Page 39 of Stay Little Fighter

“You promised you would protect her!” Camilla snaps as she stomps toward us.

She’s looking a lot better than she did the last time I saw her, but by the way Kaos and Bishop watch her, I doubt they agree.

“How is it between all of you that you allowed her to be kidnapped…again?”

“Princess,” Kaos warns.

She glances over at him, holding his eye for a moment before her shoulders drop on a sigh. “I’m sorry. I know it’s not that simple.”

Bishop steps up beside her and wraps an arm around her shoulders, dropping a kiss to the top of her head. “They know how much Chloe means to you, Love.”

I didn’t understand their dynamic before, despite seeing firsthand how well they worked together to keep Camilla safe, but I get it now.

They each offer her something different, and she thrives because she has all of them.

Just the same way Chloe did as each of us accepted how the future was going to look for us.

She glances over at Damon across the room. He hasn’t moved since they walked in, hasn’t so much as looked up from where his head is in his hands.

If it weren’t for the tension in his shoulders, I’d think he was asleep.

But I’ve spent my life learning the body language of my targets, and I know with absolute certainty that he’s awake and listening.

“Any updates?” Camilla asks, taking the seat beside me with Bishop at her side while Kaos stands by the door, a silent sentry with his arms crossed over his body.

“They won’t tell us much. Just that she’s in surgery,” Kingston replies.

She nods and drops her head to Bishop’s shoulder.

“Crew and Kovu couldn’t make the trip?” I ask. The latter struggles to allow her out of his sight, much like me with Chloe, and it seems odd that he would allow her to leave the state without him.

Bishop shakes his head. “There are a lot of moving parts in New York right now as we prepare to take a back seat and allow the families to govern themselves.”

“It’s a big change,” Kingston comments.

“It is. But it’s for the best for all of us. The next generation of leaders know how well things work without constant conflict between them, and we have faith that they’ll continue to make choices that benefit the city as a whole, rather than just their pockets. The fact we’ll still be around will hopefully be enough to stop them from getting greedy. And this way we have more time to support Cami.”

“And live a life outside of the Syndicate for the first time in most of your adult lives,” she adds with an eye roll.

The corners of my lips tip up in a smirk. I wonder how long it will be before she stabs one of them for hovering too much.

My attention snaps to the door when a doctor steps into the room, his face completely neutral.

“Are you the family of Chloe Weaver?”

“We are,” Kingston replies without hesitation.

The doctor looks at each of us with apprehension but doesn’t ask any additional questions.

Smart man doesn’t feel like dying today.

“Chloe is out of surgery and she’s stable. We managed to get the infection under control pretty quickly, which was our biggest concern. The bullet hadn’t traveled, which meant once we removed it and supplemented her significant blood loss, we were able to stabilize her. We’ve been monitoring her other organs to make sure they’re functioning properly, and we believe she will make a full recovery with no complications.”

The tension in the room falls away, and my chest fills with relief.

Aside from killing Damon, I hadn’t allowed my mind to wander to what I was going to do if she didn’t make it. Ending his life would have made me feel better for a split second, but what would I have done for the rest of my life without my reason for breathing?

“Thank you, Doctor,” Kingston says, but the emotion in his voice is clearer than I can ever remember it being.