Sunflower (Clyde Logan x Reader)

Chapter 20

Clyde's POV:

"Have you heard about the Hillbilly Heist? The one from this past weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway?"

Clyde felt his heart stop, a painful squeezing taking its beating place instead as he froze for a moment, putting the book in his hand down as his brain quickly ran through every possible scenario that could pan out from this interaction.

Did you know and you were baiting him? Was the heist finally hitting the news and you were interested? Fuck, was Jimmy unable to get his prosthetic back - irrevocably connecting Clyde to the heist?

No, slow down. There was no accusation in your tone, no hint of malice, and Clyde hadn't been summoned for any other charges. Maybe you were just curious. It was a big deal, after all, makes sense that it would be covered by local news sources and make its way to you.

After what felt like an eternity, Clyde finally found his voice and spoke. "Uh- no, darlin'. What are you goin' on about? A Hillbilly Heist? I ain't ever heard of that," Clyde answered in the most measured and relaxed way that he could, heart beating again now but so fast against his rib cage that he thought his chest might explode. What a way to go.

"I just found out about it yesterday. Went out with the girls for dinner and one of them brought it up. Mentioned that there was this big robbery while the system was down at the race this weekend, made out with a whole lot of money. Except they didn't keep it."

"No?" Sweat beading down his back, a gnawing sense of panic budding in the back of his brain.

"No, apparently it was all left in a gas station on the back of an abandoned truck. Investigators are saying it might be everything that was stolen. FBI is looking into it, too. Big deal."

"FBI?" Another few skips of his heart, a dry lump in his throat.

"Mh-hmm. Isn't that weird, though? I can't stop thinking about everything that must have taken place in order for the heist to happen successfully, only for all of it to be returned that same night. I don't understand why somebody would do that," you mused, coming over to stand by Clyde.

Clyde swallowed thickly, feeling like his whole body was slowly simmering to a boil. "It is... odd, isn't it?" he managed to force out.

All of the money returned? What was Jimmy thinking? Was this another part of his big scheme? He had mentioned they'd need to trust him on this one...

Clyde knew most of the details but for the safety of everyone involved, the only one who knew the whole plan was Jimmy. Clyde trusted Jimmy. He had to. This couldn't all be for nothing.

"Are you okay, bear?" you asked tentatively, a hand coming to rest between his shoulder blades and skimming down to massage his back.

"You seem a little... worried or nervous," you continued before trailing off, looking up at Clyde with big, concerned eyes. How could he ever keep lying to you? When you looked at him like that? When you trusted him like this? Cared about him like this?

"I'm okay, darlin'. Just seems like a lot's goin' on, you know?" Clyde answered, hating himself for the lies that spilled out so easily.

Apparently he could keep lying to you, expanding his ever growing web of dishonesty. And this time it wasn't just a lie of omission - Clyde was straight out deceiving you, twisting the truth and creating falsehoods for his selfish need.

If you found out now it'd be even worse than it would have been before the heist took place. But you couldn't know. Clyde had just recently started to feel like he had really gotten you. Things were going well. Could continue to go well.