Page 190 of Keeping Kasey
I don’t want to be any more vulnerable than I already have been, but the only way to make Damon understand is to tell him the truth.
“I love him, too,” I admit. “But I don’t trust him, and he doesn’t trust me either.”
I look down, to the picture of the woman who looks like she was handcrafted to hang on Logan’s arm. “I will never be what’s best for him. Even if he did choose me, it would be at the risk of his own family. Choosing the traitor over the perfect mafia princess who was made for him. He’ll lose alliances, strength, and notoriety, all for what? Some messy fling that went too far?”
I close the distance between us and look up at Damon, who regards me with a sad resignation.
“It isn’t worth the risk.I’mnot worth the risk, even if he claims otherwise. So please, let me go. I just need a two-hour head start before you give him this list and tell him I left.”
It’s a painfully long moment before Damon finally sighs. “I’ll drive you back to the hotel myself.”
I shake my head and pull my sweatshirt up to reveal the gun in my waistband. “I’ll be just fine.”
“Kasey—”
I lift onto my tiptoes and place a kiss on his cheek. “I’ll miss you, Damon.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing, Goldie,” he says, reluctantly stepping aside.
I hope so, too.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Kasey
I glance down at my phone. I have one more hour until my time is up with Damon, and that’sifhe waits the full two hours.
The fact that my phone isn’t blowing up with calls from Logan means that he has so far.
I don’t even care that tears still pour down my face as I stand at the door in the hotel lobby. I earn odd looks from anyone who passes by, but no one asks what’s wrong, and I’m grateful.
Right now, I just want to be alone.
If I’m forced to confront the decision I’ve made, I might not go through with it.
And I need to go through with it.
Over the last hour, I’ve lost the anger I held for Logan not telling me about Isabella. Why would he? All I’ve done since seeing him again is tell him that I hate him and have absolutely no intentions of sticking around. He had no reason to put his family ties in jeopardy for me.
It was the sign I needed to tell me it’s time to go.
But that doesn’t stop the grief from suffocating me.
There is no future for Logan and me, and the only thing I have left to offer him is the truth.
My parting gift.
At the desk in my hotel room, I wrote Logan a letter, telling him every painful truth I’ve kept hidden. About what really happened the day the motel burned down, and why I never told him. I wrote that I found out about Isabella and that he deserves to be with someone well-suited for him.
Someone who can give him all the things that I can’t.
If my mystery caller tells Logan what they know after I’m gone, at least he’ll have my side of the story, too.
The Cadillac with blacked-out windows pulls up, and I draw in a breath as I force myself out of the hotel. I throw my bags into the trunk and climb into the backseat.
I want to get Kane, but I can’t bring myself to do it.
Dragging my sweet dog on the run with me—staying in dingy hotels, and taking buses, trains, and planes to who-knows-where—is a cruel fate to force on him, especially when he has a loving home with tons of space to run.
