Chapter 3
Chapter Three
RHYS
W e watch as Morgan enters back into the house. I hate myself for the way my eyes drop to her ass. I blame the silk sleep shorts and the fact that I need to get laid. Not to mention copping an eye full of boob this morning.
I’ll give it to her, she’s beautiful. Even covered in those bruises.
They only show her strength, although I’m certain she doesn’t see it that way.
I hate that guy for putting them there. I clench my fist at the thought of her being away from home and having to endure it.
Shane takes my clenched hands for another meaning.
“This might have been a mistake. I forgot how much you two hated each other.” Shane breaks the silence.
“It’ll be all right.”
And it will be. She’s in rural Western Australia; we’re hours away from civilisation. Plus, I don’t think it’s hate. It’s more we love to annoy each other. Well, she might hate me.
Shane doesn’t look convinced, he is about to reply but that’s when Beau and Davis decide to join us .
Beau and Davis live here normally, but when I got the call from Shane, I knew it would be for the best if they moved into one of the other houses on the property. They understood but also promised they would be here every morning to steal the coffee.
Davis lights up a smoke; the cherry glows in the morning light. Beau is kicking around loose rocks. Shane just looks out of place, while we wait for Morgan to show up.
I’m telling the guys we have to start moving the cattle around and set up some portable yards, as well as maintenance on the helicopter and buggies, when Morgan exits the house.
She’s wearing a skintight shirt with a flanno tied around her waist. I try to pay her no mind, but the missing pocket on the flanno has me pausing.
I roam over the arms of the shirt tied at her waist. My eyes settle on the cigarette burn on the cuff. My flanno? Who the fuck gave her that?
I look over to see Beau smirking at me, and I found my culprit. I glare at him and announce he is on cattle check duty. He mutters a fuck and takes off to one of the buggies. It’s a boring job, because it’s just driving. Davis is on servicing duty. Shane and I are checking the pregnant heifers.
“And me?” Morgan asks.
Turning to face her, I tell her, “I thought you could help Dani around the caravan park.”
“Then why the fuck am I in boots if I’m just kicking around here?” She gestures to her feet.
“Because this is still the outback, and snakes are very much present. Ants the size of grapes and random nails, glass and who knows what on the ground. Do you want me to go on?”
She flips me off and walks off.
“I’m going to get a phone call from her telling me she’s killed you, aren’t I?” Sighs Shane.
“Probably.” Because yeah, probably.
Brent comes over and informs me that there’s a few trucks coming in about a month’s time, so we need to push the sale cattle up closer.
Fuck, this shit with Morgan couldn’t have come at a worse time.
And as soon as I think that, I immediately mentally berate myself.
Fuck, I’m an asshole. And after this morning—something I did or said triggered a panic attack.
I thought it was going to be a funny way to start the day, tricking her with water, teasing her with that stupid nickname.
Ever since she made us watch Little Mermaid Two, I have called her Morgana, after the sea witch. She hated it and I loved how she reacted to it every time. I’ve been calling her that for years, so that can’t be what triggered the panic attack. Or maybe it is. It’s been six years.
We are completely different people now.
Since Shane and I will be out all day, I stop past the kitchen and pack up some food, and we’re off.
I immediately start in, “So how is it back home? Still shagging Kerry-Anne?”
He groans, “Chief Cooper is getting in deeper with the MC. The cult is growing, and everyone seems to be turning a blind eye. And Kerry-Anne stopped being a bed warmer fucking ages ago.”
Kerry-Ann Woods was meant to be a rebound after Charlotte left. She was married, but that didn’t seem to stop her pursuing Shane. He thought why the fuck not. But she kept coming back. Another thing that whole fucking town knew about but didn’t dare bring up .
“Maybe your dick is magic?” He chuckles but the subject of Kerry-Anne gets dropped. “So, anyone new then? Charlotte is?—“
“I don’t want to hear it.” Charlotte is another subject we don’t talk about.
Well, he doesn’t, I do. We were all close growing up.
So, when Charlotte and Shane got together, no one was shocked.
What did shock everyone was her sudden disappearance.
Shane went mad trying to get answers, but her parents also left not long after, and that’s when he lost hope.
“Okay, so no Charlotte, how about the Hughes?” They used to be a part of my life when I lived in Barrenridge. Feel a little guilty about losing touch. When I was still there, Nash was the basketball town's basketball hero.
“Yeah, they’re good.”
Thank you, Shane, you fountain of information. I hum in response but leave it.
The rest of the day goes by in a blur. We have seven new calves, and I think twelve more ready to drop any day. We’re on our way to check the yards I got Beau and Davis to set up yesterday when the crackle of the radio comes in, “Just got the forecast for this weekend. Thunderstorms.”
“Righto.”
We get cyclones up here, so a thunderstorm is nothing in comparison, but we still have to take precautions and that can take a couple days. Downside to working on a station this large: anything can take a couple days, because of the sheer magnitude of the land.
Which is why we have old, beat-up Suzuki Vitara’s. Davis has rolled one, but because they’re surprisingly sturdy we just got the tractor and rolled it back over. We did have to add a roll cage to all the others after that and when Beau drove his into a fucking tree, they all got bull-bars.
They’re lucky they’re hard workers, or I think Brent would have shot them.
We catch up on nothing important. I can’t say I miss home or the supposed family I left behind, but I have missed my best friend.
My dad died when I was four. I don’t remember much of him, just stories Mum would tell.
That was until she met and married Micheal.
Then every little thing about Dad got put in storage or just thrown out and the stories she once told, stopped.
With Micheal came Reid, my stepbrother. What a fucking twat.
He’s about a year older than me, and he wouldn’t let that go.
Complained about having to move to a small town.
Complained that I got picked as the centre forward for the town’s rugby team.
Complained that he got the smaller room.
So, I had to give up my spot on the team and move to the smaller room.
“This is all for the good of the family.” Mum would say and I have never heard such bullshit in my life, and I said so. I got a lecture of a lifetime followed by a three-month grounding.
I think I was nine when Mum and Micheal announced they were having a daughter together.
I was so excited to be a big brother. Penelope was the cutest baby, from what I could see.
I was never allowed to hold her much or play with her.
Reid twisted everything so I looked like the problem child.
So naturally they were weary of me being around her.
Then Reid and I had to share a room, and that was just chaos.
We hated each other, so putting us in the same room just wasn’t the best idea.
One afternoon when I was about ten, I came home to a photo of my dad and myself torn up laying on my bed.
I knew it was Reid. And I acted as any ten-year-old would have.
Mum said she was disappointed in me. Michael didn’t say anything, just held the icepack to his son’s eye.
While I was getting in trouble, Reid was smirking like he won.
Which I guess he did because the day after that, I was told I had to go stay with my Dad’s parents. For the good of the family.
The irony was not lost on me.
Reid couldn't be the one to leave because he didn't have family in town. They couldn't upgrade the house because of finances. I was a handful, and I looked too much like my Dad. Mum was under Micheal's influence.
But it was none of that. Mum had a new family now; one I was no longer a part of.
It wasn’t all bad though. My grandparents were amazing people. And Shane lived a street over from my grandparents, so he was always over. It’s easy to always be somewhere else when your parents don’t actually care about you. And Shane and Morgan’s parents? They also didn’t care.
Morgan would follow Shane, which was annoying, but my Nanna loved having her over. She is the one who taught her to draw after all. While Nanna taught Morgan to draw and bake, my Poppa taught Shane and I how to fix anything with an engine.
I was planning on doing an apprenticeship through Damon Woods, but Shane, the fuckhead, decided to start up an affair with his wife. So, I was lost for a little while. Picking up jobs here and there.
Then right as I turned twenty-two, my grandparents passed.
First my grandfather, then soon after my grandmother; they say she died of a broken heart.
And I’m inclined to believe that. They were together for decades.
I never really believed in love; it has a way of hurting you.
But the way my grandparents loved each other gave me some sort of hope.
After they passed, Mum and Michael showed back up. She had the audacity to ask for the house. Penelope was twelve now, and Reid was of course still living at home. They needed more space. Penelope wanted chickens or some shit, and I had the yard for it.
Instead, I privately sold the house and moved to the furthest part of the country. My luck changed when Brent took me on. The old station manager was retiring, so he gave me a chance, showed me the ropes and I haven’t looked back.
Brent, Shelly and Molly became my family. That’s when I learnt what family really is. I leaned on them from time to time and when Shelly passed, Brent leaned on me.
When we make it back, I tell Shane we should go for a quick swim before dinner. The bus would have arrived, so maybe some of the tourists will be by the pool. And by the sounds of it, Shane needs his dick sucked just as much as I do.
Inside the quiet house, I stick my head into Morgan’s room, but she isn’t here. I notice her sketchpad is open, so I quietly step in to look at it.
In big dark lettering spells out ‘Fuck you Ethan’ and then around in much smaller writing is…. Insults? Is this what he has said to her?
The anger from before comes rushing back.
Fuck this guy.
That’s when I notice the words, You’re so predictable.
Fuck. Fuck. FUCK.
Is that what triggered her this morning?
I want to rip out the pages, but I settle for closing the book instead. Not wanting to see the words anymore. Not wanting her to see the words.
Exiting her room, I bump into Shane. “You need to find her ex before I do.”
I should leave this anger to her brother, who is a cop and can get results, the right way.
I don't wait for a reply. I get changed and grab some towels, throwing one at Shane. Making our way to the pool, I hear her before I see her.
Morgan is in the pool, and by the accompanying giggle, she is with Molly, splashing around and laughing.
“Re, are you coming in?”
“Re?” Shane asks.
“Yeah well, I’ve been here as long as she has been alive. She couldn’t say Rhys properly so Re,” I reply to Shane before smiling and addressing Molly. “And yes, I am coming in for a swim.”
I look over to Morgan who is…. is she checking me out? Before I can think more on it, Shane jumps in, splashing all of us.
Molly giggles, I can’t help the smile that curves my lips while I wipe the water away from my face. But that smile vanishes the moment I look at Morgan, who has given me her back. And fuck sake there’s yellowing bruising there as well. Is any part of her body not bruised?
Shane goes on politely ignoring the bruises while I plot the fuckwit’s death.
Morgan turns. “Didn’t anyone tell you it’s rude to stare?”
“My Daddy told me that once.” Molly chirps.
Morgan gives her a hug “You have a smart Daddy.”
“Yes, she does.” Agrees Brent, as he walks up behind us. “Come on Molly, time to get ready for dinner. Seen Beau or Davis?”
“Nah.” And with that I’m jumping into the pool. I resurface in time to hear Morgan tell Shane she’s going to get herself ready for dinner as well. She makes her way to the exit, and that’s when I notice she’s in her bra and panties.
Shane beats me to the question. “What the fuck are you wearing?”
“Ah, a bra and knickers.”
“Why the fuck?”
“I don’t have bathers. And this covers more than any bikini would.”
The fuck it does. It showcases everything. Her full perky breast, tucked in waste, and her round ass. The same round ass I’m still staring at. I always was an ass man.
“Get a good look?” she snaps at me.
I don’t answer. There is no safe answer. I look towards Shane whose eyebrow is arched in question. Again, I don’t answer.
Because what the fuck?