36. Camilla
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CAMILLA
I can’t wait to get home.
And by home, I mean the compound.
I have no idea when the estate stopped feeling like home and when the compound took its place, but all I want right now is to be in the arms of my men, in the space we share.
But first I need to speak to Luca.
More and more he’s taken over responsibility for the business, and while I feel awful about it, I’m also sure he would have preferred that over him dealing with the trafficking situation we found ourselves at the center of.
I park Crew’s BMW beside the office at the docks and don’t hesitate to climb out of the car. At least I’m better dressed to be here today, wearing my favorite pair of ripped jeans and a knitted sweater to combat the chill coming off the water. The outfit is completed with a pair of combat boots I’ve worn so many times I’m shocked they aren’t full of holes.
Luca steps out of the office and nods his usual greeting. The ship the organs and girls arrived on a few days ago is gone. Where, I’m not sure. All I know is Luca knew a guy, and I didn’t question it. I don’t want any proof that thing was ever here, nor do I want it linking back to us.
“How are the girls?” he asks.
“They’re doing okay. Some are better than others, but it’ll take some time before they can move on from it all.”
“Any word on who’s responsible?”
I shake my head. “We can only assume it’s Charles and Caleb, but we haven’t been able to track any of the money or people the girls named. We’re working on it, but it’s taking more time than I would like.”
“I’ve spoken to most of the higher-level guys that work for us and they’re keeping their ears to the ground for anything we think may be of use,” he tells me.
“Thank you for doing that, and literally everything else. This has not been a smooth transition into my role by any means, and I appreciate all you’ve done to keep things moving when I’ve been caught up with other things.”
He sighs. “Camilla, you don’t have to thank me. This is my job. The job you put me in. When you’re not able to run shit, I’ll run shit. And then when you’re back, I’ll take a well-earned rest. Just because your dad made it seem like he ran the whole family alone, doesn’t mean it was the case. If you don’t know by now that Mafia life is a series of smoke and mirrors, I don’t think John taught you half of what you should have learned.”
I scoff. “I just want you to know I appreciate it. And you have one hell of a raise coming your way.”
He laughs, a sound that is so rare I think I’ve only heard it a handful of times in the years he’s worked with my family. “I’ll hold you to that. Now go home. I’ve got this.”
“Call me if you need me, or if any of our guys hear anything.”
“Will do.”
Without another word, he heads back into the office, and I move back toward the car. I have no idea what I did to deserve a second-in-command like Luca, but fuck am I grateful right now.
By the time I get back to the compound, I can’t stop yawning.
I need a long, hot soak in the tub, and then I want to curl up with one or more of my men and sleep into next week. Okay, maybe not actually that long, but just a full, uninterrupted eight hours would do me the world of good right now.
The girls have been having nightmares, which is more than understandable, but that’s meant I haven’t been getting much sleep, and at this point I’ve never understood the saying “dead on your feet” more.
I take the elevator to the floor the offices and bedroom are on, completely bypassing my own room. As much as I’d love to be surrounded by my things right now, I need the comfort of my men.
The doors slide open, and another yawn escapes me as I step out into the hallway, looking each way before I decide to check Crew’s office first. He spends at least sixteen hours a day in there, so there’s a good chance I’ll find him behind his desk.
But when I stop in the doorway, I find the light off and the computer screen turned off.
Weird.
I turn on my heel and move back toward the bedrooms. Maybe they’re all just as exhausted as I am and have turned in early despite the fact the sun hasn’t even set yet.
I reach Bishop’s bedroom, but the door is open and the room is empty.
A frown pulls at my brows. I don’t know if it’s just my overactive imagination or everything we’ve been through in the last few weeks, but my heart rate picks up as I push Crew’s bedroom door open and find a dark, empty room.
What the fuck?
“Guys?” I call out, hoping one of them will hear me and put me out of my misery. While I wait, I cross the hall and push Kaos’s bedroom door open, finding the same thing I did in the others.
A door further down the hallway opens, and Kovu steps out, sweat across his brow and his hair pushed back out of his face like when he’s been doing a workout.
“Hey!” he says a little too loudly. “You’re home earlier than we thought.”
“Uh, yeah. Luca has everything under control.” I flick my eyes to the door behind him, the same room that I caught him sneaking out of last week. “What are you up to?”
“Oh nothing, just going through some old junk,” he replies quickly.
My frown deepens. He’s lying to me.
Anxiety washes over me. What reason does he have to lie? Unless they’re keeping something from me. Or someone, perhaps. That thought makes my stomach roll uncomfortably. It can’t be that. Surely it’s not that.
“How about we go have a long shower together, and then we’ll order in for dinner?” He takes a step toward me, but I step out of his reach.
“What’s in the room, Kovu?”
“It’s just a junk room.”
I press my eyes closed to force the tears threatening to escape from falling. The lack of sleep and complete clusterfuck that has been the last few days has me more emotional than I normally would be. Plus, my period is due any day now, and my hormones are all over the place.
When I open my eyes, Kovu is standing in front of me, his eyes full of concern. “You okay, Little Lamb?”
I flinch at the nickname, causing his brows to furrow.
“You’re lying to me.” The words are bitter on my tongue, but I force them out regardless. I promised myself I wouldn’t fall into a relationship founded on lies, and they promised after they didn’t tell me Kovu was the one to end my father’s life that there would be no more lies, no more deception. And yet here we are.
His blue pools fill with regret as he flicks a look over his shoulder. “Stay here.” He turns on his heel, and before I can argue, he slips back into the room.
I cross my arms over my chest and huff out a sigh. I’m too tired to deal with this, and yet I stay put despite how badly I want to turn my ass around and head down to my room.
A few minutes pass before the door opens and Bishop steps out. His sweatpants and black shirt are covered in paint, which has my brows rising, and then I spot the flecks in his hair, and I have to fight the laugh that tries to escape.
“Hi, love.”
“Bishop,” I say coldly. “What’s going on in there?”
At this point, I’m pretty confident there’s not another woman on the other side of the door given the paint, but I want them to know they can’t lie to me and get away with it.
He holds out his hand, and I only hesitate for a second before I take it, allowing him to pull me toward the closed door on the other side of Kovu’s.
He pushes the door open, and it takes me a moment to process what I’m seeing. My other three men are standing in the middle of the room in front of the biggest bed I’ve ever seen in my life. It looks like it’s two king-size beds pushed together, but I can’t find the words to ask.
My eyes move over the room slowly. From the sage feature wall behind the bed to the framed photos that litter the top of the chest of drawers to photos from the estate that I never saw them take.
I look past them to the wardrobe that’s overflowing with clothes, and then the open bathroom door with white and gold accents.
“What is this?” I whisper as my eyes lock on the chair in the corner from my bedroom downstairs, the one Bishop spent a week sleeping in, so he could make sure I was okay while I recovered.
“It’s your bedroom,” Bishop tells me, dragging me against his side. “We wanted you to have a space that’s yours.”
“But obviously we’ll be sleeping in here with you more often than not for that bed alone.” Kaos chuckles.
I open my mouth to say something but quickly snap it shut again. I don’t know what to say. No one has ever done anything so nice for me, and certainly not on this level.
Crew steps forward and takes my hand in his, dragging me further into the room. “We can change anything you don’t like, but we brought most of the stuff you had packed up from the estate. Anything you don’t see is probably in the spare room if we weren’t sure what to do with it.”
“You did this for me?” I whisper, not trusting my voice under the weight of the emotion battering down on me.
Kaos chuckles and brushes his fingers through his cropped hair. “If you haven’t noticed by now, Princess, we’d do anything for you.”
Tears fill my eyes, and this time I don’t bother trying to blink them away. “It’s perfect.”