Page 69 of From the Ashes

Bishop reaches for Caleb and helps him to his feet, giving me the first look at his swollen face, and I barely catch the scoff that rises in my throat. He deserves so much worse, and he’ll get it. I won’t rest until he no longer poses a threat to our family, Camilla included.

It doesn’t matter that I should let her go. Our age gap is irrelevant, and I just have to prove that to both of us.

“Let the girl go.” Elias barks the order, but the masked man starts backing away toward the cars with Camilla still in his hold.

Her eyes dart to each of us, panicking beneath the carefully constructed mask her father taught her to wear.

“Help him to the car.” The masked man lifts the gun from Camilla’s temple for long enough to gesture to Bishop what he wants.

He hesitates for a moment, his need to keep our woman safe warring with his urge to kill anyone that threatens the life we’ve built for ourselves for long seconds before he does what the man says.

What choice does he have when our whole life is in his hands?

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

BISHOP

Aconfusing cocktail of anger and fear beats through me as I help Caleb through the gravestones, but my eyes never leave Camilla.

She’s doing her best to appear unaffected. Her back is straight, her shoulders back, and her head is held high, but every time the stormy gray falls on one of us, I see everything she’s hiding.

The fear. The pain. The resignation.

The idea of allowing Caleb to leave the cemetery alive doesn’t sit well with me, but the fact that I’m the one helping him leave makes my stomach roll. This motherfucker deserves to die for what he’s done to all of us, not walk away scot-free.

Just because he’s walking away tonight, doesn’t mean he won’t die, I remind myself. Because once we get home, once we have Camilla safe and sound behind the walls of the compound, we’re throwing everything we have at killing Caleb and taking Davenport down.

I don’t give a fuck about the bylaws.

I couldn’t care less about keeping the Syndicate intact.

I’ll burn it all to the ground if it means keeping Camilla safe.

Before we met her, I lived for the business and for everything we spent our lives working toward, but now that I have her, now that I know what it means to be loved by her, I’d give it all up without hesitation.

“You know she’ll be your demise.” Caleb coughs, and just the sound of his voice makes me want to finish what Kovu started. “Did Bianca teach you nothing?”

I glare over at him. Even slumped, he’s only a couple of inches shorter than I am. I drop my shoulder slightly, causing him to stumble and release a grunt of pain. “What Bianca taught me is that when you meet a good woman, you do anything to keep her. And if you come for Camilla again, prepare to face a fucking reckoning.” The last words pass from my lips as we reach the car, and the masked man nods toward the back door.

I don’t hesitate to open the door and shove Caleb inside, desperate to get Camilla out of this asshole’s hold, but as soon as the car door slams shut behind him, he drags her around the other side of the car, keeping the gun trained to her head as he gets himself situated.

I follow them, keeping my hands up in surrender, so he doesn’t see me as a threat because I don’t want him to react. If he thinks I’m going to attack, he might do something rash, and I refuse to let that happen.

It’s not until the car starts that he shoves Camilla in my direction, and I catch her before she can hit the ground.

Her arms wrap around my waist as a quiet sob escapes her throat, which only makes me hold her against me tighter.

When I look up at where they were holding us, I find the few masked men who were left have either fled with their tails between their legs or they have a gun trained on them as they lower themselves to the ground.

Kovu finishes untying Kaos and Crew, and they sprint for us without hesitation.

Kaos reaches us first and wraps his huge body around us as he buries his face in Camilla’s hair.

Then it’s Kovu, wrapping himself around one side of us as his entire body trembles.

And then it’s Crew. He’s slower to join us, and I can see the wariness in his eyes. Something Caleb said got to him, and I can see his need to flee in his eyes.

The question is, will he do it?

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