Page 11 of Poisoned Promise
Too exhausted to refuse her, I wrap my hands around the cup and bring it to my lips. Surprisingly, the hot sweetness does calm me after a couple of sips and when I set it back down, the tail of the teabag dangling from the cup becomes my distraction.
“Talk to me,” Mary says. “Tell me about yourdate.”
A date.
What a word to cover up murder.
Alex is fast asleep in the next room, spread over the couch like he owns the place and watching him fills me with a mix of relief and guilt.
Thankfully, Mary lets the silence drag on and gives me time to try to organize my thoughts and begin explaining everything that happened.
“Alex stole that car,” I say softly, finally glancing back at her. “It belonged to people from… from my old life.”
She nods knowingly. “The one you left behind?”
I briefly close my eyes. “Of all the places to steal a car…”
“It might surprise you,” Mary says with a quiet chuckle. “But ordinary people like me and Alex don’t see the world the same way you do. We don’t see Mafia families and owned territories or anything like that, sweetheart. There’s no way he could have known.”
I snort. “I know. I’m not saying that, I’m just…” A deep, weary sigh escapes me. “It’s been years since I’ve…” Our eyes meet. “Y’know.”
“I know. How do you feel?”
Gazing down at my hands, my stomach rolls. “I’ve long lost count of the lives I’ve taken, forgotten most of the faces of those I’ve removed from this world. I can kill as easily as most can breathe. But tonight was… easy.”
“Does that scare you?” Mary asks.
“No. I always knew I would do everything and anything to protect my baby and that’s what I’m doing. But I also swore my two lives would never cross over.”
“When you first told me who you used to be, I thought you were insane,” Mary murmurs, taking my hand in her wrinkly palm. “Do you remember?”
An affectionate smile sweeps across my tired face. “You wanted my last address in case I’d escaped from some sort of hospital.”
“And do you remember that night we were held at gunpoint in the studio and you showed me what you could do? You were just a baby back then.”
“I was twenty, I wasn’t a baby.”
“You were a baby with a baby,” Mary insists. “And you risked yourself to save me, do you remember?”
I nod slowly. “Yeah.”
“I knew then that no matter what, running from your old life would never work out the way you wanted it to. Your skills… your family, Dove, sweetheart… you’ve been living two lives for so long that this was bound to happen.”
“But like this? With Alex and Michael… this is bad, Mary. Really bad.”
Sympathy warms her expression. “So what are you going to do?”
A deep sigh rushes up from my soul. “I don’t know. I stayed in New York because I knew I would never be found. No one would expect me to stay so close. But now? Alex is older. He’s acting out like this and if he does something else or something worse?” My gaze drops to the tea. “I think we have to leave. I covered my tracks but this is too close. Too much.”
“I would hate to see you go,” Mary says sadly. “Uprooting your life again? Sweetheart, you can’t run forever.”
There’s a tiredness in me.
Tiredness born from the pain of loss and this one taste of my old life has reignited a sickening fear that one wrong step and my son, my boy, will meet the same fate as the rest of my family.
“I can’t risk it, Mary. I can’t risk him. But more pressing…” I turn and stare into the dark lounge where Alex’s sleeping face is illuminated by the fireplace.
“How do I tell my son that his best friend is dead?”
