3. Bishop
CHAPTER THREE
BISHOP
N othing ever prepares you for loss.
My entire life we’ve lived in danger. The number of times each of us could have been killed would scare most normal people, and yet losing Kovu is like nothing I’ve ever felt before.
I thought because we lost Caleb, or at least we thought we did, that it would prepare me for the future. But fuck, this is different.
Maybe it’s because I expected to outlive my uncle. He’s a decade older than Crew and always drank more than he should, while the rest of us preferred to live a healthier lifestyle.
But regardless, losing Kovu feels like losing an extension of myself, and watching Camilla fall apart right in front of my eyes is only intensifying the pain.
I curl myself tighter around her, holding her against my chest while Crew nestles against her back. Kaos has his head resting on her legs, but he’s yet to allow his own eyes to fall closed.
The emotional turmoil seemed to be enough to take Camilla out, but the rest of us are wide awake grappling with the reality of the situation we’ve found ourselves in.
“What are our next steps?” Kaos asks, breaking the silence we descended into an hour ago.
“We find whoever tampered with Kovu’s car and find out who orchestrated this,” Crew replies, his face still buried in Camilla’s hair.
“But we already know who did it,” Kaos snaps, and I shoot him a glare.
“Keep your voice down, she needs the rest,” I snap.
His eyes flick to Camilla before some of the tension melts from his shoulders.
“We don’t know that for sure.” Crew sighs. “Of course that is the most likely answer, but we can’t rule out any other threats right now. We need to know if this was Caleb, Charles, or someone else looking to take us out while they think we’re weak.”
I press my eyes closed for a moment as my stomach rolls uncomfortably. There are any number of people who would want to see us fall, and what better way than to kill one of us?
“Elias is running point on getting our allies together and finding whoever tampered with the car, but until then, we need to stick together. The only way we’re making it through this is together.”
Except we’re not whole anymore. We’re missing an integral part of our family.
Kovu may have thought he was just a psycho, but he was my brother. He and Kaos were the best friends I ever had, and from the day he walked into our shitty one-bedroom apartment, terrified and covered in his parents blood, he was one of us.
How are we meant to go on without him?
Crew’s phone vibrates on the bedside table, and for a moment I think he’s going to ignore it, but that’s not in his nature. He reaches for it but never pries his body from Camilla, as if he’s using her to ground him the same way I am.
He reads the message before tapping out a quick response with one hand and dropping the phone to the mattress behind him.
“Wyatt found the guy. They’re going to pick him up and bring him to the basement for us to question.”
“I can’t fucking wait to tear this asshole apart,” Kaos rumbles.
I allow my eyes to drift closed and drop a kiss to Camilla’s forehead.
I don’t need to be able to see the future to know it’s going to be a long few days, we may as well get some rest while we can.