56. Bishop
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
BISHOP
T hirty-two hours they’ve been missing.
It’s been the longest hours of my life, and yet it’s gone so quickly.
Every time I look at the clock, I find more time has passed, but how can that be when our entire world is at a standstill?
The Saint James men are still watching the estate, but the lack of movement makes me more and more certain it’s a decoy, which leaves us with nothing. Even after all this time, even with three of the best hackers in the world working night and day on it, we’re empty-handed, and it’s becoming harder for me to stop Kovu and Kaos from tearing the city apart looking for them.
The apartment has become a kind of mission control. There are people everywhere, maps of the city spread across the dining table, and takeout containers on every free surface that have barely been touched. We’ve never had to call on our allies to this scale before, but I’m fucking glad we spent so much time forging relationship with them so they would show up in moments just like these.
Damon and Ronan Lombardi are as far as they can get from Storm and Elijah, glaring across the apartment as if they think the two men could catch alight from looks alone.
Gabriel Wolff is talking to one of his men in hushed whispers while the rest of the room talks over one another, and Bennett Savage is on the phone to two of his brothers as they scout the city. I was hesitant to send them out there when we have no idea what’s waiting for us beyond these four walls, but then they reminded me that they’re hitmen, this is literally what they do for a living.
Kovu hasn’t come out of the gym in hours and refuses to eat every time we take food into him. He’s growing more and more withdrawn as time goes by, and I worry what will happen if we don’t get the outcome we want from this.
The thought of Crew and Camilla not coming home fills me with so much dread I can barely breathe around it, but I truly don’t know if Kovu would survive the loss.
I’m pulled out of my thoughts when there’s a knock at the door and we all pause, silence falling over the room as we look between one another, waiting for someone to move toward the door.
I take a step toward it, being cautious as I peek through the peephole, and then I sigh.
Chloe.
We had to tell her what was going on. She couldn’t get ahold of Camilla, and she was blowing up my phone thinking we’d done something to upset her, so I had to give her a condensed version of the truth that wouldn’t put her in more danger than she’s already in working for a Mafia family.
I tug the door open and usher her inside quickly before shutting it a little too hard, pulling everyone’s attention to it.
“What are you doing here?” I ask as softly as I can manage.
She holds up a huge bag. “I brought some food over. I couldn’t sit around feeling useless.”
I sigh, my shoulders softening toward the woman who helped to raise Camilla into the person I fell in love with. “I told you to sit tight until we have more information. What if you were followed?”
Someone steps up behind her, and I’m looking into the icy gaze of Damon before they flick down to the tiny woman in front of me. “She’s quite good at avoiding being found, aren’t you, Duchess?”
Her eyes widen, and she turns around slowly, her entire body tense as she flicks her gaze around the room before settling on Ronan, who looks like he’s seen a ghost.
But the question is, how do they know each other?