Page 40 of We Will Rise

“How are you doing, love?” he asks softly.

“What the fuck is their play here? Show us exactly why the Syndicate put these bylaws in place?” Anger radiates off me in waves, but I force it down. My own anger isn’t going to help these women. They need calm right now, and until we can get someone here who knows how to help them, I’m the only person they’re likely to let near them.

“I don’t know,” Crew admits. “None of this makes any sense.”

“Okay, what do we know so far?” Kaos asks. “We know every woman who has spoken so far is American, which means the ship would have originated from somewhere within the United States.”

Crew nods. “We know the ship wasn’t at sea for long. There’s ice still in those coolers with the organs, but until Rogers gets here, we won’t know if any of them are still viable.”

“The lungs aren’t,” Bishop chimes in. “They only have a short window for transplant between four and eight hours.”

Kovu’s brows raise as he stares at him with the same surprise the rest of us are. “I thought I was meant to be the psycho that knows shit like that?”

“I Googled it, okay?” Bishop rolls his eyes.

“Mm-hmm,” Kovu teases, and a small smile tugs at my lips. How do they manage to bring a smile to my face in the midst of hell?

“We need to get them talking,” Crew says.

“We can’t force them to do anything they don’t want to do. That just makes us look as bad as whoever put them on the ship, and then they’ll never trust us,” I argue.

“Camilla’s right,” Bishop agrees. “But we do need to find somewhere safer for them. Keeping them out in the open like this is just asking for trouble.”

I nod and glance over my shoulder to where the women are huddled together with their heads bowed. “Let’s get them some food and into some fresh clothes once Chloe and Bonnie arrive, and then we can go from there.”

“Where are we going to take them?” Kovu asks.

“The De Marco estate?” I look at Crew for confirmation.

He nods. “More than enough space with plenty of security. Seems like our best option.”

“But won’t Davenport and Caleb be expecting that?” Kovu replies.

“They’ll be expecting just about any move we make. We could send them back with the Saint James family, but I don’t like our chances of getting twelve traumatized women onto a plane with strangers who also happen to be well-known criminals.”

Another sigh escapes me, and I brush my fingers down my face. Fatigue weighs down on me, but I force myself from under Bishop’s arm and make my way back to the office to get some more water. I may be tired, but I can’t begin to imagine what these women are feeling, and I refuse to let them down.

CHAPTER THIRTY

KOVU

The sick shit I’ve done in my life would make even the strongest of men blanche.

I’ve tortured people for weeks on end, restarting their heart over and over again each time they tried to die before I was ready to allow it.

I’ve killed so many people I lost count years ago, somewhere around five hundred.

I’ve removed almost every body part from people whose hearts were still beating and reveled in their screams of agony.

But somehow what I’ve seen today has even turned my stomach.

Maybe it’s seeing women who have been beaten down and used the same way I was as a child with terror in their eyes.

Or maybe it’s the thought that Camilla could have so easily ended up in their position if she’d been forced to go through with marrying Davenport.

But regardless, I haven’t been able to let my little lamb out of my sight.

Chloe and Bonnie arrived a little while ago, both dressed in comfortable activewear and armed with bags of clothes. Camilla said this is the first time Bonnie will be seeing this side of the business, but after the digging we had Wyatt do into those who work closely with her, I don’t think she’s going to recoil the way Camilla expects her to.

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