Page 73 of We Will Rise

“I know it’s hard sitting around here doing nothing. Believe me, I get it. But we have no leads to go on right now, and what if they’re waiting for us to go off and start killing people in order to take us out as well? As much as I hate to admit it, Wyatt is right. Our best course of action is sitting tight until we have something to go off.”

He’s about to argue when the sound of footsteps behind me turns both our attention to Bishop standing in the doorway with his phone in his hand. His eyes are glassy, and my throat closes over as I prepare myself for bad news.

“Rayne has taken Emerson and Snow back to Chicago with the rest of the girls, and Storm will return to join Elijah and their team. I’ve called in our favors with our allies, and they’ll all be here before sunrise tomorrow morning.”

“Anything from Wyatt?” Kovu croaks.

He shakes his head. “He’s working on it with Everett and Ace, but they’ve been careful. All we know so far is that Caleb and Charles went underground the day after the ship docked, and they haven’t been seen since.”

“At all?” I ask.

“Not once.”

“And Rogers?” Kovu pushes himself to his feet, and I follow his lead.

“He’s in the wind. We think he’s skipped town, but we haven’t been able to find a trace of where yet, and Wyatt doesn’t want to waste resources that he could be using to find Crew and Camilla.”

I hold my breath as I wait for Kovu’s reaction, but he just turns away from us and slams his bloody fist into the punching bag.

Bishop and I share a look before his gaze flicks down to his phone, and he immediately brings it to his ear. “Wyatt, what you got?”

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

CAMILLA

His fist slams into my stomach, and this time I can’t hide the effect it has on me. A rough cough escapes before I can swallow it, followed by another when he strikes me in the same place again.

I knew winding him up was going to hurt, but fuck, he’s got a good right hook on him, perhaps I should have been prepared for that.

A grunt tears from me when his fist hits me in the rib, but I never close my eyes, never back down from the man who expects exactly that.

“Caleb, for fuck’s sake, stop!” Crew shouts, but I’m too focused on not giving Caleb the satisfaction he demands with each hit.

“You think you’re so smart, don’t you, Camilla?” Caleb growls, his teeth bared as he glares at me. “But you’re not. You’re just a silly little girl that thinks she can play with the big boys.”

I stare him straight in the eye as copper touches my tastebuds. “It’s men like you that allowed me to slip under the radar all those years.” A smile tugs at my lips as he steps closer to me, so close that his overbearing cologne assaults my senses. I spit the blood pooling in my mouth at him and revel in the shock that immediately tugs at his features as my blood slips down his cheek. “All those years everyone was worried about the boys training to take over for their parents, and no one ever blinked at me. We never even had to hide my training.” A laugh tumbles from my lips as I slip into the persona I haven’t used in a long time. There’s a point where pain and fear morph into insanity, and I’m far from that point, but Caleb doesn’t know that, and I’m going to use that to my advantage.

“Camilla!” Crew barks as Caleb grasps me around the throat so tight I can barely drag in a breath, but I never allow the smile to slip from my lips.

“Didn’t Bianca tell you? My guys have a penance for choking, and so do I,” I croak out, pushing him to choke me harder.

“Camilla! Stop!” Fear bleeds into Crew’s tone, but I force myself to stay on course. He can’t kill me yet. If he could, he would have done it by now. But he’s keeping me alive for something, and if that’s the case, I’m going to do everything in my power to work out what exactly that reason is.

“Why don’t you listen to him, Camilla?” Caleb growls.

“I thought you were going to kill me anyway,” I challenge. Black spots dance in my vision at the lack of oxygen.

He stares at me for long seconds, his fingers tightening to the point where I can’t speak, can’t breathe, and I feel myself beginning to slip away, but right as I’m about to allow the darkness to overwhelm me, his hands disappear from my throat, and he stalks away, brushing past Crew without another word.

The heavy door slams, and I press my eyes closed as I brace for Crew’s anger. Our relationship has faced many obstacles in the short time we’ve been together, but I have a feeling this is going to be the hardest yet.

He stares at me with anger pulsing through his gaze, but I don’t back down. As much as he may want me to be the damsel in distress who can’t hold her own, that’s not who I am and not who I’m ever going to be.

“What the fuck was that?” he forces through gritted teeth.

“That was a test,” I explain without giving him any actual information.

“A test?” He shakes his head. “That was a fucking suicide mission.”

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