Chapter 29
DOVE
I feel… lighter.
All the secrets I’ve been carrying for fifteen years are finally out in the open and there’s nothing left to hide.
Not that it’s done me much good.
Telling Felix the truth was my last attempt at ensuring Alex’s safety.
Caterina is never going to let me go.
I’ll die here at her hands when she grows frustrated enough with my silence, but with Felix knowing the truth, maybe there’s a chance he’ll be able to escape.
Finding Alex without my help will be near impossible but if anyone can do it, Felix can.
Then he can take my son… our son… and go somewhere far away where this life can never touch or taint him ever again.
Slumping against the cold wall, I close my eyes and play it out in my mind.
Felix’s anger was somewhat understandable.
A man with only half the story can only react in limited ways, and what he does with the truth will be a mystery to me.
But the look on his face?
That painful realization that I had my reasons for murdering Nico and that he’s actually Alex’s father?
It has to be enough.
Alex is the only thing in the world I care about. Nothing comes close, not even my complicated love for Felix.
Is it enough, though?
Is it enough to show Felix that he’s been manipulated for over a decade, kept under a heel that doesn’t care for him and prevented from flourishing because he’s nailed to the memory of a monster?
I pray it’s enough. I pray it’s enough to save my ba—!
A sudden explosion erupts in the hallway, closely followed by a second.
They’re both loud enough to leave my ears ringing even as I cover them with my palms and draw my legs up to my chest.
The locked door of my cell creaks and groans, then topples forward very slowly and crashes to the ground with a deafening clatter.
Felix stands on the other side with Toph, who wields some kind of shotgun that’s smoking slightly at the barrel.
A similar smoke curls around the remains of the door hinges but there’s no time to focus on any of that.
Felix leaps over the door and almost trips over himself in his desperation to reach me.
“Dove!” He drops hard to his knees and reaches for me, then he hesitates and his hands curl into fists an inch from my arms. “We have to go. Can you walk?”
“What?” This doesn’t make sense. Time is an illusion and it equally feels like hours since he left here while fighting Reese and also no time at all.
Behind Felix, Toph delves into a quick hushed discussion with several men all clad in black, and when I blink, Felix rips the shirt from his back and drapes it over my bare shoulders.
“Toph!” Felix yells. “Give me your shirt!”
“What? I like this shirt.”
“And I don’t want everyone staring at Dove so give me the damn shirt!”
“Fine,” Toph grumbles, though he doesn’t sound particularly stressed about having to shed his clothing.
I blink and Felix’s intricately tattooed chest fills my entire field of view as he takes one of my hands and very slowly helps me onto shaky legs.
“What’s happening?” I murmur, struggling to keep up with everything going on around me. While standing, Felix tightens his shirt around my shoulders and buttons it up quickly, then he winds Toph’s t-shirt around my waist and ties a knot with the sleeves at my hips.
“I’m sorry,” he murmurs. “I know this has to hurt.”
Maybe it should but I’m so numb now that the fabrics catching on inflamed or healing wounds barely breaches my focus. Instead, I stare at Felix’s bare chest.
There’s a small bird on his shoulder resting on a couple of flower petals.
That flower grows from a branch surrounded by leaves and on the path down from the flower to the rise of his peck, several other small birds dance between the leaves.
They dance as he scoops me up into his arms and it’s so beautiful to see.
Wings flap with each tense and roll of muscle, leaves drift in an invisible wind and flower petals drift down only to disappear where my body presses against his.
Such beautiful tattoos.
He didn’t have this many when we knew each other and now they’re all I want to look at.
I blink slowly and rest my head against his shoulder, following some thorny vines along his collarbone and up to his throat.
The bright corridor around me turns into a dark night sky when I blink.
Cool air turns to warm air, voices collide around me, orange floods the sky and the stink of smoke catches in the back of my throat.
Through it all, Felix’s arms remain tight around me and they stay there even when I close my eyes and fail to open them again.
—
“Should I take her to a hospital?” A familiar voice drifts toward my ears, fading in and out of focus like ripples in a pond.
“Are you telling me you don’t trust my doctors?” A woman’s voice. Unfamiliar yet the slight twang of an Irish accent is enough to ignite something in my chest.
“I’m not saying that at all. I’m just worried.”
“I get it. You don’t trust me.”
“Bree, you’re twisting things.”
“Wow, you’re sensitive. That bitch really did a number on you, huh?”
A deep sigh follows. “I don’t know what’s real anymore. How have the last fifteen years of my life been built on a lie? What kind of fool does that make me?”
The woman, Bree, murmurs something I can’t catch. I screw up my eyes and try to focus but every voice is slightly muffled as if I’m underwater.
“You’re only saying that because I’m paying you.”
“Yeah I’m all about the money,” Bree snorts. “Felix… listen to me. Everyone knows what a cunt she is. Some more than others. Do you really think half of those people would even trust her if it wasn’t for you? No one’s going to judge you for not knowing.”
“I do,” Felix replies. “I judge myself. Look at this mess I created.”
“Did you create it?” Floorboards creak somewhere to my left. “Or did Caterina? Don’t shoulder blame for a monster like that. You won’t survive.”
Their voices soften and drift out of focus and then silence follows. I should open my eyes but exhaustion weighs them down with the temptation to sink back into sleep once more. If Felix is here then I feel safe.
Maybe I shouldn’t but I do.
Until Alex enters my mind. The memory of his smoke-streaked face in front of that burning building is enough to ignite a sharper instinct within me, so I force my eyes open.
A white, tiled ceiling stares back down at me, fitted with small, silver, circular lights that remain dull due to the sunlight streaming over the back of the couch I’m lying on.
Judging by the hue, it’s late in the day but I can’t tell how long it’s been since I arrived here.
Rolling my head to the side, Felix sits on a lounge chair across from me with his head back and his eyes closed.
A couple of cuts on his face have been stitched and the bruises on his knuckles and jaw show slight fading around the edges.
Has it been a couple of days?
Longer?
Taking a deeper breath, my focus returns to my own body.
Nothing hurts, although my back pulls as I breathe, as if something is stuck to it.
A weighted blanket keeps me down and areas of my face pull tightly as I wiggle my brows and press my lips together.
But there’s no pain.
Not even a hint.
I’m in the middle of subtly testing my limbs when Felix suddenly clears his throat.
I look back at him and his sorrow-filled eyes meet mine.
“You’re on strong painkillers,” he explains quietly. “And you’ve been treated well.”
A shadow moves near my head and snatches my attention.
It’s just Toph.
He stands in the doorway blocking any entry or exit and when our eyes meet, he flashes me the smallest of smiles.
“By who?” I croak as I look back at Felix.
“Bree McCarthy. Do you know her?”
Bree doesn’t ring a bell but McCarthy does. There’s familiarity to it that stirs deep in my mind but I can’t currently place them, so I shake my head.
“It has been a long time,” Felix sighs. “The McCarthys… in so many words, they filled the space your family left when they died. Good people. Decent people. I typically deal with Bree’s father whenever we’ve had business but she’s just as capable. Maybe more so.”
The McCarthys.
The more I think about them, the more a distant memory of attending some sort of function or ball in their honor creeps into my thoughts. It was so long ago that the details remain fuzzy.
“What happened?” I croak again, then I swallow repeatedly to try and fix my voice. “How did we get there?”
Felix leans forward until his elbows rest on his knees and his hands clasp together, dangling toward the floor.
“We got here a couple of days ago.”
“Why am I on a couch?”
“You were in the medical bay but some of Bree’s men were attacked and due to the nature of their wounds, Bree vacated you here. I was going to take you to a hospital but it’s probably not safe.”
Their previous conversation comes back to me, but Bree’s absence suggests I did fall back asleep after overhearing it.
“That night when we came to the penthouse to save you, the fire was out of control. The entire building is gone. It turned out Reese wasn’t actually my right-hand man; he was Caterina’s. Toph was too, for a while.”
I glance at Toph and he grimaces. “Once I learned Reese was feeding information to Caterina, I joined in to keep an eye on Reese but my loyalty never wavered. I intended to flip the script eventually. Then everything went to shit before I could. So I had to bide my time and wait for the perfect moment to strike. Unfortunately, Caterina is an unpredictable woman. So are you.”
“Me?”
Felix snorts softly. “Toph had a plan but the truth you told me, the truth about everything, had me flipping out so Toph had to act pretty quickly to get us out of there.”
“It was a blessing, really,” Toph replies.
“Caterina refused to let me anywhere near you, Dove, so I had no way to rescue you, and I knew Felix would never leave you behind, even if he hated you, so I was struggling on how exactly to get both of you out. Turns out, I just had to wait until you turned Felix into a ticking time bomb.”
“While waiting,” Felix continues, “Toph was gathering allies in secret. Most of my men who had been ordered to stand down by Reese under some false pretence, as well as other families loyal to me.”
“Like the McCarthys?” I ask, adjusting myself further. It’s all coming together now piece by piece.
“Exactly,” Felix sighs. “On Toph’s abrupt command, they bombed the Salamone Estate and gave Toph the window he needed to get us both out of there. Now we’re laying low here while you recover and Caterina tears New York apart looking for us.”
Caterina.
I’m going to kill her.
I’m going to tear her apart for ever threatening my son.
My eyes close and I force some deep breaths that once again pull at what must be stitches across my back.
“You’re on some heavy painkillers,” Felix continues. “But you will recover. Bree’s doctors are very good, apparently.”
Opening my eyes, I glance from Toph to Felix, then I push back the blanket and battle stiff legs to climb to my feet where I wobble just enough that concern forces Felix up too.
“Dove, be careful.”
“Don’t.” I grit my teeth. “Show me the door and let me go.”
“What?”
“Alex is out there in a city you say is being torn apart by that bitch. I have to find him, so let me go.”