Page 103 of Poisoned Promise
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 abouteverything,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 cityyousay is being torn apart by that bitch. I have to find him, so let me go.”
30
FELIX
