Loving My SECRET (Corrigan & Co. Book 10) (24 page)

When she walked on the
arm of whoever the fuck he is, I wanted to commit murder. She’s got
on a strapless red dress that is higher in the front, and trails on
the ground in the back. Her lipstick is red, and I want that color
all over my cock. She’s never worn red for me, and I’m seeing
that color filter my vision right now. Fuck if she’s not even
hotter in that color than in the shades of blue she’s always worn
before. I don’t care what it takes, that lipstick is going to be
smeared all over me tonight.

For now, I have to
pretend that I hate her, and make a scene. The girls figure us
fighting here, where the Society mentors were so obviously lured,
will flush out the people behind this. They’ll reveal themselves to
Reina, if not to me. I use the jealousy I’m feeling towards the
dickhead who has his hand on her waist, and stalk over to the two of
them.

“Well, if it isn’t
my loving wife.”

“Matthew,” she
says, with a sneer on her face. “I didn’t know you’d be here.”

“Well, I am. Aren’t
you going to introduce me to your date?”

“No. What I do is
none
of your
business.”

“What or
who
?”

“Both.”

“You said there
wouldn’t be any trouble if I brought you, Reina,” Mr. Douche
says.

“There won’t. My
soon to be ex-husband is going to walk away now.”

“Am I?”

“If you don’t want
me revealing all of your family’s precious secrets, you will.”

“Bitch.”

“Yes. I am. Bye now.”

I walk away because I
have to. If we weren’t playing right now, I’d throw her over my
shoulder and take her somewhere so I could show her who her man is. I
can’t, and I really need to stop thinking that way. Sexy Skype
session aside, we’re not together, and we may not be when this is
all over. It’s her decision, and hers alone. I took too much from
her over the years, and now I’ll give her everything, even if she
decides she doesn’t want me.

Helen comes up to me,
and pulls me onto the dance floor like I’m one of her boy toys. I
love the woman, but that’s never gonna happen. “Stop looking so
scared. I’m not going to maul you on the dance floor. I’m
classier than that.”

“You were practically
climbing your date at my wedding.”

“He was hot.”

“I really don’t
want to be hearing about these things.”

“I know. That’s why
I like to torture you with them anyway.”

“Yay me.”

“In all seriousness,
I pulled you out here to tell you that was a good show you just put
on.”

“Thanks. I just hope
it works.”

“It already has,”
she says, nodding behind me.

I turn us, and watch as
Reina is led away by a man I saw watching us earlier. Her shoulders
are high, and she’s walking as if she owns this place. I know she’s
brave and strong, but seeing her walk into the unknown without
showing any fear makes me love her more than ever. I track her with
my eyes, because I can’t follow her unless I want to blow this.
It’s torture to just stand here dancing like I don’t care, but I
have to. Helen squeezes my hand, and I smile down at her.

“It’s going to be
alright, Matt.”

I know it will be. It
has to be.

* * *

Reina

When one of the men
who’s been tailing me asked me to go with him, I didn’t hesitate.
If he was going to harm me, he wouldn’t have asked. At least that’s
what I keep telling myself as we make our way upstairs. He stops
outside the fifth door we come to and knocks before opening the door
and motioning me inside. In my wildest dreams, I couldn’t have
imagined what I see when I walk in.

Alex, Jessica, and Jane
are sitting on a couch. They aren’t tied down and they don’t look
hurt. I know I need to react correctly, so I say what I need to.

“Well, if it isn’t
my in-laws. How are you bitches? I bet you didn’t expect to ever
see me again. I know I sure as hell never wanted to see you.”

“Don’t worry,
Reina. Your time with them will be brief. You help us, and we’ll
help you.”

I turn to the woman
who’s speaking from behind me. I saw her when I walked in. I saw
them all. They are what nearly stopped me in my tracks. Only the
years of training I’ve had allowed me to act like it was no big
deal.

“Zara? That’s who
you are, right? Matt’s mother?”

“Yes. I’m your true
mother-in-law. I should’ve been there at your wedding.”

“You should have,”
I agree, playing along.

“Do you recognize my
friends?”

“Michaela Evans, and
Cara Lockton.”

“It’s Cara
Griffin
,” the woman
says to me, and I apologize, because I’m not about to stir up any
extra crazy. The woman’s been divorced from Gary Griffin for over
thirty years, but if she wants to pretend she’s still a Griffin,
then yeah, you go lady.

“Now you know who we
are, you must realize why we’re going to bring down the Society as
it is today,” Zara tells me.

“Revenge. I get it. I
hate them all too.”

“I knew you would.
They’ve taken your life from you, and my son has humiliated you
over and over again. I wasn’t sure you would want to join us, but
now I am. Once everyone else is gone, we can set our own rules and
run the world.”

Crazy doesn’t even
begin to cover this. They’re criminally insane if they think
they’ll get away with this. They could kill us all, and my girls
would still take them down. I’m not going to be the voice of reason
right now, though. I need to keep playing along.

“Perfect.”

“You could join us,
Alex,” Cara tells her.

“You’re a crazy
bitch. I don’t want anything to do with you.”

“I’m your
grandmother.”

“Biologically maybe,
but it’s Maggie Griffin who has my love and loyalty.”

“You will die with
her then.”

“It will be an
honor.”

Damn if my respect for
my sister-in-law didn’t just grow by a million percent. She’s
always been honorable and cool, but to see her stand up to the
insanity and accept death? Yeah, she’s a fucking badass.

“What now?” I ask,
trying to bring things back on track.

“Now, we wait. We
obviously can’t bring the other four up here at once without
drawing attention to ourselves.”

“Obviously not,” I
agree, while mentally rolling my eyes.

“They’ll be brought
up here, and then they’ll all die.”

“Jessica isn’t a
Corrigan anymore. I’m just wondering why she’s here.”

“That slut stole my
husband, and my son seems to think she walks on water,” Zara tells
me.

I don’t tell her
she’s right, but she is. Matt loves Jessica. He loves Zara, too,
but he knows she’s toxic, and hasn’t talked to her in over a
year. I can imagine that it hurts her, but she caused it to happen.
She only cares about two things: money, and herself. No matter what
she just said, she never put Matt before those two things, and she
never will.

I need more info, and I
also need to look as sympathetic as possible. “It must’ve sucked
when Cyndi took Mara’s side, and disowned your husband, huh?” I
ask Michaela.

“Sucked? She
destroyed us. We couldn’t even show our faces in Chicago after what
she did to us. Her and those damn Griffins.”

She and her husband had
a crooked judge grant them conservatorship over their daughter, and
then tortured her when they found out she was gay. When Cyndi found
out what was being done to her granddaughter, she helped the Griffins
take Michaela and her son down several notches. Both financially and
socially.

“You get to hurt Mara
and
Owen with this,
so that’s a bonus.”

She nods. “It is.”

“You’ve all done a
great job of orchestrating this.”

“We’ve been
planning for years. We made sure nothing could go wrong.”

“It’s brilliant,
really. Mad props to all of you.”

It’s a shit plan, and
if they weren’t so blinded by revenge, they’d see it for what it
really is. They’re too arrogant to see the gaping holes in their
plan, and neither the women on the couch, nor I, am going to point
them out. They’ll know soon enough.

“What do you need me
to do?”

“You’re going to
kill your mentor of course.”

Zara says it with such
certainty, and so little emotion, that I can almost believe it
myself. I won’t kill Jane, but if she wants to give me a gun? Well,
yes please.

“Works for me. How
did you find out about the Society?”

“I had my suspicions
that Maggie was involved in something secret for years. We all
happened to be at the same function, and a friend had too much to
drink, and let slip how the bitch and her friends had helped her
daughter. The rest, as they say, is history.”

This clusterfuck will
definitely go down in history, and I will find out who has loose
lips. I’ll need to pay her a visit and remind her that secrecy is
paramount. I won’t hurt her, but I will definitely scare her more
than a little.

The door opens behind
me before I can ask any more questions. Mallory is brought in first,
and we glare at each other before she’s shoved down into a chair. A
few minutes later, Helen and Cyndi are led in. Maggie is the last to
arrive, and I have to clench my jaw as Clara slaps her. Alex stands
and lunges for her, but I pull her off, and toss her back onto the
couch, giving her a warning look when she turns on me.

“Do any of you have
any last words, or things you’d like relayed to your loved ones
before you die?” Zara asks them.

“You can kill us, but
the Society will never die,” Jane tells her.

“No, it won’t.
Because we’ll be running it.”

“The women who work
for us will never follow you,” Mallory says.

“They will with Reina
on our side,” Cara explains, putting her arm around me. I force
myself to smile at her, when all I really want to do is punch her.

“You are better than
this, Reina,” Cyndi tells me.

“No. I’m really
not,” I say.

Zara hands me a gun,
and I cock it before holding it at my side. “Is there anything else
you want to say to them, Reina?” she asks me.

“Yes. Sanctimonialis
Succurro Totus.”

Sisters Helping All.
It’s the Society motto; in that moment, the words mean more to me
than they ever have. I raise my gun, and spin. I take out the two
guards in the room with us before they can even get their guns out. I
turn back for Zara, but she’s grabbed Jane, and is holding her in
front of her. I know without looking that Alex has grabbed a gun from
one of the fallen men and has the other women taken care of. I
trained her, after all.

I have a bigger problem
to deal with when Zara pulls out a gun, and holds it to Maggie’s
temple. Her neck is slightly exposed, and I can make the shot, but
how
can
I? She may be
a psychopath, but she’s also Matt’s mom. I can’t let her kill
Jane, but I don’t think I can kill her, either.

“You don’t know
what to do, do you Reina? You had better decide soon, because the
rest of my men will be coming in here to clean up this mess soon.”

My hand shakes a
little, because I don’t think I can do this. One of those women is
going to die, and the choice is in my hands. I can’t let Jane die,
but will Matt ever forgive me if I kill his mother?

“Take the shot,
Reina,” he tells me, walking in and putting his arms around my
waist. “I can’t, but I need you to. My Gram is the only choice.”

I hear the pain in his
voice, and also the conviction. Zara hears it too, and lets out a
sob. She shifts a little, and I pull the trigger. Her head snaps back
as blood sprays out from the fatal wound. Matt lets me go to pull
Jane into his arms.

“We got them all,”
Jenysis says from behind me. “The other men.”

“Good job,” I tell
her, turning to give her a sad smile.

When I turn back
around, Matt has pulled Alex and Jessica into a group hug with him
and Jane. I swallow hard, and walk out the door. The Society will
take care of the clean-up. No one in that room needs me for that, or
anything else. I served my purpose. The women I needed to save are
alive, and the man I love will never be able to look me in the eye
again. Because no matter what Matt said to me in there, I just killed
the woman who gave birth to him. There had to be a way for me to just
hurt her, and not kill her, but I didn’t look hard enough for it.

* * *

Matt

I hug my Gram, Jessica,
and Alex until they finally get tired of me. I’m so glad they’re
alive. These women, along with Reina, my guys, and the Society girls,
are my family. The woman who orchestrated all of this may have given
birth to me, but she would’ve taken my life just as easily if I’d
stood in her way.

I turn to Reina, but
she’s not there. I look around the room, but she’s gone. “Where’s
Reina?”

“She left,” Jenysis
tells me.

“Left? Why would she
do that?”

“Because she just
killed your mother,” my Gram says.

“I told her to. You
had to live.”

“I know that, and
deep down, Reina knows that. But she still took the life of someone
you loved.”

“And then you ignored
her,” Jenysis says.

“I didn’t ignore
her.”

“You did. You brought
them all into your hug except for her.”

“They’ve been
kidnapped for a week.”

“And she offered
herself up to save them all. Everyone in this room knows that if just
one thing had gone wrong, Reina would be dead right now.”

“You don’t think I
know that? You don’t think I was going crazy thinking about what
could happen to her?”

“If you were that
worried, why are you here arguing with me now, instead of going after
her?”

Fuck. I look around.
“Go, Matt,” Gram says.