Page 87 of Poisoned Promise
Felix.
I glance around the room but it’s impossible to see anything other than stone walls and a dark ceiling.
Our eyes meet once more and the truth I see there makes my heart sink all the way down into my gut.
He’s somewhere listening. He heard it all.
I briefly close my eyes and sink into the heat of agony swirling across my back, then I open them and glare up at her.
“Nico deserved to die,” I spit at her. “He was a monster who came from a monstrous family and my only regret is that I didn’t kill you at the same time.”
Caterina laughs suddenly and she leans down until we’re face to face. “Does the confession feel freeing? Hmm?” She uses her grip on my hair to shake my head slightly. “I also came here to tell you that I’m going to find your son. And when I do, I’m going to do to him what you did to my son. And then I’m going to play with him until he has no idea who you are and then I’ll bring him in here and I’ll kill him in front of you so that you get to experience even afractionof the pain you put me through.”
Pain and fury, unlike anything I’ve felt before surges up through my chest and chokes me from the inside.
Sirens blare in my mind while a cold, unrelenting fear grips my racing heart.
Not Alex.
He’s too good.
He’s too pure!
I wrench my head around and my teeth snap an inch from Caterina’s wrist as she jerks it out of the way just in time. “I’ll kill you!” I snarl, wrenching myself against my bindings and barelyfeeling where metal cuts into skin. “I’ll fucking kill you, Caterina! You fucking monster, I’ll kill you with my bare hands!”
“From there?” She snorts. “I fail to feel threatened.” She moves out of my view and her heels clack away toward the door. “You should have stayed dead, little Nightingale.”
25
FELIX
Nightingale.
It’s not real.
It can’t be real.
Sitting in a tiny square empty room that’s become my cell since Caterina shoved me in here, the word revolves around my mind with no hesitation.
Dove… was the Nightingale?
Thinking back, such a thing doesn’t seem possible.
All those years ago, outside of being a ghost story, everyone was convinced the Nightingale was some ex-Marine with too much blood on their hands and a penchant for the luxury life; that’s why their prices were so high.
They killed without prejudice, didn’t care which family was paying and which one was on the chopping block as long as they got paid.
But Dove didn’t deny it when Caterina spat that word at her.
It must be true.
The version of the Nightingale in my head clashes with everything I know about Dove, past and present.
This not only means she’s responsible for some of the cleverest assassinations ever to rock the Mafia world, but she did it all when she was so young.
Did her father have a hand in this?
He must have.
