Page 99 of Poisoned Promise
“Don’t kill him,” Reese pipes up suddenly. “You can use him against Dove.”
“How, exactly?”
“She claims she was pregnant and that Felix was the father.”
A cold silence follows Reese’s words, then Caterina shifts around her desk. “Felix… you knew her before? Before she killed Nico?”
Still blinded by the fresh blow to the head, I can only grunt.
“I never…” Her voice softens. “All this time I thought your connection to the Healy family was because you were friends with the Captain. I never dreamed that you were fucking his daughter. Did he know? No, of course not. He would have killed you, wouldn’t he? So this brat… he is your kid?”
Bracing my hands underneath me, I slowly pick myself up. “Apparently.”
“And you had no idea?”
I meet her cold gaze and nod, unable to hide anything since Reese apparently heard it all.
Her eyes slide to Reese and narrow. “You’re telling me now?”
“I didn’t know at first,” Reese replies. “I thought he was just obsessed with her but I wasn’t with him back then. Toph will know, though.”
Caterina’s gaze flicks to someone behind me. “Find Toph. I think I assigned him to the premiter.”
“Yes Ma’am.” That voice immediately retreats and Caterina’s eyes drop back to me.
“You’re a man of mystery, Felix. Just how many secrets have you been keeping from me?”
“Were the Healys going to make a deal with me?” I ask her outright, needing to hear it from her. “Is that the real reason they cancelled the deal with you?”
Caterina slides her tongue over her upper teeth and sighs. “I suppose there’s nothing to gain from keeping that from you, so yes. They were going to bring the deal to you. Back then, you were enchanting quite a few families with how you handled yourself. I certainly wasn’t going to let that happen.”
“So you always planned to kill them. You just used Nico’s death as an excuse.”
“An addition,” she snaps. “Not an excuse.”
“You really are the fucking devil, aren’t you?”
“Me?” Her eyes widen in shock. “Have you not seen how all of this mess has been created by a Healy? Back then and even now, that family is fucking?—!”
She’s cut off by a sudden explosion outside that rips through the night air like a crack of thunder.
A second later, the aftershock hits the Manor, rattling the windows and causing the chandelier above to creak and swing all while a ball of orange fire rises up behind Caterina.
She spins on the spot and snaps her fingers.
“Take him back to his cell!”
I’m hauled up by painful grips to my shoulders and dragged out of Caterina’s office, with my last glance being Reese pulling himself up and moving to her side.
I’m going to kill him.
I’m going to kill all of them.
Somehow.
The three men escorting me barely give me time to maintain my balance as I’m dragged back through the Manor and toward the stairs leading down to the cell block.
Whatever is going on outside is enough to momentarily flood the hallway with armed men and they all sprint outside, leaving me along with just those three.
