Page 118 of Poisoned Promise
“Okay.”
“Okay?! Dove, you can’t!”
She turns to me and despite the pain in her eyes, there’s warmth in her smile. “You remember what you said to me outside?”
“That doesn’t matter, Dove. We have him in our crosshairs, there will be another way out of this!”
“Will there?” Reese sucks on his upper teeth. “I get tired easily and one slip and I’ll just— pow!” He mocks shooting Alex and Alex whimpers, choking on his tears.
A visible ripple of pain moves through Dove and she steps away from me. “I can take care of myself,” she says. “I need you to take care of what I love.”
“Dove!”
She walks forward and as I move to chase her, Reese’s eyes narrow and he slides his gun to Alex’s throat, glaring at me.
“One more move, Felix, and you’ll be bathing in his blood.”
Fuck!
How can she expect me to stand here and just let her hand herself back to those monsters? I glance at Toph, who is just as pained as I am, but his aim on Reese relies on him getting a shotoff and not triggering a reflexive squeeze of the trigger from the bastard as he goes down.
Any move risks Alex’s life and I can’t do that to Dove.
“You can untie him,” Reese remarks as Dove reaches him. “And before you get any clever ideas about using those killer moves on me, I’m not the only one aiming at your precious boy. Sure, you could take me down but one of my guys will take Alex with me and I guarantee your boyfriend hasn’t removed all the threats.”
I meet Toph’s gaze once more, and he gives a subtle shake of his head. Reese is right. My men haven’t completed their sweep so even if Reese is talking shit, we can’t take the risk.
Dove doesn’t reply. She simply kneels and unties Alex’s hands from the chair, then Alex immediately latches onto her with a sob.
“Mom!”
“It’s okay honey,” she replies, her voice betraying how close to tears she is. “Felix will take good care of you, okay? I promise. I promise it’s okay.”
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he wails, gasping desperately for air.
“I know, I know. Go, Felix will help you. On you go.”
Watching them tear themselves apart breaks my heart in such a sharp, unexpected way that I almost can’t breathe. Alex stumbles away from Dove and hurries toward me as Toph moves around Reese and reaches my side.
“Hey buddy,” Reese sneers, waving one hand at Toph while grabbing Dove by a handful of hair and jerking her against him, his gun pressing hard against her skull. “Wow, you smell good.”
“Take Alex outside,” I murmur to Toph, not taking my eyes off Reese for a second.
“Pleasure doing business with you,” Reese grins. “Best you stay here until I’m out of here. Don’t want you getting any ideas about being heroic or anything like that. Maybe take this time to… I dunno. Return to your criminal routes. You were never built for love anyway.”
I lock eyes with Dove. Her face remains expressionless as she’s dragged away but she doesn’t look away from me either.
“I’m coming for you,” I say with as much conviction as I can muster. “I’m coming to kill you, Reese. You and that fucking Queen bitch. I’ll kill you!”
And I’m coming for you, Dove.
Heaven’s angels can’t keep me away.
35
DOVE
Reese throws me to the ground and pain shocks up my thighs from the impact, but it barely phases me.
