Page 98 of Poisoned Promise
She’s still on the floor, staring after me with those big eyes.
I’ll come back for you.
Together, Reese and I are dragged from the cells, up the stairs, and down a familiar corridor until we’re both dumped unceremoniously on the floor before Caterina’s desk.
“I gave you one simple task, Felix.” She doesn’t even look up from whatever she’s doing on her computer. “Just one. The simplest of tasks in this line of work. You’ve taken a life before, haven’t you?”
I can’t answer. So much is compounding in my mind that despite hearing her words, I can’t find any desire to actually listen.
Suddenly, the barrel of a gun presses against my skull through my hair and the familiar click of safety removal rings in my ears.
“She doesn’t repeat herself,” growls the burly guard.
“Yes,” I reply after a few long seconds of silence.
“And yet you couldn’t kill a defenceless little woman.” Caterina purses her lips and finally looks down at me. “Why?”
Again, I have no answer.
“I would have killed her,” Reese pipes up, surging onto his knees like some kind of eager dog. “I told you to let me do it.”
“That’s not part of the test now, is it?” Caterina clasps her hands together. “I needed Felix to do it.”
“Why?” I squint, choosing to focus on her rather than the overwhelming mess of revelations in my mind. “I thought you wanted to punish her with her son.”
“I do.”
“Then why ask me to kill her?”
“Because I hoped you could be redeemed, Felix. I hoped that after learning the truth, you and I would be back on the same page.”
Reese snorts beside me. “Bullshit if you ask me.”
“No one’s asking you,” Caterina snaps.
“So if I had killed her?” I ask dryly.
“That’s why Reese was there. He would have stopped you from actually killing her, but Felix, like always, I wanted you to choose me. I hoped you’d finally seen the light and I’d freed you from her lies.”
“Her lies?” My eyes narrow. “Or yours? Did you really not know your son was a rapist?”
“Enough!” Caterina slams her hands down on the desk as she abruptly stands. “Don’t you utter that whore’s lies in here!”
“Lies? What reason does she have to lie now? You’ve defeated her, Caterina. You’ve won. She has nothing to gain from lying!”
“Doesn’t she? Trying to sully my son’s memory, trying to paint him as the villain!” She presses one hand to her abdomen as if trying to hold herself together, but the way she dabs at fake tears of distress makes my stomach flip.
“You knew… didn’t you?”
“I did not!”
“Yes you fucking did! You knew! How many times had he done that to other women? Were you covering for him?”
“Felix—.”
“You were, weren’t you? You fucking cunt! You’re just as twisted as he was! How many other lives did he ruin before Dove finally put him in the ground?!” The rifle behind me suddenly crashes into my skull, blinding me briefly with pain and I slump down to the floor.
“Those lies,” Caterina says, her words tight and clipped, “will be the death of you.”
