Page 68 of We Will Rise

My bare feet are frozen against the cold concrete floor, but I keep up with Crew, ignoring all the ways my body aches from how I was thoroughly fucked just a few hours ago.

I already miss that blissed-out state I was in when we all fell into bed together, but there will be more times just like that. There has to be.

“Careful,” Crew murmurs as we approach a set of stairs, and I flinch the moment my bare foot hits the first metal step. Goddamn me not putting shoes on. There was no time, and grabbing weapons seemed more important than footwear, but now I’m not so sure.

I flex my fingers around the gun in my other hand and take a deep breath as we ascend.

Always be ready for every eventuality.

Don’t let them get the jump on you.

Expect the worst, always.

The lessons my dad taught me filter through my mind as we pause at the top.

Crew rests his ear against the solid door and listens for movement on the other side, but he must not hear anything because he pushes me behind him slightly in order to swing the door open.

He steps in first, and I’m only a couple of steps behind him when someone grabs me, their body hard at my back as I immediately go into fight or flight mode.

My eyes lock with Crew’s at the same time someone holds a cloth to my face, and no matter how hard I shove at their arms, scratch at their skin until blood drips down their wrists, the drugs do their job, and Crew is forced to watch from where two men I don’t recognize hold him.

He fights against them, even gets an elbow to one of their noses, but ultimately he meets the same fate I do, and it’s not long before unconsciousness takes us both under.

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

BISHOP

The itch beneath my skin is relentless as we make our way across the city, careful that we’re not being followed.

We take the subway three stops, and then jump on another line before making our way back to street level.

We move through the empty sidewalks, our hands wrapped around our guns stashed in our waistbands, waiting for someone to jump out at us, but so far there’s been no one.

“Something’s wrong,” I say as I look over my shoulder at Kovu and Kaos.

“You’re being paranoid,” Kaos replies as he moves past me and peeks around the corner we’re approaching.

“No, I’m not.” I sigh. “No one is following us. They should be following us.”

“We’ve been careful, we probably just lost them,” Kovu tells me as we round the corner.

We’re close to the safe house now. It’s one that we purchased recently and that no one knows about apart from the four of us and Wyatt, which should mean we’ll be safe there, but I’m on edge. I don’t like any of this.

“Crew and Camilla should be at the house by now, and then we’ll work out what to do next.” Kaos takes another turn down an alley. We’ve taken the longest possible route to make sure we were able to lose anyone following us, but there hasn’t been anyone since we left the compound, and that’s what worries me.

“I think we should leave the city. Even if it’s just for a few days, it’ll give Wyatt and Everett time to track down our next lead.” Kovu flicks his eyes around the empty street again. It won’t be long before it’s bustling with early morning pedestrians making coffee runs and rushing to work, but for now we’re mostly alone.

I nod my agreement as I pull my phone from my pocket and check the tracking app. I’ve been trying to stop myself, trying to remind myself that they’re safe and that Crew wouldn’t let anything happen to our girl, but I can’t force down the little voice telling me that something’s wrong.

The app refreshes, and I let out a sigh of relief when I find the two trackers exactly where we expected them to be, waiting for us at the safe house.

“You convinced now?” Kaos raises a brow at me, and I look up to find I’ve been caught red-handed, but I’m not going to be embarrassed by how much I care about Camilla. She’s our entire world, and if that means I’m going to be a little more on edge than normal, then that’s just going to be how it is from now on.

I nod as we exit the alley and walk another couple of hundred yards until we stop at an apartment building.

Kovu steps past me and types in the code, and I raise a brow at him, but he just shrugs. He’s always been good with numbers, but this isn’t one I expected him to remember.

We make our way up the steps, all on high alert as we move toward the third floor where the spacious apartment is waiting for us. It’s one of our many properties around the city, but this one is much more nondescript than most of the others, making it the perfect place to hide out.

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