Page 87 of We Will Rise

Wyatt steps in front of us, stopping us from getting within a few feet of the doctors. “They’re assessing her, and then they’ll take her straight into surgery. Her heartbeat is faint, but she’s a lot more stable than she should be given how much blood she’s lost.”

I try to push past him, but I’m caught around the shoulders by Damon Lombardi, and I growl. I need to get to her. I need to protect her.

“You have to let the doctors work,” he says. “You’ll only get in the way, and that will stop them from being able to help her.”

The logic is there, but that doesn’t make it any easier to accept that there’s nothing I can do for her right now, and therefore I have to leave her life in the hands of strangers.

Crew wraps an arm around my shoulders, and I find myself doing something I rarely do. I lean into him. He’s one of the only people who understand how I’m feeling right now, and this is what Camilla would want. For us to support one another when she can’t be here to support us.

There’s a loud alarm that blares through the hallway, and it takes me too long to realize it’s coming from the machine attached to Camilla.

“She’s flatlining.”

“We’ve got to go.”

“The OR better be ready to go or we’re going to lose her.”

The doctor’s words blur together as I try to focus on breathing, but the panic takes hold of my chest, and I can barely suck in a breath through it.

Kaos appears in front of me, his huge body blocking the bed from my view as she’s wheeled further away from me. “She’s going to fight for us, Kovu. She’s going to fight like hell.”

Crew coughs on his own emotion as he wipes at the tears falling against his cheeks. “When have we known our girl not to fight like hell for what she believes in?”

“If she can survive being loved by the four of us, she can survive this,” Bishop says.

I hope like hell they’re right, because I don’t know if I’ll survive losing the object of my obsession and the only woman I’ve ever loved.

CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX

KAOS

Ithought time was dragging when we were locked up inside the apartment with no clue where they were keeping Camilla and Crew, but this is worse.

Every tick of the clock is excruciating as we wait for someone to tell us what’s going on, for them to tell us if she’s going to be okay, and I’m not the only one feeling it.

We sent most of our allies home except for some of the Saint James men we have stationed around the hospital as security, and now we’re sitting in a private waiting room with Elias, Wyatt, Leighton, and Chloe.

The latter is skittish as hell and I’m curious about how she and the Lombardi’s know one another, but it’s not the time to ask. I’ll leave that to Camilla once she wakes up.

If she wakes up.

I keep catching myself thinking about what we’re going to do when she gets out of the hospital, because what if that never happens? What if she doesn’t survive this?

A cup of coffee appears in front of my face, and I look up to see Leighton standing beside me, her eyes somber. “I thought you could use this. It’s been a long time since any of you have slept.”

“Thank you,” I say as softly as I can manage and watch as she moves toward Kovu to extend the other cup she’s holding to him.

We’re all dealing with this in different ways, but unsurprisingly, Kovu is taking it the worst, and I hate to think about what will happen if she doesn’t make it.

I drop my elbows to my knees and look down into the Styrofoam cup as if it holds all the answers, but the sad-looking hospital coffee doesn’t have anything that I don’t, apart from caffeine.

As I lift the cup to my lips, I spot someone step into the doorway, and I shoot to my feet, determined to protect my family before I realize it’s a doctor who looks a little nervous in our presence.

“Are you Camilla De Marco’s family?” he asks.

“We are.” Crew steps forward, his wrists bandaged and a plaster over the inside of his elbow where they gave him fluids after we arrived.

He looks around hesitantly before he nods. “Camilla is stable. It was touch and go for a while there because the blood loss was so severe, but she pulled through. The next few days will give us an indication of what her recovery will look like, but I have every faith that she will wake up, and in a few months, she’ll be able to live a full, long life.”

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