Page 11 of Kane

‘Okay, Cassie, I’ve got some bad news,’ Kane said. ‘I won’t attempt to sugarcoat this. The fire came from your apartment. It was in all likelihood your equipment that triggered the system to blow.’

Cassie felt like collapsing.

This was awful.

She felt utterly horrible.

In that moment, with tears forming in her eyes, Cassie would have done anything to rewind the clock and not gone out to the park to play.

If I’d stayed in to carry on making the comic perfect none of this would have happened…

‘Cassie, it’s not your fault,’ Kane said. ‘As I said, the wiring and electrics in these buildings are not fit for purpose. I wasn’t criticizing you, simply stating facts.’

But Cassie could barely hear a word of what Kane was saying. She buried her head into Sydney’s chest and began to sob.

‘Kane, I need to ask something. What about Cassie’s computers?’ Sydney asked, fearing the worst.

Cassie lifted her head up from Sydney’s chest.

She was grateful to her friend for asking that question.

While she was super-fortunate to not have been caught in the fire, Cassie felt a sense of dread over the state of her computers. Every single piece of work she had ever produced professionally was on there.

None of the newer files were backed up either.

Cassie had always meant to do it, but somehow had always put it off. Every single time.

Without fail.

And now she was potentially going to pay the price.

‘I’m afraid they caught fire,’ Kane said, wiping his brow. ‘It’s not good–’

Cassie didn’t let Kane finish his sentence.

Instead, Cassie burst into tears. The kind of uncontrollable bawling that only happens when you’ve truly taken an emotional gut-punch.

‘A-a-a-a-all my work. It’s g-g-g-g-gone,’ Cassie said, tears flowing down her cheeks. ‘I’ve screwed everything up.’

‘Kid, calm down,’ Kane said, more than a hint of impatience in his voice. ‘Had you let me finish, you would have heard me say something else. Yes, it looks bad. But at the same time, nothing is ever totally beyond repair. I have an idea. Now, do you want to hear it, or not?’

Cassie stopped crying.

Kane’s voice was firm. Commanding. Not to be challenged.

But even more than that, Cassie needed to know what this idea was.

And she needed to know right now.

Chapter 4

Kane

There was no escaping the fact that Kane was attracted to Cassie. Kane’s Daddy senses were going off the scale as he saw how much Cassie needed help.

And how sweet and vulnerable Cassie was.

It wasn’t going to happen though.