Page 71 of They Will Burn

Another gurney appears beside me, and I glance down at it and then at the nurse, who looks at me expectantly. “She’s hurt too, yes?” she asks impatiently.

My eyes fall closed for a moment, and I force myself to place her on the hard bed. The white sheets are immediately stained with a mixture of hers and Crew’s blood, and then the nurses are pushing both gurneys into the hospital with the three of us on their heels.

I’m about to ask Kaos if he wants to move his car when he throws the keys at the security guard along with a wad of cash before walking away without a word. There’s a chance we’ll never see the car again, but I don’t think any of us gives a shit right now.

Camilla and my dad disappear through double doors, and when we move to step through after them, a nurse blocks our path.

“You can’t go back there,” she says calmly.

“Like hell we can’t,” Kovu barks. He’s held himself together to get them here, but the wheels are falling off, and he’s moments away from losing his ever-loving mind.

The nurse doesn’t flinch, and I give her credit for that. Kovu is a scary motherfucker, anyone who’s ever met him would agree. Between the tattoos and scars that cover his body and his general persona, he scares just about everyone he meets.

“I understand you want to be with them, but right now they both need to be assessed, and I believe your father will need to go straight into emergency surgery. If you’re back there, you may unknowingly get in the way, which could cost us precious time we may not have.”

I nod and look at Kovu, who’s still glaring at her like she’s the enemy, but after a few more seconds of their stare-off, he too nods.

“I’m going to get the three of you set up in a private family room, and we will make sure we give you frequent updates about both their conditions, but I need you to let us do our jobs. Okay?”

Another round of nods, and she gives us a small smile before turning on her heel and heading down another hallway, not bothering to look back to make sure we’re following. I’ll give her credit, the tiny older woman just stood up to three of the most feared men in the city and didn’t even bat an eye. I wonder if Rogers needs a nurse to help him.

She leads us into a small waiting room, and I eye the plastic chairs warily. There’s no way Kaos is fitting into one of those, but none of us are going to be willing to leave, so he may not have a choice.

“I’ll get you an update as soon as we have one.” She disappears from the room before we have a chance to respond, and we stand in the doorway for long seconds while we begin to process everything that has happened.

“She saved his life,” Kaos croaks, and I turn to look at my cousin. There’s something in his eyes I haven’t seen in a long time. Not since Bianca, and my heart seizes in my chest. He loves her. Just like I do. Just like we all do.

“Even with her own injuries, she still did everything she could to save him,” Kovu agrees.

I slump down into one of the chairs and lean my head against the wall and do something a man like me should never do.

I pray.

I pray that my dad survives. I pray that Camilla’s okay. And I pray that we get the chance to be a family. That all five of us have the opportunity to be a part of something we’ve never truly had before.

And even when I swear I can hear God laughing at the devil who dares to ask him for anything, I keep praying anyway.

Because I can’t lose them.

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

KOVU

Ican’t sit still, because the longer I do, the more the sight of blood all over my little lamb slams into me, and despite my penance for blood, it appears I don’t like seeing her hurt in a way I didn’t cause. I’m driving Kaos and Bishop mad with my pacing, but the alternative is tearing this place apart, and I don’t think that’s an option they would prefer.

Over and over again, I think about what we could have done differently. How I should have followed her last night when she slipped out of bed instead of letting her walk into that trap with only one of us by her side.

I should have gone to the safe house as soon as I found out she was there.

There are a hundred and one things I should have done, but I didn’t do any of them, and that’s why we’re here.

Kaos is sitting on the linoleum floor in the corner. He tried to sit in one of the seats and quickly found he was too large for the rigid plastic. His head rests on his knees, and he hasn’t said a word since we accepted that this is where we’ll be until there’s news.

Bishop has been on the phone doing damage control. We left an almighty mess at the safe house, and we need to take care of that before someone walks through the gaping hole where a door used to exist and finds bodies littering the place.

He’s already spoken to the chief of police and the clean-up crew, and I can tell he’s dreading the next call he makes. We need to work out exactly who put out the hit on Camilla, and to do that, we need to act quickly. We can’t wait for things to settle down, we can’t wait to make sure she’s okay or that Crew pulls through. We need to draw them out.

“Do you want me to call them?” I ask, reaching out for the phone.

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