by Tijan
I knew who was in that black car. That was a gravity weighing me down, and no one else seemed to be aware of him coming.
Finn added, laughing a bit, “My guess is that you’re unofficially part of the movie now. Welcome back, baby sister.”
Yeah.
Right.
I swallowed back the knot in my throat. I could handle whatever came with that, but not that car.
I gripped Shiloh’s mane tighter and leaned forward.
A driver got out, went to the back door, opened it, and . . .
My stepfather stepped out.
Peter Kellerman had arrived.
Brody
The blood drained from Morgan’s face and in the same instant, her body curled in. She seemed poised to flee.
Matthew, Finn, and I all turned to look at what had her spooked. It took a second for me to spot him.
The man was wearing a business suit. His hair was thick and silver, not quite white but not really gray. That was the only indication of his age. He kept himself trim.
Yeah. I recognized him.
Peter Kellerman was bigger than his two sons.
I skimmed a look over at Morgan. “Did you know he was coming?”
She started at my question, as if she had forgotten we were there. “No.”
Matthew was looking between the two, frowning. “Yeah. That’s my fault. I had to call him, Morgan. I’m sorry.”
Morgan’s head lowered, as if she wanted to curl into a ball.
Finn rolled his eyes, focused on his brother.
Matthew ignored Finn, saying, “You couldn’t breathe when you left. You were in the mountains. I didn’t know if Asher would bring back a body or if we’d have to go in and find two of you.”
“I told him to relax a little.” Finn was speaking to Morgan. “I thought maybe you’d be fine.” A look passed between the two.
I was watching the guy, who was being introduced to Shanna. I looked for Abby and Jen but didn’t see either before I turned to the two brothers. “Is he going to be a problem for Morgan?”
Peter Kellerman was my father without the boozing, whoring, and beatings being handed out. By all accounts, he was ruthless, sharp, and didn’t give one shit about Morgan. He would hurt her. That was what I knew, and I would stand in his way every time if I had to.
I knew all of that within two seconds of seeing him.
When neither answered, I narrowed my eyes at Matthew. “Maybe I should be asking if you’re going to be a problem for Morgan?”
We still hadn’t had our talk, and I really wanted to have that talk. What I did to Finn would be tame compared to what I still wanted to do to the elder brother.
Finn grunted. He knew exactly where I was going with this. He stood to the side, stepping away from his brother.
Matthew noticed, his frown deepening, and then he swung his gaze to me. “What?”
I gestured to where Kellerman Senior was. “Who are you loyal to? Him or her?”
“What?”
I leaned forward on my horse, making sure he could hear me clearly, though I wasn’t sure how much more frank I could put the question. “If a pissing match happens, if he’s here to hurt her and not help her, whose side are you on? Let’s get it fucking clear right now before we walk into something we can’t control. You on your pop’s side or her side?”
Matthew swung his horrified gaze to Morgan. “Morgan . . .”
Two figures broke from behind the fence, hurrying down the hill toward us before a third joined them and, a second later, a fourth behind them.
Shiloh started moving back at the sight, her nostrils flaring.
“Shhh.” Morgan bent forward, crooning to her. She ran a hand down her side, but they retreated a few more feet.
Finn swore under his breath and then sighed. “It’s Abby and Jen.”
I recognized the two behind them. My hands tightened around the reins. “And Shanna and my manager.”
Morgan looked at me. I registered the look from the corner of my eye, and I wanted to turn to her. I wanted to reassure her everything would be okay, but I couldn’t lie. I told her things would change for her, and that had been the truth.
Shanna would want to know everything about Morgan.
Gayle would want to know everything about our relationship, and I’d have a hard time suppressing the desire to tell them both to fuck off. As much as I wanted to tell them to mind their own business, my business was Gayle’s business. Shanna, however, was my boss. If she wanted to grill anyone about Morgan, she could go to Matthew or Kellerman Senior, since he decided to show up.
“Morgan.” Abby was blinking back tears. “You’re okay.” She stopped, her hand reaching out like she wanted to go to her sister. Finn drew her to his side, his arm around her waist, and he pulled Jen against his other side.
“Brody.” Shanna drew up to the group, wrapping the ends of her sweater together in front of her. She looked from me to Morgan, paused for a minute, and then turned back to me. Gayle came to her side, but Shanna cleared her throat. “You’re okay?”
“I am.”
Her eyes kept going to Morgan. Her eyebrows pulled together, but she murmured to me, “I see. We were all worried.”
Gayle’s eyes were wide and accusing.
I ignored her. “I needed to make sure Morgan was okay.”
“Yes.” All eyes turned to Morgan. Shanna wasn’t even trying to disguise her interest. “I see. And you were okay?”
Morgan nodded. “Yes. I am fine.”
Finn laughed. “I’d bet a hundred it was you who found Brody, not the other way around.”
Morgan just looked at me.
I grunted. “I was lucky to stay on the damn horse, and yes, she found me.”
“Well.” Morgan folded her hands together over Shiloh’s mane. “You technically did find me. You just didn’t know it.”
I cringed at the memory of looking up and seeing her on the edge of that cliff. It didn’t matter that I knew different—she looked supernatural in that moment. It had been eerie. She was defying gravity by being up there, and even more so as her horse picked their way down the side of the cliff.
I didn’t reply.
“So, I’m assuming we can send the search party back? We won’t be needing it?”
Matthew jerked around to Gayle. “Yes.” He motioned back to them. “I’ll deal with all of that.” His gaze went from mine to Morgan’s and held there a second. “I’ll—uh . . . I’ll talk to my father as well.”
Morgan didn’t reply or move, and once he was halfway back up the hill, Finn asked her, “Are you really okay?”
She nodded. “I’m fine. Yes.” She motioned to the party. “I’m sorry about all of that.”
He shrugged. “There’s a difference between you running and hiding and you being hurt.” The side of his mouth curved up in a wicked grin. “Besides, it was really for the Hollywood golden boy.”
I barked out a laugh, gentling it as Shiloh’s head reared up. “Right. Say what you want, Kellerman Junior to the Junior, but that’s twice now I’ve ventured out there and come back alive. Can you say the same?” I was teasing, and when Finn threw his head back and started laughing, everyone else realized it too.
Shanna and Gayle exchanged mystified looks while Jen and Abby just seemed relieved.
Abby held up a hand toward Morgan. “Can I . . . this is Shiloh, right?”
A whole fence was between us and them, and they still remained back by fifteen feet. At Abby’s slight approach, the mustang’s head reared up. Her ears perked forward.
“Is that—” Shanna’s lips dropped open as if she were only just noticing the horse Morgan was astride. “Is that one of the wild herd?”
Morgan was still running a hand down Shiloh’s neck. It wasn’t working. The mustang started to back up the louder we talked and the closer Abby got.
She said to Abby, “Brody’s presence has been forced on her, but she isn’t tame. She’ll run if you keep approaching. I wo
n’t be able to stop her.”
Abby stopped approaching. “She’s beautiful, Morgan.”
Morgan looked to Shiloh, who swung her head back to her. They looked at each other a moment, and Morgan grinned. “Yes, she is.” She bent forward and patted her neck, laying her cheek against her before sitting back up again. “Beautiful but wild.”
I was staring right at Morgan as she said those words.
When she lifted her gaze to mine, she saw my own message to her, and her eyelashes fluttered closed a little before her gaze cleared. She lifted her head higher, staring back at me steadily.
She was beautiful.
She was wild.
She was the untamed one.
Unbroke. I didn’t realize how perfectly the movie’s title fit until that moment.
An emotion shifted deep in me, deeper than I’d ever felt. It was something I’d only felt toward family before.
I shoved it aside. This wasn’t the time to proclaim feelings and shit like that.
I said to Shanna, “Is Peter Kellerman being here going to be a problem?”
She hesitated before replying, “For the movie? No. We have contracts in place in case he tries to change anything. For others . . .” Her eyes trailed to Morgan. “Maybe.”
Whether it was at Morgan’s order or Shiloh’s, the mustang turned in a tight circle, walking backward. Her head wouldn’t stop. It was going up and down, and her back hooves started to stomp the ground.
Morgan said to me, “I gotta run her. Too many people around.”
I nodded, but she didn’t wait. She made one soft clicking sound, and Shiloh tore out of there.
No one spoke. We all watched. How could we not?
Shiloh’s mane was flying behind her, making her look like she was soaring. Morgan was bent forward, her head buried in the hair and her arms wrapped around Shiloh’s neck. She rode her with no reins, no saddle or stirrups, nothing to anchor her to the horse except her body and the connection they both shared.
That feeling began to expand inside me again. It had been there, rooted deep, just waiting for the right person. Waiting for Morgan.
The emotion began to fill me.
I still didn’t name it, but I knew I couldn’t stop it either.
Brody
Shanna and Gayle followed me to my cabin.
Abby and Jen went to the main lodge, but Finn came with us too. Once Shanna and Gayle were inside, he stopped me, asking, “You need backup?”
I shook my head before nodding toward the lodge’s patio where Matthew and Peter were sitting. They had a perfect view of my place. “I’m worried about them.”
“Them?” He turned to see. “Oh.” When his attention came back to me, his eyes were troubled, and his own frown gave him away. “My brother was creepy with the videos, but I honestly feel if he has to choose between who to protect—Morgan or our father—he’ll choose Morgan. We’ll all choose Morgan.”
“Why?”
“What?”
“Why choose a stepsister you never see over the man who’s giving you a livelihood?” Peter held the keys to all of their empires. He was powerful.
Finn shrugged. “Our birth mother died after having Abby and me, so when we got Karen, she became our mother. We also got a father during that time. Sure, before then he paid our bills and provided for us, but he wasn’t around until he fell in love with Karen. She anchored him in a way, and we actually had a loving family for four years. Morgan was a part of that. We grieved when Karen died, but it was more than that. We didn’t only lose her and Morgan–—we lost him. He shipped us all off to our private schools, hired nannies, and pretty much moved to New York. Now, the only one who sees him regularly is Matthew, and it’s always in business meetings. I’d love to have a father. I would, but that’ll never happen. We thought for a moment, after Matt brought us the script, maybe we could get him back. He seemed excited about the whole process, but once we got here, yeah.” His voice faded, then a decrepit laugh left him. “You can see how that worked out. There’s no trying to get him back, but Morgan. She’s different.” He turned to look at the mountains behind us. “She stays out there so she doesn’t get hurt anymore. And it’s terrifying her that she can’t pull completely away again.” He studied me a moment. “You love her.”
He named what I was unwilling to.
“Yes. I do.”
He held his hand up. “Then know that I’m always in your corner. I’m proud to have met you.”
I shook his hand, and it felt as if something more were being solidified in that moment. I knew there would be problems moving forward. I felt it first with Matthew, and it had only gotten exponentially stronger with the appearance of Peter Kellerman.
I didn’t know what it would be or how it would come about, but I knew it would affect Morgan, and I wouldn’t allow that.
“Thank you. You too.” I meant those words. I would need his help. The premonition was weighing heavily on me. After a second, I added, “If you hurt Jen, I’ll beat you up.” I smirked. “Again.”
He laughed, releasing my hand. “Same if you hurt my sister.” He clapped me on the arm.
“If I hurt your sister, I’ll let you beat me up.”
“Let?” He began walking back to the main house. “Let, huh?”
“Yes. Let.”
He waved, turning around. “We’ll see, Golden Boy. We’ll see.”
“Golden Boy?” The door had opened behind me. Gayle stood there. “I thought it was Bad Boy Brody this whole time.”
“Nah.” I raked a hand over my face. I was suddenly so tired. My whole body was beginning to ache. “I think the bad boy is gone.” Then I thought of Peter and Matthew Kellerman. “Well, maybe not.”
I followed her inside.
Shanna was making herself a drink in the kitchen.
“Hey.” There was a whole bottle of rum on the counter. “Where’d that come from?”
“My purse.” She poured some in a second glass and passed it to Gayle. The two clinked their drinks together before Shanna turned to me. “This is a time that I need to drink.”
She downed half the liquid in one gulp.
Gayle winced after her sip and set it down. “That’s a bit strong for my taste.”
Shanna asked, “You want one?”
“Thought I had a drinking problem?”
She snorted, rolling her eyes and picking her glass up again. “You aren’t an alcoholic. We all know that, and you’re better now.” She motioned outside my patio door. “Your time of rest was really a time of sex, right? Goddamn. I would’ve loved to have tricked my boss into giving me vacation if that were the case.”
I sat at the kitchen table, watching Shanna finish her drink and pour a second one. Gayle took her glass, joining me at the table.
“I didn’t plan that. You decided to give me the time off.”
“You were supposed to be resting and healing.” Shanna grabbed the bottle and took a seat too.
“I was grieving my brother’s death.”
She eyed me skeptically. “How are you handling that? You seem like you’ve found your purpose in life.”
Shit. Maybe I had.
I didn’t want to think about that, so I waved it off. “I’m distracting myself.”
“With Wild Horse Woman out there?”
“Maybe.”
Gayle snorted. “Come on. How long has this been going on?” She leaned forward, her arms going flat on the table. “You need to tell me everything.”
So I did.
When we first arrived.
The night I saw her running from the house.
When the herd first made their appearance.
Gayle asked, “How did you two start talking?”
I hesitated.
“Brody!”
I relented. “I went on a walk, and she was at the river. That was our first conversation.”
“And how did you go from having a conversation to sticking your prick inside her?” Her eyes flashed. Sh
e wasn’t messing around.
I told her about the cabin visit.
She frowned, deep in thought. “That was why Abby Kellerman was here?”
“She said she heard Morgan talking to me. She wanted to know about her sister.”
Shanna sighed heavily. “None of this is in the script. None of it!”
Gayle handed over her drink. “Take mine.”
“Gladly.” Shanna picked it up and took a long drag from it.
Gayle focused on me again. “You still haven’t told me when you started sleeping with her.”
“The first night of my week off.”
That was it. She wasn’t going to get the details from me, and when my mouth remained clamped shut, Gayle realized it.
She nodded, leaning back in her seat. “You love her?”
That was also none of her business. “I care for her.”
She scoffed, her eyes flicking to the ceiling. She could read between the lines. “So what does this mean? We don’t know about her. What do we need to know?”
“What do you mean?”
“You were ready for trouble out there. I know you, Brody. I saw how you reacted to Kellerman Senior showing up. You expecting trouble?”
“Yes, but I don’t know what it will be.”
Shanna threw her hands in the air. “Why isn’t any of this in the script? It should be in the goddamn script. This girl should be in there. It’s a happily-ever-after ending right now. Karen Kellerman was murdered, but they wanted the end shot to be Peter and Karen riding off into the distance. Credits. Fucking credits. That’s how I’m supposed to tell the real ending, but this girl—she has a daughter! A daughter, who is like this mythical freak creature, and gorgeous, and she lives with fucking mustangs.” She was yelling. “It’s a much better fucking movie than what I have now.”
“Can you put her in?” Gayle asked, making my attention whip to her.
“No!” I jerked forward on my seat. “The contract is for the script how it was written. You can’t change it.”
“No. That isn’t true. I do have creative license, but I would have to do more research and look into how her presence would alter the plotline. If it alters it too much, you’re right. There might be areas that they would fight me on.”