Page 36 of Malicious Marriage
One loop of the party and I spot her near the entranceway deep in discussion with a man I don’t recognize. Could that be her uncle? No, he looks too young.
“Dean!” Jack’s hand suddenly lands on my shoulder. “When did we decide that giving the speech on the bar was the right thing to do?”
“I think it was bold,” says Bobby who appears next to him. “If anyone was planning an assassination, there was no way they could anticipate that.”
“It was spur of the moment.” I grin, pausing while keeping one eye on Clover. “You know how these things go.”
“My security plans are a joke to you, aren’t they?” Jack groans. “All my hard work ruined by a spur of the moment gesture.”
“The important thing is Clover looked like she enjoyed it,” Bobby added, but his smile falters when he follows my line of sight toward Clover and the man at the door.
That’s enough to send alarm bells ringing in my mind, but just as I’m preparing to ask him if he knows who the stranger is, the man surges forward and grabs Clover by the arm where her bruises are still healing.
I see red.
I make it to her side just as the stranger shoves her up against the doorframe, grabbing him by the wrist and grinding my fingers into the small bones near his thumb to force him to let go.
“Handsoffmy fiancée,” I growl, positioning myself between the two of them. “Who the hell are you?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see the alarm on her face turn to fear as the stranger glances between the two of us and snorts as he rips his wrist out of my grip.
“Fiancée?” His tone grates against my eyes. “No fucking way.”
“Dean.” Clover grasps my elbow, but I don’t move.
“I won’t ask you again,” I snap darkly as heat builds beneath my suit.
“She didn’t tell you?” He leans around me and smirks coldly at Clover. “I’m herex. Although she failed to tell me she was getting married and I gotta say, that changes things.” He leans back up and stares directly in my eye. “In case your rich little brain can’t understand, I’m the one that used tofuckher.”
The dark urge to kill him where he stands for speaking so filthily about her atmyevent rises like acid inside me and it takes all my restraint to remain steady.
“I don’t give a shit who you are.” The words are forced past my tense jaw as Bobby and Jack reach us. “You’re not welcome here. These kind gentlemen will escort you from the?—”
“Fuck no,” the man snorts. “We’re not done. Clover, you and I?—”
He steps around me and latches onto Clover’s arm once more. The moment she squeaks in fright, fog descends and my fist smashes right into his smug fucking face.
16
CLOVER
Ryan hits the ground like a sack of potatoes, but true to his scrappy nature, he’s back on his feet in seconds.
“Asshole!” Ryan yells as he surges forward. He tries to punch Dean, but Dean sidesteps and punches him again, just as hard as he did before. The blow sends him backward and he trips down the few steps behind the door. Dean follows, leaving the gala behind in favor of making sure Ryan doesn’t get back up this time, but unfortunately, he does.
I should put a stop to this. The fact that Ryan even showed up here is terrible enough, but one word from him could unravel this entire situation. He’s a bomb waiting to go off and all it would take is a single moment for him to tell everyone that I’m not a real Byrne, not anymore. I’m disowned and disgraced with nothing to offer but trouble.
Dean, however, isn’t giving him that moment. The angrier Ryan gets, the harder he fights and they scrap at the bottom of the steps until Dean floors him with yet another hard punch. He stands over Ryan, seething in anger with his eyes as dark as the night sky and his bruised hands bunched up into iron fists.Blood trickles from a small split about his eyebrow where Ryan’s only decent punch landed.
“I said,” Dean pants aggressively, “these men will escort youout.”
That appears to be the cue Jack was waiting for as he surges forward suddenly, but he’s stopped by Bobby.
“Don’t worry, I got this,” Bobby says, moving past Jack to where Ryan spits up blood on the ground. “On your feet.”
Ryan resists, but Bobby is used to dealing with him. They’ve had a few scraps of their own. Gratefulness surges through me as Bobby manhandles Ryan up and swiftly drags him away.
“You come back,” Dean yells at Ryan’s retreating form, “and you won’t be leaving alive!” He turns slowly, his shoulders rising rapidly from how heavily he’s breathing, and he looks at Jack, who nods once at whatever silent order just passed between them. After lightly touching my shoulder in reassurance, Jack turns and heads back into the gala where his voice rises a moment later as he announces the winners of the auction. He’s ensuring he’s capturing all the attention so that anyone who might have noticed the brief scuffle is now distracted and no one will see us reentering the gala.