Chapter 16
FELIX
“Are you telling me you don’t know?”
“I’m too tired for games, Felix,” Dove replies and her eyes droop slightly. Exhaustion clings to every aspect of her now that she’s not fighting for her life, and, after a glance down at the glass in her hand, she moves to the couch and sits next to me.
“I’m not playing games,” I say as honestly as I can. “But you are.”
She doesn’t lift her gaze from her glass. “I don’t play games.”
“Really? Because you’re in the middle of a dangerous one. I took care of the bodies in your apartment.”
Her hazel eyes suddenly snap to me but she doesn’t speak.
“They didn’t work for me if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“But the bastard who tried to run me off the road did.”
“Yes.” I sigh and sip my drink, studying the shadow of bruises around her throat and down her arms. Regret rests heavily in my gut for letting her leave that road without protection, but it’s good to see the years haven’t softened her skills.
“As were the men who attacked your son and that old woman.”
“Mary,” Dove says bitterly. “Her name was Mary.”
“A friend?”
“The best. And my boss.”
“Never knew you to mix business and pleasure.” I sip again, savoring the warmth that blooms from the Scotch. “I’m sorry I didn’t get there in time.”
“Why were you there?” Her eyes narrow. “I told you to leave me the hell alone.”
“You’re lucky I didn’t or you’d be dealing with someone a lot worse than me, and you’d have no idea where your son is.”
She sighs deeply and her eyes close. “Why were you there?”
“I had a tail on Alex.”
Her eyes snap open and she barely hides the building anger inside of her. “What?”
“You really have no idea the kind of mess you’re in, do you?”
“Felix, if you don’t start giving me answers right this fucking second, I’ll—.”
“What?” I cut in. “Look at yourself, Dove. You took one hell of a beating on top of that car crash. What do you have left in you? Reese got away from you and he’s the slowest of all of us.”
Bitterness twists her mouth and her lips part, but I keep talking before she can spew her insult.
“The car Alex stole was filled with a high-end experimental crystal drug. New to the market, or it was supposed to be. It was insanely expensive and while some would argue that it never should have been left in the car to begin with, it was in the trunk when Alex stole it.”
Her eyes widen. “What? How does that make any sense? What was such a low-down family doing with something that high-end?”
“How do you know they were so low down?”
“I did my research, remember? After that cop threatened me at the hospital. I might not have taken action but I needed to know why there was some brute sniffing around in the first place.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t give a shit what you believe.”
“I know you killed them.”
Dove raises the glass to her lips and drinks slowly.
“I know you killed them because I know you, Dove. You saw who they were, saw what kind of threats they were making and you knew they wouldn’t leave you alone. So you killed them to protect your son.”
“A great story,” Dove replies with a smack of her lips. “You should take up writing.”
“Caterina Salamone was sleeping with him. Tee. The man you killed.”
It’s subtle but a jolt of tension shifts through Dove until she’s sitting so still, it’s almost hard to tell that she’s even breathing.
“That’s why he had access to such high-end drugs. He was fucking her, keeping her happy and she was rewarding him by giving him early access to the new drugs coming in from the Cartel. That’s why the loss of that car was so serious. And that’s why there’s a city-wide manhunt for you and your son.”
Dove’s lips purse and she very slowly turns to face me. “Caterina?”
“Mhm. You remember her, don’t you?”
A shadow passes over Dove’s expression and a flash of something akin to pain, most likely from her injuries.
“She’s the Dona of New York. Of course I remember her.”
“Well, you killed her toy boy. And she’s got herself convinced that someone hired the Nightingale to kill them,” I snort softly. “In her eyes, her toy boy was untouchable.”
“The Nightingale?”
“Yeah. You remember that ghost story, the Mafia assassin? Untraceable and unkillable. At least that’s what everyone thought but between you and me, whoever was masquerading as the Nightingale is dead.
They haven’t been active in over ten years and there’s no way they’d come out of the woodwork for someone like Tee.
Not when I know it was you.” My eyes narrow.
“But Caterina is a dog with a bone and is, as always, convinced someone is out to get her because she’s rich, powerful, and hated by every Don and Captain that doesn’t want to deal with a woman. ”
“I…” For the first time in memory, Dove seems speechless. Her lips part and then close, then part once more but nothing comes out.
I’ve never seen her like this. Fifteen years doesn’t change how witty she was at the restaurant, or how the memory of her lips sends jolts of heat through me even now. That powerful, demanding woman sits across from me and yet she’s struggling.
Whether it be exhaustion or pain, something’s clearly eating away at her.
“It was just a car,” she murmurs eventually.
“He was just being stupid and reckless. Acting out because he’s a teenage boy.
It was just a car. All he did was steal a car.
It happens all the time in New York. All the time.
Every day. Even now. It was just a car…” Her lower lip wobbles until she curls it into her mouth.
“How did we end up back in such a fucking mess?”
She’s trying to mask the distress in her voice, but it leaks through in soft pulses and her hand trembles as she lifts her glass to her lips and drains it.
“You can never truly leave, Dove,” I say softly. “You know that. This life… it doesn’t let you go. Even in death.”
“I just…” She glances at me briefly and for a moment, everything is stripped away.
The woman I love sits before me, utterly exhausted and downtrodden, exposed like a raw nerve and I want to reach out to her. I would if there was a chance I’d survive it.
She shakes her head. “I wanted to be different. Normal.”
“Normal doesn’t exist for people like us. It’s admirable that you tried, don’t get me wrong. Fifteen years is a long time, Dove. But you should have known better.”
She flinches as if my words have a physical impact, and the overwhelming urge to reach out to her grows so strong that I have to curl my free hand into a fist.
“Do I need to send people out to find Alex’s father?”
She slowly shakes her head. “He’s dead. I wasn’t lying.”
“Is there anyone else you care about, anyone else who might need help?”
“No… no.” Dove takes a deep breath as if steadying herself and the stiffness eases from her shoulders, almost as if she’s come to some sort of decision. “It doesn’t matter anyway.”
“It doesn’t?” I arch one brow. “Dove, Caterina is not going to let this go.”
“I know. I remember her well, but it doesn’t matter. I’m taking Alex out of State. The tickets are already booked. From there, we’ll leave the county and disappear into the world. It was risk that forced me to stay this close to home in the first place but now that risk is gone. I’m leaving.”
“No.” The word escapes me before I’ve even processed everything Dove’s saying, but he answers remains the same as it sinks in.
Her eyes flick to me and narrow ever so slightly. “No?”
“No.”
“You can’t just say no.”
“I can.” A tremor runs through my heart and I stand abruptly, stalking back toward the drinks cabinet. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“You can’t keep me here.” Dove’s words are sharp, like blades cutting through the air toward me.
I keep my back to her as I pour another drink, but when I turn to face her, she’s on the edge of the couch with her lips set in a straight, firm line.
“I can. I lost you once, Dove, when I was a nobody. An enforcer. Losing you and Nico almost killed me and I’m not going through that again, you hear me?”
“Felix… I’m not yours to lose anymore.”
“I don’t fucking care,” I snap, unable to swallow the swell of urgency that rises inside me. “You’re not leaving me, you hear me? Not again. I’m not losing you again, not to another State and not to another fucking country.”
“Felix—!”
“No!” Raising my voice sends a pulse of alarming heat down my spine. “I’m powerful now, Dove. I’m important and I’m in charge of a lot. People are loyal to me now, not the other way around. I’m not losing you again. You are staying right where you are.”