Page 90 of Poisoned Promise
“And now you’ve betrayed me and Nico’s memory. So how does it feel?” She leans down until we’re face to face and I’m pinned in place by her quiet fury. “How does it feel to lose everything because you chose to trust your best friend’s killer over me?”
26
DOVE
I trained for this. A long time ago.
Months spent with my father as he tortured me with his own hands to ensure that if I ever failed, I wouldn’t spill all the family secrets to the first person to press a blade to my skin.
Hours spent in the dark and cold, the bright and hot.
Beaten and tortured all in the name of love because that’s what it meant to be a Healy.
An underlying threat of a killer shadow was the only way to stay in power.
To most, my father was a kind and fair man and it was mostly true. If you respected him and treated him well then he was exactly that.
Crossing him was where things got dangerous, but there was enough threat shrouding him that no one dared.
Not until Catalina.
My father was so content in his world of criminal mystery that he was grossly unprepared for a full-on assault like Caterina levied against our family.
As skilled as I was, Caterina had the numbers and the fury to overpower everyone.
My family died that night and I swore I would never make the same mistake as my father.
So when the next fist slams into my jaw and sends my head snapping to the side, blood pools in my mouth and catches on my lower lip before trickling to the ground where it splatters against my bare feet.
And I stay silent.
“This can all end,” comes the voice attached to the nameless man who works me over today. “Just tell us where your son is hiding and I promise you, you won’t be strung up like a prized sow anymore.”
I focus on the ground, watching the blood droplets phase in and out of focus.
Hot pain throbs through my entire body.
Every inch of me is sticky with blood or sweat, and my limbs scream for respite against either being hung up from the ceiling or forced to balance on the stone floor on just my knees.
Each day passes in a hot haze, but I cling to the one certainty in my chest that will never fade.
I will never tell them where Alex is.
My silence earns me another blow to the opposite side of my face, and my head snaps once again, sending a spike of sharp pain up to my throbbing skull.
Heat blooms at the site of the blow, but I keep my gaze down and focus on how Alex is still out there, hidden and safe.
And that’s all that matters.
“Can you believe Caterina still has morals?” The voice continues. Heavy footfalls approach. “I’m not the only one with the perfect idea on how to make you talk but every time we suggest it, she says no. You really should be thanking her that all I can do is punch you because—.” He sucks on his teeth, then his meaty hand seals around my throbbing jaw and forces my head up until I’m squinting at the halo of bright light around his shadowed face. “—because we’d have you talking by the day's end once we were finished with you.”
My stomach rolls. Swiping my tongue along my throbbing gums and loose teeth, I gather the blood building in my mouth and with the last of my strength, I spit it directly into his face. It’s a momentary victory and fully worth the backhand that follows as he snarls in anger.
“You’ll pay for that you fucking?—!”
“Leave us.” Another voice cuts through the man’s rage and as my head falls back down between my shoulders, warmth blooms in my chest.
I know that voice.
