Page 75 of We Will Rise

I nod, my neck protesting against the movement after being trapped between my biceps for so many hours. “You?”

“I’m fine,” she assures me, but the fact her light gray sweatshirt is covered in her blood and that she winces every time she moves makes me desperate to protect her, to care for her. She tugs at the chain on her wrist, and her brows furrow. “How long do you want to wait to see if they find us before we take matters into our own hands?”

“They’ll find us,” I promise.

“I know they will.” Her features soften. “But there’s no telling how long it’s going to take them, and I don’t know that time is on our side right now. At what point do we stop waiting and save ourselves?”

I watch her for long moments, indecision warring inside me. On one hand, I’m certain that Bishop and the others are doing everything in their power to find us. By now, I imagine our allies are descending upon the city, they’re probably following every lead they can find and getting closer to our location. But I’m not so naive to forget that Caleb has had the upper hand this entire time, and there’s still so much we haven’t been able to figure out about his life in the years he spent away from us, so there’s no telling how long he’s been preparing for this moment.

“Let’s hold off for a while longer. We don’t know what’s on the other side of that door, we have no weapons, and although I don’t want to underestimate your ability to fight your way out of here, we have been immobile for a long fucking time, meaning we won’t be at our best.”

She nods. “I agree. It’s better to hedge our bets for a little longer.”

We fall into silence once more, and her eyes drift closed, but she’s not asleep. How anyone could get any kind of rest in the positions we’ve found ourselves in is beyond me, but Camilla has managed it, and I don’t want to think about the training she keeps referring to.

A yawn falls from my lips, and I allow my own eyes to close, imagining the hours before all hell broke loose. The way Camilla took each of us without hesitation or question. How she allowed us to care for her. How she snuggled between us and let out the most content little sigh I’ve ever heard as she allowed her body to relax and fall asleep.

There have been many moments in the time since we met the little menace that solidified how I felt about her and the future I wanted for the five of us, but as I fell asleep, I could see it playing in my mind like a movie. I saw a home and kids. I saw a ring on Camilla’s finger that told the whole world she was ours. I saw her swelling with our babies. I saw it all, and there’s nothing I won’t do to make that happen.

I will get us out of here.

I will get her to safety.

And I will give our family the life I never dared to hope we could ever lead.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

BISHOP

Thirty-two hours they’ve been missing.

It’s been the longest hours of my life, and yet it’s gone so quickly.

Every time I look at the clock, I find more time has passed, but how can that be when our entire world is at a standstill?

The Saint James men are still watching the estate, but the lack of movement makes me more and more certain it’s a decoy, which leaves us with nothing. Even after all this time, even with three of the best hackers in the world working night and day on it, we’re empty-handed, and it’s becoming harder for me to stop Kovu and Kaos from tearing the city apart looking for them.

The apartment has become a kind of mission control. There are people everywhere, maps of the city spread across the dining table, and takeout containers on every free surface that have barely been touched. We’ve never had to call on our allies to this scale before, but I’m fucking glad we spent so much time forging relationship with them so they would show up in moments just like these.

Damon and Ronan Lombardi are as far as they can get from Storm and Elijah, glaring across the apartment as if they think the two men could catch alight from looks alone.

Gabriel Wolff is talking to one of his men in hushed whispers while the rest of the room talks over one another, and Bennett Savage is on the phone to two of his brothers as they scout the city. I was hesitant to send them out there when we have no idea what’s waiting for us beyond these four walls, but then they reminded me that they’re hitmen, this is literally what they do for a living.

Kovu hasn’t come out of the gym in hours and refuses to eat every time we take food into him. He’s growing more and more withdrawn as time goes by, and I worry what will happen if we don’t get the outcome we want from this.

The thought of Crew and Camilla not coming home fills me with so much dread I can barely breathe around it, but I truly don’t know if Kovu would survive the loss.

I’m pulled out of my thoughts when there’s a knock at the door and we all pause, silence falling over the room as we look between one another, waiting for someone to move toward the door.

I take a step toward it, being cautious as I peek through the peephole, and then I sigh.

Chloe.

We had to tell her what was going on. She couldn’t get ahold of Camilla, and she was blowing up my phone thinking we’d done something to upset her, so I had to give her a condensed version of the truth that wouldn’t put her in more danger than she’s already in working for a Mafia family.

I tug the door open and usher her inside quickly before shutting it a little too hard, pulling everyone’s attention to it.

“What are you doing here?” I ask as softly as I can manage.

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