Page 37 of From the Ashes

I have no idea when it happened, but somewhere along the way, Camilla became my reason for breathing.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

KAOS

The pounding in my head is what drags me out of my whiskey-induced slumber.

Fuck.

Just how much did I drink last night?

I crack an eye open and look around the familiar space. The old apartment is almost the same as when we left it to move into the compound, but it’s missing the life it used to inhabit. Hell, with two adults and three teenage boys in a one-bedroom apartment, there was always noise, even in the later years when we were all too busy to be home much.

I bury my face in the pillow and breathe in Camilla’s strawberry scent. It’s faint because she only spent one night here, but it’s the reason I came here last night after my meeting with my dad.

Walking into the same corner store I used my fake ID at for the first time to buy a bottle of liquor felt like the full circle moment I certainly didn’t need.

But I needed the oblivion the bottle promised.

The more I drank, the less any of it made sense.

After my dad dropped the bombshell that Crew was the one to shoot him, he got a call and had to leave abruptly. But I sat on that bench for another hour, trying desperately to make sense of anything he said.

We’ve never kept secrets. Not even when we were dumb teenagers rebelling just because we could, we always fessed up to Crew or my dad, and they’ve always done the same to us.

So when did that change?

Did Crew have a reason to want my dad dead?

The rational question only makes me want to find what’s left of the bottle I drank last night and polish it off, but I can barely move right now, and if I’m going anywhere, it’s to take a piss.

I feel around for my phone on the floor beside the bed, and when I unlock it, I find fifteen missed calls from Crew and a slew of messages in our group chat.

I start with those, and my stomach rolls uncomfortably when I see Camilla was in danger this morning and I wasn’t the one to protect her. It doesn’t seem to matter how hard I try to repair the rifts between us, I’m never the one who comes through for her.

The most recent message is from Bishop in the chat we have without Camilla, and I click into it without thinking. It’s obvious they’ve been trying to get ahold of me, so I have little hope of them not noticing I’ve read it now.

Bishop: Charles and Caleb paid Camilla a visit this morning. They told her she could either help them take us down, disappear, or they would kill her. I’m ordering additional security to the De Marco residence and around Hills Global to ensure her safety. She has requested we give her some space, which means no more late-night visits to the estate, Kovu. But I think we need to give it to her. We’ve been steamrolling her since she first came into our lives, and that’s not how things should be if this is going to work.

I read over his message three more times, but the words never sink in. How can my dad tell me Crew was the one to shoot him, and then in the next breath go ahead and threaten the woman I’ve fallen in love with?

I’m about to force myself out of bed with the intent to go home and face Crew, but then the apartment door opens, and I watch through the crack in the bedroom door as Kovu strolls in.

He takes a brief look around at the bottle by the lumpy couch before making his way into the bedroom, where I’m still fully clothed and covered by nothing but a thin sheet.

“It’s been a while since I’ve found you after a bender,” Kovu comments, coming around to throw the threadbare curtains open. “Get in any bar fights we need to know about?”

I glower at him, the aching in my head intensifying with every word he says. “Fuck off.”

“No can do, K.” He sits on the edge of the bed, and the cheap mattress dips under his weight. I’m honestly surprised this thing is holding my weight, given all the creaking the frame has done since I woke up. “Daddy Crew was worried about you. You know we don’t disappear without someone knowing where we are.”

“I don’t really give a fuck what Crew wants at the moment,” I grumble, pulling the extra pillow over my head in the hope of blocking out the sun, but the thing is so thin I may as well be protecting myself with a sheet of paper.

Kovu sighs. “I’m gonna level with you here. Whatever it is that’s going on in your head, you need to get past it. Everything around us is crumbling, and if any of us go down, we all go down. I know it must be a fucking shock that your dad is back from the dead. Jesus, I’m having trouble accepting it myself, but there will be time to deal with that once we get our girl back and make sure no one takes down the Syndicate.”

I glare at him, my stomach rolling uncomfortably at how clueless he is. But would it make any difference to him if he knew it was Crew that tried to kill Caleb? Would he even care?

“I’m not going back to the compound, Kovu. You’re barking up the wrong tree.”

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