Page 116 of Poisoned Promise
There’s no way I can be prepared for how Dove may react. All I can do is help her and back her up, and pray there’s a way out of this with both of them intact.
“Dove!”
She’s already out of the car before Toph’s hand time to properly stop and after lurching out of my seat, I chase after her.
Due to her injuries, I manage to catch up with her just outside the heavy doors leading into the warehouse and I grab the back of her arm.
Dove spins to face me with fire in her eyes and my gut tightens.
“Let go of me,” she snarls with fury that isn’t really meant for me.
“We have to play this smart, Dove. I can’t have you just running in there and walking into a trap!”
“I have no choice!”
She tries to twist her arm out of my grip but I use it to bring her closer and clutch at her opposite shoulder with my other hand. “Yes you do!”
“No, Felix. I don’t. You don’t understand it. Alex is in there. My son. My baby. I will do everything I can to get him back and I don’t expect you to understand because?—!”
“I do understand!” I cut her off as loudly as I dare. “Alex is my son too. I don’t have the years of love or bonding with him that you do and I’m not trying at all to insert myself here, Dove. But I have you. I loveyou. Back then, I would have moved heaven and hell just to have you back with me. I would have started wars all across the city just to have you back in my arms, do you hear me? Losing youbrokeme. I never knew I could love as intently or as obsessively as I did with you but you consumed me, Dove. You were a drug I happily hooked myself on because nothing about this world was worth living without you. But I lost you and now I have you back.”
My grip tightens on her shoulders and her eyes widen, darting back and forth as she holds my gaze.
“What I would do back then pales in comparison to what I would do now to keep you with me. I might not feel that for Alex, yet. But I feel it for you and I won’t let you kill yourself trying to save him. You’re not alone anymore, either, Dove. I’m right here.”
Her eyes flicker as if trying to hold back tears and her lips part, her lower one slick with saliva and slightly swollen from her worrying.
“You’re asking me to trust you,” Dove says hoarsely.
I nod.
“Then you need to trust me too.” She shrugs off my hold and this time I let her as a couple of my men have finally caught up. “I know what I’m doing.”
“I do trust you,” I reply quietly. What I don’t trust is how far she will go to save Alex, because I’d go just as far to save her.
“Then help me get my son back.” She straightens up slightly, then clears her throat when she finally notices Toph and a few others around me. “Reese asked for us to come alone.”
“I know.” I glance back at Toph who, with one nod, slips away with my men and melts into the shadows to put their plan into action. Reese is not leaving this warehouse alive.
The door creaks with rust and age when Dove hauls it open, and together we walk through a small, worn-down reception area.
Wires and cables hang from the ceiling, torn and dirty paper covers the floor, the reception desk is overturned and shoved against one wall, and several warped metal frames from old chairs litter the path from the front door to the next doorway.
One door hangs from the top hinge with the other missing entirely.
This place hasn’t seen life in years.
Past the broken door, we walk across a wide open stone floor, through darkness broken up by spots of sunlight creeping through the torn and broken rafters above.
Several overturned shelves litter the ground near the walls and a sharp, chemical smell catches in the back of my throat with every breath.
Dove walks in front, striding with purpose until she halts so suddenly that I almost walk into her.
“Well,” comes Reese’s snakey voice. “About fucking time. Hope I wasn’t interrupting anything when I called.”
Dove goes rigid as if her spine has suddenly formed into a steel bar, and her gaze becomes one capable of turning people to stone. Reese stands a few feet away with a black gun in one hand, pressed firmly to the temple of Alex.
Poor Alex is visibly petrified, with tears streaking down his cheeks and soaking into the cloth gag around his mouth.
