Page 41 of Malicious Marriage (Mafia Lords of Sin #9)

CLOVER

A fter Dean left, I tore the kitchen apart looking for the camera while fearing that the next message from Malcom would be Hailey dead because he watched me kick Dean out instead of killing him.

What kind of request is that, anyway? I don’t have a clue how to kill someone, never mind someone much taller and stronger than me like Dean Savoy.

Through tears and broken nails, I rip the kitchen apart and find nothing.

Not a single wire or lens. I end up on the floor, sobbing until Malcom texts me once again and asks a very important question.

[ UNKNOWN ] Is Dean dead yet?

So the camera was a lie. It has to be. If he truly was watching us, then he’d know I desperately kicked Dean out using anything I could think of to just make him leave .

It takes me a long time and several consistent typos with trembling fingers to text him back, but eventually, I do.

[ Clover ] Working on it. Give me time. Don’t want him to resist.

Malcom replies with a .gif of someone tapping their watch and I roll my eyes, then slump back against the cabinet. What the fuck am I going to do?

Hailey had fled this life, fled this country and was about to start a family with a man who clearly loves her. Now, because of me, she’s been dragged back into this hellhole to be used as a pawn for God knows what.

And Dean. Good, sweet, kind Dean who was never like the rumors suggested and didn’t seem to have a bad bone in his body outside of his work.

I manipulated him, lied to him, and ultimately hurt him.

He deserves a clean break away from all of this shit to go and live his life and find someone truly decent.

I just hope my lies haven’t ruined him for good.

Both the people I care about now suffer because of me. And on top of it all, Bobby is in the hospital because the stress gave him a heart attack. Everything I thought turns to ash and I can’t make it stop.

Slowly, I glance down at my belly and the baby hidden inside, growing slowly without a care in the world. Another precious thing I’ll destroy just by existing. There’s no way I’d make a good mother after being a terrible sister and an even worse wife.

I need a plan. I have no one to call and no one to turn to. This is on me.

Sniffling, I climb to my feet and wash my face at the sink, then I focus on my phone and the picture of terrified Hailey. Malcom’s waiting for me to kill Dean which means I have until he grows impatient to find out where he’s holding her.

The background is pretty simplistic with wooden floors, a floral yellow paper with faded green leaves, and what looks like the corner of a painting. It almost looks like the lioness painting hanging in the?—

Wait! It is!

My heart beats violently in my chest as my hands tremble. I know exactly where he is.

The Byrne family townhouse is mostly abandoned and has been for years.

It was treated as a holiday home when we were younger but after the death of my mom, it was only me who would still visit.

I loved how quiet and secluded it was, how mother’s perfume still clung in the air, and I could see the scuff marks she left on the carpet while we were playing hide and seek.

Hailey and dad could never come back here, claiming they had too many memories, but that was exactly why I loved spending time here.

The moss is cut away from the front door and several of the curtains have been dragged open. Walking through the overgrown gravel pathway, I cross around the bend and a sleek black car comes into view.

He’s here.

I knew it.

I have no idea what I’m going to do when I confront him, or how I’m going to save Hailey.

I just have to do something . I’m trembling so much that by the time I climb the steps to the front door, it feels like I’m about to shake apart at my joints.

I clench my teeth and my fists but it does nothing to calm me down.

Do I walk in?

Do I knock?

Should I sneak in?

Just as I’m toying over what the right move is, the door swings open and one of Malcom’s guards stops abruptly in front of me, visibly surprised.

“H–He’s expecting me,” I force out before the man can speak.

He raises a brow, then shrugs, jerking his head backward. “He’s in the back.” Then he walks past me toward the car.

I’m going to throw up. Was it meant to be that easy?

Forcing a deep breath, I step into my childhood home and follow the dusty corridor through to the ajar door at the end. My mother’s study, of all places. Does Malcom even know that? I don’t remember him being around much when I was a child.

Malcom leans over the ornate wooden desk staring down at several clumped papers on the desk. He shuffles them about and grumbles in discontent, then jumps right out of his skin when I clear my throat.

“Hey, Uncle.”

“Fucking hell!” Malcom clutches at his chest. “What the—how the fuck did you get in here?”

“Your guy let me in,” I say, fighting to keep my voice casual and mask the storm of turmoil raging just beneath the surface. “Your security sucks.”

Calming himself, Malcom’s eyes narrow as thin as a blade. “How’d you get here?”

“Bus. Wasn’t hard to find. Did you really think I wouldn’t recognize my childhood home?”

Malcom scoffs. “Didn’t think anyone gave a shit about this place anymore.”

“Dad didn’t. But I did. Until high school, but I never forgot.” The yellow wallpaper with faded green leaves brings back countless memories of playing tea parties with my mom when she most likely was supposed to be working.

“Hmm. Clever.”

“I am clever,” I say, trying to mimic how I saw Dean act when facing down Ryan. He was so calm and collected. “I’m insulted you’re surprised.”

“Given how you snagged Dean, I’m not fully in disbelief. Speaking of… is he dead?”

I meet his gaze. “You know he is,” I say calmly. “You were watching on the camera, right? Surely, you knew I’d come here afterward.”

Malcom swallows. “I was testing you.”

So I was right. There truly was no camera. I feared his text was a bluff to lure me into a false sense of security, but he definitely doesn’t know I chased Dean away. He’ll survive this and that’s all that matters.

“I did what you asked,” I state coldly. “And I’m sickened by it so unless you want me to attack you the same way, where the fuck is my sister?”

“Alright, alright, calm down. I honestly didn’t expect you to choose so quickly.”

“It was an easy choice.”

“That’s why you and I are the same.” Malcom smirks and he motions for me to follow him. “We both value family. And we’re both willing to do anything to get what we want.”

“We’re not the same,” I snap while following him out of the office and leaving behind the very faintly comforting scent of my mother’s perfume.

“Don’t sound so sure. Look at you.” Malcom glances over his shoulder and leads me into the dining room. “You’ve got blood on your hands for your own gain. You’re exactly like me.”

“Mmm!!” Hailey, bound and gagged to one of the dining chairs, starts yelling and whimpering behind her gag as soon as she sees me. Her pretty face is bruised and beaten, blood trickles from her nose, and her hair is like a wild nest.

It takes every last ounce of strength I have not to cry the moment I see her. The guilt is overwhelming. She’s in this position because of me. I did this.

“See?” Malcom waves casually at her. “She’s fine.”

“Hardly,” I mutter bitterly. “Now let her go.”

“You know, it’s funny how history repeats itself. You killed your husband for your sister, I killed a woman because of my brother… They tell you that you’ll see yourself in the youth of your family, and I never believed it until now.”

“Let her go!” I repeat. “I did what you asked.”

“Fine,” he groans and his phone appears in his hand. “Hey, it’s me. Come get the bitch. Time to go.”

“And I’m nothing like you,” I repeat, unable to keep the quaver out of my voice. “ You forced me to kill. I highly doubt Dad forced you to kill.”

“He did,” Malcom snaps. “He forced me because he didn’t listen when I told him that bitch was mine.”

“So you were jealous?” I sneer. “Sounds like you killed because you couldn’t control yourself. I killed Dean to save my sister. We’re not the same.”

“Are you sure?” Malcom’s brow lifts as his guard enters the room and starts untying Hailey.

“We both killed for a sibling who hates us. We’re exactly the same.

Think about it. Your father hated me and I killed that woman.

Hailey hates you so much she fled the country for four years, and now you’ve killed your husband to save her. Do you think she’s grateful?”

Hailey gasps as the gag is removed and her tear-filled eyes lock onto mine.

“Clover, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, I was wrong.

I was wrong! I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Please forgive me.

Clover! Clover!” She’s dragged from the room, and I’m about to follow when the black metal barrel of a gun glints in Malcom’s hand.

“Not you,” he says quietly. “Just her.”

It doesn’t matter how. Hailey is free. Whatever happens to me now is just fate. “What’s your endgame?” I ask as a strange warmth spreads through my chest. “Why did you even do all of this? Just to kill Dean?”

Malcom waves the gun back and forth. “Hailey didn’t tell you everything, did she?

” He begins pacing back and forth in front of the table that used to host my dinner parties and finger-painting sessions.

“The whole reason I wanted to marry Hailey was because your father put an annoying little clause into his will that no amount of legal threat could get changed. Everything, in title and deed, was left to Hailey after he died. She had to be present at everything , every tiny little decision. So, I was marrying her because power could only be transferred by direct blood or spousal consent. And given that I’m only her uncle, I didn’t count. ”

Direct blood. That meant me. “He knew, didn’t he?” The warmth continues to spread through me as if accepting my fate here has finally calmed me. “He knew that if anything happened to him, you would stop at nothing to get everything he left behind.”

Malcom scoffs darkly. “Yeah, he fucking knew. But Hailey ran before I could force her to sign and the only one left was you. You didn’t count so I kicked you out of the family, and I was able to take over as an interim until Hailey was located. You didn’t even fight me.” He laughs coldly.

“Can you blame me?” I snap as tears slowly fill my eyes. “My dad died and my sister vanished all within a week. I didn’t even know which way was up and all I cared about was finding her.”

“Ironically, we had the same goal in the beginning.” Malcom continues to laugh as he lifts the gun.

“That’s all I cared about, too. I had money and power, but everything was still being restricted by my dead shithead of a brother.

” He grimaces and rolls his eyes. “Still taunting me from beyond the fucking grave. I had the Russians looking too because I knew she’d run away with that fucking Alexei.

Every time they thought they had a lead, they would send me looking so I spent most of my time traveling looking for that little shit. ”

He lifts the gun to his temple and for a moment, it looks like he’s about to shoot himself. Then he points it at me.

“But then they tell me they’re tired of looking and they have a new deal with the Savoys. The fucking Savoys . I should have made sure they all died in that fucking fire.”

My heart lurches. “Fire? What fire?”

“Oh, come on, keep up! Surely, your deceased lover boy told you about the fire that killed half his family? Honestly, when I found out that two Savoys perished in the fire I started to hide my own murder, and that a third got burned to all shit, I thought it was so fucking funny. But instead of dying out, they just kept rising to power. Who knew they’d come back to bite me twenty-five years later? ”

No fucking way. Malcom set the fire that burned Dean so badly when he was trying to save his brother and sister? My stomach drops. I don’t expect to make it out of this alive, but I wish there were a way I could tell him.

“So I come back to the States ready to remind the Kuznetsovs of exactly who I am, and what do I find?” Malcom dances a little. “Fucking you married to Dean! You presented me this beautiful new plan for power right on a silver platter and you had no fucking idea. Don’t you see?”

He walks closer and closer to me until my lungs are flooded with the stale stink of smoke and ale.

“I never planned on letting Hailey go. She’s probably dead by now, but don’t worry, I already forced her to sign all of the Byrne estate over to you.

And now that Dean is dead, guess what? All of his stuff goes to you too. Can you see where this is going?”

He leans so close I can see the dirt in his eyes and an old stain near the corner of his mouth. My stomach rolls in disgust.

“We’re going to get married, Clover. And then I’m going to kill you. That spousal line comes right back to me!”

He’s so gleeful that he doesn’t see me surge toward the gun until my knee is slamming hard into his crotch. He doubles over with a choked squeak of pain and his grip loosens on the gun long enough for me to drag it from his grip and stumble away.

“No!” I yell, spinning to face him as he falls to his knees. “No, because—” Is Hailey really dead? Did I really just send her to her death?

“No?” Malcom snarls, glaring up at me. “You can’t tell me no! It’s over, you fat little cunt!”

“No, because… because if Hailey is dead, then I need to die too and you get nothing. Absolutely fucking nothing!”

“Huh?”

“Before we went looking for Hailey, I was scared something would go wrong so I signed over everything in the Byrne name to Dean. It wasn’t a lot because you cut me off, but the fact that we found Hailey… if she’s dead, then everything passes to m–me and if I die, then it goes to Dean!”

Malcom pales immediately. “But you…?”

“No!” Laughing through my building tears, I shake my head. “I didn’t kill him. Look at me, do you really think I could kill someone like him? Dean is fine and once… once our bodies are found, then hopefully he will?—”

“What, forgive you?” Malcom sneers as he tries to get to his feet. “You think giving him our business will make him forgive you?”

Suddenly, the door behind Malcom slams open and my heart leaps into my throat. He lunges for me at the same moment and in a panic, I lift the gun and fire.

“Ah!” The bullet embeds in the shoulder of the man bursting through the door and he stumbles backward as Malcom collides with me.

“Dean?”