Free Trust Me: Matty and Kayla, Book 3 of 3 (The McDaniels Brothers 7) by Christine Bell Page B

so strong, I was drowning in it. Instead, I laid one hand on his chest.
    "Matty-"
    "Don't say it." His jaw flexed as he stared down at me, the look in his eyes making me want to weep and curse the gods. He hadn't been lying when he'd said he loved me. It was written all over his face. What a sad state that it didn't matter one bit. There was no point in prolonging it.
    "I'm leaving Boston tomorrow."
    He flinched and I felt the sting of my words just as sharply. My throat ached as I tried to force the rest of it out before I couldn't get it out at all. "I can't stay here. Too much has happened. There are too many memories here. Too much history. I want to heal and start a new life. I can't do that here."
    I wanted to say more, but what else could I say that wouldn't just make it worse?
    I love you.
    I need you.
    I want you.
    But I still need to go.
    Who the hell needed to hear that? Better to leave it as it was.
    It didn't feel better, though. In fact, of all the pain from the past twenty-four hours, none of it hurt as badly as when he nodded.
    "I understand," he said softly.
    The sergeant came over then. “We’ve got to head to the station and take her statement. Get her set up with some security. It’s just a precaution. There’s no point in Mick going after her in this case. We have too much other evidence, but it can’t hurt to be extra careful. You can ride over with us to the station if you want to.”
    We locked eyes and I shook my head slowly, heart breaking a little more with every second that passed. “It’s just going to be me.”
    Matty opened his mouth as if to argue and then closed it. He nodded slowly. “’Bye, Red,” he said, giving me one last, long look.
    Then he walked away. 

Chapter Eight
     
    Matty
     
    It was ten AM by the time I stepped through the door of the apartment to find everyone there waiting for me, all pretending they just happened to be sitting in the kitchen still nursing their coffees.
    "Well?" Reid asked, pinning me with an expectant gaze.
    I tried to work up a smile, but it wasn’t happening. "We got him."
    The three of them broke into a chorus of whoops and hollers and Olivia stood, throwing her arms around me.
    "Oh, Matty, that's such great news." She pulled back and eyed me. "How is Kayla holding up?"
    I glanced around the room at nothing in particular and shrugged. "As well as could be expected. Glad that she was able to get some justice for her mother, but still struggling with the rest of it. It's going to be a while."
    "I imagine it is. Luckily, we'll all be there to help her through it. Now that she's severed ties with Mick, you guys can finally be together out in the open."
    Those words were like tiny shards of glass being ground in an open wound and I debated whether to correct her mistaken assumption or just let it slide for now.
    "What's wrong?" Bash stared at me from his spot at the kitchen table, and I knew that no amount of duck and weave was going to work here. He already knew. Better to just come out with it.
    "She's leaving Boston tomorrow."
    Reid had been toying with the spoon in his cup and that stopped abruptly, leaving the room eerily silent except for the ticking of the tiny clock on the oven.
    "She's leaving, or you guys are leaving?" Bash asked softly, cocking his head to the side as he waited for my answer.
    That was a natural assumption, I guessed.
    That I would go with her and maybe start over somewhere new. If I was a different guy, that might have even worked. Only two things were stopping me. She hadn't asked me to, and there was no way I could leave my brothers. We'd been separated for a few years when we had become wards of the state after our father died and our mother left, and I swore that would never happen again. And certainly not by my doing.
    I wasn't about to share any of that information with them, though. They didn't need to be burdened with that. Better they thought things just hadn't worked out. "Just her."
    "Well that's fucking