Page 37 of We Will Rise

I let out a breath and drop into a crouch, slowly opening the small container and hoping like hell there’s nothing inside that’s going to kill me.

When I find what looks like a set of human lungs staring back at me, I have to swallow the bile that rises up the back of my throat.

Luca meets my gaze and gives me a short nod, telling me he’s found something similar in his, and he’s waiting for an order of what our next steps are going to be.

I close my eyes to steady myself before shoving to my feet and moving toward him. “Everyone needs to go home right now. Tell them they’re getting double pay for the day and any subsequent days they’re not required. I also need the Legion here before we touch anything else.”

“What are they going to do?” Marshall asks.

“It’s within the bylaws that we must alert them to any instances of trafficking into the city, and I think we’ve just found ourselves smack dab in the middle of an organ shipment.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

KAOS

I’m out of the car and across the parking lot before it can even come to a complete stop.

It’s rare I let any of the others drive, but after the funeral, Bishop needed to feel in control of something, so I handed over my keys and spent the time stalking Camilla’s tracker.

The fact she thought we weren’t going to follow her is amusing as hell to me, even if she was right. We can’t have it both ways. We can’t give her preferential treatment just because she’s our woman, not while the current model of the Syndicate stands.

But then Luca called, and we were already almost to the docks, so it all worked out in the end, but I didn’t like how worried he sounded on the phone, and the sooner I have the princess in my line of sight, the better.

The first thing I notice as I approach the docked ship is the guy heaving off the edge of the dock, followed by how quiet it is.

Where is everyone?

What the hell is going on?

Camilla and Luca appear from the office with another man I assume to be the dock manager, and all three of them look stressed.

I move toward my woman without hesitation, and it’s not until I’m a few feet from her that she notices me.

“You got here quick.” She raises a brow as she looks past me to where the others are trailing behind.

“We were in the area,” I lie.

She shoots me a glare, but there’s a hint of amusement on his lips. “We have a problem. A really big fucking problem.”

“What’s going on?” Crew asks.

Camilla forces out a breath and moves toward a crate that’s already been opened, and we follow her. She’s still wearing the same outfit from the funeral, complete with sky high heels that look too fucking good on her. I wonder if I could convince her to let me fuck her while she wears nothing but the red soled shoes when we get home.

She waits for each of us to surround the crate before opening the cooler that appears to be the only contents.

“I only took biology up to junior year, but this looks a lot like a human set of lungs to me,” she says. “And that one over there has what I think is a kidney. The problem is the ship has no documents. No origin port, no name attached to the shipment, nothing, and I don’t know how long these organs can survive after being removed from the body, but I doubt any of them are viable now.”

Crew curses as he moves away from the crate with his phone in his hand. “I’m going to get Wyatt on it and see if we can figure out where this fucking boat came from.”

“What about the crew? The captain?” Bishop asks.

“There was no crew when the boat docked, and the captain was dead when we made it to the bridge,” Luca replies. He’s not someone who I’ve ever seen have an emotional response to much of anything, but it’s obvious he’s uncomfortable with what they’ve found.

Anyone with any semblance of a soul would be.

“This has got to be Davenport and Caleb,” Kovu growls, his hands fisted at his sides.

“We don’t know that.” Crew looks up from his phone. “That seems like the most probable explanation, but we’d be remiss not to consider that someone else is trying to bring this shit into the city when it’s well known we don’t stand for it.”

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