Chapter 12
FELIX
“Toph!”
“I know!” Toph milks everything he can from the car as we race down the dark road. Trees whip past the windows as fast as my heart races, becoming a blur of sensation in my chest as the call from Dove falls dead.
She called me.
Me.
She reached out to me and now I’m not going to get to her in time.
Panic this intense hasn’t gripped me in years, but in the painfully long minutes it takes for us to locate Dove’s car, it’s like someone’s got my heart in their fist and is squeezing as tight as they can.
Nausea curls in my gut and sweeps up with a pulse of warmth as Toph suddenly slams on the brakes, making us skid to a stop while the headlights illuminate the carnage in front of us.
One car, presumably Dove’s, with a cracked windscreen and dented door, rests awkwardly on the edge of the road tilted down toward the embankment while another with a smashed headlight and windscreen takes up the rest of the road.
The beam from that singular headlight focuses on two people grappling on the road and my heart punches up into my throat.
“Dove!” I’d recognize her hair anywhere.
Ripping the seatbelt free, I fly from the car and sprint toward the two people.
A man kneels on top of her, holding her by the hair with one hand and slamming his fist into her face with the other.
He punches her again and she yelps, then I throw myself forward and body slam into the assailant.
We land hard a few feet away and roll once until I’m on top, then I grab him by the collar. My fist crashes into his face and blood spurts in all directions as hot as the anger flooding through me.
How dare someone put their hands on my girl? I’ll kill him. I’ll fucking kill him. I’ll—
“Boss?” The bloody mess beneath me croaks suddenly and I halt, my fist poised for another blow.
Through the red mist of fury, I gaze down at a bleeding face I recognize. “Aaron?”
“Boss!”
“What the… what the fuck are you doing?!”
“Me?” Aaron chokes out, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. “What are you doing?”
“I—.” Beside me, Toph helps Dove to her feet and quickly cups her face as she struggles to maintain her balance. She immediately slaps his hands away and stumbles backward.
I kick Aaron away from me and rush forward, catching Dove around the waist before she can fall.
“Ow,” she croaks while blinking slowly. Blood leaks down the side of her face from a gash at her temple, as well as a split above her brow, and from her nose and lip where Aaron's fist landed.
“Dove.”
“Felix?” She shakes her head and tries to push me away the same way she did to Toph but I refuse to let her.
“Easy,” I soothe softly. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine.” She places both hands on my chest and my heart skips a beat. “I’m—.” She winces, screwing up her face, then turns in my arms and spits up a large mouthful of blood onto the ground.
“Aaron, what the fuck are you playing at?” comes Toph’s voice from behind me. He helps Aaron to his feet. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
“No, I’m doing my fucking job,” Aaron hisses. “What the fuck?”
“Look at me,” I say softly to Dove, ignoring their argument. She tries to turn her head away but I cup her jaw and force her head upward and to the side. “That doesn’t look deep. Was that from the crash?”
“I dunno,” Dove murmurs, leaning into me slightly. “Bit of a blur. Fucker ran me off the road.”
“I know.”
“I’m gonna kill him.”
“I know.”
“Are you serious?!” Aaron’s voice rises above the distant chirrup of crickets and buzz of insects, cutting through my immediate concern for Dove.
“Aaron,” Toph warns. “Relax.”
“Relax? There’s a kidnap or kill order out on her and he’s treating her like she’s the victim?” Aaron snaps. “That’s insane. Do you know how big the bounty is?”
“Bounty?” The fog of pain clouding Dove’s eyes vanishes immediately and her stance grows stronger as she forces herself away from me. Her glare locks onto Aaron past my arm. “What bounty?”
“You’re Alex James’ mother,” Aaron spits. “There’s a huge fucking bounty out on you.”
“What?!” Her eyes widen and she glances from Aaron to me. “What is he talking about?”
“Aaron, not now,” I scold. “Let Toph take care of you and we’ll talk about this.”
“What is there to talk about?” Aaron snaps, jerking his arm out of Toph’s grip when Toph reaches for him. “Get off me. There’s nothing to talk about, Boss. I found her fair and square. This is my bounty. You ain’t taking this from me.”
“Toph,” I warn sharply with one look.
Toph nods and starts dragging Aaron back toward the car while I turn back to Dove. She’s taken several steps away from me and is wiping her bloodstained hands on her t-shirt.
“Dove.”
“Don’t,” she hisses. “A bounty? Are you kidding me? The fuck did I do to deserve a bounty?”
“It’s complicated,” I say, holding my hands up. “Look, come back with me, okay? Let me take care of you. You’re beaten to hell. Let me just—.”
“Get off me!” Aaron’s voice rises up from behind me.
“Listen to me—,” Toph snaps. “This isn’t—!”
“I’m calling Caterina.”
Those three words from Aaron cut through my chest like a knife made of ice.
Slowly turning on the spot, I glance over at Aaron and Toph, who’s on the ground where Aaron’s punch knocked him to.
Toph climbs to his feet while working his jaw back and forth from the pain of the blow, and Aaron stares down at his phone while typing something out.
I react without much thought.
In a blink, the weight of my gun rests against my palm and I lift it, firing off a single shot before anyone else can even take a breath.
The bullet collides with Aaron’s skull and he crumbles to the ground like a paper bag crushed under a rock.
Silence falls. Even the buzzing, chirruping insects fall quiet.
“What the fuck?!” Dove yells, cutting through that silence after what feels like an eternity. “What are you doing?!”
“Listen.” I turn back to her and holster my gun at my hip. “He was about to do something really stupid and I know the look in his eye. Greed. He wanted that money on your head and he was going to get it.”
“Oh my god.” She lifts both her hands to her face. “You’re insane.”
“I’m really not.”
“You are! Do you think adding a body to my trail is what I want?”
Anger ignites hot in my chest. “Are you fucking kidding me? I just saved your life.”
“Saved me?” She turns her wide eyes on me and there’s something about her gaze that unsettles me. It’s like she’s looking at me but not quite seeing me. “You just put a bigger fucking target on my head! What part of leave me out of this life did you not understand?!”
“You called me!” I yell back. “You fucking called me!”
“Because I thought you’d be able to help me get out of this, not add a corpse leading directly to me!”
“No one will trace it to you,” I insist.
“Really?!” Hatred burns in her gorgeous eyes and as she points at me with one long finger and steps away, my stomach somersaults.
“Because from the sounds of it, there’s a bounty on my head because of that dead Rossi bastard who is also someone I didn’t kill, so tell me how this death won’t end up on my tail too? ”
My eyes widen in disbelief. “I did it to save you, Dove. You’re fucking ungrateful, you know that?”
“Ungrateful! Oh yes. Why don’t you kill Toph while you’re at it? I’m sure that’s another disaster that won’t point a fucking arrow at me!”
“Hey!” Toph protests from where he kneels next to Aaron’s body, his phone in his hand.
“I— sorry Toph,” Dove says, stepping further back from me. “This is insane. I never should have called you.”
“If you didn’t, you’d be dead right now. Look, Dove. You’re not thinking straight. You’ve got a head injury and god knows what else. Let me look at you.”
“No, stay away from me.”
“Dove.” I walk toward her but Dove glares at me and backs up toward her own car.
“I said, stay away from me!”
“You called me!” I remind her again, wrestling between the anger at her lack of gratefulness and the waves of concern for her wounds.
“To help me! A mistake, clearly, because look!” She points at Aaron’s body and the blood seeping across the tarmac. “Like always, you’ve made everything worse! Shit… fucking shit!”
“Dove—.”
“No!” Her words cut through me and the hatred in her eyes burns deep. “You stay the fuck away from me.
“Alright, fine!”
“Fine!” She turns and scrambles back into the remains of her car and my heart sinks slightly.
“You can’t be serious. Your car is fucked, Dove.”
She slams her way inside, turns the key and glares at me through her cracked windshield as the engine splutters to life.
Then she flips me off and backs her car away from the embankment.
“You’re stupid. You’re fucking stupid, Dove. I came all the way for you!”
“Fuck off!” She yells through the window, and with a squeal of tires, she takes off down the road into the darkness.
I take a few steps after her and then stop, unable to comprehend what the fuck just happened.
She calls me, asks for my help, and when I give it suddenly I’m the bad guy?
“Still glad to have her back in your life and hating you?” Toph asks as he joins me at my side.
I sigh deeply and wince as the pain in my knuckles from the punches ignites in my mind. “Yeah.”
“You sure about that?” Toph’s gaze locks on mine. “You killed Aaron.”
“Yeah…” Turning on the spot, I glance behind at the body. “Fuck. He was a dick anyway. Always cheated at cards.”
“If Caterina finds out we had her and let her go, she’ll kill us both y’know.”
“Is that a problem?” I ask, running my hand through my hair.
“You know where I stand,” Toph replies. “You’re lucky he never sent that text.”
“Alright. We need a cleanup crew and a cover story,” I grumble, half to myself as we walk back toward my car. “Call Reese. Maybe we can tie this to something like civilian road rage. Knowing Dove, she’ll dump that car so we gotta find it and burn it before anyone else does and ties it to her.”
“She’ll burn it,” Toph replies as we slump back into the car. “She was always one step ahead of us.”
“Sure.” The thought of her going anywhere right now makes my gut twist.
She needs medical help but she won’t get it.
If she’s anything like she was, she’ll go home.
As I reach for my phone, it suddenly lights up with an alert.
“Dove?” Toph asks, mirroring the lift of hope in my chest.
“No,” I sigh, crushed under a wave of disappointment to see it’s from one of my own men. That disappointment doesn’t last long though, as I read the message and a knot forms in my gut.
“Shit. We’ve got to get back to the city! Drive, Toph!”