Page 82 of His Stepdad Wears Leather

Noah turned to eye Brody.

“I let him take you the first time… when I sensed something was wrong. I won’t let him take you again.”

“Brody…”

He captured Noah’s stare. “I said I’d protect you. And I will.”

Noah gasped inwardly… and he sensed his daddy would doanythingto keep him safe. Taking a life? It was too much. He wouldn’t ask Brody to go that far.

“I’m not suggesting anyone shoots anyone,” the attorney stated. “Technically, Ididn’tsuggest you get a gun and learn how to use it.Thatwould be unprofessional of me.”

“Understood,” Brody replied, turning to face her.

“We still need the protective order. We need to show Noah is in danger and have it all on the record—in his own words. Noah, get me that statement as soon as you can. Tomorrow would be great.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Noah replied, still reeling from the prospect of what was to come.

Not much later, they drove home in silence, neither of them speaking about what they discussed in the office. That silence had been hard to bear, his mind spinning with scenarios he didn’t want to imagine. Once home, Noah used Brody’s laptop to write his statement while Brody removed two guns from a safe and sat at the dining table, cleaning them.

Hours later, a knock came to the door. They both stiffened. Brody slid one of the guns in the back of his waistband before heading for the door. After gazing through the peephole, he sighed and pulled the door open.

“What in the fuck are you two thinking?” Geena asked from the doorway.

* * *

“Hello, Geena,” Brody said before removing the gun from his back and returning to the dining table and his work. He rested the 9mm beside the revolver he was still in the midst of cleaning.

Geena closed the door and followed him in. “Are you going to answer my question?” She glimpsed the table. “What the fuck, Brody?”

“The attorney gave us little,” Brody said. “A protective order that Walt and Abbie Lee could barrel through. That won’t stop them. You know that as well as I do. So I need to be ready to.”

“Have you gone insane?” Geena asked. “When did you get a gun?”

“I own a club. We’ve had threats against us. So I have protection, in case.” There was another semi-automatic pistol and a shotgun downstairs in the club, locked in his office. For years, there’d been a series of threats—though they’d intensified after Pulse. While he hated guns, his fear and anger had led him to doing something,anythingto protect those he loved. He’d filed for a concealed weapon permit and gone through the appropriate training. He still went to the gun range on a regular basis, making sure he’d be as ready as he could be for danger. If a particular threat sounded legitimate, he carried for a few nights to ensure no one died inside his club.

Not if he could help it.

“Do you even know how to use them?” Geena asked snidely.

He began reassembling the handgun. “Of course I do.”

“This is a side of you I’ve never seen—but considering what Stace told me, there’s a lot of sides to you, Brody. And I’m not likinganyof them.”

“Be mad at me,” Noah said, leaning against the column separating the dining space from the living space. “It wasn’t Brody’s fault. He thought I was a 20-something named Chris.”

“Oh, I’mplentymad at you,” Geena said, turning to Noah. “How could you do this? I mean, before you knew the truth, I can almost understand. It was a mistake. A tragic mistake. But to choose to stay with him?” She spun to face Brody. “And you? You’re letting him stay? You’re his stepfather!”

“We both understand I really wasn’t Stacey’s husband—which means I really wasn’t his stepfather,” Brody argued.

“Is that the justification you’re using to excuse all this in your mind? What about the fact that he’s your son’s brother?” Geena asked.

“Half-brother,” Noah corrected.

Geena spun back to Noah. “Thisisn’tright.”

“We’re twoconsentingadults,” Noah argued. “We’re not related in any way. It’s only wrong in your mind because of proximity. You see him as family. I see him as a man I’ve grown close to. A man who gave me a safe place to stay when I needed it. A man I’ve spent hours in bed with, sharing intimacies.”

Geena held up a hand. “Stop. I don’t want to hear what you’ve done.” She shook her head. “You’ve gutted your mother.”

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