Trust Me: Matty and Kayla, Book 3 of 3 (The McDaniels Brothers 7) Read Free Page A

rioting nerves.
    How was I going to do this? I’d barely made it through a three minute conversation and my whole body was shaking like a leaf. What if I had to be here another week? Or longer?
    The cell phone sitting on the desk next to my ear vibrated and I lifted my head. I peered down at the screen to read the text message flashing there.
    It’s going to be okay, Red. We got this. Call if you need me.
    Matty.
    It was like he knew. Knew that I was falling apart at the seams and was trying to help sew me back together again. The fact that he was still willing to put himself out there and let me know he still cared after all we’d been through and how we’d hurt each other meant more than I could ever express.
    But I wasn’t about to confuse gratitude with anything else. In the short time we’d been together, it had become remarkably clear that the rule of double negatives didn’t apply to us. Put us together, and we were anything but a positive. Too much baggage on both sides. Too much pain, old and new. As much as I’d wanted to believe otherwise, we would have destroyed each other.
    For now, though, we needed each other to complete this task. Matty would get his life back if Mick went to prison. And me?
    Everything I knew and held dear would be destroyed. I would betray the one person who loved me. I would lose my job and my identity and life as I knew it.
    But my mother would be avenged.
    Someday, that would be enough. Someday, I’d be able to pick myself up and dust myself off and move on. I didn’t expect that day to come any time soon.
    I picked up the phone and punched out a quick response to Matty.
    Thanks. I’m good. Getting it done.
    I tossed my cell onto the desk and straightened, rolling my shoulders. For the rest of the morning, I’d make as much headway as possible on this paperwork to keep up appearances. But come noon, the second Mick and his boys left for lunch, I was going to tear this place apart. The warehouse was the heart of the entire organization. Always had been. All I had to do was get through the flesh and bone protecting it, and then he was mine for the taking.
    The next couple hours went by in a blur as I did my best to get through as much of the grunt work as I could. Even in that, little things caught my eye that I’d never really thought about before. Willful, blissful ignorance. An invoice for a bunch of new furniture that we’d never received. Bills for rent on properties we were subletting for eight and nine times the cost. Between just money-laundering scams and extorting cash from people in exchange for “protection”, Mick could have made a great living.
    But all that was small potatoes and nobody gave a rat’s crap about it. The Boston PD and everyone else was happy to look the other way while he did his little business, just like I had. Not going to cut it. Like Matty said, we needed to find something big. Something that was going to stick. Proof that he was dangerous.
    Deadly.
    After pouring myself a cup of coffee, I dove back into the mess. The next time I poked my head out of the pile and looked at my watch, it was noon on the dot.
    Game time.
    I shoved back my chair and stood, a curious mix of anticipation and dread coalescing in my belly like congealed, Thanksgiving gravy. Once I started, there was no turning back. Mick had eyes and ears everywhere and it wouldn’t be long before he realized I was poking around. The fact that he trusted me implicitly right now meant that I had some leeway. I could make excuses, throw him off the trail. I figured that gave me a week, maybe two, before he got suspicious and he realized I was up to something.
    I had to find the mother lode before then, or I was going to be in a world of hurt. The only thing more devastating than the immediate future I had planned was the immediate future if I failed.
    If I sacrificed it all only to have Mick come out the other side of it clean? I’d be truly alone in this world with nothing to