Chapter 39
DOVE
“If you lean to the left,” Bree says. “You’ll feel the stretch all the way up your flank. Do you feel that?” Her hands adjust on my waist and tighten ever so slightly.
Following her instruction, I deepen my squat stretch and groan. “Oh my god.”
“Good, right?” Bree grins cheerily at me.
“Yeah,” I grunt. “But I also kind of hate it.”
“That’s because you’re still healing but I promise you, another couple of days of these and you’ll be feeling as loose as a goose!”
“As a goose?” The moment she makes me laugh, I lose all focus on the stretch and collapse down onto the mat with a gasp.
“Yep,” Bree laughs. “I promise. I’ve never been as injured as you were but these stretches are a godsend.”
“I’ve also never been this injured before,” I grumble while climbing to my feet. “The next time I decide to do something this crazy, please stop me.”
“Oh I don’t think there’s ever any stopping you once you put your mind to something,” Bree grins. “But that’s not a bad thing.”
“Yeah, true.” I accept the bottle of water she passes me just as Alex joins us out on the patio.
“Mom?”
“Yes, honey?”
From the look on his face, he wants to talk and Bree seemingly gets the same impression because she suddenly rocks up onto the balls of her feet. “I think I’m gonna head in and take a shower. You good?” She looks me up and down, then meets my smile with one of her own.
“Yeah I’m good. Thank you, Bree.”
“Of course!” She dances back inside and ruffles Alex’s hair as she passes, then melts into the darkness of her home.
“You okay, kiddo?”
Alex nods. “Are your stretches helping?”
“Well, in the past week I have regained the ability to touch my toes and I can run up the stairs without losing my breath so I’d say so.
Pro tip, if you ever get injured and you don’t take care of yourself as you heal, your muscles heal tight and stiff.
So you gotta flex and stretch." I pause as he walks closer and then lightly tap his nose with my finger. “Not that you will ever get injured.”
“That’s… kind of what I want to talk about.”
“Walk with me?” I tilt my head toward the garden, then take a mouthful of water. It’s cold enough to soothe the rawness from my breathless panting and we quickly fall into step with one another.
“So…” Alex clears his throat. “What we talked about last week…”
Ah. So this is another serious talk.
“I want to stay.”
“Stay?” As much as my heart lifts, I need to be sure Alex understands not only what he’s asking for, but what he means.
“Here. In New York. I don’t want us to be alone anymore.
And the more I think about it…” His lips press together and he swings his arms while he walks.
“I know you gave up a lot of your life for me and I know you want us to be safe. But Mom, all of your hard work didn’t stop all of this from happening.
Not in a bad way, just that… these people are nice.
I like Bree. She’s fun. And I like Felix. ”
Felix.
It always comes back to him, but I can’t deny that after our talk last week, I feared Alex would settle on anger or a desire to move to another country.
“You like Felix?” I repeat.
“Mhm. I know you like him too. You like him a lot.”
That’s an understatement.
“I want to get to know him. And I want to be like you.” He turns to face me and starts walking backward. “I want to be able to kick people around like you do. Not because I want to hurt anyone but I want to be able to protect myself. And you.”
“Alex, honey, you don’t ever have to protect me.”
“I know. But I want to be able to. You said this life doesn’t let you go, and I know you tried, so I think we should be prepared. I want to be as smart and as fast as you are, Mom.”
“You’re already smarter than me,” I chuckle warmly. “I definitely couldn’t figure out my life this smoothly at fourteen.”
“That’s because you didn’t have you to teach you. I do.”
The simplicity of his statement fills my heart with utter pride that despite everything, Alex still looks up to me. I feared that my actions and everything that happened would change how he looks at me but it seems to only have cemented me as a good influence in his life.
“I need you to understand that staying here is dangerous, Alex. You will always have a target on your back because of me and because of Felix. Being the son of powerful, dangerous people is just as dangerous as being them.”
“That target would exist regardless of where I am,” he replies. “Here, we can be with everyone. And we can visit Mike and Mary’s graves.”
The mention of Mary sends a sharp pulse through my chest and I nod slowly. “I’m not saying I’m agreeing with you, Alex. There’s a lot of moving factors but it’s important to me to hear what you want.”
“So you’ll consider it?” His eyes light up and by the time we loop back to the house, he’s practically buzzing with anticipation.
“All I’m saying is that regardless of anything, whether we stay or we go, you’re finishing school before anything else happens.”
“School.” His face twists. “That sounds so alien after everything. How am I supposed to go back to school like a normal kid?”
I pat his cheek as we walk inside, finding Bree freshly-showered in the kitchen and chopping some fruit.
“It’s part of your practice,” I reply. “Now go and wash up for lunch.”
“Good talk?” Bree asks once Alex has hurried out of the kitchen.
“He wants to stay.”
She lifts her gaze to me. “That’s great news!” Then she hesitates. “Isn’t it?”
“I don’t know. Am I doing the right thing in considering it? This city almost killed the both of us.”
“True,” Bree nods. “But as parents, we can only guide. Don’t you think it’s better to nurture and teach him about this life the safe way, rather than taking him away and risk him coming back at eighteen and entering this world the wrong way?
He’s already had a taste and he’s a kid.
In a few months, this will have been the most exciting thing that happened to him and by the time he’s eighteen, it’ll be so cool he won’t think twice about throwing himself back in. ”
She passes me a piece of sliced mango.
“At least this way, you control how he learns, how he survives and how strong he gets before he takes that step.”
“You’re right. I know you’re right. I just keep hesitating because…” My nose scrunches slightly and I shake my head. “I’ve spent the past fifteen years running and existing. It’s weird to think I can start living.”
“Speaking of living, I know you have that hunk of Donizetti to stay here for but I also have something else for you.”
As I nab another piece of mango from her chopping board, Bree quickly wipes her hands on a towel and slides a red folder across the counter toward me.
“What’s this?”
“A gift,” she replies. “From my father.”
“Your father?” I open the folder as Bree continues.
“He’ll be back in the country in a few weeks to talk to you fully about all of this, if you’re still here.
But when your family passed, we absorbed a lot of your family’s assets.
Some we used but my father wants to hand the rest back to you.
Apparently, he was really close with your father and he’s more than happy to return Healy businesses to Healy hands. ”
“I haven’t been a Healy in decades,” I murmur, studying the lists of businesses, shell companies and yearly output. It’s more money than I’ve ever been able to dream of.
“You were always a Healy,” Bree reminds me, bumping my shoulder lightly. “That never changed.”
Healy.
The name circles my mind as I leave the kitchen and head off to shower.
Could I really be Dove Healy again?
Felix is already slotting in the hole left by Caterina as countless families redirect their loyalty chains to him.
Apparently, killing Caterina to the backdrop of a blazing helicopter has done wonders for his reputation, not that he’s sat back and taken all the credit.
If I stay, really stay, can I keep Alex safe while reinserting myself into this world?
Then again, I never truly left.
I just put on a wig, changed my name and hid for fifteen years. Everything about me that’s me came from my life as Healy.
Alex is one through and through.
His hunger to learn is exactly the same as mine was at that age, although turning my son into the next shadow assassin to scare the Mafia world is not on my list.
Freshly showered, I wander through Bree’s Estate to the garage where Felix is elbow deep in restoring Toph’s favourite car after it was scorched in the attack on Caterina.
And by restoring, he’s mostly overseeing other people doing the work and then fiddling with things when no one is looking.
“Felix?” I scan the garage but am unable to locate him. Walking closer to the car, wheels squeak from underneath just as I reach the hood and Felix suddenly appears. He rolls out from under the car and gazes right up my skirt.
“Dove.”
“Pervert.”
“And yet you’re not moving.”
“No, I’m not.” Warmth curls in my gut and I widen my stance. “Like what you see?”
“If you’re teasing me,” Felix replies. “You better be prepared for the consequences.”
“Consequences? What are you going to do?”
His lips press together, then he grunts softly and wheels further through my legs so that when he hops up, he’s right behind me. His warm chest presses against my back and both his arms snake around my waist.
“If you weren’t still healing, I’d fuck your brains out.”
“So because I’m healing, you’re suddenly impotent?”
“Wow,” Felix breathes, nuzzling into the side of my neck. “Someone woke up bitchy this morning.”
“Bitch, horny. What’s the difference?”
“Are you flirting with me?” Felix purrs. His tongue licks against the soft edge of my ear lobe, then he nuzzles into my neck. “It feels like you’re flirting with me.”
“Felix, baby, you’ve been around far too many car fumes if you need me to spell it out for you,” I smirk, letting my head fall back onto his shoulder. “Unless you’re really not hungry.”
“Darling, I’m famished.” Felix’s hands slide to grasp my waist, he turns me, and together we walk backward until my thighs bump against the hood of the car.
He leans in and claims my lips in a deep kiss, using the pressure to guide me back and press me down onto the hood with both hands on either side of me.
“Hungry for kisses?” I murmur against his lips, caressing his face with both of my hands.
“Hungry for you,” Felix replies in a deep, low voice. “Hungry for everything.” He kisses me again, sucking slightly on my lower lip as we break apart.
All thought of talking flees my mind because Felix kisses with purpose.
He buries into the side of the neck and lavishes attention over my fluttering pulse point, gropes my breasts with slow, rolling presses of his palm, and kisses down my body as gently as possible.
Every wound is treated with care but the passion he’s holding back ignites heat in my blood and I crave the moment I’m well enough to take everything he wants to give me.
With that in mind, by the time he’s on my knees and buried between my thighs under my skirt, I see heaven. He groans as he shoves his face against pussy and the first sweet, long stroke of his tongue sends me arching back on the car with a needy moan.
Hooking one leg over his shoulder, I clutch at my skirt as it gets in the way of his hair, and sink into the deep, warm rolls of pleasure that follow every hungry lick against my lips, every pressure of suction against my clit, and every dip of his tongue deep inside me.
He drives me insane, just like always.
Felix meets like a man starved, constantly pressing into me like he can’t get deep enough, like he can’t taste enough.
The moans that rumble from him vibrate against me and my head rolls back and forth against the hood of the car.
“Felix!” I gasp, arching my back to a twinge across my ribs. It’s been far too long since we’ve done this and my orgasm creeps up and hard and fast.
Trembles start in the tight knot at my core and spread through my arms and legs.
My toes curl, warmth blooms through my lower belly and settles in one particular spot as Felix’s lips and tongue work against me.
I never want this to end.
He eats me to orgasm within minutes and I cum with a scream, not caring who hears as I tremble and moan against his face and my hips shudder and jolt against his rolling tongue.
By the time he drinks me down and finishes licking every sweet inch of me, I’m panting and eager for round two, even as my pussy throbs from attention.
“Good?” Felix asks with a smirk as he pops out from my skirt.
“So good,” I pant softly. “I want you to do that every day for the rest of our lives.”
Felix smirks, then he pauses and realization dawns adorably slow across his handsome face. “Our… lives?”
I nod, bracing on one elbow as I catch my breath. “Mhm.”
“Does… does this mean you’re staying?”
“I’m staying. I love you too much to leave, Felix. And here, Alex can be cared for. We can train him properly. Protect him. Give him whatever life he wants without having to hide anymore. So yeah… I’m going to stay. If you’ll have me—Felix!”
He scoops me up so suddenly that I scream, then we’re spinning in circles while he laughs and laughs. By the time he stops, I’m dizzy but happy and he cradles me close in his arms.
“I want you. I always want you, Dove. I love you so much that love doesn’t even feel like a strong enough word. I’m so fucking obsessed with you.” He kisses me hard, again and again, while my heart flutters as if every kiss is flooding my lungs with butterflies.
“I love you too!”
“I promise, nothing will come between us ever again. I swear it.”
“I know.” Stroking my knuckles down his cheek, I gaze lovingly up into his eyes. “But the only promise I need is that you will put our son first. He wants to know you. He deserves to know you.”
“That is a promise I can make,” Felix swears, and he kisses me deeply once more, lifting me right off my feet. “God, I love you so much.”
That is a promise I can trust.
Everything else? It’ll be easy if we’re all together.
Do you want to read the next book in the Mafia Lords of Sin series? Of course you do!
He killed my brother.
He claimed my body.
And now I belong to the enemy king.