Bad Boy Brody(77)

“You’ll pick us up?”

“I’ll be incognito and everything.”

She laughed from her side. “How are you?”

She wasn’t asking about me. “She’s strong. So I’m strong.”

“You picked a good one then.”

I heard her begrudging respect, and my smile grew. I nodded to myself. “I know. See you in an hour.”

Morgan shut the television off when I came back. “That was your manager?”

I nodded, saying to the whole room, “She’s arriving in an hour with Shanna.”

Matthew cursed but was smiling at the same time. “She’s coming to make sure the movie is still a go.”

“Yeah.” I glanced to Morgan and then Finn. “I was going to go and pick them up.”

“You have a car?”

I rented a motorcycle. I hadn’t been able to help myself, so I asked, “Could I borrow a car?”

Abby laughed, the sound filling the entire room and hall. She stood and gestured to Finn. “I think they’ll go crazy if they see you, even if you wear a baseball cap and sunglasses. They’ll still recognize you.”

Probably. They all saw my disguise yesterday.

“We’ll go.” She and Finn both started for the door. “We’ll get food and—”

“We’re out of wine.”

“—we’ll get some booze too.”

Both Abby and Finn laughed.

I warned, “They’ll want to stay here.”

Abby turned around at the door. She glanced to Morgan. “Is that what you want?”

Morgan shook her head. “It’s Brody’s call.”

They all waited for my decision.

They’d want to stay here. I wanted them at the hotel. I sigh before saying, “They should stay here. They’ll be swarmed in the hotel lobby every time they leave otherwise.”

“Decision made.” Abby followed her twin outside and waved over her shoulder. “Be back in an hour and a half with two more if all goes accordingly.”

Once they were gone, the room became awkward.

Matthew laughed to himself. “And on that note, I have some business to take care of.”

He was halfway to his office when Morgan called to him, “You’ll kick him out?”

Matthew stopped. His shoulders tensed, and he took a breath before he turned back around. His face was fully guarded as he nodded. “Yes. I already have the board of directors working on removing him. He’s been arrested. His position will be stripped from him.”

Morgan’s head cocked to the side. “Another item you’ve been planning.” Her tone was knowing.

“I started planning this the day I found out what he’d done. Yes.”

“You’ll promote Finn and Abby?”

Matthew’s eyes narrowed a bit, studying Morgan. “I had already planned on it.” His eyes flicked to me and then back to her. “If you wish to come to the company, you could have a position there.”

“Do you know who my grandfather was?”

I didn’t know if it was the sudden jump in topic or the question itself that surprised Matthew more, but his eyes went wide as he shook his head.

“My mom never talked about him, but the money I have is from him.” Morgan shifted on her feet. “I’ve never looked for him.”

“And you want to know now?”

“Do I have other family? Do you know why she was estranged from her family?”

Matthew hesitated again. I could see his reluctance, but his head lifted again. “Your grandfather died and left most of his estate to Karen, but not all of it. The rest of your family didn’t like that she got the majority, and they fought her. They took her to court to try to get more of the inheritance, but they didn’t win, and she left after that. I don’t know all of it, but I did overhear her telling my father that she feared her family would come for you and also your money one day. She took up with your father because she thought he would protect her. She took up with my father to help protect against him. In some ways, it was a sad cycle.”

As he spoke, Morgan’s head lowered a centimeter at a time. By the time he was done, she was fully looking at the floor.

I stepped forward, my hand going to her shoulder. I drew her against my side.

He added, “I wish I could say they were people worth knowing, but if Karen was scared of them, I doubt they would be.”

I nodded to him. “Thank you for telling her.”

Morgan didn’t say anything. She turned and moved into me as I wrapped both my arms around her.

As Matthew left, with some reluctance again, I just held her close to me as we walked back to my cabin.





An hour later, I shifted to my back and pulled her against me. I skimmed a hand down her arm. “You were hoping to find more of your family?”

She rolled her head to look at me as her free hand caught mine. She laced our fingers together, gently kissing my hand before resting them on her stomach. She settled more against me, getting comfortable.

She murmured, almost too quiet for me to hear, “I think I’d always hoped.”

I traced a hand down the side of her face, lingering over her cheek and lips before I skimmed down her knee and leg.