’m made to release my grip before I shatter it in my hand. “I wasn’t.”

“I thought as much. Listen, I assume you’ll get an invite, but if not, he’s having it at his strip club. I thought you should know.”

“Thanks, Noah. I appreciate the heads-up. Can you forward me the details?”

“Sure thing.” He hangs up, and I toss my phone onto the desk as anger burns in my chest.

That motherfucker thinks he’s marrying my woman?

Absolutely fucking not.

After a few quick deep breaths, I reach for my phone and send a text to the group chat.

Crew: Family meeting. My office. Now.

It doesn’t take long for the three of them to make it up to my office, but unsurprisingly, Kovu is the last to arrive. Each of them looks as if they haven’t slept, and I rub my hand over my own tired eyes. This is weighing on us all in a way I wasn’t expecting, but then, the way each of us fell for Camilla wasn’t something I expected either.

The little menace has been the exception to every single one of our rules.

Kovu stands behind Kaos and Bishop, who are perched on the chairs across from me at the desk. I push my phone across the desk for them to each read the message I received from Noah a few minutes after I called them here.

“Motherfucker,” Kovu growls, his hands curling into fists, and the scars across his face pulling under the pressure.

Bishop shoves his chair back so hard it flips to its back, the solid wood cracking as it comes into contact with the ground, before he starts pacing the length of the office.

Kaos remains seated, his head falling into his hands. This is the first time I’ve called on him to be a part of any of our plans to get Camilla back, but it’s clear he regrets the role he’s played. Truthfully, if I were faced with the same choice, I’m not sure what I would have done. I don’t know if I would have left one of them there and kept Camilla, or if I would have done exactly as he did.

“We have to get her out of there,” Bishop forces out through gritted teeth. “God fucking knows what he’s already done to her.”

“I’m hoping that the knowledge that she’s a virgin will keep her safe until their wedding night, which will never happen.” I sigh. “But, with a man like Davenport, it’s hard to tell whether he’ll go the traditional route or not.”

Bishop pauses his pacing, and his eyes widen at the same time Kovu turns to him.

“You haven’t told them?” Kovu growls.

“How the fuck do you know?” Bishop asks incredulously.

“I think you underestimate my obsession with my little lamb.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I shout. There’s nothing I hate more than being out of the loop.

“Bishop took her virginity the day she was taken. She was probably still fucking bleeding when Kaos handed her over.”

I turn to my son at the same time Kaos does, and he stares back at us, his shoulders pulled back. “It just happened. I didn’t have time to tell anyone afterward because we went on that fucking mission. I was going to tell you all when we got back, but then everything went to shit.”

I release a breath, forcing the jealousy down before it can rear its ugly head. I shouldn’t be mad he was the one to do it. He was the one who found her, the one who nursed her back to health while I had my head up my ass and Kaos was hating her. The only other one of us it made sense to be is Kovu, and his tastes are too dark for someone’s first time.

But none of that matters as I glare at my son for taking something that I craved taking myself.

---