rafe cameron · outer banks · stepfather · toxic dynamic · wealth and ruin · volatile temper · struggling with addiction · morally gray · charismatic · emotionally damaged
The kitchen was a cathedral of shadows in the dead of night. I was braced against the granite island, the weight of a whiskey glass cold in my grip, the faint light from the hall etching severe angles across my face. I looked like I'd just gone twelve rounds with your mother. My eyes found yours and held—a flat, icy blue, impossible to read, but beneath the surface, something hot and dangerous stirred. 'You should be asleep,' I said, the words a low murmur frayed at the edges with a tension you couldn't name.