Page 86 of Shelter for Morgan

Benji directed his gaze at the plate and swallowed hard.

“They… they don’t know I’m here.”

Rhett felt his own stomach sour.

He took out his phone. “What’s their number?”

Benji wouldn’t look at him. “You don’t need to call, man, they don’t care.”

Rhett shook his head. “Your mom was really upset at the hospital.”

“She’s always upset when she thinks I’m causing problems. Getting top grades in chemistry? Nothing. Radio silence. But if she thinks I’m in trouble she just hauls off and-”

He clamped his lips together and stared down at his plate as if the food was covered in slime.

“She doesn’t really care, man. Not the way she should.”

Rhett felthis heart clench in his chest. “Benji-”

“Benjamin.” His voice was soft. Almost a whisper. “My name is Benjamin, like my granddad. My m- She calls me Benji.”

“Benjamin,” Rhett repeated. “Does your mother hurt you?”

The whole room seemed to go silent. The other firefighters had lowered their voices and the room seemed to be filled with worry.

“She used to, until I got taller than she is. Now she just tells me how worthless I am. I think,” he chuckled but it was more of a scoff, “she’s kind of afraid of me.”

“We can get you help, Benjamin.”

Rhett saw Cowboy nodding out of the corner of his eye and Peace pulled Kylie down into his lap to give her a hug.

Rhett understood the feeling. He wanted his arms around Morgan at that moment, too.

“I’m more concerned about Miss Rafferty than me, you know?”

Rhett’s whole mood changed.

Now, he was on full alert.

“What about Morgan, Benjamin?”

“She’s going to get herself in trouble if she keeps rubbing Munder the wrong way.”

That name he knew. “Officer Munder? What kind of danger would he put Morgan in?”

Benjamin lifted his arm in its sling. “He’s the reason I’m like this.”

MORGAN

“Benji used to do all the cooking, man. I hate this stuff, it smells like shit.”

Easing forward, Morgan saw the chemistry set up in the room. She couldn’t see the faces of the people in the room, she almost didn’t want to.

She’d learned in the theater class that her high school made her take that if you could see them… they could see you.

The chemistry set up wasn’t anything she recognized from labs in her high school.

And the smell, when it reached her nose, made her want to gag.

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