#Chapter 122: Kane's Self-Destruction

Kane's POV Guilt's got claws, and it crawled inside me and stayed. Like something rotting in my ribs. I was hunched in a trashy bar booth, already finished with my first bottle. Whiskey wasn't helping, just warming the edges of all the bad. Aurora had been here twenty minutes ago. She'd slid into the booth across from me with those eyes, the ones that could see through all my walls. The ones that were begging me to let her in. "Kane, please," she'd said. Voice soft like she was talking to something wounded. Which I was. "Just talk to me. Whatever Raymond said to you, we can figure it out together." I couldn't look at her. Couldn't let her see how close I was to breaking. How bad I wanted to tell her everything. About Raymond's threats. About the promises he'd made to destroy her if I didn't back off. "There's nothing to figure out," I'd lied. Kept my eyes on the whiskey. "Just leave it alone, Aurora." But she wouldn't. She never did. That's what made her dangerous. That's w