Chapter 18
FELIX
“Where the hell have you been?” Reese perches on a stool in a dark corner of the bar, his fingertips resting on the rim of his glass as he tips it back and forth.
“Hello to you too,” I reply, grumbling slightly as I shrug off my coat. “Care to be more specific?”
“I’ve been trying to call you and Toph all day, and you didn’t pick up my calls.” His eyes narrow slightly, and he watches me, similar to how a gazelle eyes a lion from across the field. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
Setting my coat on the bar, I slide into the stool next to him and raise my hand to catch the attention of the bartender. As soon as our eyes meet, she darts over and tosses her towel over her shoulder, then places both hands on the bar and grins at me.
“Evening! What can I get you? If you’re interested in craft, then we’ve got a couple of new ones in.
Ever heard of Fynn’s? Really decent stuff if you like that malty flavor.
Or perhaps something stronger?” She tucks a dark curl behind her ear and tilts her head, watching me with slightly narrowed eyes.
“Just a Scotch on the rocks please.” I barely spare her a glance after that but that doesn’t stop her from angling her body toward me and running her fingers over my hand lying on the bar.
“Coming right up darlin’!” Then she dances away.
Reese bites back a snort. “Does your woman know you still get flirted with like this?”
My woman?
Having Dove back with me is so surreal that it takes me a second to work out that she is who Reese is talking about, and I quickly jap my elbow into his arm. “Shut up.”
That’s not a conversation we need to have because no matter how hard someone flirts with me or how beautiful they are, they won’t ever compare to her.
And she’s mine again.
Safe under lock and key in my penthouse where no one and nothing can get to her.
“I don’t think she’d appreciate you calling her my woman,” I say to Reese, angling my body toward him and resting one elbow on the bar. “She’s a strong woman. Labels aren’t her thing.”
“But captivity is?”
My eyes narrow. “I’m keeping her safe. Whose side are you on?”
“You know she tried to kill me when she woke up. Am I supposed to just walk away from that?”
“Did your feelings get hurt?” I glance him up and down. “Or your ego?”
“It’s not like that,” Reese replies heatedly and he straightens up, but the fire of argument in his eyes fades slightly as the bartender returns with my drink.
“Here you are, darlin’,” she sing-songs.
“Thanks. Put it on my tab.”
“Tab?” She gazes at me innocently.
I pick up my drink and meet her gaze steadily. “Donizetti.”
“Doniz—!” Her eyes widen and she takes a couple of steps away from me. “Oh my— I’m so sorry!” Red spreads across her cheeks, then she immediately ducks her head and turns away, rushing away to the other end of the bar.
I watch her for a few long seconds. She must be new. No matter.
“You were saying?” I turn back to Reese.
“Look… I trust you, you know that Boss. But you killed one of our own from that woman and now she’s up in your penthouse like nothing happened.
I’m not asking to know the ins and outs of all your plans, but you’re painting a huge target on your back.
If Caterina finds out? You know fine well she’s tearing the city apart for that woman. ”
“Only because she thinks Dove had something to do with her toyboy getting murdered.”
“Which she did,” Reese snorts. He lifts his drink and sips slowly.
“Did she?” I ask innocently.
Reese’s gaze is heavy on me as I lift my glass and drain my drink in two gulps.
“Boss,” he begins cautiously. “What did you do?”
I spent all day tracking down a small, insignificant family to pin the murder of the Rossi family on, and if everything goes to plan, the target on Dove’s back will fade within a day or two thanks to a call to an old friend.
Until then, who I’ve set up will remain a secret until I’m satisfied that Caterina has moved on.
“Nothing.” Our gazes meet. “I’m just saying that the target on Dove is because Caterina is grieving and she’s interpreting things entirely wrong. When the truth comes out, everything else will slot into place.”
A look of pure disbelief crosses Reese’s face. “Why are you doing all this for some girl? Boss, she can’t be worth risking our lives or even your future. What if this gets out? All the people that sing your praises will see you turning to putty over some woman?”
If it were anyone else spouting such bullshit, I’d put them in the ground, but Reese has done enough for me that he’s earned at least one outburst without repercussions. “You weren’t with me back then so I’ll let that slide,” I say, setting my glass back down. “But Dove isn’t just some woman.”
“Who is she then?”
My eyes close briefly as my mind drifts back to a time when everything was equally harder and easier than it is now.
“She’s… everything. Back when I met her, I was just an Enforcer.
A good one, don’t get me wrong. I made my family proud.
I had the perks of getting Toph assigned to me as I climbed the ranks, but I was still just another rung in an infinite ladder.
One night, after I’d been kidnapped by Russians and interrogated to within an inch of my life, the Irish burst in.
The Healy family. I didn’t know her name then but Dove saved my life.
And then a few months later, I saw her in a club.
She didn’t recognize me at first but after a few drinks and permission to talk about work, she did. And we clicked.”
“Clicked?” Reese rolls his eyes. “You can click with any woman if you’ve drunk enough.”
“Not like that,” I snap slightly. “We talked for hours and when we fell into bed, it was like we’d been together for years.
I hunted her down the next night, and the night after.
We were soulmates— are soulmates. But I was an Enforcer and she was the daughter of an Irish Captain.
Hardly an acceptable match. But we didn’t care.
We’d spend entire nights talking; sometimes we’d run into each other on the job and pretend not to know one another.
We’d go dancing and drinking, eat take-out, and fuck until the sun came up.
But it was more than that. She saw me. She really saw me. ”
“Saw you?” Confusion drips from Reese’s tone.
“You wouldn’t understand.” How do I explain what it’s like to bare your soul, no secrets, and have someone pick it up so tenderly and love every inch of it?
To confess secrets and fears, to cry over things that can’t change, to admit terrors and regrets in a world where things like that get you killed? Dove is one in a billion; our love was one in a billion.
And her death nearly destroyed me.
Never again.
“Well,” Reese sighs deeply. “Whatever it is, it better be worth the shit that will come down on us if Caterina finds out you betrayed her.”
I push my glass away and stand, then grab my coat from the bar. “She won’t find out,” I reply. “And if she does?” My tongue runs along my teeth. “Maybe I’ll stop taking a backseat for a change.”
The drive home gives me time to make my last few calls and set my entire plan into motion, so by the time I step off the elevator into my penthouse, tiredness clings to each blink and weighs down my steps.
Everywhere is dark. Above me, lights flicker on with a warm orange hue, triggered by my movements, and they follow me all the way to the bedroom where I peek in to check on Dove.
Her son is fast asleep, illuminated by moonlight and out cold, spread-eagled across the bed with half his leg under the blankets.
Dove’s bed is empty.
My heart jumps slightly and a pulse of alarm shoots through me from head to toe.
She has to be here.
There’s nowhere else she could be and yet seeing her bed empty is more alarming than I care to admit.
Closing the door softly, I continue down the hall to the kitchen but it’s also empty.
A couple of pots and pans litter the sink and the scent of something tomatoy lingers in the air.
The lounge is also empty and just as my worry starts to grow and my thumb hovers over Toph’s number in my phone, I find her.
She’s in my office, lounging on one of the sofas with a half-drunk bottle of Scotch on the table next to her and a crystal glass dangling from her fingertips.
Dove is beautiful.
So beautiful it makes my chest ache.
Coming home to her was a dream I clung to long after she ‘died’, telling myself over and over that if I worked hard enough then I’d somehow be able to change things and bring her back.
A drunken, foolish dream but it plagued me for months.
“Dove?”
She jolts where she’s lying and bolts upright, somehow managing not to spill a drop. “You,” she spits with more venom than I’m prepared for.
“Me?” I slowly shrug off my coat as I walk deeper into the office. “Did I do something?”
“You mean other than kidnapping me and keeping me fucking prisoner?!” Despite the slight slur to her words, her eyes are as sharp as needles and she climbs to her feet with surprising speed.
“It’s for your own good,” I reply. “I’m keeping you safe, Dove. You don’t know what it’s like out there. You’ve been out for a really long time.”
“Out,” she spits again, lifting her glass to her lips. “I wanted to stay out and you dragged me back in!”
I turn my back on her and place my coat on the desk. A second later, that crystal glass flies over my shoulder and shattered on the wall in front of me.
“Don’t turn your back on me!”
“I’m sorry.” Turning back to her, I find her a foot away with her chest heaving and rage burning in her eyes. “Dove, you dragged yourself back in.”
“Bullshit!”
“You killed Tee. You killed the Rossis. You brought yourself back into this world, not me. But I’m trying to protect you from what you weren’t prepared for.”
“No!” She yells again and she surges forward, lifting both her hands and throwing her fists at my chest. “I was out! I was going to run and leave and we were going to start a new life but you’ve trapped me here! You did this!”
“You can’t run from Caterina.” Or me. “I’m sorry, Dove.”
“No, fuck you! If you hadn’t locked me up here,” she snarls, thumping her fists against my chest again. “Alex and I would be on a plane on our way to somewhere safe. I would still be his Mom. And he would remain innocent but no, you fucked things up! Just like you always do!”
Hold on a second.
“Dove, what happened?”
“You happened!” Her hand flies up and despite the drunken nature of her slap, it still stings when her palm collides with my face. “You’ve imprisoned both of us so I had to tell him the truth!”
“The truth?”
Her hair flies around her face as she lunges at me and tries to slap me again. This time, I catch her wrist gently and use that grip to pull her in against me.
“What truth, Dove?”
“Everything,” she growls and then a soft, pained sob escapes her.
“I had to tell Alex everything. About me. You. My family. My life before. The Mafia. Everything!” Sadness floods her eyes but as soon as it’s there, it’s gone and she starts wrestling against my grip.
“Because of you, you bastard. I never wanted this! I never wanted him to know!”
“I’m sorry, Dove. But we both know how this world works. You can’t escape. Not ever. Sure, you can pretend but you can’t leave. We’re in this for life and that’s why I’m going to protect you, okay? You’re safe with me.”
“I hate you!” She yells in my face, giving up on pulling herself away and instead shoving back into me until I hit the desk behind me. “I hate you!”
“I know,” I reply with a smile. “I’m okay with it.”
Our eyes meet and Dove growls, then her eyes dart down to my lips and a second later, her mouth collides painfully with mine.