Page 88 of We Will Rise

A choked sob tears from my throat, and I don’t bother trying to swallow it as relief overwhelms me. I was trying to be strong for the others, trying to put up a strong front so they had someone to lean on, but hearing she’s going to be okay is the best news I’ve ever heard.

Crew pats me on the back at the same time Kovu joins us. “Can we see her?”

The doctor nods. “She’s in a private ICU room, which you can visit. Normally we limit the number of people in the room to two at a time, but given your unique relationship, we can make an exception.”

Plus, the donation he knows we’ll make when we get out of here for their discretion, but I don’t bother correcting him. All that matters is seeing our girl.

“We’re going to head home for some sleep, but let us know if there’s anything you need,” Elias says as we move toward the door.

“Thanks for everything,” Bishop replies as he grasps Wyatt’s shoulder. “I mean it, what you did for us the last few days is everything.”

“Nothing you haven’t done for us,” Elias reminds him as he pulls Leighton into his side and presses a kiss to the top of her head. I used to look at them and think they were stupid for giving a woman so much power over them. But now I get it. Now I understand that Leighton is their strength just as much as she’s their weakness.

We follow the doctor down the hallway, each of us quiet as we prepare ourselves for whatever we’re going to find on the other side of the door, but when we step inside after the doctor, his hazel eyes trained on the ground as we pass him, my chest tightens.

Camilla is covered in wires and tubes. A machine beeps with every thump of her heart, and I find solace in the annoying sound. She’s pale, and when I reach for her hand, careful not to bump the IV that she’s attached to, I realize how cold she is.

“We’re here now, Princess. We’ll never let anyone hurt you again,” I whisper as I press a kiss to her forehead.

Bishop steps up on the opposite side of the bed and brushes his fingers through her matted hair. “She’s going to get real sick of our shit.” He half laughs.

“I’m telling you, she’s never leaving the compound again,” Kovu says as he takes his place beside me and takes her hand out of mine. The moment he’s touching her, some of the tension bleeds from his body, and I can’t be mad that I’ve lost contact with our girl when my best friend looks so content for the first time in days.

“I don’t agree to that,” she croaks, and we all pause, our eyes dropping to her face where her eyes are fluttering open.

“Little Menace,” Crew chokes. He brushes his fingers down her face with such care I wouldn’t have thought my uncle was capable of it, but after what they’ve been through together these last few days, I have a feeling he’ll never be the same heartless man he was before we met her.

Her eyes fall on each of us as she makes sure we’re all here, and then they slip closed again, and she relaxes into the mattress. “You all look like shit.”

A laugh tears from each of us, and it feels so out of place in a moment like this. But perhaps that’s the beauty of our relationship and the men we’ve become since she came into our lives.

“Thanks, love.” Bishop chuckles.

“Go home and shower,” she says. “Believe me when I say I’m not going anywhere.”

I shake my head, but the smile tugging at my lips remains. “We’re not leaving you, Princess. Not ever.”

Her eyes flicker open and meet mine before she pulls her hand from Kovu’s and takes mine instead. “I know you won’t.”

CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

CAMILLA

You would think that the most uncomfortable I’ve felt recently would be when I was chained in the middle of a cell for four days with my shoulders protesting and my feet numb from standing barefoot on concrete nonstop.

But somehow this bed tops it.

It doesn’t matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to get comfortable, and every time I do, I bend a tube and the machine starts yelling at me.

Each of my guys is asleep around me, which makes it even harder to sleep because I don’t want to move and wake them, but at least while I’m awake I have something to look at.

Kovu has his head resting on the bed beside my thigh, his arm wrapped around my leg as if that will ensure I’m still here when he wakes up. Kaos is awkwardly curled up on the couch behind Kovu, while Crew sleeps on the cot they brought in. We all agreed he needed it the most given the condition he was in after being kept in that cell for days. And then there’s Bishop. He was the last to fall asleep, his watchful gaze keeping an eye on his family as we all drifted off, but he finally succumbed to his own exhaustion in the armchair beside me.

It kind of feels like a full circle moment waking up with them around me, except now I know I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be, surrounded by the men that gave me a reason to fight even when my body begged me to give up, to allow the pain and blood loss to win and drift into the ether.

But I’m glad I fought.

I’m glad I held on.

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