12. Crew
Fatigue weighs down on me as I stifle another yawn.
Four fucking days she’s been gone, and we’re no closer to getting her back than we were the day Kaos handed her over.
The thought of my nephew has rage boiling in my stomach, but I force myself to breathe through it. I’ll deal with him once Camilla is back where she belongs.
If you’d told me two months ago that I would be putting our entire organization at risk to get an eighteen-year-old back from the man she was technically promised to, I would think you’d lost your fucking mind, but that’s exactly what I’m doing right now.
There’re a million reasons we should just leave her where she is, but that’s not an option. Not when our feelings for the little menace are already so fucking deep.
I never thought I’d feel the way I do about her. I didn’t think a man like me was capable, but maybe that’s why I fought so hard to begin with. Because I knew she was different. I knew she could bring us all to our knees.
I stare at the computer screen, but none of the words register. While trying to bring Camilla home, I’m desperately trying to keep the Syndicate running by myself.
Kovu and Bishop are searching for ways to get her back while also keeping an eye on Davenport’s building, and Kaos is MIA more often than not, which just leaves me.
My phone buzzes around my desk, and I reach for it without checking the caller ID. “This is Crew.”
“Crew, it’s Noah, how are you?”
A loaded question if I’d ever heard one. Noah Thorne is the heir to his family’s business and has recently started taking some of the work off his father’s plate. The Thornes are the main source of arms in the city, and I think he’s exactly what the family and, by association, the Syndicate needs to breathe new life into the business.
“I’m fine. Yourself?”
“I’m good. I was just calling to check something with you.” His tone is uncertain, not exactly an emotion I’ve come to expect from him. “I just got an invite from Charles Davenport for his bachelor party. Were you aware he’s getting married?”
I tighten my hold on my phone until the device groans beneath the force, and I’m made to release my grip before I shatter it in my hand. “I wasn’t.”
“I thought as much. Listen, I assume you’ll get an invite, but if not, he’s having it at his strip club. I thought you should know.”
“Thanks, Noah. I appreciate the heads-up. Can you forward me the details?”
“Sure thing.” He hangs up, and I toss my phone onto the desk as anger burns in my chest.
That motherfucker thinks he’s marrying my woman?
Absolutely fucking not.
After a few quick deep breaths, I reach for my phone and send a text to the group chat.
Crew: Family meeting. My office. Now.
It doesn’t take long for the three of them to make it up to my office, but unsurprisingly, Kovu is the last to arrive. Each of them looks as if they haven’t slept, and I rub my hand over my own tired eyes. This is weighing on us all in a way I wasn’t expecting, but then, the way each of us fell for Camilla wasn’t something I expected either.
The little menace has been the exception to every single one of our rules.
Kovu stands behind Kaos and Bishop, who are perched on the chairs across from me at the desk. I push my phone across the desk for them to each read the message I received from Noah a few minutes after I called them here.
“Motherfucker,” Kovu growls, his hands curling into fists, and the scars across his face pulling under the pressure.
Bishop shoves his chair back so hard it flips to its back, the solid wood cracking as it comes into contact with the ground, before he starts pacing the length of the office.
Kaos remains seated, his head falling into his hands. This is the first time I’ve called on him to be a part of any of our plans to get Camilla back, but it’s clear he regrets the role he’s played. Truthfully, if I were faced with the same choice, I’m not sure what I would have done. I don’t know if I would have left one of them there and kept Camilla, or if I would have done exactly as he did.
“We have to get her out of there,” Bishop forces out through gritted teeth. “God fucking knows what he’s already done to her.”
“I’m hoping that the knowledge that she’s a virgin will keep her safe until their wedding night, which will never happen.” I sigh. “But, with a man like Davenport, it’s hard to tell whether he’ll go the traditional route or not.”
Bishop pauses his pacing, and his eyes widen at the same time Kovu turns to him.
“You haven’t told them?” Kovu growls.
“How the fuck do you know?” Bishop asks incredulously.
“I think you underestimate my obsession with my little lamb.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I shout. There’s nothing I hate more than being out of the loop.
“Bishop took her virginity the day she was taken. She was probably still fucking bleeding when Kaos handed her over.”
I turn to my son at the same time Kaos does, and he stares back at us, his shoulders pulled back. “It just happened. I didn’t have time to tell anyone afterward because we went on that fucking mission. I was going to tell you all when we got back, but then everything went to shit.”
I release a breath, forcing the jealousy down before it can rear its ugly head. I shouldn’t be mad he was the one to do it. He was the one who found her, the one who nursed her back to health while I had my head up my ass and Kaos was hating her. The only other one of us it made sense to be is Kovu, and his tastes are too dark for someone’s first time.
But none of that matters as I glare at my son for taking something that I craved taking myself.
“Fuck.” Kaos shoves his own chair back and begins pacing the way the others were just moments ago. We’re all restless, but with each passing day that she’s not here with us, it gets worse.
“Do you think she’s going to admit that to him?” I ask, forcing the words through gritted teeth.
“I can’t see Camilla talking to him at all if she can help it, let alone admitting she fucked Bishop,” Kovu replies, and I force some of the tension from my shoulders.
“What if he has a doctor check, though?” Bishop asks. “It was easy enough for Rogers to find out she was untouched to begin with, and I wasn’t exactly gentle.” He rubs a hand over the back of his head like he’s embarrassed, which is weird because we’ve shared a lot of women, and I’ve never seen him give a fuck.
“The evidence would still be there,” Kaos confirms, and I lean back in my chair.
“Your timing was impeccable, Bish.” Kovu pats him on the back before resuming his restless pacing up and down the room. If he’s not careful, he’s going to wear a hole in my fucking carpet.
“Okay, let’s assume he’s not going to go to that length and that he doesn’t know she’s no longer a virgin. I can only assume he’s going to keep it until the wedding night, which we are not going to allow to come to pass.”
“What’s our plan then?” Kovu asks.
“We’re going to this bachelor party. He’s the only one that will know he didn’t invite us. Two of us will go to Sally’s, and the other two will stake out the penthouse, see if you can find a way in.”
“And if we can’t get her out tonight?” Bishop asks.
“Then we go in guns blazing. I don’t give a fuck if we have to burn the fucking building to the ground, Camilla is not marrying that asshole.”
What I leave out is that the only people she’ll be saying vows to are the four of us.
If she ever forgives us for the part we’ve played in all this.