Chapter 23
FELIX
“Dove!”
As soon as her name leaves my lips, it’s all over but I don’t spare a thought for Caterina until the guards she brought with us when she insisted on coming along, surge forward and block my path.
Behind them, Reese leans over Dove and drags her up by her shoulders with such force it’s a wonder her towel stays in place.
“Felix,” she gasps through a bloody lip.
Above us, an explosion rips through the air.
The crowd around us screams and scatters while I gaze upward at the inferno now consuming most of the building.
Why didn’t the fire suppression system trigger? How did a fire start in the first place? So many questions and not enough time to worry about them. When I glance back down, Caterina stands in front of me with a twisted, cold expression on her face.
“So it’s true.”
Behind her, Dove wrestles with Reese and a couple of other men but it’s hard to tell what exactly is happening when Caterina commands my attention.
“Caterina, it’s not what you think.”
“Isn’t it?” Her eyes narrow. “You’ve played me for a fool long enough. I thought you were different, Felix. I thought we understood one another.”
“We do!” I surge forward as anger ignites hot and tight under my ribs but before I can reach her, two men grab my arms and haul me backward. “Caterina, let me explain!”
“Take him away,” she snarls. “I don’t want to see his face right now.”
“Caterina, wait! Let me explain! Don’t do something you’ll regret!” The men around me are stronger than I expect, likely due to Caterina always ensuring she has men stronger than the companions she travels with.
The last I see of Dove is Caterina walking right up to her and grabbing her by the chin, then I’m forced into the back of a car where Toph already sits, nursing a graze to his cheek.
“What the fuck,” I pant, wresting one arm away from the guard who slips in with us. “Touch me again and I’ll fucking kill you.”
The click of his handgun is the only response I get as he sits opposite us with another armed guard, a man twice the size of Toph.
“You alright?” I ask Toph, glancing him over.
“Yeah.” He nods. “You?”
“No. Not even a little.” Before I can say anything else, Reese is thrown into the vehicle and the door slams, just as the engine starts up and we’re dragged away from the burning building.
Away from Dove.
I glare at Reese immediately. “What the fuck were you playing at?!”
“Me?” He hisses at me. “I was trying to salvage the mess you made. That woman is more trouble than she’s worth.”
“Dove,” I growl. “Her name is Dove. You were supposed to protect her.”
“What the hell do you think I was doing?” Reese snaps.
“Sure didn’t look like it from where I was standing.”
“Ain’t my problem.” Reese rolls his eyes and his upper lip swells when he runs his tongue over his teeth. “We’re in so much shit. So much fucking shit. You any idea what Caterina will do to us?”
I do but I don’t care.
Every fibre of my being wants to be back out there with her, or tackle these men and take over the car but one wrong bullet and I’m useless to her.
I need to play this carefully, explain to Caterina the truth I’ve spun, and then we’ll be together.
That hope is small but it remains in my heart all the way back to Caterina’s place. We drive past multiple firetrucks and cops all rushing to the blaze but they won’t be able to save it.
My penthouse is gone.
That entire building will be gone.
Reaching Caterina’s Manor, we’re escorted to her office under armed guard and forced to sit.
There, all three of us wait until she returns forty minutes later.
When she enters the office, she waves for her guard to leave, and after shooting me a warning glare, he does.
“Caterina—,” I start to speak but she silences me with a raised finger and continues to her drinks cabinet.
There, rather than pouring a glass, she simply removes the stopper from a decanter of Whiskey and takes a large mouthful.
Her face twists from the taste, then she moves back to her desk and leans against it with the bottle in hand.
“You betrayed me, Felix.”
“I didn’t.”
“Don’t lie to me.” Her gaze remains down on the bottle.
“I can’t stand to hear another filthy lie spill from that mouth of yours.
For years I have cared for you. Given you a home and a space to flourish.
I’ve helped you fight your battles, worked with you on incredible deals, and poured my heart out to you because I thought we were kindred spirits.
” Slowly, she lifts her gaze to meet mine.
“I thought we were the same. We loved the same man and we lost him together. No one understood what that was like for me except you and I thought that made us the same. All these years, I poured my heart into you and this is how you repay me?”
Her words end up in a savage hiss and she brings the bottle to her lips again, gulping down the alcohol.
“Caterina,” I begin carefully, swallowing down a slight tremble in my throat. “It’s not what you think, I swear.”
“Isn’t it?” She lowers the bottle and licks her lips. “Tell me then. What am I thinking and how is it not the fucking truth?”
“You saw her…”
“That woman…” Caterina laughs hollowly. “Her son, Alex? What are the chances? You know what strikes me, Felix?” She points at me with the bottle.
“How did you come here and look me in the eye, make all those promises that you cared for me and would help me get revenge only to harbour the killer in your penthouse this entire time!” Her last few words rise to a screech.
There’s a small chance that Caterina has no idea who Dove really is and I clutch at that as hard as I can. “I did it only to protect you.”
“Protect me? How the fuck is that protecting me?”
“Because I knew how it would affect you if you killed the wrong people. If you spent all your energy hunting down that poor kid and his mother, intent on revenge, while the real culprits remained at large, laughing at you and thinking they could get away with taking things from you.”
She remains deathly silent, unmoving, so I continue.
“When I worked out the truth, I hid them only so I could buy time to track down the real killers and deliver them to you. That way, an innocent boy and his mother wouldn’t be killed and you would get the satisfaction of killing the true masterminds with your own hands.
” The lie spins smoothly and I slowly stand.
“You know I always have your best interests at heart.”
Caterina suddenly lets out a humorless snort. “You were right. He’ll really lie through his teeth for a whore.”
My brows twitch as suddenly, Caterina doesn’t seem to be speaking to me.
Leather creaks behind me and I turn around. Reese walks toward the drinks cabinet, grabs a glass, then saunters over to Caterina and offers it to her.
She tips the bottle and lets the alcohol pour into the glass, then Reese brings it to his lips and drinks.
“I told you he was a master bullshitter,” Reese remarks. “It’s a talent.”
“Reese?” Something cold stirs in my gut as my thoughts collide, struggling to match what I’m seeing with what I know.
At least, what I thought I knew.
“Confused?” Caterina asks. “Let me help you, dear. See, your right-hand man, Reese, is actually my right-hand man, Reese. They both are, actually.”
Another creak and Toph slips past me to join them, his face completely void of any emotion.
“So when Reese here finally came to me and said you were harboring the bitch that killed my Tee, and not only that but that he suspected you were up to something, something that would allow her to escape all consequences.”
“Reese…” His name falls weakly from my lips as I struggle to keep up.
Toph and Reese, my Toph and Reese, actually work for her?
All this time?
I try to meet Toph’s gaze but he avoids it, refusing to look my way and my heart clenches.
“You’re making a mistake, Caterina. It’s really not what you think.” I’m clutching at straws as the floor collapses beneath me and the trusted circle around me, the men I thought I could lean on to talk my way out of this, turn their backs on me.
“Am I?” Caterina’s rage overflows and she slams the decanter down on the desk behind her, shattering it into a thousand pieces. Then she turns and yells at me. “Tell me, Felix, when did you realize that Dove James was actually Dove Healy?”
My blood runs cold and our eyes lock.
So, she does recognise her.
Is this something I can work in Dove’s favor?
The heir to Captain Healy’s fortune has to have some sway here.
My mind races, formulating plans that collapse within seconds under the weight of Toph and Reese’s betrayal.
I can’t think.
Dove needs me to think but I can’t do it.
“Caterina…”
“Dona,” she spits at me. “You’ve lost the privilege of my name, you fucking rat.
” She walks forward, entering my space with a sway of hips and fury blazing in her eyes, but even as she gets close, she smiles.
“You’re going to pay for this. The only reason I haven’t killed you for being a traitor is because the world doesn’t know yet and I don’t need the hassle of those fucking families that smile at me but only trust you.
But that doesn’t mean you aren’t going to suffer. ”
She reaches for me and despite my recoil, she presses her palm flat to my cheek. “We had something special, Felix.”
“No,” I reply tightly, contemplating my odds of survival if I take her hostage. “We had grief and pity. Nothing else.”
Her eyes turn dark and cold and she pats my cheek. “Really? It would pain you then, to learn that all this time, not only were you harboring the cunt that killed Tee, but you were also hiding the bitch who killed your best friend?”
The ground falls away from me and sickly tension pulls through my gut like a cold, sharp blade.
“What?” I croak out. “What did you say?”