Page 135 of Poisoned Promise
“At least this way, you control how he learns, how he survives and how strong he gets before he takes that step.”
“You’re right. I know you’re right. I just keep hesitating because…” My nose scrunches slightly and I shake my head. “I’ve spent the past fifteen years running and existing. It’s weird to think I can start living.”
“Speaking of living, I know you have that hunk of Donizetti to stay here for but I also have something else for you.”
As I nab another piece of mango from her chopping board, Bree quickly wipes her hands on a towel and slides a red folder across the counter toward me.
“What’s this?”
“A gift,” she replies. “From my father.”
“Your father?” I open the folder as Bree continues.
“He’ll be back in the country in a few weeks to talk to you fully about all of this, if you’re still here. But when your family passed, we absorbed a lot of your family’s assets. Some we used but my father wants to hand the rest back to you. Apparently, he was really close with your father and he’s more than happy to return Healy businesses to Healy hands.”
“I haven’t been a Healy in decades,” I murmur, studying the lists of businesses, shell companies and yearly output. It’s more money than I’ve ever been able to dream of.
“You were always a Healy,” Bree reminds me, bumping my shoulder lightly. “That never changed.”
Healy.
The name circles my mind as I leave the kitchen and head off to shower.
Could I really be Dove Healy again?
Felix is already slotting in the hole left by Caterina as countless families redirect their loyalty chains to him.
Apparently, killing Caterina to the backdrop of a blazing helicopter has done wonders for his reputation, not that he’s sat back and taken all the credit.
If I stay, really stay, can I keep Alex safe while reinserting myself into this world?
Then again, I never truly left.
I just put on a wig, changed my name and hid for fifteen years. Everything about me that’smecame from my life as Healy.
Alex is one through and through.
His hunger to learn is exactly the same as mine was at that age, although turning my son into the next shadow assassin to scare the Mafia world is not on my list.
Freshly showered, I wander through Bree’s Estate to the garage where Felix is elbow deep in restoring Toph’s favourite car after it was scorched in the attack on Caterina.
And by restoring, he’s mostly overseeing other people doing the work and then fiddling with things when no one is looking.
“Felix?” I scan the garage but am unable to locate him. Walking closer to the car, wheels squeak from underneath just as I reach the hood and Felix suddenly appears. He rolls out from under the car and gazes right up my skirt.
“Dove.”
“Pervert.”
“And yet you’re not moving.”
“No, I’m not.” Warmth curls in my gut and I widen my stance. “Like what you see?”
“If you’re teasing me,” Felix replies. “You better be prepared for the consequences.”
“Consequences? What are you going to do?”
His lips press together, then he grunts softly and wheels further through my legs so that when he hops up, he’s right behind me. His warm chest presses against my back and both his arms snake around my waist.
