Chapter 25
FELIX
Nightingale.
It’s not real.
It can’t be real.
Sitting in a tiny square empty room that’s become my cell since Caterina shoved me in here, the word revolves around my mind with no hesitation.
Dove… was the Nightingale?
Thinking back, such a thing doesn’t seem possible.
All those years ago, outside of being a ghost story, everyone was convinced the Nightingale was some ex-Marine with too much blood on their hands and a penchant for the luxury life; that’s why their prices were so high.
They killed without prejudice, didn’t care which family was paying and which one was on the chopping block as long as they got paid.
But Dove didn’t deny it when Caterina spat that word at her.
It must be true.
The version of the Nightingale in my head clashes with everything I know about Dove, past and present.
This not only means she’s responsible for some of the cleverest assassinations ever to rock the Mafia world, but she did it all when she was so young.
Did her father have a hand in this?
He must have.
There’s no other way she could have become so talented at such a young age.
Dove is the Nightingale.
And worse than that… she killed Nico.
My Nico.
My hands twist together until my fingers fade to white under the pressure and my heart beats so powerfully it’s like my entire chest is contracting with every beat.
Nico.
My best friend since before I can remember.
He never looked down on me for being an Enforcer or moving from family to family.
There was always a seat at his table and a plate of food waiting every time I visited.
He supported me through the death of my parents, every agonizing moment as a teenager, every injury and near-death experience that came from being fodder on the front lines of whichever family started a war with another.
He was my rock and there was a perfect window in my life back then when I had the bestest friend I ever could have asked for, and the woman of my dreams on my arm.
That image turns to ash in my mind and a bubble of emotion rises in my chest, catching just under my throat.
Is this the real reason Dove left back then? Unable to look me in the eyes after slaughtering the closest thing I had to family?
Or did she only get close to me so she could sink her dagger into Nico’s heart?
Have I been in her crosshairs this entire time and too blinded by love to see it?
Anger collides with the upset in my chest and my head hangs low between my shoulders, eyes closed.
This is my punishment for keeping her hidden from Caterina.
All this time, she was looking out for me and I spat in her face because I thought I knew better. I thought I was in love.
I clutch my hands together until numbness sweeps up my forearm but just as it reaches my elbows, the latch on the door clicks and it swings open.
Caterina slowly walks in, a quiet, soft smile on her face as she waves away her security, although the door remains ajar as she walks further inside.
“Felix.”
“Tell me it’s not true.” Our eyes meet and sympathy bleeds from her expression. “Tell me Dove isn’t…”
“The Nightingale?” Her lips purse. “I’m sorry, Felix. I tried to warn you. I told you to trust me and you chose not to.” Her words purr slightly as she speaks. “I have always had your best interests at heart and instead you chose to betray me. Betray Nico.”
Sharp pain lances through my chest at his name and my lower lip quivers slightly. I’m unable to look away from the burning accusation in her eyes, even as she stops a few feet away.
“Tell me what happened,” I ask roughly. “Tell me the truth. Please.”
Caterina sighs deeply and places one hand on her chest. “Talking about this pains me, Felix. You’re asking me to relive the worst week of my life.”
“It was the worst for me, too. Please, I have to know… what really happened to Nico?” The details I’ve clung to over the years are so sparse that it’s difficult to form a full picture even with the earlier revelations.
“Do you remember the last time you saw Nico?” Caterina perches elegantly on the edge of the small table in my cell and crosses one ankle over the other.
“Yeah, we—… we were planning a trip to Montana. He wanted to get away for a little while, embrace nature. He said he was tired of the prison this city had become.”
She nods. “Partly my fault for how hard I was working him at that time. Looking back, I don’t regret it.
I knew in my heart he would take his trip and embrace nature for all of five minutes before remembering the luxuries of home.
Then he’d be on the first flight back.” Her smile is filled with nostalgia.
“The Healy deal fell through. Do you remember?”
I squint at her. As an Enforcer back then, my knowledge of the intricacies between families was on a strictly need-to-know basis, and what Nico told me of what he was working on was vague at best. “I remember a deal, yeah. Drugs, right?”
“Mhm. I’d been working the Healys down for some time because they were toeing the line at entering my line of work with their loan sharks but never got wet enough to be a real threat.
Back then, the Healys were an empire. But something changed one night.
I got a call from their Captain and he told me, in not so many polite terms, that the deal was off. ”
I squint slightly.
Captain Healy was a man to be reckoned with but never someone I personally rated highly, given how eager he was to marry Dove off to some stranger.
Unless that was part of her cover for the Nightingale.
“So I sent Nico to speak with him. I thought a face-to-face would get to the bottom of whatever gave the Healy’s cold feet and from there, we’d be able to work out a fresh deal that soothed any worries and satisfied all parties.
” Caterina clears her throat suddenly and gazes upward as if forcing herself not to cry. “They sent Nico back to me in pieces.”
My heart clenches painfully in my chest and that agony radiates in waves through my body.
“My baby boy…” She shakes her head. “At first, I thought they had reached out and hired the Nightingale to kill him as some sort of punishment for whatever slight they had against me. I was ready to go to war for my baby.” The words catch in her throat.
“But one of my own Generals had been working on the Nightingale for a long time, intent on bringing him under our wing permanently. Nico’s death confirmed his suspicion and he brought me the intel that that bitch, Dove, was the Nightingale.
Captain Healy’s precious little assassin that he sent all over the place to keep himself in power, and hired out when wanting to help his friends. ”
Her face twists as if she’s reliving that very night and I’m struck by the urge to comfort her.
“Anyway. I couldn’t stand it any longer.
So Felix… I lied to you. I didn’t send my people to the Healy Estate with the intent of helping after hearing they were in danger.
I was the danger. I sent everyone and everything I had at them and ordered them all slaughtered because they took my baby from me and no one, no one, takes my baby from me.
I had them all killed with extreme prejudice.
” A cold anger laces her words. “And I’d do it again.
Without hesitation. My only regret is that, at the time, I thought Dove had died too quickly when I wanted her to suffer.
So imagine my surprise when Reese calls me and reveals that you’ve been harboring the little cunt in your penthouse? ”
I’m at a loss of what to say.
Every detail she’s given me makes painful sense.
She acted on the same revenge I harbored in my own heart for years after Nico’s death, revenge that was fueled by the loss of Dove.
A loss I could never speak out loud because of our secret relationship but it was the darkest period of my life.
And yet, Dove caused it.
She murdered him.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” My words escape waspishly thin. “People would have understood.”
“Would they?” She blinks quickly as her eyes glisten.
“The Healys sold Dove to the highest bidder. How do you think those families would have reacted to learn that I not only slaughtered the strongest Irish family in the city, but I also slaughtered the assassin they paid for? Most would assume I now held all their secrets and that would make me a target. And…” She takes a deep breath.
“I was mourning. Nico’s death pains me even now and I didn’t care for anything but trying to soothe the loss of my baby. ”
Every word makes sense. Her actions, out of anyone, are more than justifiable and had I the means and the intel, I probably would have done the same.
But it still collides in my mind.
The dark shadow of the Nightingale with the sweet warmth of Dove. They’re like chalk and cheese and yet the truth demands they are the same.
I should speak. Caterina watches me as if she expects me to say something but my mind is empty of everything except Dove and an unwillingness to accept the truth right in front of me.
“And she survived.” Caterina’s voice drops to a low whisper. “She’s been alive this entire time, held and protected by you. Nico’s best friend.”
She pushes off the table.
“You hid his killer.”
She slowly walks toward me.
“You kept her safe and let her murder yet another person close to me.”
My entire soul trembles as the weak justification of protecting Alex rushes through my mind.
“You lied to me.”
Caterina stops in front of me and cups my chin, lifting my head another inch.
“And now you’ve betrayed me and Nico’s memory. So how does it feel?” She leans down until we’re face to face and I’m pinned in place by her quiet fury. “How does it feel to lose everything because you chose to trust your best friend’s killer over me?”