Loving My SECRET (Corrigan & Co. Book 10)
Read Loving My SECRET (Corrigan & Co. Book 10) Online
Authors: Crystal Perkins
Loving
My
SECRET
Book
#10 of Corrigan & Co.
By
Crystal Perkins
Copyright © 2015 by Crystal
Perkins
Cover Design by Helen Williams
Ebook
Formatting by Jesse Gordon
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romance is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands,
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
SECRET
Sometimes you
have to say goodbye before you can give yourself the chance at hello…
For over a decade,
Reina has waited for Matt to come back to her. She’s put up with
his ridicule, his other women, and his lies. All because she’s
loved him since she was a teenager. She’s not that girl anymore,
and she’s done playing his games. She’s learned that love simply
isn’t enough, and it’s time for her to walk away.
Fighting for
another chance is harder than going to war…
Matt fell in love
with Reina years ago, and has never truly wanted anyone else. He’s
finally bared his soul—and his secrets—to her, but it’s too
late to stop her from leaving. He’s going to have to fight for both
of them, and prove that he can be the man they both need him to be.
When love isn’t
enough, and the SECRETS keep coming, can they find a way to start
over again?
Crystal Perkins
The
Griffin Brothers series
Gaming
For Love (The Griffin Brothers #1)
Building
Our Love (The Griffin Brothers #2)
Creating
A Love (The Griffin Brothers #3)
Learning
To Love (The Griffin Brothers #4)
Designing
The Love (The Griffin Brothers #5)
Working
On Love (The Griffin Brothers #6)
Keeping
Their Love (The Griffin Brothers #7)
Corrigan
& Co. series
Fielding
Her SECRET (Corrigan & Co., #1)
Devouring
the SECRET (Corrigan & Co., #2)
Rocking a SECRET (Corrigan &
Co., #3)
Lessons
in SECRET (Corrigan & Co., #4)
Uncovering
His SECRET (Corrigan & Co., #5)
Training the SECRET (Corrigan
& Co., #6)
Inheriting
a SECRET (Corrigan & Co., #7)
Tending
Their SECRET (Corrigan & Co., #8)
Playing
in SECRET (Corrigan & Co., #9)
Other
books
Never
Fear-Phobias Horror Anthology
(Chronophobia short story)
Publicly, The
Corrigan & Co. Foundation has been supporting women for years.
Secretly, five powerful women led by Jane Corrigan have recruited ten
agents, sending them to rescue women and children in need, and take
down those who exploit the weak. This secret society of women all
have unique skills they’ve brought to the foundation. Additionally,
they’ve all had training in weapons, etiquette, martial arts,
technology, and languages. Helping out friends and family of their
five mentors from time to time is something they were told to expect.
What they didn’t plan for is falling in love.
About the Corrigan & Co. Foundation and the Society:
• Mitchell Corrigan created the Corrigan & Co. Foundation for
his wife as part of his company ten years ago. He stipulated that the
foundation would continue as long as there is a Corrigan woman to
oversee it.
• Jane Corrigan, Cyndi Evans, Maggie Griffin, Mallory Daniels, and
Helen Wilson are the founders of the secret society within the
foundation. They focus on helping women and children, but take on
other missions from time to time.
• While they assist government and private organizations on a
regular basis, they only take referrals for private missions.
• Each founder has recruited, and mentors, two agents.
• The company was founded in Chicago, but has now moved to Las
Vegas, where Mitchell was born. On his deathbed, he asked his
grandson to move the company headquarters to help revive the economy
in his hometown. There are satellite offices all over the world.
• Jane’s grandson, Matt, who is President and CEO of Corrigan &
Co., knows of the society. His friends Nathan and Aiden, who he
brought in when they all left the military, know as well. This was a
decision by the five women when they needed help on a mission that
went bad. They do not know all mission details, but help when they
are asked. Jake Mason is now also part of the Corrigan security team,
and aware of the Society.
For everyone who fell in love with
Matt & Reina all those
books ago.
Note
I first wrote about Reina and Matt 13 books ago. Olivia Griffin
needed a reality check, and I decided to introduce Reina (who I knew
would be in the new series) as the person to give it to her. And then
I had a hot guy pull up on a Harley and verbally spar with Reina. I
loved the two characters, and decided they would be the couple I
wrote last in the new series. The one I couldn’t wait to read about
myself.
I had no idea that everyone else would become just as obsessed with
these two. I have been cursed, and told that I love to torture
people, but you have to know that I was torturing myself, too. There
were so many times that I wanted to just write their book, but I made
myself wait along with all of you.
This book is different in format than all of the rest, so I wanted to
explain it to you. The prologue (epilogue of Playing in SECRET) is
like one in most mystery books. It’s not the beginning of the book,
but rather a pivotal piece from later in the story. In that piece,
you learn of emails that Matt wrote to Reina over the years.
For most of the book, you’ll see an email from Matt, and then a
flashback from what he was talking about in either Reina’s (at the
beginning) or Matt’s (at the end) POV. After that will be what’s
going on in present day. I tried to relate the flashbacks to present
day. I also needed them, because I wanted to know about their
past—recent and years ago—and I think most of you will as well. I
tried to line up the timeline as best I could based on the other
books, so it should be accurate!
This is the fourteenth book I’ve written with these two in it, so
thank you for sticking with them, and loving them as much as I do!
Reina
“Help,” I scream,
“someone please help us!”
I clutch the sheet to
myself as I crawl over to Matt. He’s covered in more blood than I
am, but what’s on me isn’t mine. It belongs to the men I killed
in order to stop them as they shot the man I love. The man who came
for me, even when I thought he wouldn’t.
I try to stop the
blood—the life—from seeping out of him, but it’s no use. There
are too many wounds, he was shot too many times. “Don’t die on
me, Matthew Corrigan. Don’t you dare die on me.”
“Reina? Oh fuck,”
Nate says from behind me.
“Help me! We have to
stop the bleeding.”
“Rei,” Aiden says
softly, and when I turn to him, I see he’s given up on Matt
already. Nate has the same look in his eyes.
“No. He’s not dead.
He may be dying, but he’s not dead. He would never give up on
either of you, so you fucking better not give up on him.
Help
me
.”
They’re immediately
next to me on the ground, tearing off their t-shirts as I tear the
sheet that’s covering me. I don’t even care about being naked
underneath the small piece that’s left. I don’t care about
anything, except for keeping Matt alive. If he dies, then the old me
will die along with him. I’ll come back to this village, and this
time, it will be for real.
The paramedics come in,
and push us out of the way. And then they stop, and shake their
heads. “He’s alive,” I say, but they just look at me like I’m
crazy, and right now, I probably am. I pick up a gun, and check it
for bullets before pointing it at them. “He. Is. Alive.”
They spring into
action, and start taking care of him. As they pull the gurney away, I
start to follow them. The local police stop me when they see the gun
in my hand, so I drop it and explain myself. I see the ambulance
pulling away, and try to run after it, but I’m too late.
“Come on, Rei, we’ll
get you there,” Nate says.
“We have something
for you, too,” Aiden tells me.
“No. Not yet, Aid.”
“Yes, Nate. It’s
time.”
“The fuck it is. He’s
going to live. Matt won’t give up, and I’m not giving up on him.”
“We have to be
realistic. Even if he lives, it won’t be the same.”
“He
will
live, but now you better give me whatever it is you think I need,”
I say, finally speaking up.
Nate looks at Aiden
with a glare. “You give her yours, because I’m not having that on
me when he wakes up pissed.”
“She deserves it,”
Aiden says, pulling his wallet out, and extracting a tiny envelope.
He hands it to me, and
I see the word “Princess” in Matt’s handwriting. Leave it to
him to insult me even in written form. I open it as I get into the
backseat of the Jeep Nate leads us to.
Reina,
If
you’re reading this, I’m either dead, or close enough to it that
Nate or Aiden felt it was the right time to give this to you. I wish
I was brave enough to tell you the things you’re about to read, but
I’m not. My two biggest regrets in life are pushing you away all
those years ago, and doing the thing that made me push you away. What
you’ll read will make you either hate me more, or love me more.
Either way, I need you to understand something. I love you. More than
any person on this Earth has ever loved another. I’ll love you even
after I take my last breath, because life and death have no power
over the love I feel for you. Hopefully what you find here will show
you that: