Page 6 of Malicious Marriage (Mafia Lords of Sin #9)

CLOVER

“ I f only we could help each other ,” I mutter mockingly while trying to scrub the last of the vinaigrette out of the bowls. Dean’s away home and I’m left haunted by the boldness of my runaway mouth and the guilt over the lies I told him.

“It’s forward,” Bobby says, standing by my side with a tea towel. “Though maybe you could have been less direct.”

I glare at him. “I wasn’t thinking, okay? I was caught up in how gorgeous his smile was and how easy it was to talk to him. I told him about my dad, for Christ’s sake. And how we met. It all just flowed and then I was being too truthful.”

“It’s a wonder you didn’t tell him outright that you’ve been disowned,” Bobby teases. “I’m sure he would have loved to sully his reputation by dining with someone who has been ejected from their big, rich family.”

“Not funny!” I snap, flicking soap suds toward him. “I feel terrible. He was talking about how much pressure he’s under to be responsible and carry his family, produce an heir, and stuff, and all I could think was how traditional he is. If he finds out that I’m?—”

“Clover.” Bobby silences me by placing his warm hand on my bare arm. “Listen. He’s not going to find out. The only person who could tell him is your uncle, and that fucker isn’t back until the end of the month. Hell, if this works, then you’ll have a ring on your finger long before that happens.”

“Are we awful people?” I pout softly as guilt continues to churn in my gut. “We’re trying to manipulate one of the most powerful men in the city.”

“We’re not awful,” Bobby replies. “We’re…

savvy. He’s the only one within a fifty-mile radius who’s single.

He’s recently broken up with a toxic ex and is facing the pressure of hitting forty with no ring on any girl’s finger.

He’ll be lucky to have you, and you heard him.

If this works and he bites, then you’ll be helping him as much as he’s helping you. For Hailey .”

“For Hailey,” I repeat softly. Nothing calms my guilt like the thought of my missing sister.

Bobby helps me clean up and return the kitchen to its picture-perfect clean slate, then we load the remaining groceries into his car and drive home.

He offers to spend the evening with me, but I send him right home.

The last thing I need is another call from Frankie accusing me of overworking his husband.

Alone in my shitty apartment with only the window draft for company, I try to sleep.

My dreams are turbulent, filled with the nightmare of my uncle coming home early and finding out what I’m up to and Dean learning the truth.

I barely know the man, but the thought of him yelling at me for tricking him and screaming at me for tainting his family name with my disowned presence is enough to force me awake in cold sweats. No one said this would be easy.

In the early hours of the morning, with no desire to go back to sleep, I huddle under my blankets and make a nest with my pillows. Comfortable and safe from the cold breeze whistling in from the cracks at my window, which causes my curtains to waft eerily, I bury myself in my phone.

It’s become tradition that the first thing I do is Google my sister’s name, Hailey Byrne.

Zero results. I Google every spelling of Byrne I can think of, including typos, but there’s still nothing.

Nothing beyond her high school posts on an old Instagram account that’s been dead ever since she vanished. Sold off by my uncle, or worse, killed.

Whatever her fate, the determination to find her is the only thing that’s been driving me since she vanished four years ago.

She’s out there somewhere, and my uncle took advantage of my father’s death and her disappearance to oust me from the family.

The money and the power, and reclaiming the Byrne criminal empire, pale in comparison with finding my older sister.

She’s all I have left in the world.

I scroll back through her posts until the sun warms my face, and Bobby texts me to invite me around for breakfast, sarcastically commenting that he knows I have nothing in the apartment. Okay, Hailey isn’t the only thing I have in the world, but Bobby’s friendship comes with a sprinkling of guilt.

He stays by my side, and I can’t ever repay him for that kind of loyalty, but each time he’s with me, it means he’s missing out on things with his husband and his son. That’s where the guilt comes in.

It’s not strong enough for me to turn down breakfast, though, and I arrive in time to see Frankie sprinting downstairs with their two-year-old, Thomas, in his arms. “Clover!” He swings an arm around my shoulders and pulls me in for a hug and a kiss when I’m barely through the door. “It’s so good to see you!”

“Hey, Frankie.” I grin, then I tickle my fingers lightly against Thomas’s stomach. “Hi, baby, look at you! You’re so much bigger than when I last saw you!”

“That’s because you don’t visit enough,” comes Bobby’s voice from the doorway to the kitchen. He stands there wearing a yellow floral apron and brandishing a sizzling pan filled with batter. “Now get in here and help me cook.”

“Yes sir.” Bowing away from Frankie, I kiss Thomas’s cheek and hurry after Bobby. “What do you need from me?”

“Mix,” he orders, thrusting a bowl into my waiting arms. “Two orders of chocolate chips next.”

“On it.”

“Oh, honey.” Bobby pauses and brushes my cheek with flour-coated knuckles. “Did you get any sleep?”

“A little.” I force a smile. “Until I dreamed of Dean learning the truth and cursing me out in colorful, painful glory.”

“Ouch.” Bobby returns the pan to the stove. “Things have barely begun and you’re already ending them.”

“I know,” I sigh while slowly mixing the batter. “My mind is just running away with itself. Like…” Walking forward, I hover near his elbow. “Do you think I should call him?”

“Dean?”

“Yeah.”

“And say what?”

“I have no idea. But he left so quickly yesterday.”

“Didn’t Jack say something about a work emergency?”

“Well… yeah.”

“So he left quickly because he had to, not because he wanted to.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Sure,” Bobby replies, drawing out the sound.

“I might not know what he’s thinking, but I do know he came by to drop off your mirror because he’s a gentleman.

And he stayed for lunch. There’s a strong implication that he wanted to be there and probably would have stayed longer if not for Jack’s interruption. Ergo, he left because he had to.”

“Maybe.”

“Clover.” Bobby brandishes the spatula at me. “Don’t make me hurt you. Calm those rampant thoughts.”

“I’m trying.”

“Listen. We carefully selected Mr. Savoy because he oozes gentlemanly charm. He runs charity shelters and has saved more animals than I even knew existed in the city. Sure, we’re lying to him because he’s also a man who protects his reputation, but he’s the only eligible hot man who you stand a chance with. ”

“Who’s hot?” Frankie calls from the lounge over Thomas's happy babbling.

“Dean Savoy.”

“Who?”

“You know the hot Savoy? Charity man who hosted that gala last month for the animal shelters along the coast after that huge storm?”

Frankie makes confused sounds.

“Tall, buff as fuck but with these gorgeous blue eyes. Bearded and—oh! The guy you called a foxy horse.”

“Oh!” Frankie scoffs. “Yup. Sexy.”

“Foxy horse?” I ask, pausing my stirring.

Bobby smirks at me. “Foxy because he’s older, silver fox with the grey in his beard, but Frankie’s convinced he’s hung like a horse with how he stands in all his pictures.”

“Bobby!”

“Hey!” He laughs as my cheeks flare. “Play your cards right and you’ll find out for yourself.”

“It’s not going to be like that!”

“I know, I know. We’re playing toward his charitable side so we can get money to find your sister. But that doesn’t mean you can’t explore .”

“Should I call him then?”

“No,” Dean and Frankie reply in unison.

“You don’t want to come across as eager,” Dean adds. “Give him some breathing room. Besides, dickhead isn’t back until the end of the month. You’ve got time.”

It’s hard to feel like I have time after that letter from my loan shark, but Bobby’s right. I can’t be too forward.

Not that I have to wait long. Halfway through breakfast, Dean contacts me.

He has a proposal for me.