“I am not jealous, Hendrixx,” Nixx scoffed, his eyes narrowing, “my love life is just fine, thanks.”
“Is it really? Funny, you go out for pizza nearly every night of the week, but you come home alone and smelling of nothing expect wood-fired pizza. Not perfume and no Farron.” I knew bringing up the name of the woman that Fenixx was in love with would hit the right spot to get a rise out of him. For a long time now, Nixx has been carrying a torch for the owner of a wood-fired pizza joint in Cattle Ridge. He went in every night, sat down ordered pizza, ate it then left. Not once did he approach the lovely owner Farron, never spoke to her, nothing.
“Don’t talk about shit you have no idea about I have it handled Hendrixx, let’s drop it before I knock that pretty face of yours in, then Blake won’t want to look at you anymore, maybe she will turn to Joe—”
Striking out my fist, I land an uppercut right on my brother’s chin catching him by surprise, knocking him off his feet and into the edge of the table.
“Fucking prick!” Another punch followed my roar, but Fenixx had righted himself and saw it coming. Blocking my blow with his arm, he rushed at me head down, hitting me in the stomach, knocking the wind out of me and both of us to the floor.
“Fuck Fenixx, get the hell off me,” I grunted, taking an elbow to the ribs.
“Ahhhhh, brotherly love,” Lenoxx laughed from the doorway, halting mine and Fenixx’s wrestling match.
“You know my four year-old-son is more mature than you two idiots,” Lenoxx admonished, “now cut it out before Mum sees you and wraps Fenixx in cotton wool.” Noxx stalked in, grabbed Fenixx by the arm, and dragged him to his feet.
“He started it,” I muttered, climbing slowly to my feet, my ribs and stomach protesting.
Damn, Fenixx hit hard, the mongrel.
“What are you? Five? Jesus Drixx, you know—” Fenixx yanked his arm away from Lenoxx, anger and annoyance written all over his face.
“He knows Lenoxx, fuck everyone knows not to hit me in the chest. Jesus Christ, I’m not six years old,” he yelled angrily, pushing past Noxx and me, and stormed out of the room, leaving us to stare opened mouthed after him.
“Fenixx, wait,” I called out, but he was already heading down the hall.
“Shit, I didn’t mean to belittle him,” Lenoxx muttered, looking at the door Fenixx left through.
“You didn’t Noxx, and you know how he gets when we remind him about being careful. I know the doctors said he was in the clear, but—”
“He is a part of us and we worry,” Lenoxx finished for me, reading my mind. It was a trait the three of us possessed, to know what the other was going to say, what we were thinking. We also felt the other’s pain, and right now, Fenixx was not in a good place.
Noxx shook his head, I could feel his concern for our younger triplet radiating off him.
“I can’t help but worry; he pushes boundaries in everything he does like bull riding and bucking broncs. He is becoming reckless, and I am worried he is going to go one step too far and will really hurt himself.”
“I know, but we can’t hold him back, mate. Out of all of us, Fenixx is the most stubborn, the more we push, the more he will do what he shouldn’t. Nixx has been trying to prove he can keep up with us his whole life, and I have felt so much guilt it happened only to him and not us,” I admitted, knowing Lenoxx had the same mindset as me.
“Triplets share everything, at least we have, but we didn’t get the curveball thrown at us he did,” Lenoxx agreed softly.
We stood there quietly but not in silence, our unique bond speaking volumes as we both thought of our brother’s turmoil.
After a few minutes, I started straightening up the papers knocked off the table, sorting through them now held no appeal, and I had no time. Blake had been alone for long enough, and honestly, I missed her. Our first time together had only been two days ago, and since then she had barely been out of my sight. We shared breakfast, lunch and dinner, and every minute in between. The best part being the nights, two nights of falling asleep with Blake wrapped up in my arms, sweet sweat glistening on her skin from our lovemaking. And best of all, a happy glow spread on her beautiful face.
It didn’t get any better than that for me.
Blake was mine, but it went deeper than that. She was my other half, my girlfriend, yes, a new phase in our relationship that made me happy as fuck. It was new, but at the same time, we were still the same friends who had worked side by side for years. Each of us passionate about taking the Triple H further, growing the areas of the farm my dad didn’t really take seriously. He had been a cattle baron, beef, and breeding, but with Blake, I was working on expanding the horse side and it helped that she saw my vision and lucky for me it was the same as mine.
Now, all I wanted to do was get out to the stables or wherever she was right now, and kiss her.
“Dad’s shit?” Lenoxx asked, looking over the desk with a concerned frown.
“Yeah, Nixx and I are trying to find something documented about his dealings with Buchanan, but we seemed to have underestimated our father,” I replied, pissed off that I’d come up blank after hours of reading boring and useless documents.
“Dad was crafty, and we’ve gotta think like him if we are
