Page 36 of From the Ashes

Charles’s gaze is locked on where my hand holds her waist in a possessive gesture, while Caleb can’t tear his eyes off the way Camilla rests her cheek against my chest.

I’m happy to assume what it is they’re doing here, but I can’t quite grasp why they’d come to Camilla before the other families. I know they haven’t approached Leroy Thorne yet, and I doubt he’s gone to Miriam Sterling or Christopher Knight either. Not that they would have told us if they had, but we have someone in each organization that feeds us information about the old-timers in case they ever get any ideas.

Charles pushes to his feet and fastens the buttons of his jacket as Caleb follows his lead. “Thank you for your time, Camilla. Perhaps give our offer some consideration. We’ll be in touch.”

She nods politely, and we watch as they stalk out of the room toward the elevators, but it’s not until we hear the lift ding that she relaxes into my touch before pulling away from me.

I feel the loss immediately but force myself not to reach for her. The last seventy-two hours have been the definition of a shitshow, and I want nothing more than to take my girl home and fuck her until neither of us can move, we’re so spent. But alas, I very much doubt that’ll be happening today.

“Thanks for that,” she says as she lowers herself into her seat and turns her computer on, all but excusing me.

“I was on my way to see you anyway,” I tell her as I quickly move down the hallway to where I abandoned our drinks and baked goods before returning with them a few seconds later.

Her eyes lock on the coffee, and I pass it to her without a word, watching as she takes a few sips. “Thank you. It was way too early to be dealing with those two giving me an ultimatum.” She half laughs as she goes in for more coffee.

“An ultimatum?”

She nods. “Pretty much help overthrow you, disappear, or die. Really good options they gave me.” She smirks, but every muscle inside my body tenses. If we didn’t already know they were gunning for us, this is all the evidence we need, but what I don’t understand is why.

Why has Caleb teamed up with Davenport?

Why does he want to bring down the Syndicate when he was such an integral part of putting it together?

And why would they come to Camilla, of all people, as a starting point?

There are so many things that don’t make sense at the moment, and I don’t even know where to start.

I round the desk and crouch beside her chair, turning it until she’s facing me. “I think you need to come back to the compound.”

“No,” she replies immediately, shaking her head.

“Camilla,” I warn.

“No, Bishop. I am not coming back to the compound. Not today, and maybe not ever. I need some time and some space, and seeing as I left you twenty-four hours and so far, two of you have invaded my space, I’m really not getting that time or space, am I?”

I force out a calming breath, hoping it’ll do anything to release the tension in my shoulders, but somehow I don’t think that’ll happen until I’m certain she’s safe.

She’s a Mafia boss, is she ever going to be truly safe? The thought catches me off guard.

But I guess that goes for all of us. Will any of us really be safe while we hold our positions? It’s not like we can bring kids into this world, and even if we could, is that something I would want? I’ve never given it a thought before, always assuming we would never meet someone that could seamlessly fit into our lives, but then I never saw Camilla De Marco coming.

She’ll need to have at least one child to be the heir to her throne, so where does that leave us?

She watches me closely with her stormy gaze, but I’m frozen in place. The thought of living the rest of my life without her by my side paralyzes me, and I realize I can’t allow that to happen. I won’t.

I drop my hands to her knees, craving any kind of contact I can get. “I know you’re mad, Cami, and you have every right to be. I’ll talk to the guys, and we’ll try to give you some space, but you have to understand it goes against our nature, and you know as well as I do that Kovu is going to do whatever the fuck he can to be close to you.”

She half laughs but doesn’t interrupt me.

“I’m sorry we didn’t tell you sooner. I can give you every excuse under the sun, but none of it is going to make up for the fact we didn’t, nor will it make up for our involvement in your father’s death. But don’t let our mistakes ruin what we’re building between us, because I can tell you right now that you’re the only woman that has ever made Crew relax and have fun, you’re the only person that can help Kovu sleep, you’re the only woman that can go toe to toe with Kaos and come out on top, and you’re the only person I ever want to see when I wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night.”

I force myself to my feet because, even though it’s the last thing I want to do right now, I need to leave. She’s asked for space, and even though my caveman tendencies are telling me I should just throw her over my shoulder and take her back to the compound, regardless of what she thinks about it, that won’t help repair what we’ve already broken.

Fuck, look at me knowing what to do in a relationship.

“If you see anything out of the ordinary, let us know, and we’ll be here as quickly as we can. I know you can take care of yourself, but we like to take care of you too.” I start toward the door, every muscle in my body screaming at me to turn back around. “And when you’re ready to talk, we’ll be here waiting.”

I don’t give her the chance to reply before I stalk toward the elevator with my chest aching with every step I take away from her.

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