Page 37 of Malicious Marriage (Mafia Lords of Sin #9)

CLOVER

“ B obby! Oh, God, what’s wrong? What’s wrong!”

Lunging over from the passenger seat, I grab the wheel and wrench it to the left to try and keep us on the road, but it’s a struggle.

Bobby groans and gasps, clutching at his chest with a deep cry of pain. Sweat pours from his brow and his body tips back, rigid and pale. “Clo–Clover!”

“Brakes! Hit the brakes, Bobby!”

He doesn’t. The car goes faster and faster while gravel, twigs, and dirt fly up from the grass and bushes lining the road.

I try to wrestle the car back onto the road in the hopes it’ll make the jostling less and I’ll have more control, but before I can, a bend in the road approaches far too quickly.

“Bobby!”

“I c–can’t breathe!” Bobby chokes out.

“Bobby!” The car veers right off the road and for a few seconds, we’re floating, flying through the air like we’re completely weightless.

Then the car drops and we hit the ground with a loud crash.

The car barrels down the incline, crashing through bushes and small trees until we hit something that sends me crashing hard into the dashboard.

The steering wheel slips from my fingers as darkness descends.

Am I dead?

I should be.

How has life become so utterly and terribly fucked? Death would be a mercy at this point, but I’m not granted such a kindness.

Opening my eyes, something sticky leaks into the corner of my left eye so I immediately close both as pain throbs across my forehead. Something beeps rhythmically in the car and my seatbelt presses painfully against my chest and shoulder.

We crashed.

Shit.

We fucking crashed!

My eyes snap open. The windshield is utterly smashed but thankfully still in one piece and protecting us from the tree now wedged into the front of the car.

We’re still on the incline so both Bobby and I hang forward against our seatbelts, only Bobby isn’t awake.

Both his arms are limp and his head flops to one side.

“Bobby?”

No answer.

“Bobby!”

Still nothing.

Shit. Think, Clover, think! All I want to do is curl up in a ball and sob about the disaster with my sister and the revelations with Dean, but now there’s no time.

Phone.

I need my phone.

My shoulders ache while I quickly pat down my pockets and seek out my phone.

While it turns on, the sight of no bars for connection makes my heart sink.

This is my fault. I begged Bobby to just drive me somewhere with no destination in mind so we headed for what looked like the peaceful quiet of a forest surrounding the base of the mountain.

I just needed space to breathe and think, although mostly I was sobbing and trying to tell Bobby how utterly screwed I was.

And then he was in pain and rigid and…

My eyes fill with tears as I hit the Emergency Call on my phone over and over. It beeps and nothing connects.

“Shit. Shit. Bobby?”

Still nothing. No sound. No movement.

Hastily wiping away my tears, I glance through the windows at the dark forest that rises up all around the car. How far did we fall? How long was I even unconscious?

Fuck. My head hurts.

There’s a moment of relief when my phone finally shows one bar of service but just as I tap the emergency call once more, a low battery warning flashes up then my phone flickers and dies right in my hands.

“You’re kidding.” Hitting the power button does nothing, but I still hold it for a good ten seconds while praying some emergency battery power exists inside the phone.

Nothing.

Just my dull reflection staring back at me while blood trickles from a small wound on my forehead.

“C–Clover?”

“Bobby!” He immediately takes all my attention. “Oh, my God, are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“What… What happened?” He’s groggy and croaky. When he tries to reach for his seatbelt, his fingers slip and he misses. “Where are we?”

“We crashed. Bobby, I’m so sorry, this is all my fault. I don’t know what happened! I think you had a heart attack or something. I don’t know for sure.”

“Where are we?” he repeats slowly as he tries to move.

“Hold on. Hold on!” Pulling my seatbelt free, I fall forward slightly against the dashboard, but I support myself by bracing my knee against the glove box.

After wrestling with the door handle, I get the door open and spill out onto the forest floor.

The incline is steep enough that I slide a few feet, but I scramble up onto my feet and use the tree as support while moving around to the other side of the car.

“Clover, call for help.”

“I tried,” I gasp, panting as I open his door. “No bars and my phone died.”

“Use… use mine.”

“After I get you out of here. This feels like a death trap but we’re on an incline, okay? So when I pull you out we might fall, and that’s fine, but I need you to stay with me so please, please hold onto me.”

Bobby looks at me with foggy eyes, like he knows I’m here but can’t quite see me. Given the damage to the car, getting him as far away from it as possible feels like the best option. Then, once we’re back on the road, I can use his phone to call for help.

“Hold onto me, okay?” I say between panting breaths. “Hold on.”

“Clover—”

“I’ve got you! I’ve got you.”

Unbuckling and getting Bobby out of the car is the easiest part.

Getting him up the incline when his ability to move his limbs seems hindered is where it gets harder.

We slide a few feet down the incline together until I’m able to stop myself by digging my heels into the dirt.

From there, it becomes an exhausting game of making it a few steps and then hauling Bobby up beside me.

I don’t have space to think of anything other than pulling Bobby up to the road and, bless his heart, he does his best to help.

With only a few falls and slips, we make it to the top of the incline utterly exhausted and panting so heavily that my throat feels raw. Just as I drag Bobby up the last inch and help him away from the edge, the dark clouds above us split open and rain pours.

We both slip on the rapidly soaked ground and hit the dirt where Bobby lies groaning.

“Bobby, where’s your phone?”

“Huh?”

“Your phone, where’s your phone?”

“Uh… in the… in the car.”

“What?”

Bobby’s eyes flutter and then slowly close.

“Bobby? Bobby!” I surge up onto my knees and hover over him with both hands clutching his face.

“Bobby!” The rain falls like a quiet mist that soaks instantly into my clothes and hair.

The music of water hitting the leaves of the trees around us becomes the only sound as Bobby falls unconscious and my heart breaks.

“Bobby, please come back to me. Come back!”

As I beg, the low hum of thunder above grows louder and louder until suddenly, several cars screech around the bend and skid to a stop on the road a few feet away. I’m blinded by the headlights and clutch at Bobby’s body as car doors slam.

“Clover?” yells a deep, familiar voice.

Dean.

He came for me?

Nothing stops the tears from pouring now as I try to stand. “Here! I–I’m here! Something’s wrong with Bobby!”

Several hours later, I sit in the waiting room praying for news about Bobby.

Other than some bruising and the cut to my forehead, I get the all clear but Bobby is a different story.

I keep replaying our last moments before the crash in my mind as if there’s something I could have done differently, something I could have seen or done to prevent it.

I was too in my own head sobbing about everything with Hailey that I didn’t notice something was wrong until it was too late.

And now this has happened. Am I going to have to go back home and give Frankie the dreadful news that Bobby’s passed away?

Did I finally get him killed?

“Clover.”

Dean’s voice makes me jump violently, and when he places a comforting hand on my shoulder, I immediately shrug it away and then feel guilty. I shouldn’t reject a touch from him, but everything is destroyed and it feels like being near Dean is bad enough.

“Here.” While his tone lacks the usual warmth I’m used to, there’s still kindness in his offering of a cup of hospital coffee.

I accept it because it’s hot and wrapping my hands around it makes me feel like I’m doing something. “Is there any news?”

“You were right,” Dean says as he sits across from me. “He had a heart attack but he’s mostly going to be okay. He’ll be on the next flight back to the States and I want to be on that too.”

I nod quickly, unable to look up as relief surges through me. “Thank God.” I close my raw eyes. “I was so scared.”

“I know.” Dean sighs softly. “Be straight with me, Clover. Why did you lie about how long your sister was missing?”

Oh. We’re diving right into it, are we? Makes sense.

Dean’s surely got a lot of questions. What’s the point of hiding anything now?

It’s tough to untangle the thousands of thoughts all screaming in my head, from fear about Bobby, anger and hurt at Hailey, at my Uncle and Duke, panic over the baby inside me. How does none of it feel real?

“I… I don’t know,” I say weakly. “I didn’t want to worry you or sound pathetic, I guess.

” I want to talk about this later when Bobby isn’t suffering here.

If I tell him the truth, then everything else will unravel.

He’ll know Bobby and I targeted him because he was rich and single.

He’ll know that I was after his money and his power, and he won’t care that I’ve grown to love him.

He’ll see me the same way he sees Trisha.

“Did you not trust me?” Dean continues to press. “Did you think I wouldn’t care?”

“No.”

“And if she’s been gone four years, why did you lie and tell me you saw her this year? Why did you get excited about her coming to the gala or even the wedding? Why would you lie about that when you knew she’d been gone for years?”

“I didn’t…” Swallowing hard, I look up at him.

“I didn’t want to burden you, okay?” A half-truth.

“We had this arrangement and I’d been looking for Hailey for so long by myself that it just didn’t make sense to involve you since you were already planning on divorcing me when things were calmer for you. ”

“But you were happy to use my money in the meantime?”

My lips part but no answer comes.

“Was that also a lie? Your debt? The money you claimed not to have? With Hailey’s help, I had my accountants dig deeper into all of those secret accounts and even Malcom’s accounts. You’re not poor. So why did you lie to me and say you were? Why not use your own money to search for Hailey?”

“You wouldn’t understand.” Restlessness trickles through me and I stand abruptly, abandoning the coffee and starting to pace. “And I didn’t lie.”

“Yes you did!” It’s not by much, but it’s the first time Dean’s ever raised his voice at me. “And you need to tell me why because you have made me look like a fool, Clover. You’re not poor. The Byrne family comes from old oil. You are far from poor.”

“No!” I snap with tears in my eyes as I spin to face him.

“I am poor! I don’t have a cent to my name because after Hailey vanished and I refused to marry Malcom, do you know what he did?

He doesn’t give me access to the family money, okay?

He cut me out of the family like I was some kind of disease, which maybe I am since Hailey was also so desperate to get away from me! ”

“Somehow, I just don’t believe you’re telling me the full truth, Clover.”

“I am!” I wail, drowning under the guilt that he can see right through me.

“So I fudged some of my family details. I’m sorry about that.

I saw you and your perfect family and I wanted to show you that I came from a stable place.

But I was in debt. I swear I was. I swear it’s not all what you think.

I’m really, really sorry I hurt you, but we can fix it. ”

I don’t want to lose him. This painful revelation about Hailey and almost losing Bobby has made me realize how painfully alone I am, and Dean is the only person left I care about. The only person who ever cared about me.

Dean doesn’t believe a thing. He looks at me with cold indifference to hide the flicker of pain I saw in his eyes.

“I don’t believe you.”

“No, Dean, please?—”

“No, Clover. I…” He cuts himself off and stands with his back to me.

“I trusted you. And I’m not hurt that you lied, or that you made me spend money and time chasing leads that had been cold for four years, not a handful of months.

I’m not hurt that you were focused on your family, either.

But what does hurt me? That after all our talks about the lies from Trisha and how I valued honesty and our trust, you didn’t tell me the truth by choice .

You only came clean because you got caught. ”