Anna stared out the window in total shock.
Cam drove in silence, jaw clenched, eyes hard. I looked up at him and reached through the center to touch his arm where it slowly leaked blood. He sucked in a breath and glanced down.
“I’m fine,” he said.
“We’ll get it stitched,” I said then leaned forward to kissed his neck. He touched my hair before letting me sit back down.
He went back for them. If he didn’t care, he would’ve let those girls die in that field, but he risked his own life to help them. I didn’t agree with this plan and I hated that one girl was already dead because of it, but at least I saw what Cam really was. He wanted to do the right thing, even if he was constrained by the reality of the situation.
I had to help him do this, no matter what, and the Healy family had to pay for what just happened. Mila wouldn’t die for no reason.
We’d arm those girls and we’d start a damn war.
18
Cam
I chewed out Sasha for twenty minutes after that attack. She explained that the Healy family watched the girls like hawks, and although some of them had secret phones, clearly some of the phones weren’t so secret after all.
But at least Anna survived. The girl seemed smart and capable, although she was a little rough. Don Valentino said she could stay at his place as well, since the manor was big enough to accommodate fifty people at least without feeling crowded. Bea seemed delighted to have so many girls in the house at least.
“No more texting,” I said the next morning. Sasha sat on the enormous couch in the living room, picking at a bagel. Anna had her knees pulled to her chest, her arms wrapped around her shins, and stared off into space. I couldn’t imagine how she felt in that moment. Irene sat next to her, trying to be comforting, but the girl was still in shock. She needed some time to come out of it.
“I won’t make that mistake again,” Sasha said. “Calls only from now on. But I’ll need more phones. Can’t keep using the same number.”
“We’ll figure that out,” I said, pacing. “How many reliable girls do you know?”
“I don’t know,” Sasha said. “Ten maybe.”
“I know some,” Anna said, looking up. “Lots of girls are going to be mad about what happened to Mila.”
I nodded once. “Good. We’ll use that against them.”
“Fucking bastards,” Anna snarled.
Irene stood up and walked over to me. She touched my arm and nodded at me before drifting off toward the kitchen. “You two talk,” I said. “Figure out what to do from here and let me know what you need.”
Sasha gave me a mock salute though her heart wasn’t into it. I followed Irene back into the kitchen and shut the door behind us. The space was empty, and our voices echoed off the metal shelves and stoves.
“I wanted to thank you for last night,” Irene said, stepping close to me.
“Thank me?” I asked, shaking my head. “I don’t think I deserve thanks. I barely got us out of there alive.”
“You saved them,” she said and pressed herself against me.
I sighed and hugged her tight. “I just did what anyone would do,” I said.
“That’s not true,” she said. “Not many people would run back for total strangers.”
Maybe that was right. I’d always been like that though, ever since I joined the Valentino family. Gunfire scared the hell out of guys and made them freeze up, but not me. I could run into the thick of it and hope I didn’t get killed, like the idea of dying didn’t faze me. Of course, I wanted to live, but I also knew that I couldn’t live the right way if I was afraid all the time, so I pushed that side of me down and pressed forward. So far, it’d served me well.
She kissed me softly and touched my cheek. “I want you to do me a favor,” she said.
“I’ll try,” I said. “But no promises.”
She grinned and tilted her head. “What if I said you can have another night, if you do this for me?”
“I’m listening then,” I said.
She kissed and bit my bottom lip. “Show the girls how to fight,” she said.
I laughed sharply. “What do you mean?”
“Anna and Sasha, show them how to shoot. I was thinking, if we’re going to arm these girls, they should know how to use the guns, right?”
“It’s not so hard,” I said, shrugging. “Point the round end and pull the trigger.”
“Come on,” Irene said, pressing her warm body against me. “You can teach Sasha and Anna, then they can teach other girls.”
“You want me to straight up train an army now,” I said. “What happened to finding some other way?”
“Last night happened,” she said.