Bad Boy Brody(51)

“What was that?”

Finally.

Matthew stopped talking. He strode toward me. I tensed, flattening myself against Butter’s door completely.

Matthew went right to the back door, bypassing me, and throwing it open. He paused on the threshold, squinting out into the darkness.

A second whinny, closer this time.

It was Shiloh. She never came this close, but I knew without having to see her that she had breached the fence. She was coming up the field.

She was coming to me.

God.

Matthew was in front of her. If he was angry, she might react. I couldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t hurt him. I shuddered, not wanting to think what he would do in retaliation.

“Matthew,” I croaked.

He turned to me and finally saw I was struggling for breath. “Oh my God.” He rushed to me, but I waved him away as Shiloh came running through the open back door. Her eyes were wild and panicked as she tossed her head back and forth, searching. When she found me, she bucked up onto her hind legs, preparing to kick at Matthew. She thought he was hurting me.

“NO!” I shoved him as far away from me as I could.

He fell to the ground, frozen with his eyes fixed on Shiloh.

“ROLL!” I screamed, hoping to get him moving.

He did, rolling right into an open stall. Her hooves just missed him as they landed hard on the wooded floor.

“No, Shiloh.” The screams had taken everything out of me. I waved my arms to get her attention. Her one eye turned to me, seeing me. She didn’t know what was going on, she just wanted to help, so I reached up, grabbed her hair and a section of her coat and tried to heft myself onto her. I couldn’t get up in one jump, so I tried again, scrambling until I was lying safely on her back.

I didn’t have it in me to sit upright, so I nudged her back.

She resisted. She wanted to go after Matthew.

“No, Shiloh. Home.”

Her head swung back to me.

“Home.”

Her nostrils flared before she wheeled around and took off at a gallop.

I grabbed her mane and tried to keep from falling.





Brody

Kara was pressed between my legs. I had her backed up against a tree, my mouth hovering over her exposed neck, which was where it had been for the last hour. We kept fucking up the shot. Either the wind was in the wrong direction, Kara was hiccupping, my “smoldering” was all wrong, or Shanna wasn’t happy with a line delivery.

To make matters worse, I had to keep my groin pressed against hers because I didn’t have a hard-on and I was supposed to for this scene.

“BRODY! BRODY!”

“Cut!” Shanna cried out, throwing her hands in the air as she whipped around. “What the fuck?”

I backed up, and Kara leaned against the tree. She muttered, “Thank God. My back is killing me.”

I grunted. She and I both.

“BRODY!”

I turned and thought I saw Matthew careening over the field toward us. It was dark, but I recognized his voice. He was waving his arms like a madman, and I scowled. I hadn’t seen him since I ripped out his hard drive.

Finn and Jen were on set that day, and right away, Finn started for me.

I pointed at him as we fell in step together and headed in Matthew’s direction. “If he fucks with me today, I swear to God, I’ll rip him apart.”

I hadn’t eaten all day since Shanna wanted my muscles to be as defined as possible. I was cold from the damn water being thrown on us, and I’d spent hours pressed against a woman I couldn’t stand. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with Matthew’s shit on top of everything else.

“Excuse me!” Shanna went to get in his way, her hands planted on her hips.

She had a coat on, unlike—I glanced over my shoulder and saw an assistant wrap a heavy blanket around Kara’s shoulders—me. I didn’t even know where my shirt was.

“Brody!”

Matthew was almost to us.

Finn held his hand out. “Let me talk to him.”

“Fuck that.” He was saying my name. I clenched my jaw. If he wanted a fight, so be it.

“Brody!”

I strode ahead, ignoring Finn.

Matthew looked as white as a sheet, but he couldn’t catch his breath. He got to me, but couldn’t talk. He held a hand up, bending over and resting his hands on his knees.

I started to get it then.

He wasn’t here to fight, and then the panic started.

It was Morgan. There was no other reason he’d seek me out. And if he was coming to me for help—I stopped thinking then.

Something was wrong, really, really wrong.

“What happened?” I barked out.

Shanna yelled, coming over, “You interrupted a shot that’s been taking forever to get. There better be a good reason for this.”

“Morgan,” he gasped.

“Who?” Shanna asked.

Ice went down my spine

“What happened to her?” I barked at him.

He didn’t answer right away. He still couldn’t.

“Matthew!”

I started for him, but Finn jumped in front of me, his hands in the air, his palms toward me. “He can’t breathe, Brody. Let him have a second.”

“Something’s—” Wheeze. “Wrong—” Another wheeze. “With Mor—” He bent over, still gasping for air.