Free The Morrigan: Damaged Deities by Kennan Reid Page A

eyes, and sat down.  
    He simply winked at her.
    After their first meeting she hadn’t thought anything about him could be gentlemanly, but if he’d apparently kept their encounter secret, then maybe she was wrong. 
    “You never mentioned your brother being here,” Morrie said, an edge to her voice. 
    “Did I no’?” Kamden replied, his eyebrows innocently raised. 
    The brothers sat, with Kamden returning to his newspaper and Kade forgetting about his plate, focusing instead on Morrie while still grinning in a devilish way that put her on alert.
    “Wha’ brings ye all the way tae MacLeod Manor, Morrie?” he asked.  He quirked an eyebrow. “An arrangement?”
    Okay, so maybe not such a gentleman.
    “No,” she answered, grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl.
    “Morrie’s an expert horse trainer from Oklahoma,” Kamden answered in a gruff tone. “I hired her tae catch that wild horse we have plaguing our lands.”
    His smile faltering a bit, Kade’s eyebrows rose as he turned to his brother.
    “Didya, noo?” He grinned at her. “Got a bit o’ a way wi’ the cuddies, do ye?”  When she shrugged, he asked, “So ye’re stayin’ until the horse is caught, then?”
    “Yes, which means I’ll be leaving today.” Both brothers turned their attention to her. “I caught him last night.”
    The men exchanged a look with Kade muttering, “She works quick.”
    Kamden put his newspaper down, resting his elbows on the table as he leaned forward. 
    “What did ye do wi’ him?”
    “I have him locked up.” Morrie scowled, offended at their apparent disbelief. “He’s out in your stables, if you’d like to see him.”
    “I’d love tae see this brilliant steed,” Kade said, standing as Morrie did. 
    With an unreadable expression, Kamden stood as well and both brothers followed her out to the stables. 
    Morrie brought the apple to feed to the horse. 
    He might be a killer, but he was still a living creature.  And if they were all honest, she had blood on her own hands, as well.
    As soon as the cold air hit her, Morrie wished she’d had grabbed a coat, only to remember it had been torn to shreds by the very horse they headed out to visit. 
    No matter, she won’t need it once she was back in Oklahoma.
    Kade sidled up beside her, hands in his low-slung jeans pockets, brushing his arm against hers. 
    “Bit chilly out, aye?” he murmured, his gaze dipping to her chest.  “Could wrap my arm ‘round ye, tae keep ye warm.”
    “I’m fine, thank you,” she forced a smile at him, inwardly cursing the longing in her stomach to have him wrap more than just an arm around her. 
    The feeling creeping to her breasts, she crossed her arms over her chest, hoping to conceal the evidence of how he affected her.
    “Ye an American?” he asked, keeping his tone light as he gave her a little space.
    “I suppose so,” she answered, eyes focused on the stables ahead and anxious to encounter the horse again. 
    She wondered how he would look in the daylight.  It had been hard to tell the color of his coat in the dark—would he be a deep chestnut or black as tar?
    “I always wanted tae visit America,” Kade said as they approached the stable doors. 
    Grabbing one door with Kamden getting the other, the brothers pulled them open and Morrie stepped inside.
    The daylight broke through in streams, but the once excited horse was silent.  The other two seemed to go about their business without a care. 
    Morrie approached with apprehension, only to have her mouth fall open to find the stall empty. 
    What the fuck?
    Absently handing the apple to Kade, she yanked open the stall gate and searched its lonely contents—the pressed hay and knocked over feed bucket—unable to accept the horse was gone.
    “Where did he go?” she asked with disbelief. 
    Kamden stood behind her at the gate entry frowning, while Kade rested his arms on top of the low stall walls, peering in. 
    Morrie turned around to the younger