Page 18 of Poisoned Promise
Every member of my family was slaughtered and that pain still sits with me to this day.
It’s not gotten any better; it’s just easier to navigate.
I never wanted Alex to feel that pain and yet I’m powerless to stop it. Powerless to help him. It hurts, and for ten minutes I let myself cry over the sink.
Tears of exhaustion, of guilt and hopelessness.
They pour hot and fast down my cheeks until hunger cuts through my upset.
By the time I’ve ordered pizza, my heart is set.
We’re leaving.
I’ll risk the debt collectors being overzealous in their job to track me down. I’m taking Alex and after Mike’s funeral, we’re leaving. I’m getting as far away from New York as I can.
I should have left fifteen years ago, but back then it was smarter and safer to stay near the Mafia's epicentre because no one would look that close to home.
Not that anyone was looking for a dead woman, but if I were spotted on airport CCTV or at the docks, then my plan would crumble.
Now I want Alex as far away from this world as possible.
Twenty minutes later, a knock at the door signals the arrival of the pizza.
“Alex!” I call down to his room as I walk through the lounge. “Sort the plates for me, would you?”
A grumble of acceptance reaches my ears just as I reach the door, warming my chest with affection.
Unlocking the door, I haul it open and brace for the warm, cheesy scent of goodness.
But there’s no pizza there.
Just a man.
A tall man with short dark hair swept away from his forehead and a few strands sweeping down across his temple.
A man with olive skin, dark, honey-brown eyes and black ink peeking out from the collar of his crisp, white shirt.
A man so strikingly handsome that my core clenches at the sight of him at the same time as a pulse of cold dread blooms in my gut and sweeps up my chest like a flash freeze.
A man I know.
Felix.
6
FELIX
“You sure this is the right place?” I ask, climbing the steps two at a time.
“According to the hospital report, yeah,” Reese replies from just behind me. “Alex James, fourteen years old. Lives with his mother. Sustained some bruises and lacerations from the crash as well as a broken arm.”
“Alright. This shouldn’t take long.” Caterina’s demand that I dig into the death of her lover, Tee Rossi, has been a wild goose chase from the start. This low-level piece of trash barely had enough men under him to even be classed as a crime family, but something about him appealed enough to Caterina that she jumped right into bed with him.
So I’ve spent the past two days chasing down a stolen car that ended up halfway through a storefront window, with the suspected driver tortured and killed in the family-owned restaurant.
Seems to me like the kid they caught knew his time was up and did everything he could to take them with him, but knowing Caterina, she needs me to be thorough.
Double-checking that the other kid in the car had nothing to do with anything means I can give her a full report and be home by midnight.
