Page 64 of They Will Burn

He chuckles, and when his smile lingers for a few extra seconds, I fall even harder for the elusive man. I’m in so deep at this point I’m not sure I could walk away even if I had to, but I might not have a choice. The longer I stay with them and allow things to escalate between us, the more danger we’re all in.

But if I end things, will I still be able to work with them? Could I handle sitting across the table from them in meetings and leaning on them for support if my leadership were threatened?

I don’t think so.

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

BISHOP

The traffic cam footage plays on loop in front of me, and the heart I was sure never existed suddenly clenches at the idea of Camilla being hurt.

And she is.

They were driving through an intersection when that asshole clipped her, and the camera caught the agony on her face before she dropped back into the car and out of sight from the angle I was watching.

I have to assume they made it to the safe house, but I make a note for myself to upgrade the security once we make sure my dad and Camilla are safe. The lack of cameras in the place is a concern, especially if we’ll potentially have to use it more now that there’s more than just the four of us.

“How are you going with IDing these assholes?” I ask Wyatt. He’s been quiet on the other end of the line for the last few minutes while I’ve been driving myself crazy watching my girl get shot. I need to know she’s okay, but I force myself not to message either of them.

It would be useless anyway. Camilla’s phone is still in the car that was towed by one of our guys not too long ago, and Crew’s was switched off before he even left the car.

“I think they’re part of the De Marco organization,” he tells me distractedly. “None of them are major players, which is making it a little more difficult to ID them.”

I sigh and rub my hands down my face. I’m not surprised Michael and Scott have hit back after the way Camilla took back her crown, but this is bold even for them. The issue is, though, we can’t get in the middle of infighting within an organization. We’re here to keep the peace between the families, but what happens internally isn’t really any of our business.

Except Camilla is our business. She has been since I scooped her into my arms and carried her broken body into our home.

“I’ll send over the stills I’ve got from the footage if you want to get Camilla to see if she recognizes anyone?”

“Thanks man. I appreciate it.”

I hang up and press play on the footage again. I can’t fucking believe she got that far out of the car to return fire. If she thought the punishment I gave her last week was bad, she’s not going to like what’s coming to her after putting herself in this much danger.

“Hey, your dad and Cami aren’t back yet?” Kovu asks on a yawn, and I glance over the screen to find him shirtless and leaning against the doorframe.

I shake my head and nod to the screen in front of me. “They were ambushed. As far as I can tell, they’re at the safe house near the Scarlet Lounge.”

His eyes flare with anger, and I watch as his fists clench so tight I swear one of his knuckles cracks beneath the pressure. The sleepy giant is quickly replaced with the brutal monster who scares everyone who has ever met him, and I suddenly question if I should have perhaps kept my mouth shut until we knew more.

“What do you mean, as far as you can tell?” he growls.

“Their trackers are bouncing off the towers in the area, but they had four men on their tails when they took off from the scene, and there aren’t enough cameras in the area for me to be sure they made it there without company.” Part of me wonders if I should lie to him, just to stop him from tearing apart my office, but that’s not something we do. We’re always honest with one another, even when it may be the easier route to lie.

His bare chest rises and falls in heavy breaths, and I calmly stand, switching off the footage before he can see Camilla get shot. Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to help matters.

“Crew won’t let anything happen to her,” I soothe. “And she’s been trained for this. Our girl isn’t a damsel in distress by any stretch of the imagination.”

His wild eyes meet mine, and I see something I don’t think I’ve ever seen in him before.

Fear.

He’s scared to lose her. He’s scared something is going to happen to her. And for the first time since we brought her into our lives, I wonder if maybe Crew and Kaos were right when she first came. Having her here is dangerous for all of us, but I’ll be damned if I allow her to leave us.

“Wyatt is working on figuring out who is responsible for the hit, but we believe it was her uncle and cousin,” I tell him, hoping with more information he’ll be able to calm himself down. “We don’t want to completely rule out Davenport, but I’m going to have Kaos reach out to Knox and find out if he knows anything.”

The tension is still coiled tight in his shoulders, and I can tell he’s a second away from destroying everything he can reach.

“Kovu, I need you to listen to me for a second,” I say firmly, and his attention shoots to me. It’s usually Crew that pulls him out of these moods, but he’s not here right now, meaning it lands on my shoulders. “There are going to be times when Camilla is in danger. It comes with the territory of not only being the leader of the De Marcos, but also being our woman. We cannot keep her locked up here where we know she’s safe, no matter how badly we want to do that. What we do need is to trust is her training, and that she will do everything in her power to come back to us. Okay?”

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