24. Crew
Panic flashes to life in her eyes, followed by anger, and then finally sadness. I had hoped we would have more time to ease her into this idea and for us to work out how things are going to work once she’s the leader of a territory and we retain our role as the gatekeepers of the underworld, but Davenport has moved up the timeline.
I expected it, of course I did, but I hoped we would have more time. In fact, I was sure we would have it. Charles is someone who likes to dwell on things, allow the anger to simmer, and then he starts making rash decisions. Apparently this time he didn’t feel the need to waste any time pondering and jumped right into action. The asshole couldn’t just be predictable this one time while we started making our moves.
“What the fuck do you mean? No one is going to respect my leadership after I disappeared for however long it takes me to recover, while the family is descending into chaos under my uncle. The ship has already sailed on that.” She believes the words she’s saying, but there’s a sadness in her words that I can’t help but want to take away. She wants that position. She wants to lead the family the way her father did, and his father before him, but for some reason she doesn’t believe in herself. It’s a good thing we believe in her enough to make up for that.
“They’ll respect it, or you’ll do what you have to do to earn that respect.” I shrug, but we both know it won’t be that easy. The families have always struggled during times of transition, and we usually stay out of it unless absolutely necessary, but that won’t be the case when it comes to the De Marcos. If anyone dares to challenge her leadership, there’s no way I’ll be able to stop Bishop and Kovu from protecting her. We’re walking into new territory ourselves, and every step we take could detonate like a land mine beneath our feet.
“Who the hell do you think I am?” she snaps.
“The leader of the De Marco family, the only rightful heir, and the only person in your family with enough balls to do what needs to be done to keep everything moving.”
“You don’t even know me,” she whispers, her eyes dropping to look at the carpet beneath her bare feet. She shouldn’t be out of bed, and if I were a better man, I already would have ordered her back there. But I’m not ready to be away from her yet. I could of course visit with her the way the others do, but I have to be the one to keep my wits about me, and that means not allowing myself to get too close to her, no matter how much I want to.
The four of us look at one another, but none of us move toward her, even though it’s clear we all want to. If she’s going to do this, if she’s going to lead her family, she needs to grow confidence in herself as much as we need to show how sure we are of her and her abilities, and to be honest, she’s not altogether wrong. We don’t know her well. We know of her, and we’ve had our men watch her from afar from time to time to make sure her father was intending on doing the right thing. But do we know Camilla De Marco? Do we know all the things that make her, her? No. Not yet.
To my surprise, it’s Kaos that steps forward, but he doesn’t reach for her. “Princess, now isn’t the time for a pity party. Does it suck your dad sold you before you were even born? Absolutely. But does it mean he didn’t have all the faith in the world in you? No. He wouldn’t have trained you. He wouldn’t have taken you out to see the dirty sides of the business if he didn’t think you were going to be the one to take his place. I can assure you, you’re one of the only women in this city that has seen the dark stuff. The others play their parts, but you, you were born to lead just like all the men in this city.”
Her eyes widen in surprise. Probably because the number of nice things he’s said to her since she got here have been few and far between. She worries her bottom lip between her teeth, and I ache to do the same. To bite and nip at the sensitive pillow until the taste of copper hits my tongue and little gasps claw from her throat. The thought has my cock aching in my slacks, but I ignore it. I can’t have her the way I need her, not until she’s fully healed, and even then, the revelation that she’s a virgin complicates things. And not only because the four of us will all want to be the first one to slide into her tight cunt. No, it gets complicated because our tastes are darker than the average man’s, much darker, and that’s something she may not be prepared for given how inexperienced she is.
“We may not know your favorite color or the movie you watch when you’re sad, but we know the important shit. We know how capable you are, even if everyone always underestimates you.” Bishop smiles.
“And hey, haven’t you ever heard that back in the day, the CIA would send women as spies because no one believed they were capable and would let their guards down as a result?” Kovu smirks, and I roll my eyes. The asshole went on a trip to Washington last year to get some intel and took a detour to the spy museum. It’s all we heard about for a month, and he still pulls random facts out of his ass every now and then.
“Okay, say I do as you’re suggesting, and I stroll right back into my childhood home and take over the business and the territory. What am I meant to do about Davenport? He’s going to come for me, and you’re not meant to interfere in those types of matters.” Her cheeks turn the most delicious shade of pink as she realizes the meaning of the words that have just fallen from between her pretty pink lips. “I mean, if you wanted to interfere, you couldn’t. Not saying that you would want to or that you’d care if Davenport did somehow get to me.” She groans and drops her head back to look up at the ceiling. “I think it’s time I went back to bed, or to die of embarrassment.” She mutters the last few words as she turns on her heel and steps back toward the bedroom door.
Kovu wraps his arms around her waist and tugs her back into him. His smirk tells me everything I need to know about his feelings toward the girl, but I already knew. I’ve known since that first night when I watched him fuss over her like a wounded animal, something that goes against his brutal nature. “There’s nothing we won’t do to protect you, Little Lamb,” he murmurs against the top of her head. “Head back to bed. I’ll be in shortly.”
She nods once before disappearing through the door without looking back. As soon as she’s out of sight, I turn on my heel and head toward the living areas. We need to talk where she can’t hear us, and while I’m sure she’ll come to know the layout of our buildings, I’m going to take advantage of the fact she doesn’t know left from right at the moment.