CHAPTER 56
Cain’s POV
I had stopped trying to understand myself.
Somewhere between dragging Ava out of a burning kitchen, watching her stitch me back together after a knife wound, seeing her outsmart federal agents with nothing but confidence and quick thinking, and nearly losing my mind when she disappeared to that shopping mall, something had shifted inside me.
Every time I looked at her, I remembered that kiss.
Every damn time.
It wasn’t supposed to matter.
She was Eli’s sister. She was under my protection.
She was carrying burdens that had nothing to do with my world, and I carried secrets that would destroy whatever trust she had begun placing in me.
None of that stopped my mind from wandering back to her.
Or my heart from doing things I couldn’t explain.
I lowered myself
