22. Kaos
Idon’t know why I stopped in my tracks when she stepped into my path.
I don’t know why seeing Crew’s arms around her made something I’ve hidden so deep inside myself that I thought it was lost forever bloom to life.
And I don’t fucking know why her words make the hole where my heart used to live ache.
Nothing about Camilla De Marco makes any sense. Her actions, the way she makes us feel, the words that come out of her mouth. It’s all foreign compared to the women we’ve been around in the past, and I don’t think that’s a good thing. In fact, it could very well be our demise.
But the vulnerability that creeps into her defiant eyes is intoxicating, and if I spend too much time staring into the gray, I’ll lose my mind the same way the other members of my family have.
Kovu steps past me until he’s standing at her side, his fingers brushing along her cheek. A shiver rushes through her body, but her eyes remain on me. She’s taunting me. Begging me to break. Asking me without words to throw away everything I’ve told myself over the last few years. “We’re not handing you over to him. We’ll find another way.”
“We haven’t discussed it,” I snap, but the fire I felt before is dull, the embers barely burning as I watch the only people in the world I would throw myself in front of a bullet for look at the woman between us like she’s the sun they revolve around.
Bishop appears at her other side, and I hate what the sight does to me, and more than that, I hate that I want to step forward and feel her against me. My body begs me to wrap her up in us so nothing and no one can ever hurt her again.
Camilla finally drags her eyes away from mine to look up at him as his fingers wrap around hers, and she’s connected to each of them. She could be connected to me too if I would just do what I crave. But if I were any closer, I would miss the surprise that slips onto her features.
“We’re not going to hand you over, Little Menace,” Crew says quietly, his lips just a breath away from her ear. “You don’t belong with a monster like Davenport.”
“I don’t belong anywhere,” she whispers, her voice barely audible despite how close we are to her. “I’ve never belonged anywhere.”
There’s something about the sadness in her voice that makes me take the step forward and capture her chin between my fingers. I pry her face up until our eyes clash, words I should never say aloud dancing on the tip of my tongue. “Maybe that’s changed.”
I feel their eyes on me as soon as the words fall from my lips, but I can’t drag my attention away from her. She’s fucking stunning. Her cheeks flushed and her lips parted with shock. A lesser man wouldn’t be able to resist claiming the pouty pillows and devouring the vixen standing before him, but while I may concede on her belonging here with us, I’m not ready to give her any part of me. I might never be.