Page 11 of We Will Rise

Crew watches me for a beat before he pushes off the other side of the bed and follows my lead, leaving the phone connected on the bed. “I want security camera footage from the area, anything you can find, however spotty it might be. I want to know if we’re walking into a trap before we get there.”

“I’m on it.”

The line disconnects as Bishop follows our lead, and I can’t help but let hope creep in.

What if he’s alive?

CHAPTER SEVEN

CAMILLA

Istare at him for long seconds, my heart beating so hard in my chest that it borders on pain. Or maybe that’s just the agony that set up shop the moment I ran around that corner and saw Kovu’s car on fire.

Nothing about what’s standing in front of me makes any sense. Because I saw the flames. I saw what was left of the car. And there’s no way anyone could survive that.

And yet, Kovu stands before me.

His dark clothes are covered in ash and dirt, and God only knows what else, and there’s a cut up his arm that Rogers definitely needs to have a look at.

But he’s alive.

“Did my little lamb just kill for me?” he rumbles.

I bring my bloodied hand to my mouth to try to cover the sob threatening to escape, but it’s no use. Overwhelming relief washes over me as tears fall against my cheeks, and before I realize I’ve even made the decision, I’m throwing myself into his arms.

Kovu catches me with a grunt of pain, but I’m too far gone. I need to be close to him. I need to feel his warmth against me so I can remind myself this is real, that he’s here, that he’s alive.

I sob against his neck, breathing in the remnants of his scent that’s now tainted with blood and ash, while he holds me so tight it borders on pain.

But I lap it up just like I do every time I’m marked by his touch, reveling in the feel of his hands on my body.

“Gotta say, Cami, watching you kill a man wearing my shirt was hot as fuck,” he murmurs against the shell of my ear.

I half laugh, half sob. “I’ll keep that in mind when I choose my torture attire in the future.”

I manage to pry my face from his throat and take him in. His face is covered in a mixture of shallow and deep cuts, but he seems more or less okay. “Where were you? We thought you were dead.” The word comes out choked, the memory of losing him still too fresh for me to speak about without breaking.

His hold on me tightens as I wrap my legs around his waist. “I’m sorry, Little Lamb. I didn’t mean to scare you.” His words are full of sincerity, and I hold onto him a little harder. “Let’s go find the others, and we’ll talk.”

I nod but make no attempt to unwind myself from around him, and he makes none to put me down.

Kovu turns on his heel and carries me from the concrete room where I just tortured and killed a man, leaving the body hanging from the ceiling for the clean-up crew to deal with.

We make it up the few steps into the garage at the same time the others step out of the elevator and stop in their tracks when they see us.

There’s a moment of silence where the shock on each of their faces would probably be amusing if it weren’t for the fact I just had the exact same experience a few minutes ago.

Kaos is the first to move. He closes the space between us in a few long strides and throws his arms around the two of us, holding on so tight I can hardly breathe.

The tears I had finally got control of fall against my cheeks again, but I let them fall.

Another set of arms wraps around us, and I turn my head to see Bishop staring at Kovu with so much relief it makes me cry harder.

And then Crew joins us.

The moment is so similar to the day I came home from Charles’s penthouse, and yet it feels so much bigger. Because back then, I knew I had feelings for each of them, and I even knew I loved a couple of them. But now they’re my family. They’re my heart. They’re my everything.

And now I know losing them is the only thing that can bring me to my knees.

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