Page 46 of Poisoned Promise
“Dove.” I walk toward her but Dove glares at me and backs up toward her own car.
“I said, stay away from me!”
“Youcalledme!” I remind her again, wrestling between the anger at her lack of gratefulness and the waves of concern for her wounds.
“To help me! A mistake, clearly, because look!” She points at Aaron’s body and the blood seeping across the tarmac. “Like always, you’ve made everything worse! Shit… fucking shit!”
“Dove—.”
“No!” Her words cut through me and the hatred in her eyes burns deep. “You stay the fuck away from me.
“Alright, fine!”
“Fine!” She turns and scrambles back into the remains of her car and my heart sinks slightly.
“You can’t be serious. Your car is fucked, Dove.”
She slams her way inside, turns the key and glares at me through her cracked windshield as the engine splutters to life.
Then she flips me off and backs her car away from the embankment.
“You’re stupid. You’re fucking stupid, Dove. I came all the way for you!”
“Fuck off!” She yells through the window, and with a squeal of tires, she takes off down the road into the darkness.
I take a few steps after her and then stop, unable to comprehend what the fuck just happened.
She calls me, asks for my help, and when I give it suddenly I’m the bad guy?
“Still glad to have her back in your life and hating you?” Toph asks as he joins me at my side.
I sigh deeply and wince as the pain in my knuckles from the punches ignites in my mind. “Yeah.”
“You sure about that?” Toph’s gaze locks on mine. “You killed Aaron.”
“Yeah…” Turning on the spot, I glance behind at the body. “Fuck. He was a dick anyway. Always cheated at cards.”
“If Caterina finds out we had her and let her go, she’ll kill us both y’know.”
“Is that a problem?” I ask, running my hand through my hair.
“You know where I stand,” Toph replies. “You’re lucky he never sent that text.”
“Alright. We need a cleanup crew and a cover story,” I grumble, half to myself as we walk back toward my car. “Call Reese. Maybe we can tie this to something like civilian road rage. Knowing Dove, she’ll dump that car so we gotta find it and burn it before anyone else does and ties it to her.”
“She’ll burn it,” Toph replies as we slump back into the car. “She was always one step ahead of us.”
“Sure.” The thought of her going anywhere right now makes my gut twist.
She needs medical help but she won’t get it.
If she’s anything like she was, she’ll go home.
As I reach for my phone, it suddenly lights up with an alert.
“Dove?” Toph asks, mirroring the lift of hope in my chest.
“No,” I sigh, crushed under a wave of disappointment to see it’s from one of my own men. That disappointment doesn’t last long though, as I read the message and a knot forms in my gut.
