Page 96 of Poisoned Promise
Everything I knew has been a lie.
The man I once called brother was never deserving of such a title, and it sickens me to learn I’ve been at Caterina’s side all these years like some sick little puppy, blind to the truth.
It wouldn’t surprise me if she knows the whole truth either.
“Dove, I—.” No words come. How can anything I say make up for what she’s carried all these years, or what’s happened to her here in captivity? Those words claw deep into my throat, anchoring themselves and refusing to shift until I spill them out to her.
But what use is an apology without action?
She sinks to the ground before me, battered and bruised and bleeding, with nothing keeping her alive other than her unwavering conviction to keep Alex’s whereabouts safe and hidden from everyone else.
Including me.
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper hoarsely. “I-I had no idea. None!” It sounds like a weak excuse and my heart beats powerfully, sending tremors all the way down to my gut. “I will make this right. I will.”
“How?” Dove asks meekly. “You’re just as much a prisoner as I am. You have been for fifteen years.”
Countless deals I passed onto Caterina out of guilt and blind loyalty to Nico, millions of dollars right into her pocket, years of my loyalty and my power keeping her firmly on her throne of treachery.
How was I so blind to her?
Could I not see, or was I so desperate to feel something, anything, that I chose not to?
“I will fix this.” I nod quickly. “I will fix?—.”
“Too long.” A bored voice rises up from the other side of the door and the burly guard I sent for water stalks in with irritationwoven across his face. “Caterina ordered you to kill her so what the fuck are you standing around talking for so long for?”
Glancing at Dove, she doesn’t seem surprised by this revelation.
The steps that carried me here were laden with fury. I never intended to kill her.
If anything, I wanted to steal her away and punish her on my own terms until she’s thoroughly paid for her crimes, but in the wake of her revelations, a new goal warms my heart.
“I’m not killing her.”
“And why the fuck not?” Another set of heavy boots and Reese walks around the burly man’s shoulders. “You have your orders. Are you too chicken to commit, huh?”
White-hot anger floods through me at the sight of that traitor’s face.
Maybe I was an easy target for him and Toph.
If everyone else knew Nico was a cunt then I must have looked so pathetic mourning that monster of a man. No wonder two more rats made it into my life.
“Fuck you,” I snarl.
“I’ll pass,” Reese smirks coldly. “But Caterina was clear. If you can’t kill her then I get to.”
“Bullshit. She wants Alex; she wouldn’t kill Dove.”
“True,” Reese smirks. “God, you’re fucking thick, aren’t you? Do you need me to spell it out for you?”
With so much colliding in my mind, past lies and present truth make it very difficult to focus on Reese. “What?”
“She set you up,” Dove croaks from the corner. “This was a t-test.” When our eyes meet, there’s nothing but sadness in them as if she’s come to an understanding. She knows I couldn’t kill her and she knows that by doing that, I’ve signed my own death warrant.
“Even the cunt knows,” Reese smirks coldly. “So I get to have my fun while you get your balls cut off by—ugh!”
My fist collides against his jaw with as much strength as I can muster. He stumbles back and I use that movement to punch him with my next fist, then my next.
