Page 36 of Malicious Marriage (Mafia Lords of Sin #9)

DEAN

I should go after Clover as she sprints from the room, but for some reason, I don’t move. It’s like I’m rooted to the spot, unable to lift either of my legs while my mind spins out of control.

Upon arriving here, I told myself I was prepared for anything.

If we were to face European sex traffickers, then I brought enough security to keep Clover safe.

If we were dealing with something even more sinister like organ harvesting, then I would deal with it appropriately.

I was even prepared for Hailey to be fine, assuming she had simply lost track of time in Europe or had run out of money due to the family’s financial situation.

But not this. Nothing like this.

Hailey is alive and fine because she ran away. The family isn’t in financial ruin. And Clover lied to me. About a lot of things.

I don’t know how to feel. An array of emotions clashes together in my chest, but none of them dominate. Every time I get angry, it’s replaced by upset or annoyance and shock. They constantly rotate and I can’t settle on one or the other.

Why? Why would Clover lie? It’s not even a small lie. Fudging a few months to hide four years is one hell of a leap, but what did she have to gain? What was her endgame here?

Confusion finally gives way to action and I bolt from the bar, only to find a completely deserted street outside with Jack looking all kinds of alarmed.

“Dean? The fuck is going on?”

“Where is she?” I demand.

“Clover? She took off with Bobby. Said it was some kind of emergency?”

My phone nearly slips from my fingers in my desperation to get it out of my pocket and I send several messages to Bobby. After a few anxious seconds of waiting, I get a short text response.

He is with Clover and will bring her back once she calms down.

Should I follow them? If they took the only car, then we’ll have to go back to the airfield to pick up the others and I’m not confident Bobby will tell me where they’re going. I’d have to rely on the trackers within the vehicles.

“Dean?” Jack’s worried face floats in front of mine. “You good?”

“I…” Shaking my head, I suck in a deep breath. “I need the security team here. And a car.”

“On it.” Ever a man of few questions, Jack takes my silence as an understanding that I’m not ready to talk about it and gets on his phone to complete my order.

In a daze, I slowly walk back into the bar. It’s emptier than it was when we arrived and Duke is back behind the bar cleaning a pint glass. His hands pause when he spots me and visible tension ripples up his bare arms.

Is he anticipating a fight? Aside from his Russian heritage, I have no concerns about him.

When Hailey revealed the truth about her disappearance, I kept an eye on Duke fearing that Hailey was reciting a practiced story and he was her handler or worse, but when they hugged and talked about the twins, I knew it was real.

He really cares for her. He’s not a threat.

“Here.” Dean slides a beer bottle dripping in condensation across the bar to me as I take a seat. “You look like you need it.”

“I came here hoping for information,” I say as I sit. “I think we got too much.”

“Not the happy reunion you were hoping for, huh?”

“I wasn’t even hoping for that,” I admit. “I was just praying I wasn’t bringing Clover to find a body.”

“You two are…” Duke lifts his bushy brows, and I nod. Then I shake my head.

“It’s complicated. Insanely so now.”

“Sorry. Can’t be easy.”

I stare at the neck of the bottle and track a few droplets rolling down the glass. “What the fuck was all that?”

“Sorry about Hailey,” Duke says quietly. “I know she was… unkind to Clover.”

“Y’think?” I glance at him and scowl. “The things she said to her own sister… I can’t understand.”

“Neither can I,” Duke replies. “But it’s not my job to understand.

It’s to support. Hailey had a tough upbringing.

She grew up having to be a mother to Clover after their mom died, and their dad was absent but kind.

She loved him a lot but she also understood him.

So when he suddenly died, it really broke her.

We were planning on running away to get married and then come back because she believed he would be more forgiving than understanding, but when he passed, everything went up in smoke. ”

“I can imagine.” My life felt like it fell apart when I woke up and learned both my siblings had died in that fire. My mother was a shell of a woman up until her own death and my father followed not long after. Sometimes, death is too painful to recover from.

“But then that bastard Malcom tried to force himself onto her, kept talking about how a wedding between them would fix everything. I couldn’t protect her. I was just a grunt. But I could save her, so we ran.”

Malcom tried to force himself onto Hailey? My stomach turns and acid burns at the back of my throat like heartburn. “How could she leave Clover with a man like that? Didn’t she know what he would do?”

Duke looks pained. “We were young and scared. I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to get Hailey away from him, so that’s what I did. She was a mess and I… Clover just didn’t matter. Hailey worded it terribly about Malcom’s interest, but I truly believe she thought that meant Clover would be safe.”

Clover never mentioned Malcom ever trying anything with her, and he’s visited the manor a few times, but she hasn’t said a word. Come to think of it, if all of this is true, then were Clover and Malcom working together? Is that why she lied about the debt and financial difficulties?

My head drops low. Nothing makes fucking sense anymore.

“You didn’t know any of this?” Duke sounds genuinely pained for me.

I lift my head and shake it, then pick up the beer and take several gulps.

“Shit. When you turned up asking questions, I was worried you were here for me.”

“Why?”

“The family I ran from doesn’t take kindly to deserters. And if they found out where I was? I’d be dead before I even finished that sentence.”

It’s either his calm demeanor or the offer of a distraction that doesn’t involve this web of lies I’ve found myself in, but I latch onto that information. “Who are you?”

“My real name is Alexei Kuznetsov.”

Kuznetsov? What are the fucking chances of that? “Kuznetsov,” I repeat as I straighten up a little. “Fancy that. But wait, you said you were going to marry Hailey and then come back. Wouldn’t that also have gotten you killed?”

Duke sighs. “Back then, we thought coming back would grant me protection with the power Hailey’s dad had. He was a decent, terrifying man. But with him gone, there was suddenly no one in our corner.”

“Makes sense.” It’s about the only damn thing that does.

“But you know my name.” Duke slowly leans against the bar. “The look on your face when I said it. You tried to hide it but I saw it.”

I’ll chalk that down to my head being so insanely full right now that keeping track of my emotions is a struggle. “Yeah, I know the Kuznetsovs.”

“Not on good terms?”

My eyes narrow slightly. Is it wise to trust this guy?

At this point, my instincts for trust seem to be way off so the fact that it feels like a bad idea might work in my favor.

“My family, the Savoys, had a weapons deal with them. A pretty fucking good one, if I say so myself. We were the supplier, they were the buyer, and they also sold a portion to smaller organizations like the Cartel. But they pulled out randomly after about a month or so of smooth sailing. And you can imagine I didn’t take kindly to being screwed over. ”

“I’m not surprised,” Duke murmurs. “My family has long been tangled with the Byrnes. That’s actually how Hailey and I met.”

“What?” My back turns poker straight. “Are you serious?”

“Hundred percent. That bastard Malcom always had underhanded deals with them. Initially, I thought Hailey’s interest in me was because her father caught onto those deals and sent her to investigate, but she didn’t care about any of that.”

My frown deepens. “I looked into Russian men who vanished and I never once saw that the Kuznetsovs lost a son.”

“Your time frame was six months, though, right?” Duke’s head tilts. “Remember, we ran away four years ago.”

“Shit. You’re right.”

“Mmhmm. But my family has always been locked with the Byrnes. Did all their dirty work. It was drilled into us how vital the partnership was, so even when we were asked to help cover up that massive inferno years ago when I was little, it didn’t matter that we lost people in the fire.

All that mattered was that Malcom was happy. ”

A fire. “What fire?”

“You know, the one people always talked about? The party all those teens were at? I was like six at the time, so about twenty-five years ago, give or take. But that warehouse burned down, that old apartment block and like three of the old buildings connected to it. Fucking insane.”

Every detail Duke mentions is like a knife deep in my heart. The fire he details sounds like the exact same fire that killed my brother and sister. The fire that people claim we started in order for my brother to cover up a murder and an unwanted pregnancy. But it can’t be the same fire, can it?

“So honestly,” Duke continues, “I would not be surprised to find out Malcom had something to do with your deal falling through with the Kuznetsovs. Maybe he got jealous or something.”

Holy fucking shit.

It all suddenly clicks into place with such clarity that it’s almost painful. My deal with the Kuznetsovs fell through not even a week after Malcom turned up and learned I’d married Clover. Is this part of their plan? Clover was the hook and now Malcom has stepped in to start a war?

This is?—

A sudden alert blares from my phone, making both Duke and me jump, and just as I pull it from my pocket, Jack comes sprinting into the bar.

“Dean!” he pants, skidding to a stop. “The car, Bobby’s car! It’s been in a collision!”