Bad Boy Brody(83)

The horse kicked up dirt, speeding away.

“It’s almost as if you don’t want me to get the extra shots that’ll make this movie a masterpiece.”

I turned to Shanna. She had remained while everyone else went back to working.

“I am trying to keep you from using Morgan. There’s no contract saying you can use the footage you take of her. If she gets hurt, are you going to compensate her? She isn’t protected by a union or insurance.”

Shanna paused, studying me. “I don’t understand you. She’s going to be fine. She’ll stay here. She’ll live out there with her horse. She’s never going to fully know her own fame, but if she has a kid, maybe they will. Maybe it’ll be good for them. I don’t get why you want to protect her so much unless . . .” A different thought moved in the back of her mind, coming forward until she actually stepped back. She gazed at me with new awareness. “You’re hoping she’ll go with you, aren’t you?”

Goddamn.

I turned away.

“That’s it, isn’t it? You’re hoping to get her to leave with you. Then it’ll be a problem. Then it’ll be too much for her, but Brody . . .” She was shaking her head in pity. It made me grit my teeth. I didn’t need her sympathy. “You can’t force her to leave, and you can’t change her. You know that, don’t you?”

I didn’t say a word.

Her hand came to my arm, but I moved out of her reach. I didn’t need to be soothed.

“Brody, this is going to end badly if you don’t accept her for who she is.”

I didn’t need to hear that.

I walked away and did the last two scenes until Shanna called a wrap, and then I went home to where I knew Morgan was waiting for me.





Morgan

“You aren’t celebrating like the rest of us?”

The whole crew was partying and had been since seven that night.

I glanced down to my lap. I was sitting on the edge of the deck, and I had my hands wedged under my legs. Others had looked up to where I sat, all wearing mixed expressions of fear and awe. It was the same every time I was around them. I was not one of them. They would never forget that, no matter what I did. For weeks, I tried to blend in. I wanted to be in the back scenery. I didn’t want attention. I only wanted to be near Brody. I wanted to watch him do his work.

I turned around from my perch on the back patio of the house and saw Matthew shutting the door behind him, a glass of wine in hand.

I smiled. “I feel like Brody would make some remark about you having wine tonight.”

My oldest stepbrother stifled a small laugh, leaning against the railing that I sat on. “I’m sure of it.” He found Brody where he was sitting by the bonfire, laughing with Finn, Abby, and a few of his colleagues. “Is he drinking tonight?”

There was a glass beside him, but he had only been sipping it. “A little.”

Matthew turned his focus on me. I could feel his gaze on my side profile.

We hadn’t talked about Peter’s part in my mother’s death, but I knew that was a conversation that had to happen.

“We can’t go back to what we all had, Matthew.” I felt more than saw him go still beside me. “You were a brother to me for four years, but my mother died.” I felt knives in my lungs. “I learned what a person could do to another that day, and I suppose you were right in some ways. I turned off my humanity, and I never really turned it back on.” I gazed around the backyard, seeing them laughing, seeing them enjoying each other’s company. I shook my head. “I don’t understand them. I care for Finn. I care for Abby. I care for you, but it’s more like a trickle of emotion.”

The corner of his mouth twitched, but he remained silent.

“Not with Brody, though.” I remembered seeing him in that car. I remembered feeling him in his cabin as I ran back to Shiloh. I remembered feeling pulled to him, as if I had no say about the matter.

I looked at my brother, or someone who I used to consider a brother.

He was watching me steadily. There was no shock or anger at my words. He was merely letting me speak.

“I feel alive when I am with Brody or with Shiloh.”

“Morgan.” He leaned toward me.

“Don’t!” I spoke harsh, and he moved back again. “You need to hear this, and understand what I’m saying to you. I didn’t want the movie people here, but I am glad they came. My mom was a good mom. She loved me, and she loved you guys. She had horrible taste in men, but she still loved them.” One killed her while the other helped. “I will never be my mother. I will never let a man do to me what was done to her. No one will have that power over me.” My voice grew hoarse. “All I see when I go on the computer is people hurting people. All I see when I watch television is people hurting people. It’s useless and senseless.” I searched the woods, but I knew the herd was long gone. They would’ve heard the humans celebrating. “There are rules and hierarchies in that world, too, but they don’t kill for sport. They don’t hunt each other down. If another stallion comes into the herd, he gets chased away unless he fights. He may die, but that was his choice to stay and fight as long as he could. It’s the way for most of the animals, and I don’t understand why humans hate as they do.”