Bad Boy Brody(79)

Her eyes flicked to the ceiling and then she leaned close to me. She dropped her voice so no one else could hear, but she didn’t need to worry. Finn was having a lively debate with Shanna about the stock market. The two were fanatics, who would’ve guessed that? But I knew it served a purpose. No one wanted to talk about the elephant in the room, and at the moment, I didn’t know if it was Morgan or if it was the reason my manager and director both flew out a week early. I went with the latter because Gayle hissed at me, “You goddamn glow after sex. You know that?”

I almost choked on a piece of steak. I started laughing. I didn’t expect that from her. “What’s the problem with that?”

“Nothing.” Her eyes cut to Morgan. She didn’t say any more, but I knew her worries.

“So.” Shanna called a halt to the other conversation, clearing her throat.

The air suddenly shifted, growing somber. Tense.

She looked from me to Morgan and then settled on Matthew. “We saw the press release.”

Matthew nodded, wiping a cloth napkin over his mouth. He folded it and then set it on his lap, resting his arms back on the table. “Yes. I’m sure you did.”

“Is it true? He aided in Karen Kellerman’s murder then?”

The Kellermans all looked at Morgan, who didn’t respond.

Matthew glanced to Morgan as he answered, “Are you asking for the movie? Or . . .”

“I need to be prepared for how it might impact the movie.”

Matthew seemed at a loss.

I understood where Shanna was coming from.

I leaned forward. “The evidence is good, even if he gets off.” I looked right at the director. “Put it in the movie.”

Morgan’s hand found mine under the table.

“I need to know what to put in. It could change the scope of the movie. Again. I have to know what it is.”

Matthew’s attention shifted to me, and I narrowed my eyes at him. “If you’re waiting for me to heel, you’re going to be waiting till you die, Kellerman.”

Matthew cleared his throat. His gaze went back to Shanna. “Put in the movie that he told Karen’s murderer where she was. You can leave it at that.”

Her mouth fell open. She shared a shocked look with Gayle.

“Okay.” She clamped her mouth shut. “Okay. I’ll do that then. That’s helpful, and I have everything planned and sorted. We’ll have to do some new scenes from the beginning, but Brody”—she turned to me—“I don’t think those reshoots will take long. We have two months before you go to New Zealand, right?”

I straightened in my seat. I hadn’t shared that with Morgan yet. My eyes fell to her, but she was looking down at her lap and still holding my hand. She hadn’t pulled that away . . . yet.

“Yes. I’ll be in New Zealand.”

“He goes to Iceland right after that one too.”

Gayle was adding that for Shanna’s benefit in case she went into editing and found more reshoots were needed.

Shanna nodded. “That’s helpful, yes. We’ll get it all worked out. I’ll have my assistant catch up with you during one of those projects if I need to. Hopefully it’ll just be about the promotion schedule.”

“That sounds fine.”

I looked at Gayle. “It does?”

“I’ve talked to the other franchise. They’ll work with us on the promotion schedule for Unbroke if it conflicts with their shooting schedule. Everything will have to be planned far in advance, though.” She sent the last sentence to Shanna as a warning. Everything took time. Everything had to be planned.

My gaze fell to Morgan again.

She didn’t understand that world. Contracts, agreements, itineraries. Those were words she knew, but their concepts didn’t have a place in her life. Her days were open. She could wake when she wanted, go for a walk in the woods, a ride on Shiloh.

A knot rose in my chest and burrowed there.

Gayle was right.

I was under contract for the next two years. There’d be another project after another, and that was what every successful actor wanted. Being busy meant more work would come, more money would come, but it was about riding the wave.

My wave started with the movie Kyle died trying to get to. It started there, and it seemed it would keep going.

“She’ll never go with you. She’ll never leave those horses or those lands.”

Gayle was watching me.

“I want you to forget her.”

Her words echoed in my head.





Brody



Everything moved quickly after that dinner.

The movie was back in business.

To keep from any leaks being released—ones that weren’t from Shanna’s people, anyway—the cast and crew filled the estate again and more trailers were brought onto the land. If I wasn’t shooting, I was with Morgan. We were usually in bed or sitting on my patio. There were a few times I went with her into the wilderness because she missed Shiloh. On the days I was working long hours, I knew I could look up and find Morgan watching from astride the mare. When we weren’t doing any of those, we spent the evenings with her siblings. Gayle joined us a few times, and even Shanna once. I think both started to enjoy the bond that was evident between the siblings. Finn and Abby were the closest, but they doted on Morgan. Matthew’s relationship was a little shaky among them all, but he seemed to be making an effort. There was no more shadiness or secrets from him, or so he claimed. He and I weren’t chums, but he didn’t protest my presence and I didn’t beat him up.