Matt sat on the bed, tying his laces. He’d come home from work showered but still in his uniform, and he’d wanted to change before heading out to Meg’s. After Brayden had bounded out of Matt’s room—no, it would be their room, his and Lauren’s, if Matt had his way—Lauren had stood, her cheeks still red but a smile on her face. She’d told Matt she was going to grab some things and tell Brayden to get ready to go over to Meg’s. He grinned. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who needed to find suitable footwear to leave the house. He was surprised that Brayden even remembered where his shoes were, as he kicked them off at the earliest opportunity each time they’d gotten home.

He stood, the smile sticking despite the nerves that were chewing away at his gut. Home. He liked the sound of that. Finally opening up and telling his crewmates the entire story of his past, something he had barely even considered telling Mason one day, was going to be terrifying. But, when it was done, he’d get to come back home with Lauren and Brayden. That would be worth everything.

He pulled out his phone and sent a text to Dean, who by then had no doubt heard from Meg. He’d call, but Matt wanted to talk to the whole squad at once. He just had one more favor to ask Dean before he found Lauren and Brayden and left. The guy had an adorable dog, still a puppy, really, and full of large paws and boundless energy. She’d be the perfect thing to keep Brayden occupied while he and Lauren spoke to the guys. She was going to be beside him while he told them everything—right where she belonged.

He’d barely walked out to the hall when the doorbell rang. Matt moved quickly to the front door, wanting to head off Lauren, plus any overexcited ten-year-olds. It was doubtful that any of Victor’s men would ring the bell before bashing down the door, but he wasn’t taking any chances. Come to think of it, maybe he should get Seth to talk to his friend down at the police station, make sure the locals were aware of the situation. There was also Jesse, a former FBI agent and practically Seth’s brother-in-law—when he finally got around to asking Maya to marry him, anyway.

Matt smiled as he rounded the end of the hall. Why had he thought he didn’t have a family? He had a massive one, full of people who would help him, and also Lauren and Brayden, without doubt. He’d watched his brothers in arms fall like flies the last few months—first Mason, then Liam, Dean, Seth—and he was falling. He never even considered that he’d ever have a chance for happiness. If he could manage it, then any one of them could be next. He was going to enjoy watching every last minute of whichever brother was the next to realize he was falling in love.

Reaching the door, Matt looked through the peephole and frowned. Detective Bellamy stood on his front step. What was he doing there? For that matter, how did he even have Matt’s address? He rolled his eyes at himself as he reached for the door handle. The guy was the police. It wouldn’t take much to find out where Matt lived from just asking around, let alone any database he had access to. Monroe wasn’t that big of a town. “Detective, what can I do for you?”

Bellamy looked serious when Matt first opened the door, but smiled over his shoulder a second later. “Ma’am.” Matt turned and saw Lauren standing behind him. He picked up her hand, moving his body slightly so to cover hers, frowning when Bellamy didn’t miss a beat. It didn’t matter, he supposed. He was about to announce their history and relationship to the entire squad. It wouldn’t take long before the whole town knew they were together. The guys would keep the important parts to themselves, Matt trusted that, but there would be no hiding that he and Lauren were in a relationship. He could only hope the town gossips found it cute—they’d certainly gone all-out when they’d found out Mason and Sloane had history and had dated before she developed amnesia. He could hear them in his head already . . . “how romantic!”

He smiled, pulling himself back to the present when Bellamy spoke. “Matt,”—he nodded a greeting to Lauren but didn’t address her—“I have a couple more questions I need to ask you. Can you come down to the station?”

The smile turned into a frown. It was probably an everyday request, but it still put Matt on edge. He’d avoided the police station ever since he arrived in town. After what had happened, the place gave him the jitters.

“It won’t take long, I promise.” Bellamy said. “Then you can be on your way to wherever you’re going.”

How had the detective known they were going anywhere? Matt looked back again and saw Lauren and now Brayden standing at the door, jackets in hand. God, he had to stop being so damn paranoid. Vigilant was one thing, but he’d work himself into a state that was no good to anyone if he kept looking for Victor’s assassins around every corner.

That didn’t mean there was any way in hell he was leaving Lauren and Brayden home alone. It was overkill—he winced at the phrasing—but until he’d spoken to the guys, at least, and preferably Seth’s cop friends rather than just Bellamy—he wasn’t leaving them alone anywhere.

Maybe he should take them to the station with him. Matt dismissed the thought even before he’d finished thinking it. There was no way he was taking Lauren into a cop station, either. Technically, she’d done nothing wrong, but there was every likelihood Victor had some sort of missing person’s report or warrant out for her. Plus it was bad enough that he had the entire scene from yesterday’s fire blazed into his mind. Lauren and Brayden didn’t need to be any part of that.

He nodded to the detective. “Give me a minute?” then turned and walked Lauren back a few paces, where he could speak to her alone. He pulled the keys to his truck out of his hand and passed them to her. “Can you remember the way to Meg’s place? I can give you my phone and put it in the GPS.” She nodded. “Take my truck and you and Brayden go straight there.” He inclined his head back to Bellamy, who was standing in his driveway, staring at them. “I’ll go with the detective in his car and meet you later.”

Lauren’s eyes widened a little as she looked past him at Bellamy. “You’re sure?”

Matt leaned in and kissed her quickly, not missing the blush that colored her cheeks. He could look at that all damn day. “Go straight to Meg’s. You’ll be safe there. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

He put his hand around the small of her back and guided her outside, then watched as she and Brayden climbed into the truck, then he pulled the front door of the house closed. “Looks like I’m riding with you, Detective.”

* * *

The ride to the police station had been mostly silent, Detective Bellamy realizing quickly that Matt wasn’t one for small talk. After he’d answered a comment about the warmer weather they’d been having lately with a “hmm,” and then merely a nod after Bellamy rated the specials at a popular local burger joint, the detective had stopped trying to engage him in conversation. That suited Matt just fine. His head was swirling with enough thoughts that actually mattered. He didn’t need to cram anything else in there.

Bellamy pulled up at the station and parked his car at the end of a long row of cars. He drove a nondescript sedan, perfect for blending in, Matt guessed. He was still a little rattled by the detective showing up unannounced at his front door. Had he been following Matt any other times without being noticed? The white four-door sedan was old enough to blend in, but with no obvious dents or scratches that would make it recognizable. It had obviously been chosen very deliberately. The thought bothered Matt more than he wanted to admit. It was just a damn car. Still, he couldn’t rid himself of the sense of foreboding that was growing stronger with every step he took toward the inside of the station. He was being an idiot. It was broad daylight at a police station, for shit’s sake. Although taking on another name was probably not entirely legal, he didn’t think he’d done anything that would actually warrant serious charges. Besides, the only thing the detective knew about was the note, wasn’t it? That had been in his new name.

Detective Bellamy walked Matt away from the main entrance of the station and instead guided him in through a side door. It looked rarely used, but still had the Monroe PD logo emblazoned across the glass, and so Matt followed him inside. He continued following him away from the bullpen with its cluster of desks and ratty old chairs, surrounded by filing cabinets, whiteboards, and the occasional flag. The desks were littered with folders and paper, and Matt side-eyed the closest desk as he walked past but saw nothing suspicious. The one visible memo wasn’t anything to do with the fire, or even the firehouse. Instead, it was a warning for the beat cops to be on alert with an upcoming protest planned around the municipal buildings. Matt shrugged. As long as no one set anything on fire, they could do whatever they liked. Once his place to escape, shift had become just a time when he had to be away from Lauren and Brayden—and when he worried about them even more than he already did. How long could he keep on imposing on the women of 81 to keep an eye on them when he was stuck at the firehouse for twenty-four hours?

Bellamy turned down a corridor and gestured for Matt to follow. Maybe he could talk to the chief, and Lauren and Brayden could hang out at the house while he was on shift for a while. He sighed, walking down the hall. Brayden had the kind of energy that made sitting, or even standing, in one place for very long practically impossible. It wouldn’t be fair to either of them, asking Brayden to sit around or Lauren having to work to contain his wriggles while they were out on a call. Plus there were probably health-and-safety regs that either Mason or the chief would spout at him, and then Matt would have to explain why he wanted them there. That much was probably going to be clear after their meetup later at Meg’s, but that didn’t mean he was ready to go full public. Having Lauren and Brayden at the firehouse would make people ask questions—anyone from HQ to the ladies sitting outside the grocery store. It was inevitable.

Bellamy walked into a room at the end of the hall, and Matt followed. It was small and just as cluttered as the desks out in the main room, except that it looked as though they’d tried to cram the entire contents of the bullpen into the detective’s tiny office. Bellamy shuffled his way around to his side of the desk, raising his hands with an apologetic smile on his face. “Just place the papers on the chair on the floor. I don’t exactly get a lot of time for housekeeping.”

Matt followed his suggestion, sitting down on the metal-framed, padded chair. Standard office supply, it wasn’t exactly comfortable for his large frame, and so he leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees as he steepled his hands together. The detective shuffled some papers, the smile fixed on his face, then grabbed a manila folder and flipped it open, looking up at Matt once the papers settled on his desk.

“Look, Matt. I’m going to cut straight to the chase here.” Bellamy leaned forward, his eyebrows rising slightly. Matt forced his expression to stay neutral, pleasant. There was no need to freak out about anything yet. The detective continued. “I know Rivers isn’t your real last name.”

Okay. He took in a breath. Maybe there was.

Matt mustn’t have been managing to hold on to control of his expression as well as he thought, because Bellamy leaned back in his chair and held up his hands in a surrender gesture. “I’m not here to cause trouble for you, Matt. That’s the last thing I want.” His hands dropped to the paper in front of him, one almost caressing the paper lying on the top. Matt gave up pretending and squinted, trying to see what was written there, but it wasn’t going to be possible without leaning forward farther, and that was one thing he wasn’t doing. Despite the detective’s assurances, every instinct Matt had was screaming at him to walk out.

But then it would all come down on the ones he loved.

There was no point in denying it any longer. He loved them both: Lauren and Brayden. He was head over heels, done, the end, and damn it, he wanted that happily ever after. He’d vowed to protect them, and as much as he wanted to tell Bellamy to shove it and walk out, his vow to Lauren mattered more. Protecting them started right there, with admitting his own fuckups to keep them safe.

“I changed it when I got to Monroe. Fresh start and all that.” Matt forced his voice to sound casual, but if his acting ability were related to his expressions, then he was already fucked.

Bellamy clucked his tongue, turning over the pages in the damn file. “Yes, yes. I have your paperwork here.” He looked up. The guy was apparently a better actor than Matt, as that damn happy smile was still plastered on his face. “Matt . . . Damico was your name before, right?”

Matt nodded, short and sharp.

Bellamy leaned back in his chair, his hands going behind his head and fingers lacing together in the ultimate gesture of casualness. It was just a casual chat down at the police station. It meant nothing. It wasn’t as if he was carefully tearing apart Matt’s entire life or anything.

How quickly could he get his cell phone out of his pocket and shoot off a text? All of the guys he could call on were likely already across town at Meg’s, but maybe if Seth’s friend Scott was working that shift, he’d be somewhere in the building . . . 

“So, Matt. You needed a fresh start. Why is that?”

The hand heading for his pocket clenched the underside of the chair so hard he heard the metal frame creak. Matt cursed himself in his head. The detective was clearly toying with him, playing games. If Matt didn’t keep his cool, then it would all be over. Time to play the sympathy card and hope to hell it worked.

“My dad. He was involved in something he shouldn’t, and so when he died, I wanted to move on. I was just a kid, really, looking to find my own place in life.”

“Hmm,” Bellamy said, moving again to leaf through his papers. “So you didn’t join your father in being a running man for the mob?”

Matt’s heart went cold. His pulse had been steadily increasing with each question the detective asked, but now it felt as if it had stopped beating dead in his chest. His body tingled, and he recognized the sensation for what it was: a rush of adrenaline through his entire system. He got it every time he started into a building raging with fire. He risked his life walking into the flames every time, but he did it anyway. They all did. But Bellamy’s retort? It had fucking blindsided him. “I left town after my father had been fucking murdered!” Matt’s voice echoed around the small room, and he instantly regretted raising his voice. Bellamy was pushing every button Matt had, but if he didn’t keep his cool, there was a very good chance that instead of heading to Meg’s soon, Matt would leave the room in handcuffs instead.

He took a deep breath. “Look, Detective. I’ve lived in Monroe for a decade. I’ve kept my nose clean, had the same job the entire time. I don’t talk to anyone I knew from where I grew up, and I sure as hell wasn’t involved in whatever my father was tied up in. I was seventeen years old, I was scared, and I ran. That’s all there is to it.”

Bellamy’s fingers drummed on the papers in the folder. Matt had to lock both hands around the chair base to stop himself from moving to read the documents.

“I noticed that your house guest’s home address is listed in the same suburb of Philly that you grew up. Coincidence?”

The detective had clearly given up all forms of pretense, his eyes boring into Matt, but unlike when his own past was questioned, the jab at Lauren was easy. Lauren didn’t have a bad bone in her body, and there was no way Matt was giving up her secrets. He looked Bellamy directly in the eye, meeting and holding his gaze. “I offered Lauren and her son a place to stay after the hotel was declared unfit for occupancy.” He mimicked Bellamy’s previous stance, sitting back in his chair, muscles loose, as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “It’s that simple.” He shrugged.

Bellamy’s eyes narrowed, and just for a second, Matt saw something in his expression. It came and went too fast to name, but it sent skitters down his spine all the same. Then just as quickly, Bellamy’s face cleared and his smile was back in place. He threw his hands up in the air. “Hey, what do I know?” he said. Matt didn’t take his eyes off him. “Look, Matt. I’m weeks away from retiring. I don’t need this shit any more than you do. I’m not going to ask you to betray any confidences.” He chuckled. “I can tell that would be a lost cause, no matter how I spun it.” Bellamy’s face turned serious. “Just know that if either you or Lauren would ever be willing to testify against a man named Victor Mancini, I’d be very interested in talking with you both further.”

Matt didn’t move, afraid even a nod of understanding could convey some sort of acceptance. After several seconds of silence, the detective looked away first. “I understand,” he said. He reached into his drawer. Matt stiffened, but when his hand reappeared, it was holding a business card. Bellamy held it out to Matt. He stared at it for several seconds more, and after seeing no other choice that wouldn’t potentially set Bellamy off again, reached out and took it. The small square of card seemingly burned his fingers at the mere touch. As soon as he cleared the station, he was tossing the damn thing.

“So, am I free to leave?”

There was that damn chuckle again. Matt was sure that sound was going to be a new feature of his nightmares to come. “Matt, you were never under arrest. I should have made that clear from the beginning.”

That time he did nod, then Matt stood and turned, walking swiftly to the door. As his hand touched on the door jamb on the way back out to the narrow corridor, Bellamy’s voice stopped him.

“Just one last thing, Matt. Don’t leave town right now, okay? If you do, I’ll just need to find you again, and no one wants to have to do that.”