Page 65 of Killing Me Softly

Aaron dropped his head in his hands. “I’m sorry. Fuck, Kenny, I’m so fucking sorry.”

“For what?”

Aaron lifted his head. “Roisin knows.”

Kenny flinched. “How?”

“I visited her.”

Kenny felt the punch before the words fully settled. A deep, gut-wrenching blow sending a sharp crack through his ribs, an impact that left him staggering back. Aaron had seen Roisin.Without telling him.Had walked into that prison, sat across from his mother, let herseehim,speakto him,sink her clawsinto him, without so much as a warning. Without so much as a fucking whisper.

A slow, searing wave of fear curled through his veins, hot and all-consuming. Beneath it, panic twisted, cruel and clawing, dark and ugly whispering that it was already too late. That whatever damage had been done was irreversible. That Aaron had already given her exactly what she needed.

Kenny swallowed hard, fighting to keep his voice level, but the words came out like gravel.“You visited her?”

Aaron darted his gaze away, shame flickering behind the electric blue. “I—yeah. I didn’t—”

“When?”

Aaron scrubbed a hand over his face, exhaling hard. “A couple months ago. And a year before that.”

Kenny clenched his fists and forced himself to breathe, not to react on instinct, not to let the full force of his anger crash down like a wave. But it was impossible. Thenaivetyof it. The recklesscarelessness. Yet he knew it wasn’t Aaron’s fault. He couldn’t blame him. Aaron had rights. Had questions. But Kenny knew the impact of having any sort of relationship with a woman who only saw people as pawns in her game. Including her son.

“You—” He cut himself off, teeth grinding together. “You went to her.Alone?”

Aaron lifted his chin, defiance flickering beneath his guilt. “I…”

“Oh, God,Aaron…” Kenny closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Do you have any idea what youdid?” His voice was dangerously quiet now, vibrating with restrained distress. “Any idea what that woman is capable of? You walked straight into her hands. You handed yourself over.”

Aaron flinched, but he held his ground. “I wanted answers.”

“Answers? You think she givesanswers? She givesstories. She weaves lies into truth until you can’t tell the difference. She knows how to twist people into her puppets.” He held Aaron’s gaze, tilting his neck, fighting against his heart thudding in beats of frustration.Fear. For Aaron. “You gave her exactly what she wanted.”

“Which is?”

“You, baby.You.”

Aaron’s throat bobbed as he swallowed. His voice was quieter now, hesitant. “She already knew. About us. I didn’t tell her—”

“No, shesuspected.And she did what she’s always done. Manipulated you. Extracted the information she needed from you. She played the odds, influenced the gaps in your reactions, made it sound like she already had the answer so you’d confirm it for her. That’s what she does. She doesn’tknow. Shehunts.” Kenny raked both hands through his hair, gripping at the roots, his panic clawing its way up his spine, threatening to crack through his composure. “But this isn’t about what sheknows. It’s about what she does with it. You think she’s just been rotting in that prison, waiting to die? No. She’s beenwatching.Calculating. Refining her control, sharpening her instincts, even from behind bars. That’s how people like her survive.Because the prison isn’t a cage to her. It’s a fuckingincubator.And she can’t stop.She won’t. People like her don’t just give up their urges.”

He took a breath, pausing to take in Aaron’s guilty, terrified expression. So he dipped to the edge of the coffee table. “Even from a cell, she still has the ability tokill.She doesn’t need to lift a finger. Look at what happened to your father. She just needs to pull the rightstrings.” He slid a hand around Aaron’s neck to draw him closer to him, taking in the sheer devastating beauty of him. “And now she has the one thing she needed most. Leverage.You.”

“I’m sorry.” Aaron’s breath hitched. “Sorry, this is all my fault.”

“Oh,baby…none of this is your fault.” He kissed him, lips cool to the touch. “I just wish you’d told me.”

A sharp knock at the door sliced through the tension.

They both froze.

Another knock pulled Kenny back from the brink, so he let Aaron go, stood and strode toward the door, breath uneven as he yanked it open.

Kenny didn’t have time to fully process the look on his face before Jack, stood the other side of his door, said, “You might want to hear this.”

chapter fourteen

Black Friday

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