Page 274 of Corrupting Camille
Those words are blades, and we’re all too fragile right now.
Kane hasn’t come back upstairs. Hasn’t returned to me. Hasn’t faced any of us. But I know exactly what he’s doing, what he’s becoming. I can feel the shift in the air, in the way shadows seem colder, in how the house holds its breath when he moves beneath us.
He’s not mourning. He’s not grieving.
He’s hunting.
And God help me, I still love him, fiercely, painfully, but I refuse to lose myself in the darkness he’s embracing. Not now. Not when there’s something innocent growing inside me, something untouched by blood or violence.
So when the quiet knock comes at the guest suite door, I already know who’s summoning me before the guard says softly, “Mr. Rivera is requesting you.”
I rise without hesitation, heart hammering, grief and fear and love tangled into knots beneath my ribs.
And I follow him straight into the storm.
Kane
She walks into the war room barefoot, quiet as a shadow, dressed in that soft cotton dress that makes her look too fragile for the violence surrounding us. Her face is stripped clean, free of any mask, no armor but her quiet fury and fierce eyes.
Javi glances up sharply, lips parting with caution, but I silence him with a single, deadly gesture. Everyone else melts back,disappearing into the edges of the room, leaving nothing but silence between Camille and me.
Her eyes trace the maps on the screens, lines of blood-red targets, marked and waiting like a verdict. Her jaw flexes as she finally turns to me, arms crossed tightly as though holding herself together with sheer determination.
“You’re going to war,” she whispers, voice raw and hollow. It’s not a question it’s an accusation.
“Yes.”
“Now. Without rest. Without thinking.” Her voice trembles controlled but frayed at the edges. “You’ll just slaughter everyone who could possibly be involved.”
“Yes.”
Her eyes blaze, fear and fury tangling, sharp and raw. “And after you spill all that blood, when they come back, when they retaliate, when they aim for Lucia, Rosa…for me?”
“They won’t get that far,” I grit out, jaw locked like iron.
“You can’t control everything, Kane!”
“I can control this.” The words slice like blades, cold, sharp, certain.
She stares at me, frustration trembling beneath her skin. “This isn’t just about Diego.”
“No.” I step closer, each word grinding out painfully. “It’s about you. About our child. About them daring to come close to something that’s mine.”
A sharp, painful silence holds us captive, stretched and tense, broken only by the quick rise and fall of her breath.
Her voice softens, cracks slightly. “When does it end?”
I move closer, tension coiled dangerously beneath my skin, my rage barely restrained. “When there’s no one left standing who’d ever fucking think about hurting you again.”
She studies me, deeply, eyes searching my face for any remnants of the man I was when I asked her to marryme. Slowly, she lowers her arms, hands open at her sides, unguarded, vulnerable.
“I love you,” she breathes out quietly.
“I know.”
“But I won’t raise this child in a warzone, Kane.” Her voice shatters slightly. “I won’t let our baby watch you come home every night stained in someone else’s blood.”
I close the final distance, one hand reaching for her waist, the other carefully brushing along her jaw, holding her like something priceless, something I could never replace.
