16. Crew
Bishop stares down at his hands on the table, but I don’t take my eyes off him. He may think he’s the only one capable of reading the other people in a room, but he learned it from me, even if he doesn’t realize it. She may have only been in our possession for a few days, but he’s attached, and that’s no small feat.
He doesn’t get attached easily. His mother passed when he was young, and although it was of her own doing, and although he doesn’t remember anything about her, he doesn’t like to get close to people. It even took him a long time to connect with Kovu, and I brought him up like my own son.
“I want to keep her.” The admission hangs between us for long moments. It’s as I expected, but it doesn’t make it an easier pill to swallow. Women are a complication we don’t need, especially after the last one we brought into the fold, but Bishop never looked at her the way he does Camilla, and that’s a worry in itself.
“I see.” I rub my chin, the shadow of the day rough beneath my fingers. “And what do you propose we do about Davenport? We can’t keep her locked up in the compound for the rest of her life, it’s not fair on her, and it won’t make her happy.” Why do I bother with the last part? Why do I care what’s fair and what makes her happy? Her comfort shouldn’t mean anything to me.
Bishop pinches the bridge of his nose and lets out a frustrated sigh. “He’ll kill her if he gets his hands on her. It might not be right away, but eventually. And the life she’ll live while she’s allowed the privilege of continuing to breathe, it won’t really be a life at all. She doesn’t deserve that.” He shakes his head. “No one deserves that.”
I ponder his words. He’s right, of course. If we hand Camilla over to Davenport, he will kill her. It may not be today, or tomorrow, or next week, but it will come. A man like Charles Davenport isn’t marrying because he wants a wife to share his life with, he’s doing it for the heirs and to solidify his claim on his territory.
Before I can respond, the door swings open, and I’m faced with Charles. He’s not an unattractive man in the traditional sense, but his personality and proclivities make him ugly as sin. He stands a few inches shorter than me at six feet, with a sharp jawline and pointed nose. His dark hair is going gray at the sides, not dissimilar to my own, and his cold, dark eyes fall on me the second the door swings open.
It’s me he wants to appeal to tonight, and I’m ready to go head-to-head with him. He should know you don’t face off with the devil and win, but some people just don’t learn. After all, we didn’t choose the names these men call us. They were thrust upon us, and who are we to argue with our likeness to the princes of hell?
“Crew,” he greets. At first, hearing people refer to me like that would grind my gears, but I’ve leaned into it now, as have the others, to the point Bishop doesn’t even blink when he turns his attention to him and says, “Bishop. I trust you’ve both been well.”
“Fine,” I reply for the both of us. I have no interest in idle chitchat with this man, and the quicker we can get to the point of this meeting, the quicker we can return home to our… I catch myself before I can think the final word. Our woman? No. She isn’t ours. Or at least she’s not mine. And she’s certainly not Kaos’s. But Bishop and Kovu? That’s another story altogether. “What can we do for you, Davenport?”
He pauses for a moment, as if he expected this to go differently, but quickly catches himself and takes a seat at the other end of the table.
I spare the two guards he’s brought in a glance before returning my attention to Charles. They’re large, but if push came to shove, Bishop and I could outmaneuver them every day of the week. They’re just muscle, neither of them has a hope in hell of rubbing two brain cells together to best us, and that’s all I need to know to write them off as a threat. I can’t see this situation dissolving to that degree, but I didn’t get where I am without planning for every eventuality.
“I want to discuss the De Marco territory.”
Bishop tenses ever so slightly, but no one in this room besides myself would ever notice the movement. He’s going to have to learn to reign it in if she’s going to stay with us, especially in the short term while we work out how to navigate things with her in our lives. That is, if she stays with us, and that’s a very big if.
“What about it?” I ask.
“Now that it’s leaderless, I would like to discuss making moves to take over his operation.”
I chuckle, the sound deep and menacing. “And why would you be taking over the De Marco territory?”
A look of shock tugs at his usually neutral features. I’m not sure what he expected this conversation to look like, but I have a feeling this isn’t it. “John broke our contract and died as a result. That means his territory defaults to me.”
Bishop scoffs, his head shaking slowly. “That’s not how this works at all, Davenport. You should know that. The territories are set out the way they are for a reason, and we’ve always kept them the same for that same reason. Why the fuck would we change it now?”
The audacity of this man never ceases to astound me. If I could have gotten us out of doing his dirty work, of allowing him to use us as glorified hitmen for hire, I would have, but it’s part of our role within the city, and we didn’t have a choice unless we wanted the other families to start to question our leadership.
Confusion morphs into anger as his dark eyes turn to black. “I should be married to Camilla De Marco by now, and that territory would be mine by marriage.” His voice raises, and I don’t miss the way Bishop’s hand touches his gun tucked into his waistband at the sound of her name on his lips, but his movement is so stealthy, Charles’s gaze doesn’t move from me, even for a second.
“But you haven’t married her, and therefore you have no claim on her inheritance, territory included.” I shrug. “Until she’s able to be located, her uncle and cousin will serve as wards of the territory, and once she’s found, she will take her place as head of the De Marco family.”
“I made a deal with De Marco for her hand in marriage!” he shouts.
“And that deal died with him,” I say calmly. “If and when Camilla De Marco is found, she will have a choice if she wants to marry you or not, and while I’ve never met the girl, I doubt she wants to marry someone who traded her life before she even drew her first breath.”
Deathly silence falls upon the room, the only sound is the faint music in the room beside the one we’re in. He thought he was coming here with a checkmate. He thought we were going to hand over the keys to the kingdom, but he was kidding himself. If we can avoid it, we’ll never allow any of the families to take over territory that doesn’t belong to them, because as soon as they do, our position is questioned, and we can’t have that.
Bishop stands from his seat slowly, and he buttons his suit jacket. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have other business to attend to.”
The sound that rises from Charles’s chest is anything but human. “You haven’t heard the last of this!”
“Oh, but we have, Davenport.” I slam both hands down on the table in front of me. The wood vibrates under the force, but I don’t tear my eyes from his. “You forget your place in this city. Stay in your lane, or I assure you we will be knocking on your door.”
Without another word, Bishop and I move toward the door. We don’t stop walking until we pass the valet the ticket. My son is vibrating with anger, his hands squeezed into fists at his sides. The things Davenport said about Camilla have gotten under his skin, and we just have to hope like hell that he didn’t notice how wound up he was when the girl’s name rolled off his vile tongue.
If he finds out we have her in our compound, we’re in real danger of having our leadership questioned, and that’s the last thing we need right now.