Page 7 of Malicious Marriage
“You need to listen to them. These are the people doing the legwork on this deal and if they’re unhappy, then you risk thattrickling down to their involvement with the Russians. Do you really want to stoke that fire?”
He’s right, annoyingly. “I’ll deal with it.”
“Will you?”
Uncapping the chilled water, I nod. “I will.”
“Like you dealt with Trisha?”
I pause, simply holding a mouthful of cold water between my lips and the bottle.
Trisha.
The one name I can’t stand to hear and yet everyoneinsistson bringing her up. For good reason, mostly, but that doesn’t mean I gotta like it.
I swallow hard and focus on the bite of the cold water as it trickles down my gullet. “What about her?”
“She called for you again.”
“So?”
“Dean, be serious. She’s carrying your child.”
“And she’s a cheating cunt who broke my heart, burned my car, and tells everyone this family is out to kill her. Excuse me if I don’t have a good word to say about her.”
“I’m not saying you have to like her.” Don moves from his stationary spot and approaches. “But Dean, she iscarryingyourbaby.”
“I know.” My snapping response doesn’t soften Don’s gaze so after another drink, I sigh deeply. “Listen, I know. And I stand by what I originally said. I will take care of my baby.”
“That’s all well and good, but do you really want to be raising your child in a split family? As terrible as Trisha has been in the past, she is from a good, strong family and she wants to try again. Surely, you see how strong a union like that will make you?”
I see it. From a business and family perspective, it’s a good match. The Wilcox family are old money and would turn us intoquite the powerhouse if we married. That had been the goal at the start, but things didn’t work out that way. It became clear painfully quickly that Trisha only cared about burning through my bank accounts, and catching her in bed with another man for the third time was three times too many.
“She made a fool out of me,” I say tightly. “How can you stand there and tell me marrying her will make me look any better? As if the whole world doesn’t know why we broke up in the first place.”
“But thebaby,” Don insists. “Babies change everything. Situations and people. You can’t risk her leaving and your child ending up in someone else’s hands.”
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” I push past Don, but he still catches my shoulder.
“Dean, please. This is just another thing to take in stride.”
I’mtiredof taking things in stride. Hit after hit, betrayal after betrayal. I’ve seen loss after loss and I am tired of it. As the head of the family, everyone expects me to be the bigger man. Take the pain on the chin and do what’s best for the family as a whole rather than me, the individual. It’s that kind of attitude that turned the deaths of my older siblings into a fucking circus act.
I’m tired of it.
One call to Jack, my head of security, and we leave the estate behind with Don to deal with the influx of calls now that my shipping plans have landed in everyone’s inbox.
I need to escape. I need to get out and breathe, so Jack drives me to the only place that won’t make me feel like I’m being smothered.
The Byrne mansion.
It’s a twenty-minute drive by Jack’s standards, not that he ever drives with the law in mind, but when we pull up to the driveway of the mansion, there isn’t a single car in sight.
Climbing out with Clover’s compact mirror weighing down my pocket, I cast my eye around the slightly overgrown garden, the dusty wooden trellis that stands over a dusty, muddy slab path, and the flowers lining the mansion under the windows that look in desperate need of a drink. This early into May, the rain is still common but it looks like these poor things haven’t drunk in weeks.
“You sure this is the right place?” Jack leans against the open car door and gazes around. “Maybe they’ve left for the summer.”
“I don’t think so,” I reply as I walk up to the front door. “At least I hope not.”