Page 77 of They Will Burn

“Where have you been?” she asks as she tries to sit up, but I pull her back down again. She’s got a headache that she hasn’t been able to shake, and the more she moves, the worse it gets.

“I was killing your uncle and cousin,” he says as he moves around the side of the bed to look down at us both. “How are you feeling, man?”

“I’ll feel a hell of a lot better once we’re out of here. I don’t like being out in the open like this.”

“Hold on, are we just going to skim over what Kovu’s been doing?” Camilla demands, her brows almost comically high.

“They put out a hit on your life, Little Lamb. I couldn’t allow them to keep living.”

She groans, and I can’t help but chuckle, even when it hurts like a bitch. “Guys, you’re meant to be letting me deal with issues within my organization. The more you step in, the more issues we’re going to have with the other families.”

“Don’t worry about it right now, love,” Bishop soothes her, his hand caught in hers, where it’s been since Kaos first laid her down.

“Did they give you anything?” I ask.

“They told me they organized the men, but they weren’t the ones that ordered it. I dropped off their cells with Wyatt on my way back to track the number of the person who initiated it, but we’ll see.”

“It wasn’t them?” Camilla asks, her brows tugging together. “But Kaos said it wasn’t Charles either. Who else could possibly want me out of the picture?”

“No idea,” Kovu sighs. “Michael said he never saw the guy, only ever spoke to him on the phone, but he promised them they would take your place when you died. I don’t know why this asshole thinks he would get to make a call like that.”

“Unless he’s trying to take us out of the picture as well,” Bishop says, and I turn my head to look at my son. His brows are pulled together as he thinks through the situation.

Camilla sits up suddenly, her hand flying to her head as the pain of the movement hits her, while I grunt at the sudden jolt. Fuck, the sooner I get back to the compound and have some painkillers, the better.

“Whoa there, Princess.” Kaos holds out his arms to ensure she doesn’t jostle the bed anymore.

“There was a man in my room when I woke up,” she says, pain etched into her voice. “I’ve met him before. Once at the Davenport penthouse on the night of Charles’s bachelor party, and then again that day in the cemetery.”

“Why didn’t you tell us before?” I demand.

She swallows. “I…I don’t know. I didn’t think anything of it. Every time he’s shown up, I’ve already been overwhelmed, I guess it’s just slipped my mind.” She rubs at her temples, and I realize she’s trying to remember something. “He said…he said he underestimated your ability to keep me safe, and that it was unfortunate that I survived.”

“Fuck,” Kovu growls, but my focus is on the woman who has so easily become the center of our world and who could so easily be taken from us.

“This isn’t about Camilla at all,” Bishop murmurs, and I shake my head as I look at each member of my family.

“No. Whoever this is wants to take us down, and I suspect killing Camilla is just the beginning of that plan.”

But what they don’t realize is that there’s nothing we won’t do to keep her safe.

I’ll burn this fucking city to the ground before I allow any further harm to come to my little menace.

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

KAOS

Crew only had to spend one night in the hospital before Rogers managed to pull enough strings to get him discharged into his care.

The tension that melted from each of us once we were locked inside the iron fortress we call home was thick, and I think we all felt better when Crew finally took some painkillers. He’s a grouchy asshole when he’s in pain, and we were all sick of dealing with him.

Except for Camilla. Even after finding out it wasn’t anything she had done to cause the hit, she felt responsible, so Crew’s got himself his very own nurse. Something he’s not even pretending not to be smug as hell about, mind you.

We’re no closer to figuring out who tried to take Crew and Camilla down, and with each day that passes, the threat only seems to grow.

Camilla called in one of her dad’s right-hand men, Luca Monroe, to cover for her for a while, and he was more than happy to help. She needs a second in charge, and after the background check we had Wyatt do came back clear for anything that pointed toward him being likely to backstab her, we were content to see how it plays out.

“We are not going to that fight,” Camilla snaps, her gray eyes full of barely contained anger as she glares at Crew.

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