Makena wanted to keep the family farm with the same name her grandfather gave it, and none of us had a problem with that. She worked hard to keep it in the family, at times too hard. Getting herself hurt, and most recently nearly dying, spurred my brother to take action and relocate over to Waterford. Noxx was all about Mack and their son, and the upcoming arrival of a daughter. I couldn’t wait to see my brother deal with having a girl, although I had to admit I was pretty nervous waiting for my niece to arrive. If she takes the path of her daredevil mother, Noxx was going to need some back-up.
Walking further into the stables, I instantly looked for Blake. I sent her a text an hour ago, but she hadn’t answered, and I wanted to know why.
“Blake!” I shouted as I made my past the stalls down to the one at the very end.
I kept Lancelot away from the other horses because he was a real trouble maker. The beast, as Blake affectionately called him, found great joy in stirring up the other horses, and generally making life in the stables … noisy.
From one of the stalls, my second in charge, Eddy, sauntered out, a headstall and a lead rope slung over his shoulder, but it was his grimace that had my hairs standing on the back of my neck.
“What?” I asked immediately. I knew that look, it was a look all of the employees had whenever Blake was up to no good.
“I turned my back for ten minutes to administer a drench to Molly and she took advantage of it.” Eddy shrugged as if I knew exactly what was coming next.
Dropping my chin to my chest, I blew out a frustrated breath. “I do not need this right now,” I grumbled tiredly, “get Stash saddled up for me, will ya.”
“Already had Joe do it when I heard ya pull up mate,” Eddy said, pointing behind me.
“Jesus, she is going to make me grey before I turn thirty.” Turning around, I headed to the stall where my favourite horse would be waiting for me, saddled and ready. Thank god my workers knew me well, at least they understood my need for order on the Triple H, Blake not so much.
“She has an hour head start on ya Hendrixx. She hasn’t stopped talking about them since she heard they were sighted yesterday,” Eddy went on following behind me.
“Yeah and she knows she can get away because I have been spending so much time over in Waterford. Who the hell told her that the mob is in the area again?” I asked as I reached the stall, Stash standing on the outside tethered to the gate waiting for me.
“I believe it was … Hmmmm can’t say I remember boss,” Eddy hedged very badly, I already knew who her spy was and when Fenixx made an appearance he was going to feel my fist in his face.
Fenixx was just as obsessed with the mob of brumbies as Blake was, both of them had spies all over the district, letting them know as soon as the wild horses entered the valley on HHH property.
Slamming my foot into the stirrup, I easily swung up into the western style saddle, Stash standing still letting me get settled.
“What horse is she on?”
“Princess is missing,” Eddy answered, ducking his face so I couldn’t see the smirk I knew would be there.
Great, she took the second most high-spirited horse in the stables. I guess I should be happy she didn’t saddle up the stallion.
Grabbing the reins from the gate, I glared at Eddy.
“Tell Fenixx he better have the horses all fed by the time I get back, considering I don’t have time to do it now I have to chase down Blake,” I ordered at the same time I urged Stash forward. “Oh, and also tell him he is a fucking arsehole, and he better be prepared to get a punch in his pretty face,” I called over my shoulder, giving my horse a gentle kick breaking him into a trot. We had a rule around the stables that there was to be nothing faster than a trot until the rider was clear of the slippery brick ground. That rule pissed me off all of a sudden, Blake was an hour ahead of me, which meant she could very well already be on the mob’s trail.
“You got it boss, tell Fenixx—”
Eddy’s voice trailed off, as I got closer to the main doors. It was possible that I shut what he was about to say out, or it could have been because I broke my own rule and pushed Stash into a canter before the doors. Either way, my mind was focused on finding Blake as fast as possible. I didn’t want Blake to be anywhere around any of the brumbies, but especially the leader of the mob. The big grey might be beautiful to look at from a distance, but he didn’t have a friendly bone in his body, despite what Blake believed. Capturing him and bringing him into the breeding program like Fenixx and Blake planned was not going to happen, not while I was head of the Triple H. Fenixx might be my brother and the director of the breeding, but he didn’t know Blake the way I did, she would stop at nothing to lasso the wild horse and bring him back.
He also didn’t care about Blake the same way as me, to him she was a little sister. To me?
There was nothing brotherly about my feelings for her, far fucking from it, in fact.
Sitting back in the saddle, I let Stash take off in the direction of the valley. It was good having a horse know my moods and read my body language just by a squeeze of my thighs or a barely-there tug on the reins. It meant I could concentrate on
