Chapter Eighteen #2
“It looks the same as the rest of the river,” Brody grumbles, apparently unimpressed by the vista. He tosses a pebble down the slope, watching it bounce and knock other rocks loose. “I might as well have stayed on the boat to shoot my shot with Donovan while I had the chance.”
“Didn’t she already turn you down?” I growl before I can think better of it.
Brody’s gaze turns cold as he kicks another rock down. “What do you know about it, Riley?”
I should have kept my mouth shut. Let him be a tool and keep my focus on the incredible view.
But since I’m in it now, I fold my arms and face the guy who has managed to get on my nerves far more easily than I’d like.
“Nothing,” I say calmly. “I just know she has too much self-respect to settle for someone who doesn’t deserve her. ”
He scoffs and matches my stance. Unfortunately for him, he’s a good two inches shorter than me and fifty pounds of muscle lighter. “And what? You deserve her? She only likes you because you’re famous.”
“She doesn’t like me,” I argue. “And she’s not going to change her mind about you just because you want her to, so give up before you—”
“Right,” he drawls, rolling his eyes. “You already gave her what she wants, so you think she won’t come looking for more? You can’t have been that good.”
As my body stiffens and my jaw grows tight, I stare at him and try to understand why he’s insinuating what he is. “What?”
“I saw the two of you come out of the trees all hot and bothered yesterday, so I know she’s not like the rest of the self-righteous try-hards on this trip who won’t put out.
” He gestures to Zahra and Morgan with a sneer, and something in me burns hot, muffling his words as it blazes in my ears.
“Though I’m sure they’d crawl into your tent if you asked.
Why don’t you do us all a favor and save a piece of the pie for the rest of us, eh, Riley?
You’re not as special as you think you are. ”
My feet carry me forward before I can stop myself, bringing me only inches from him as I crowd his space and loom over him.
I’ve never been a violent person, but the idea of “accidentally” knocking Brody off the edge of the cliff is alarmingly tempting right now.
Suddenly I understand the way Cole reacts whenever someone gets too close to Carissa.
The way Elliot sees everyone as his enemy if they speak even a little bit poorly about Freya.
I’ve always been protective of my friends, but this feels different.
It would be one thing if he only talked bad about Donovan; she can take care of herself. But he brought the other women into this, and I won’t tolerate it.
“A word of advice,” I say in a low voice, channeling an old character of mine.
Someone who stood his ground with confidence.
“The next time you talk about a woman like something to be consumed, think about how attached you are to certain appendages. One of these days, someone might consider relieving you of one of them if you insist on being a…” What I want to call him sits on the tip of my tongue, but I don’t want to be vulgar like him.
I swallow the word and hope he sees it in my eyes. He knows what he is.
Brody was already red from the exertion of the hike, but now he’s nearly purple, staring up at me with an equal measure of fear and fury. His response might be any number of things, and I can only hope he’s smart enough to keep his hands to himself.
He’s not.
His elbow cocks back, fist at the ready, and I don’t doubt he has a decent arm.
But he forgot one crucial piece of information.
Halfway through his punch, his fists lands into Hunter’s large hand at the same time Hunter shoves him backward.
Zahra and Morgan both scream while a couple of the college guys shout and rush forward, but the whole thing is over before it even begins.
“Think again,” Hunter snaps at Brody, who manages to stay on his feet despite the force of Hunter’s shove. Pretty sure my bodyguard went easy on him because we’re on top of a cliff.
Which is a good thing, I remind myself, if disappointing. I’ve seen Hunter perform a lot of impressive stunts keeping overeager people away from me, but something like this isn’t worth facing murder charges.
Farah, who looks between Brody and me with uncertainty in her eyes, clears her throat before saying something about following her down the other side and staying close because the trail can be easy to miss.
Brody snarls as he passes. He’s the first one to follow Farah, but not without spitting a colorful curse at me that’s full of words I would have liked to use for him.
The next few days could get interesting, but I won’t regret what I said.
After a moment, it’s only me, Hunter, and the three WanderLove guests left at the top, and only then do I let myself take a full breath and relax. That went better than it could have, but I’m not sure I can say it was great.
“Dude,” Maverick says, as if my inhale was the signal to break the tension. “You didn’t even flinch.”
“I think you’re my hero, Derek Riley,” Morgan says, batting her eyelashes at me.
Zahra has far less admiration in her expression, her face instead filled with relief as she whispers, “Thank you, Derek,” to the rocks beneath her feet.
Just how bad has Brody been?
Anger still burning in my chest, I send a questioning look to Hunter, who gives me a nod of acknowledgement. He’ll keep an eye on the women and prevent Brody from any further harassment. It’s a much better use of his talents than keeping me from tripping over rocks.
“We should get going,” I mutter, nodding to the group descending to the river. As Morgan and Zahra take each other’s hands and start down the trail, I grab Maverick’s arm to hold him back. When he looks at me, a question in his eyes, I keep my voice calm as I say, “What’s your plan, Mav?”
He frowns. “What do you mean?”
I’m making assumptions, but my gut tells me I’m right about this. “When the trip is over, how are you going to pair everyone up?”
From the start of this trip, he’s been pretty even-keeled and only mildly emotive, but now Maverick gapes at me with shock and embarrassment splashed across his face. “How did—”
“I need to know the women will be safe from Brody. Tell me there’s not some crazy contract forcing people together or anything.”
He shakes his head. “No. No, the trip is just a way of putting people together who might click, but that’s all it is. I didn’t…” He huffs out a breath. “I didn’t know Brody was such a tool.”
“That’s the problem with people on the internet.” I sigh, thinking of the million tabloid stories that are constantly circulating about me and my friends. “You never get the full story.” I pat him on the back and start down the trail, Hunter and Maverick behind me.
A moment later, Hunter asks a soft question not meant for me, but I listen anyway. “You made the website?”
Maverick hesitates but says, “Yeah. WanderLove is probably dead, isn’t it?”
“Maybe it needs some tweaking,” Hunter says, making me smile, “but I wouldn’t give up just because you’ve had some hiccups.”
“Hiccups?” Maverick laughs without humor. “I should have stepped in when we first got here. It’s not like Brody’s been subtle with his crap. But no, I had to be a coward and make Derek Riley fix my mistake.”
Though I want to turn around and argue, I keep my mouth shut.
I’ve been where he is. It can be hard to step up and protect people around you.
Before I met Bonnie, I more often than not kept my head down and did my job instead of stirring the pot.
It was Bonnie’s humility and kindness in the face of cruelty that eventually pushed me to speak up and care more about someone else’s happiness than my own perfection.
Maverick just needs someone to give him a similar push.
“You’ll figure things out,” Hunter says. “This was just one attempt.”
Maverick sighs. “Yeah. I’ll learn from this and do better next time.”
“Exactly. Failure is part of life.”
“Nobody’s perfect, right?”
My foot slides on a loose rock, but I regain my balance and keep moving, even though I feel Hunter’s eyes on my back. He knows I’ve been listening, and he’s going to want to talk. But I don’t know if this is a conversation I can have.
Nobody’s perfect.
Maverick is right, and of course nobody’s perfect. It’s the nature of being human, and I’ve never expected anyone to be perfect or even come close. No one except me.
Why is it so easy to believe it when it comes to everyone else, but I can accept nothing less from myself?
I thought I knew the answer once, but like I told Donovan yesterday, something changed.
Something in me broke. Bonnie doesn’t know it, but her goodness was the first thing to get me to go to therapy and try to get over my issues, and the tools I honed in those sessions worked for a long time.
I stopped meeting with my therapist after I met Liam, when life got too busy to keep up with regular visits, but it wasn’t until the last couple of years that my cracks started to grow beyond what I could patch.
When my life started to slowly crumble around me.
Yes, I should go back to therapy, but this feels too urgent. Whatever I’m doing wrong, I need to fix it before I crash to earth and potentially bring the people I care about down with me.
Maybe it’s for the best that Donovan is avoiding me; the last thing I need is to drag her into my mess when it’s clear she has a mess of her own.