April, Dani - Superstar (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (13 page)

“I want to get to know her better.” Brad caught himself raising his voice and then had to lower it again. “All I want to spend my time doing now is getting to know her better.”

“We’ve only known her for two days for Christ’s sake.” Ethan was getting in one of his moods. Brad knew there was anger behind every word he spoke.

“It isn’t exactly like she was a total stranger.” Brad lowered his voice and hoped Ethan would do the same. “I mean, she is famous. All we have to do is turn on a TV or read a newspaper, and we’ll see her.”

“You never liked her music, her silly TV show, or her movies,” Ethan reminded him. “Neither did I.”

“No, I never did,” Brad admitted, but he was not about to be deterred. “But who the fuck cares? I love her, man.”

Ethan smiled. Brad knew that smile. It was wicked. “She is a nice piece of ass,” Ethan told him between big mouthfuls of his breakfast.

“Is that all you ever think about women?”

“Yeah, most of the time.” Ethan laughed. “After you really get to know a chick, that’s normally all there is…just a nice piece of ass.”

Brad set his coffee cup down, tried taking a bite of his eggs, then pushed them aside as well. “I know there’s a lot of problems associated with this situation,” he told Ethan, his common sense and reason returning. “Hell, I wish Chrissie had turned out to be just the average girl down the street. I wish like everything that she wasn’t who she was because I know that complicates the fuck out of it all. Listen, bro, in spite of what you might think of me, I’m not a fool, and this isn’t my first relationship.”

“Thank you for adding some sanity back to our lives, bro.” Ethan sounded relieved.

“All right, but I can’t help the way I feel about her,” Brad said. “If you weren’t such a coldhearted bastard you’d feel the same way.”

Ethan looked down at the table, and Brad thought he might have seen the hint of a feeling pass over his face. “I told you I like her,” he said. “She’s a real nice girl. In fact…shit, she’s down right incredible. She’s the type of girl who can be one of the guys, but then can get all dressed up in her fur and be the fanciest and smartest lady at a dinner party. She has a lot of poise and confidence, but she has to because that’s her job as a movie star. She can also fuck like there’s no tomorrow.”

Brad smiled at this last admission.

Scott came out to join them. He was alone. Brad and Ethan looked at him for an answer as to where Chrissie was.

“She’ll be out in a minute,” he told them. He had a faraway look on his face.

“Everything all right?” Brad asked.

“She’s just brushing her teeth,” Scott said. “I gave her my toothbrush.”

Scott dished himself up breakfast and begin eating, not looking either of his brothers in the eye. Brad thought about saying something to him and then decided against it. Scott was probably feeling a lot of what he was feeling right now, and he would have to work through it in his own way. Scott was no idiot either and had to know the odds they were up against and the near impossibility of a future relationship with this woman.

Ethan pushed back his chair and got up from the table. “Your turn to do the dishes, bro.” He looked over at Brad. “I’m going out back to cut some more wood. We need the wood, and I need to clear my head. Scott, man, why don’t you come on out and help me as soon as you’re through with your breakfast?”

“Yeah…sure…okay…” Scott mumbled into his food, not bothering to look up.

“What about me, bro?” Brad asked him.

“Why don’t you feed the dogs as soon as you’re finished with the dishes?”

Brad gave him an evil look.

“Don’t give me that,” Ethan was quick to shoot back at him. “We’re leaving you alone with the young lady all morning. I’m sure you’ll think of something to do.”

Brad laughed and threw a bunched-up paper napkin at him. He was being given a few hours alone with Chrissie. What in the name of all his better judgment would he say to her?

* * * *

Brad loaded up the dishwasher. Scott had put on his coat and left to find Ethan in the back acreage of their lot. Skipper came trotting out across the hardwood floor, tail wagging. Brad reached down to pet the dog.

“I guess I should get your food for you, huh, boy?” he asked him and then went about getting a can of hash out of the cupboard which served as their dog food.

In another minute Chrissie came out. She was wearing a white pullover undershirt, one of Scott’s and way too big for her, floating down to her knees. Her long, blonde hair had been freshly washed and was positively glowing as it hung down past her shoulders and contrasted with the pure white of her shirt.

“Good morning, beautiful movie star,” Brad greeted her, reaching to take her in his arms.

“No,” she corrected him. “I’m not starring in a movie now.” But she let him hug and kiss her, the warm and taut body under the fabric of the shirt feeling so good in his hold.

“Just good morning, beautiful, then.” Brad found he was just as happy as Chrissie to drop the “movie star” from the greeting.

She kissed him back and reached past him up to the cupboard where the many cans of hash and corned beef were stored. She had already learned her way around this kitchen and also learned what served as dog food.

“Peaches and Cream are getting hungry,” she told him, then padded on bare feet over to the refrigerator to get a bottled water out. “Also for Peaches and Cream. Their water bowl is almost empty.”

She paused, looking about the kitchen, evidently searching for something. She looked so sexy floating around in that white undershirt Brad could hardly keep his hands off her and already felt another hard-on grow beneath his boxers.

“Where do you guys keep the ketchup?” she asked him.

He opened a top cabinet door and handed a newly opened bottle down to her. “Ketchup?” he asked her.

“Peaches and Cream take ketchup on their hash. You should give it to Skipper sometime. He’ll love it.”

He couldn’t let her leave him without stopping her for another kiss. She put her arms around his shoulders and returned it, and then taking her hash, water, and ketchup bottle, ran back out of the kitchen and down the hallway to her bedroom.

Brad sighed. She was just so gorgeous. That wasn’t all. She was really down-to-earth and also incredibly smart. Why did she have to be so damn perfect and at the same time on such a high pedestal he could never hope to reach her?

He went back to the dishwasher. They were almost finished, and he decided to take them out early so he could dry them and put them away. Perhaps Chrissie would want something when she returned from her dogs.

There was a knock on the front door of the cabin. Someone was outside, and he didn’t think it could be either Scott or Ethan since they had both headed out to the back lot behind the cabin. Anyway, neither of them would knock on the door. They would just simply barge right inside.

He dried his hands with a dish towel and went out to the front door. Just before he got there, whoever it was started knocking once more, this time more urgently.

When Brad opened the door, a Colorado State Trooper was standing outside in full uniform.

“Good morning,” the trooper greeted him with a friendly smile. “Sorry to bother you so early in the morning.”

“That’s all right, officer,” Brad told him. “Has there been some trouble? Something I can help you with?”

“I guess you’ve probably heard on the news about the missing celebrity up here in these parts?”

Brad wasn’t sure what to say. Yes, he sure as hell had heard about it. But why was that any of the trooper’s business, or anyone else’s for that matter? And why was the law involved anyway? What was going on here? He decided to just give a noncommitted shrug of his shoulders.

“Her name is Chrissie Murphy.” The trooper dug into his coat pocket for a photograph of Chrissie, one that was a close-up of her, perhaps even her driver’s license photo. “She went missing from the Grand Banks hotel the night before last. She was last seen driving a small Ford rental car.”

Brad reluctantly took the photo from the trooper. It really wasn’t a very good picture, though it was good enough to identify the starlet, certainly for him as well as he now knew her. He didn’t relish the prospect of lying to a member of law enforcement. The officer could clearly see he was dissembling. He had paused long and hard over the photo.

“Could I ask what this is all about?” he finally decided to ask.

“That picture seem to ring a bell with you?” The trooper answered his question with a question.

“I know who Chrissie Murphy is…” Brad was on the verge of coming clean and telling the officer everything. After all, he hadn’t broken any law. But the decision was taken out of his hands. Apparently Chrissie had been in the back listening to the conversation.

She now came out of the back of the cabin. At first Brad felt relieved. She was going to come out and talk to the trooper and get everything settled.

But as Brad quickly found out, Chrissie had other ideas in mind. The first thing he noticed was that she was holding her hand up to her face, obscuring her profile. Her hair had been hurriedly tucked under her shirt, and the way she had fixed it made her look as if she had much shorter hair.

“Bradley, who the fuck is it at this hour?” Her voice was different. She had a country twang that was very pronounced and not half bad. Only problem was it made her IQ sound about fifty points less.

Brad was so shocked he couldn’t even answer her. The trooper was obviously very intrigued as he peered further inside the cabin.

“Oh, I’m sorry, officer.” Chrissie put the twang on thick. “I didn’t see you a stand’n there.”

She looked up for the first time. The whole side of her face, the side she was holding, was covered in blood. He couldn’t even see that side of her face, it was just swollen and red.

“What happened to your face, ma’am?” The officer stepped halfway across the threshold now, sensing violence had been done to the girl.

“Oh, noth’n much. Just an accident, officer.” Chrissie winked at the officer out of her good eye. “My good for noth’n husband and me was hav’n ourselves a fight. Just one of them kind of accidents, if you know what I mean, officer?”

“Ma’am, I think you ought to come with me.” The officer was concerned and now turned a mean look over toward Brad. “Looks like your vehicle is snowed in out there, and it might be a while before you can get it out. You look like you need medical attention right now. I’ll take you down to the county med center.”

“Oh, that isn’t necessary, officer.” Chrissie’s twang was so convincing Brad had even started to think of her as a different person. “I’ve had a lot worse accidents than this here before when Bradley and I start a fight’n.” She hit Brad on his arm and laughed. “I done broke my arm last time. Remember that, you bastard?”

Again Brad was speechless.

“Ma’am, was there domestic violence done to you by your husband here?” the trooper asked her point-blank.

“Oh no, officer, I had an accident.” She winked at the trooper one more time.

“Ma’am, you look like you’ve sustained a bad injury. This isn’t a joke.” The trooper was stern with her and gave Brad another mean glare out of the corner of his eye. “I wish you would reconsider and let me take you into county med.”

“Thanks just the same, officer.” Now she gave a dirty look up to Brad. “My husband and I got our fight’n put behind us. He got’s hisself a woman up in the city and doesn’t think I know about it.” She gave him another punch to the forearm. This one would probably leave a bruise.

The trooper was fast losing patience with both of them. “Ma’am, that’s not what I came here for.” He addressed all his questions to Chrissie now, avoiding even a glance in Brad’s direction. “I came here to inquire about a missing person. She could have been in this area night before last. Perhaps you might have seen her?”