by Tijan
Finn frowned. “Said you guys got cozy during your week off.”
Brody’s hand left mine as he shifted, almost shielding me. “And how would he have known that?”
“Uh . . .” Finn’s shoulders abruptly fell back down. “Shit.”
I moved around Brody. The old uneasiness I felt earlier came back, and this was it. It was back and building, burrowing deep into me.
“Finn.”
He looked at me.
“How did Matthew know about us?”
He jerked up an awkward shoulder. “I don’t know. He—uh—” He flung a hand, gesturing to Brody. “Didn’t you tell him?”
“Not about this past week.”
Anger was literally rippling from Brody, crashing into and melding with the bad feeling inside me. I was sinking, further and further down.
Abby said quickly, “What does it matter? Matthew knows everything. You’re here. You can have a glass of wine with us, right, Morgan?” A nervous laugh rang from her before she closed her mouth, chewing down on her bottom lip. “Come on. Let’s sit and talk.” Her voice rose up again with a desperate ring. “Or I’ll walk back with you to the fence. I want to know how you are. I want to know . . . I want to know everything.”
I looked at my sister. I remembered playing with her, having her do my hair, wanting to learn about makeup from her. I remembered how she would let me play dress-up with her clothes or take me to the mall to shop for hours.
I was shaking on the inside, but I nodded to her. “A walk would be fine.”
“Yeah?” She perked up and turned to Finn.
He was staring at her, and the two seemed to share a conversation with no words. Finally, he gave her a half-grin. “Go. Talk to our baby sis. Then come back and report everything.” He said to me, “I want to know too.”
I turned so that my back was to the rest and looked up at Brody. The anger was still there. I saw it flaming, but like Finn and Abby, he nodded to me. I was going to Shiloh. He knew what I was going to do, and he wasn’t fearful of never seeing me again like my siblings were.
I reached out, my hand grazing over his stomach. He caught it, giving it a small squeeze before letting go as I started for the door.
“Morgan!” Finn called out.
I looked back.
“Will you—”
I already knew the answer. “Yes.” I would see him again. I wouldn’t disappear.
Brody
I gave the girls a few minutes to walk from the house. I didn’t want them to come running back, but as soon as I was sure they were out of hearing distance, or within reason for Morgan’s hearing, I walked toward her brother.
Jen saw the look on my face, and I heard her say, “Oh boy.”
Finn was turned to me, watching as I closed the distance between us.
He looked around, but my hand was at his throat before he could take a step toward an exit.
“He—” His eyes threatened to bulge out.
My hand squeezed, but I ignored how he tried to grab ahold of my arms. I walked him back against the wall and lifted him in the air. I didn’t give two shits if this got me fired. He could explain why I put my hands on him. I had a strong feeling my reason outweighed his.
When he began making choking sounds, I relaxed my hold, just slightly.
He could breathe, but just barely. He could talk if he tried.
Leaning forward so he damn knew to take me seriously and said, “You’re going to tell me how your brother knew about Morgan, and if you don’t”—I squeezed my hand again, leaning even closer—“I will hurt you, and trust me when I say that I know how. I got my ass beat by my old man every day I was in his house. I picked up some nasty tricks.”
“Brody.” Jen started to reach for my arm.
“Don’t fucking touch me, Jen. This isn’t your fight right now.”
“He’s my fiancé.” She began to reach for me again.
I twisted to her, letting her see how deadly serious I was. When her eyes met mine, reading my intent, she gulped.
Finn started fighting again, his arms and legs trying to hit me.
I relaxed my hold again and shifted my stance so his fists only grazed my arm. His legs couldn’t reach me.
“Are you going to cooperate?”
I waited.
His eyes were wild, the need for violence surging to the surface. He wouldn’t, but I relaxed my hold and stepped back.
He’d have to try, but if he did, I would teach him. Again.
He rushed me, but I ducked and stepped to the side. As he ran past me, he swung an arm wide to try to hit me. I moved back in, wrapped an arm around his arm, and shoved him against the wall. He went face forward, and instead of holding his throat captive, I had his arm. He was paralyzed. The only thing he could move was his mouth, and he grated out, “I’m going to sue your ass. You’re off this movie. My father will—”
I applied pressure on his arm, and he bit out a primal scream as the bone popped out of joint.
“Oh my God, Brody.” Jen was behind me again, beginning to cry. “Please stop. Please.”
“You won’t sue me.” My voice was calm. “You won’t fire me. If I go, so does Morgan.”
Panic flashed in his eyes.
“And you know it. So”—I leaned in again and lowered my voice, almost so I was soothing him—“are you going to talk this time? I can do this all night long if I have to, but trust me when I say I’ll learn how your brother found out about us. I’ll do it with or without you. You and I can be enemies, or I can just be your brother’s enemy.”
I held his arm until I saw some of his panic fading. He was starting to relax.
I stepped back. Another chance.
He pushed off the wall and swung wide. I hadn’t been expecting that, and his fist caught me on the cheek, but I scrambled. I wasn’t seeing stars, but it was a good solid hit. Acting on years of instinct, I went to the floor in a roll, getting right back to my feet when I was out of his reach. He was storming toward me, a vein sticking out from his neck.
Jen started to jump between us again. Both of us barked out, “Don’t!”
She went back to the sidelines.
I braced myself, saw his hand clench into a fist.
I had my arms up, blocking his punch, but he wasn’t stupid. I saw him feign, and his other hand came up in an upper cut. I moved my arms down instead, hitting his leg and using the momentum to bounce back and smack him in the face.
It disoriented him. It was a hard slap, but it gave me enough time to twist around and get him into a headlock. I just had to squeeze. My legs were tight. He could only beat at my forearm, but my muscles were tight. His hands weren’t doing much damage, and I looked around, making sure he couldn’t grab a knife or utensil to impale me with.
We were a little too close to a fork. I pulled him with me, closer to the front door, and applied pressure again. I wouldn’t kill him, but he’d go unconscious.
“Now, we can go this way. You can fall asleep, and I’ll search this house without your permission. I’ll start with your brother’s office, where I’m certain there’s other items in there you won’t want me to find.”
“There isn’t—”
“There’s always something you don’t want to be found. I don’t want that. I want to know how your brother knew about Morgan. That’s all.”
I already knew. We didn’t walk around the estate, only the land. Morgan was the one to slip in and out of my cabin. Abby could’ve said she overheard us, but that was a big fucking leap to go from one conversation to us being together.
There were only two ways. Either he had the cabin bugged or he had cameras on it.
My contract said privacy, so both were cause for a lawsuit.
I wanted Finn to admit it. I wanted one other person to say it, and I knew Jen would back it up. I glanced at her, gauging whether she would lie for her fiancé if he asked.
I wasn’t sure. Before tonight, I would’ve said no, but the terror on her f
ace was genuine. She got a glimpse into the old Brody that I didn’t like to visit.
Our odd friendship was over. I saw that.
I squeezed tighter around his neck. “I mean it, Finn. This isn’t a pissing match between your brother and me. I’m protecting Morgan. If he has something on me from this week, he might have something on her. We were together, together.”
“Fine,” ripped from him.
He was still struggling.
“Stop fighting.”
He went slack, and I let him go. He fell to the floor, and I bounced back on my heels, ready for him to come at me again.
He didn’t. He only looked up at me from the floor, his chest heaving as he rubbed the red mark on his neck. “He said he installed videos to watch the outside of your cabin. That’s all.”
I was right. I knew I would be.
“I want to see the footage.”
He started to shake his head. I said again, “I’ll find it without you, if that’s what you want.” I took a step toward him, dropping my voice, “But I will find that footage.”
He stared at me, glaring. Then he stopped abruptly, the fight finally leaving him.
“Fine. I know the password to his computer.”
I motioned to him. “After you.”
He scowled at me, rubbing his neck as he led the way. Kellerman had his desk setup on one end of the room, and behind it, large windows showcased the mountains. Two leather chairs were in front of his desk, and there was a couch on the other side of the room. Bookshelves stretched the entire length of the back wall.
Finn went to the computer and turned over the plaque on the desk, revealing the password that was taped underneath. Finn shrugged. “Matt has all the same habits. He just doesn’t know that we know ’em.” He typed in the password.
I went to stand behind him, watching as he clicked on an icon. Security footage came up, with cameras showing all over the estate. Finn clicked through a few until he got to the ones of my cabin.
The front door.
I said, “Next.”
The back door.
Another, “Next.”
He hesitated before clicking on a camera feed that was pointing right at the second-floor patio.
I knew what that meant.
I forced myself to wait. I couldn’t go nuts, not yet.
“Are those the only three angles?”
Finn looked back at me. “Yeah.”
I gestured to the history folder. “Pull that up.”
“Look.” He straightened away from the computer, motioning toward it. “It’s just the doors and your patio. He didn’t break any privacy codes or anything. We’re allowed to put cameras on our land.”
I sat in the seat and clicked on the history folder. As it pulled up all the old footage he saved, I asked, “This house is in Morgan’s name, right?”
I was clicking through them. There was nothing incriminating.
When I didn’t hear him respond, I looked back up.
His eyes were wide and alarmed.
I pushed from the computer again. “Finn. Am I right?”
“Yes. It’s Morgan’s land. She inherited it from Karen.”
I had already known that, but like the cameras, I just needed one to confirm it.
Jen moved forward. “What does that mean?”
I shot her a look before going back to the saved video footage. “It means none of these cameras had Morgan’s permission to be put up.” I shared Finn in the same look. “And my contract says all privacy. These cameras violate that stipulation. Would your brother bug my cabin?”
“No! My God. Matt isn’t some eavesdropping cree—”
As he spoke, I clicked on the last footage saved.
Every cell in my body froze.
Finn’s gaze jumped to it. “Oh, fuck.”
The image was clear even before I played it.
Morgan was straddling me. We were on that back patio, and I knew exactly what we would be doing when I hit play.
As the screen came to life, Morgan was straddling me, her mouth over mine. I let it play for just a second, but it was a second too long.
Rage was rising in me.
My arms began shaking as I grabbed a USB and copied everything to it.
“What are you doing?”
I clipped out, “Evidence.”
I couldn’t lose it. Not yet, but that time was coming so close. It whispered to me, seductive and alluring.
I grew up in violence. It had always been hard, abrasive, bitter. And I’d had my fair share of scrapes when I was mourning for Kyle. I always hated it, hated myself afterward, but this was different.
This need for violence was almost sensual, and once everything was copied—I let myself go.
I stopped thinking.
I stopped feeling.
My mind went on autopilot as I destroyed the video, destroyed all of the footage. He violated me. He violated his sister, but I still couldn’t vandalize an entire computer.
And then I thought of where that footage ended.
He had watched us kiss.
My stomach churned, not knowing what else he had watched. If he let it play, if he watched her?
I’d seen that look in his eye. He wanted to control her, have her back under his thumb. My dad had the same need. Kyle and I had to wear the clothes he picked. We could eat when he said so. We even showered when he declared it was our time. He controlled everything. It’d been abusive, and I thought that’s what I saw in Matthew’s eyes, but had there been something else? Something sicker?
I heard a click in my head as somewhere deep down, my mind turned off.
I turned and ripped the hard drive out of the computer and strode into the bathroom. Finn and Jen followed me, and I gritted out, “I need a lighter.”
I wanted everything destroyed. I didn’t know if I was going above and beyond. I didn’t care. I wanted every last scrap charred and burned.
Finn looked at Jen. She hesitated. I said, “I know you smoke, Jen.”
She sighed and reached into her pocket. She tossed it to me, and I flicked it on, running it beneath where the magnetism was, melting it. After letting it burn for a few minutes, I tossed it into the toilet. It didn’t go out, not right away, but once it did, some of the rage lessened. I felt more in control, slightly.
I looked at the two. It seemed neither were breathing.
“You can tell him my lawyers will be waiting for his call.”
I left the house, walking right past where Morgan and Abby were sitting, not far from the barn.
“Brody?” Morgan stood. She could tell something was wrong.
I just waved, not looking over. “Keep talking. I’ll be in the cabin.”
“What’s wrong?”
Christ. I finally looked at her. Could I tell her? He was watching her.
Could I destroy whatever she felt toward him?
I looked at Abby. She’d be told anyway. It would get out.
I shook my head. “I don’t want to tell you this, Morgan.”
I expected to see her pull away, to become wary. She did neither. Her mouth flattened into a strong line, and she stepped toward me with purpose. Even her voice was firm. “Tell me.”
Abby jumped to her feet, biting her lip again. “Is it Finn? Did you hurt him?”
“No.” Well, yes.
I couldn’t say the words. I didn’t want to say the words. Matthew was a piece of shit, but this would send Morgan over the edge. She’d go back to the horses, and even I didn’t know if I’d see her again.
“We found video footage on Matt’s hard drive,” Finn said from behind me.
He was holding tight to Jen’s hand.
Abby gasped.
He added, “Brody destroyed it.”
There could be other copies besides the one in my pocket. My stomach rolled over on itself. If there were . . . I couldn’t go there. My hands were already forming into fists.
Morgan didn’t react. Her eyes were just question
ing, looking back to me. I didn’t look away as I stepped toward her. “Morgan—”
Finn spoke over me, “He had a video of them together.” He let his sister comprehend it.
I couldn’t look away from Morgan.
She didn’t once look away from me, as I scraped the words from my throat, saying, “He watched us.”
Brody
Morgan’s face gave nothing away, but she snapped her head toward her siblings. “You won’t tell him.”
“What?”
She clipped her head from side to side. “I mean it. You lie for Brody. Matt isn’t to know it was him.”
“His hard drive is destroyed. He had business on there. He’s going to flip.”
“I don’t care. Tell him I did it.”
“What?” Abby and Finn shared a look. Abby asked again, “What?”
“I did it. I found out what was on there, and I was the one who destroyed the computer.” Morgan swallowed tightly, lifting her head higher.
God.
My heart pounded a little harder.
She took my breath away.
“He won’t say a goddamn word then.” Morgan turned, her eyes slightly wild, as if she didn’t believe what she was saying. She walked toward me, but she didn’t stop. She took my hand and led me to my cabin.
I pulled her to a stop before turning to Finn. “You get those cameras taken down.”
He nodded, running a tired hand over his face. “First thing tomorrow.”
“Tonight.” Morgan had turned back. “I mean it.” Her face was in a set mask. She was dead serious, and she let everyone see it before she tugged on my hand again. As we went for the cabin, I heard Jen murmur, “Your sister is a badass. And bossy.”
No one commented.
I went straight to the liquor cabinet but then remembered Gayle cleaned everything out. “Fuck!”
Bracing my hands on the counter, I leaned down. I was holding on to that thing like I wished it were Matthew’s throat. I wanted to strangle him. I wanted to beat the shit out of him, and once he healed, I wanted to do it all over again. And again. And again.
Morgan took a step near me, but she didn’t say anything.
A savage growl built in my throat. “I want to fucking beat the shit out of your brother.”
