Page 4 of From the Ashes

Our guys took him to the morgue.

We had a fucking funeral for him.

How the fuck is he just walking around the city, and why has he never come to see us?

“We beefed up security for tonight, something like this never should have been able to happen.” Kovu drops his head against Camilla’s shoulder.

“Should we have stayed? To talk to anyone? Clean something up?” Camilla asks, her eyes darting between us. She doesn’t understand how things work in our business, but it’s clear that’s what she would have done if anything like this had happened to a De Marco property.

“No, Little Menace. It was more dangerous having us there than us letting our team deal with it,” Crew placates her, and for a moment I’m tempted to laugh at the idea of him comforting anyone, let alone the tiny woman he was ready to bend over and spank before we left this evening.

I swallow past the lump in my throat and down the remaining liquor in my glass. “There’s something I need to tell you.” I pause until I’m sure all eyes are on me. “Caleb’s alive.”

CHAPTER THREE

CREW

Iheard him wrong.

I had to have heard him wrong.

Because the alternative is way too fucking crazy for me to consider.

“What did you say?” I grind out, my fist tightening around my glass.

Kaos lets out a stuttering breath. “Caleb is alive. He was there tonight. And Camilla’s met him before.”

I turn my gaze to her in Kovu’s lap, her bottom lip is caught between her teeth as she tries, and fails, to remain calm about all that’s happened tonight. It feels like our entire relationship so far has been shrouded in danger, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change anytime soon.

“I met him at Charles’s penthouse,” she tells us, and if I thought I couldn’t get any closer to the edge, I was sincerely incorrect. “He came to my room the night of the bachelor party, but wouldn’t give me his name.” She swallows down what’s left in her glass. “And then I saw him again at the cemetery, but the way he disappeared made me think maybe he was a figment of my grief-stricken imagination, you know?”

Bishop reaches for her hand, and she takes it without hesitation, squeezing his fingers.

“And then the night Crew and I were ambushed, he was there in the hospital right before you all came into my room. He’s who said you were better at protecting me than he thought you’d be.”

A deafening ringing in my ears is all I hear for long moments. I don’t know if they keep speaking or if they’re waiting for me to say something, but for the first time in my life, I’m speechless.

Not only is my brother alive, but the man who basically raised me and helped me raise my own son alongside his is still walking the streets of New York, and we had no fucking idea. And not just that, he’s actively been trying to harm our woman, and we had no clue?

Fuck.

I shove myself to my feet, ignoring the way my stitches protest against the quick movement, and do something very uncharacteristic for me.

I pace.

Up and down the office, like the heavy footfall will do anything to clear my mind, to push me past the initial shock of the news and into acceptance.

There are so many issues that come with Caleb rising from the dead, not least of which is the fact he didn’t tell us he was alive, or that he knows every single thing about our business and how we run it, or that at least one of the leaders of the five families knows and hasn’t bothered to tell us, or that he wants our woman dead.

I turn on my heel to head back toward the sitting area, but come to a grinding halt when I find Camilla standing in front of me. Even after everything that’s happened tonight, she looks like a goddamn wet dream. The dress that Bishop picked for her clings to her body like it was made for her or for me to tear it off her.

That’s how I thought this night was going to end, but boy, was I fucking wrong.

“Little Menace.” The warning comes out on a growl, but she doesn’t flinch.

Instead, she steps into me and wraps her arms around my waist, resting her head against my chest. For long seconds, I just stand in the middle of my office, my hands fisted at my sides, but then her scent washes over me, and I can’t help but wrap her up in my arms where I know she’s safe.

Bishop clears his throat, and I look up to meet his gaze. “Do we think it’s safe to say Caleb is responsible for the issues we’ve been having at the casino and the fight club?”

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