Married To The Mafia: Book II

3 - Why Now?

Present Day.

"I heard all that." Pamela said sadly, looking up at his face. "When the cops told me that you didn't die from the shots, my hopes soared, but only for moments before I was later told that you had drowned in the lake." She stopped short and took in deep breaths and whispered, "It was like watching you die over again."

"I'm so sorry you went through all that."

"It can't be compared to what you went through. How did you survive?" She was dying to know. "What happened?"

"The memory is a little bit hazy but I remember doing all I could to swim ashore. Then I passed out. When I regained consciousness, an old friend had taken me in."

"An old friend?"

He nodded. "Art Dwayne."

"Oh, the detective." She frowned. "He came to the funeral looking all sad and beaten up, and I remember feeling sorry for him, not knowing he was laughing at us." She felt the heat of anger gently flood her. "How could he?"

"It was for the best."

Pamela scoffed and looked out through the windshield of the van Devlin had led her to. The sky looked pregnant with rain. What a terrible day to get married, she thought, and what a terrible day for a person to rise from the dead.

"So you had been in Homer?" She asked.

He didn't reply but instead turned his face to look through the windshield. That gave her more than enough answers to her questions.

"Of course." She whispered, her anger rising all the more. "Of course you were in Homer."

"I couldn't make myself known."

The fact that she'd grieved and cried herself to bed almost every night while he was so close was what angered her the most. She'd contemplated taking her life on numerous occasions and had hanged on barely by a thread, and to realize that he'd been so close?

"How dare you? How could you?"

He reached out to take her hand but she removed it far from his reach. Through blurry eyes, she looked up at Devlin and how much he'd changed. He looked older and more dangerous. His beards and long hair were making it worse. She didn't know who was sitting beside her because he was a far cry from the person she'd loved and married, for all she cared.

"I had to stay hidden. A lot of people were out for me, and still are."

"A lot of people," She laughed bitterly. "Of course. It never ends, does it? The guns and the violence and the running, it never stops with you, does it?"

"Not until I'm dead." He growled.

They locked eyes for a few seconds before Pamela broke the contact. "I'm used to you being dead anyway," She said tersely and continued. "You can continue being that way."

"You don't mean that." He said after a few seconds of absolute silence. His voice sounded torn and rough with bitterness and her anger faltered, sorrow filling her face.

"I mean, why now?" She exploded as tears started to roll down her face. "Why are you revealing yourself now? Why didn't you make contact with me before now? Why are you coming out of the shadows now?"

"I couldn't make contact with you because I wanted to keep you safe."

She scoffed. "Yeah, sure. The good ol' tale."

"It's the truth. I felt it was safer if you knew nothing about me."

"Who gave you the right to make decisions for me?!" She yelled.