Page 40 of Malicious Marriage (Mafia Lords of Sin #9)

DEAN

W ho is Clover talking to?

My stomach gurgles in discomfort as Clover’s reactions and sudden change in demeanor lead me to believe something has happened to Bobby.

Does Frankie need some kind of permission or assistance?

I want to offer my help but Clover turns her back to me and remains silent, then she hangs up the phone.

Her head tips back and she dabs at her eyes, then she turns to face me.

“Is everything okay? Is it Bobby?”

Clover looks me directly in the eyes. “You’re right, I did lie to you.

But I’m not sorry about it. You see, I never cared for you, Dean.

You were a means to an end. You’re gullible and weak, far too easy to trick, and frankly, you should be ashamed of yourself for how someone like me was able to take a great Savoy for a ride like this.

You even believed I cared for you? Maybe I loved you?

You’re pathetic and I have nothing else to say to you. ”

“Bullshit,” I snap back at the sudden coldness pouring from Clover. “Clover, you are my wife and I know you.”

“No you don’t.”

“Yes I do. And I know something is wrong. You have to tell me the truth. I deserve that much.”

“No!” She surges forward suddenly and shoves me out of the kitchen and into the hall.

“You deserve nothing. I want you to stew in this and know that someone like me was able to pull the wool over your eyes. I want you to know that everything you thought about us for the past few months was just a game to me!” With every sentence, she pushes me further and further down the hall.

“Get out, okay? Get out and don’t come back!

We’re done. I never want to see you again and if I do, you will regret it, understand? Get out!”

I’m too stunned to speak or react and soon, I’m back outside stumbling down the steps as Clover slams the door in my face. The door then rattles as she locks it and pulls all the chains into position.

What the fuck is going on?

Maybe I’ve been wrong all this time and the truth I demanded is exactly what she just yelled at me. She’s been taking me for a ride all this time, like I’m some kind of game. But if that’s the truth then what’s her end game? Humiliation? Hurt?

I stumble back to the car and Jack’s concerned gaze greets me as I flop inside.

“What happened?”

“I…” Throwing both hands up, I shake my head. “I have no idea. I don’t… I don’t understand.”

“You wanna talk?”

Shaking my head, I close my eyes. “I need to process.”

Jack falls silent and as we drive away from the Byrne estate, I try to unravel everything in my mind. I came here determined to get the truth out of her, but what I found doesn’t feel like the truth. It felt almost performative how quickly she switched up. Maybe that’s just my wishful thinking.

Maybe the truth is exactly how she presented it.

No matter how often I replay it in my mind, I don’t reach any conclusion and I’m still lost by the time we reach the hospital. Jack wants to check in on Bobby so I follow him through the hospital until we reach Bobby’s room.

“Bobby!” Jack’s tone immediately lifts. “Holy shit, dude, you look good.”

Bobby is propped up against several pillows with one hand tangled between both of Frankie’s. Their son appears to be fast asleep in a rocker nearby on the floor. Just a glimpse of him makes my heart ache and I briefly wonder how Trisha’s daughter is doing.

“Jack. Thanks, I feel miles better.”

“Bobby. Frankie.” I greet them both with a small smile. “It’s good to see you looking well.”

“Who knew a heart attack would have me feeling better than I’ve felt in years?” Bobby chuckles.

“That’s the drugs, dear,” his husband replies. “Just the drugs.”

“Like I said.” Bobby smirks and brings Frankie’s knuckles up to his mouth for a kiss.

“Are you going to be here much longer?” I ask.

“Couple more days for observation,” Bobby replies. “Then home and bed rest.”

“Speaking of.” Frankie frowns at me. “You look exhausted.”

I wave his concern off. “It’s been a long day… a long week.”

“You’re telling me,” Bobby groans. “I hate to ask given… everything, but have you spoken to Clover at all? I tried to call her but she didn’t pick up.”

Jack and I exchange a look, then I quickly provide Bobby a rundown of what happened at her house. His face grows more and more stunned as I talk and by the time I finish, he looks angry.

“That can’t be right. That doesn’t sound like Clover at all.”

I briefly raise both my hands. “Or it’s who she really is. I don’t know.”

“We don’t have to worry about it just now,” Jack says. “You need to rest.”

Bobby and Frankie then exchange a look while Jack drops into a nearby chair. I remain standing at the end of Bobby’s bed.

“Look,” Bobby sighs. “There’s no way. Clover loves you.

Look, I know she lied. I admit it, we both did.

In the beginning… This was never the plan.

When Hailey vanished, Clover was distraught.

She’d just buried her father and then her sister was gone and Malcom was suddenly the king of the household.

We were convinced that he’d killed her, but it wasn’t really his style.

So Clover was terrified that she’d been sold into slavery or trapped in some terrible arranged marriage.

All we knew was that Malcom had a call with some Russian family and he mentioned her name once.

Then never again. And then he hurt Clover and disowned her.

She spent four years riding the repressed grief of her father’s death and her uncle’s cruelty by pouring herself into finding her sister.

She was desperate. And it got to a point that we both were. ”

Part of me doesn’t want to hear this. I don’t want to hear the sob story that led to her calling me all the foul things she called me.

“Babe, can you pass me my tablet?” Bobby asks. Frankie obliges and Bobby busies himself with it while he talks.

“Things were fine while she could still borrow money from Ryan, and while they were dating, it was worth it. But he was just using her and she knew that but was fine with it because she needed money to stay afloat, to pay me, and to do everything within her limited capabilities to find Hailey. But then the money dried up, she was in insane debt, and we needed help, so yeah… we chose you because you were single and seemed like a decent man who might be in need of help yourself.”

So I was targeted. Having my suspicions confirmed is not a good feeling.

“At first, we just wanted the deal. We thought that if you were getting something out of it, then it wouldn’t matter that we were lying about a few of the details.

And the goal was to find Hailey and then give you the amicable divorce you were looking for.

But then Clover started to fall for you.

Really fall for you. She was constantly in a toss up between coming clean and finding Hailey.

Both were so important to her because you, Dean, became so important to her. ”

For the first time in days, Bobby paints a picture of the truth which slowly untangles the mess of lies and what-ifs spinning around my mind. Could it be true that Clover’s lying isn’t as sinister as I feared?

“Then explain today,” I say. “All the things she said while kicking me out of her house.”

“I don’t know,” Bobby admits. “She was utterly broken after her reunion with Hailey. I imagine she’s feeling guilty about you and what happened to me.

And her dreamy rescue of her sister turned into a nightmare.

Maybe she’s not thinking straight, but that phone call…

” Bobby taps quickly at his tablet. “I linked our phones but…”

“Dean!” Don suddenly bursts into the room, panting faintly. “How are you such a hard man to get ahold of?”

“Don?” Immediately my back prickles. “What’s wrong?” Patting through my pockets, I find my phone with several missed calls. “Sorry, it’s on silent.”

“Fucker.” Don laughs, then he leans against the wall and puffs out his cheeks. “Phew. Evening, gents.”

Everyone nods and waves politely.

“What’s this about?” I ask, waving my phone at him. I’m not sure I can take more bad news.

“Yesterday, you wanted me to find out everything I could on Malcom, right?”

I nod.

“Well—shit, those stairs.” Don doubles over briefly and takes a few deep breaths, then straightens up.

“You were right. I didn’t have to go back far to find his connections with the Kuznetsovs.

They’ve been working together on the quiet for years.

Basically, taking care of each other’s dirty work.

So I went digging deeper into the soft abdominal flesh of one of the Russian general’s we snatched last week when they tried to raid our club. And he sang like a fucking canary.”

“About?” My tired heart starts to beat very fast.

“Twenty-five years ago. The fire that killed your brother and sister?” The room falls deathly silent. “It was Malcom.”

The ground suddenly falls away from my feet as the air thins. “What?”

“I don’t have all the details but it looks like Malcom was in love with your brother’s girlfriend.

And she was pregnant. Malcom, in some insane jealous rage, followed them both to that party and ended up killing her.

I don’t know why but his brother, Charles, Clover’s father, somehow believed he was the one who killed her.

Judging by what we know of that party, he was probably too drunk to know any better. ”

Acid floods my veins as a strange static sensation washes down my limbs.

“So Malcom set the fire to cover up Charles’s crime, a.k.a.

his own murder. Maybe he hoped the murder would lead to Charles breaking down or something, I don’t know.

A jealous rage or a play for power, no one fucking knows.

But he started that fire. Your sister was at that party.

” Don rubs a hand down his face. “She and your brother… they were just innocent bystanders to Malcom’s cover up.

And he was even happier to let the rumor fly that the Savoys were the cause because it kept the heat off him. ”

Malcom… killed my brother and my sister. He started the fire that scarred my body to cover up his own, twisted crime.

“Holy shit,” Frankie gasps. “That’s fucking insane.”

“Right?” Don flashes a tired smile. “It’s been the one thing the Kuznetsovs have kept on Malcom to make sure that he can’t rise without them.

So I suspect that when he found out about our weapons deal with them, he fucked it for some reason.

Why, I don’t know, but that man is a cold-blooded killer through and through. ”

“No wonder Hailey ran,” I say quietly as I run through the small details she told me back in Greece. “That fucker has no moral compass to speak of. And Clover was left all alone with him.”

Desperate doesn’t begin to describe the situation she’s in. I see how her pursuit of her sister led to the tangled web we find ourselves in. She was just looking for the one family member who wouldn’t treat her like shit and used me to get it. Not through any vindictive means, not like Trisha.

She just wanted help.

“Why didn’t Clover tell me?” I look at Bobby. “If she’d told me the truth, I would have helped her.”

Bobby looks pained. “She was convinced that any lie would be too much to tell you after Trisha. She feared the moment she told you, you’d cut her out of your life and she’d be at the mercy of the loan sharks or her uncle once he discovered what she was up to.”

I looked into this all wrong. I approached Clover with suspicion and wariness that she was lying for the same reasons Trisha did. But she wasn’t. She was just scared.

“Holy shit.” Bobby pales as he looks down at his tablet. “I got into Clover’s phone.”

“And?” I surge forward while Don sags down onto the couch for some rest. “What is it?”

“Look.” He turns the tablet around and displays a picture of Hailey, beaten and bloody with her mouth open in a scream. Just underneath is a text asking if I’m dead yet.

“What the fuck?” Frankie gasps.

“No wonder Clover changed up so quickly.” My pounding heart seems to fall into my gut. “She… she sent me away to save me.”

“Maybe,” Bobby says, groaning softly. “The number the text came from is one of Malcolm’s. If he has Hailey… fuck, I can’t imagine how she’s feeling right now, but since she sent you away, then she clearly has no intention of killing you to save Hailey. Which means…”

My heart stops. “Which means she’s probably on her way to confront Malcom right now, exchanging her life for Hailey’s. We need to find out where she’s going!”