“It’s fine for you little man, what are you two feet tall?” I huffed. Fancy being ridiculed by a four-year-old.
Thank goodness Hendrixx can’t see me now.
“There are a lot of boxes, Blakey,” Daxx declared, using his little body to squeeze through a tight gap, a pile of boxes suddenly fell and just missed his little body.
“Daxx! Careful mate,” I yelled out, shuffling quickly to assist him.
“Sorry,” the cute little tyke apologised, “they was not stacked right.”
Reaching him, I took a second to look him over, determining he was fine, then turned my attention to the mess he’d accidentally created.
“I’m not mad Daxx, just don’t want you to get hurt. Your granny and grandpa didn’t throw anything out, did they?” Twisting myself like a pretzel, I tucked my legs underneath me to sit cross-legged and started to pick up the pages and pages of loose-leaf paper that got up-ended.
“I’m gonna got look over there, ‘kay?”
“Okay, little man, just be careful, please,” I told him, adjusting the headlamp on my head then picked up the box to put everything back in.
The beam of the light caught the top flaps, thick black writing on the top grabbing my attention.
BUCHANAN/ROGERS
Huh? Both names I knew. Obviously Rogers, but Buchanan sounded very familiar. Hendrixx mentioned that name more than once when he spoke of his father and the bombshell that became apparent with what he did to Mack and Noxx and the whole family. Hendrixx was struggling with the actions of Will, the betrayal, and all that it means to him and his brothers. He tries to play it off, but I knew it was affecting him deeply.
Adjusting the light, I shone it on one of the legal looking papers and scanned it. Placing the page on my lap, I went for another, then another, and it didn’t take me long to conclude that Daxx had innocently stumbled across the proof Drixx and his brothers had been looking for over the last few months.
“Oh, my god.” Picking up another small stack of papers, I flipped through them and debated whether to call Hendrixx now or wait for him to contact me. He promised he would call as soon as he was able to after Mack had her baby. I was yet to hear from him, not that I was worried or anything. Babies didn’t come on command, Mack might still be in labour for all I knew. The local hospital serviced the small town of Cattle Ridge and surrounding districts, it was small, but they followed strict rules the same as a city hospital did, so mobile phones had to be turned off and ringing Josie at reception didn’t appeal. My former school mate was one in a long line of Hendrixx Hott admirers, and with Cattle Ridge being so tight with the gossip mill, my relationship with Hottie 2 was sure to be out there and being talked about over cups of tea and scones and pints of beer and parmies.
“Hmmm, that is great Daxx, don’t play with anything sharp,” I replied distractedly, concentrating on the papers and not the person who I really didn’t want to see, climb the ladder and enter the roof crawl space.
“Well, it is good to see my nephew is being watched properly,” Mallory drawled, laughing when I screamed and toppled backward, hitting my head on an old hard suitcase.
“Fuck!” Rolling around, my hands held my head as I groaned in pain, silently cursing my luck. Which was non-existent, otherwise my arch nemesis would not be here laughing at me. What the hell was Mallory doing here and not my boyfriend?
Okay, so I was being a tad dramatic, Mallory and I weren’t exactly enemies, although, I would have to think strongly about jumping or not into a rapidly flowing river to save her if that scenario ever eventuated. There was the consideration of my boots, and my hat, if I were wearing it, then there would be the temperature of the water, cold water in winter wasn’t my cup of tea.
“He is fine, there isn’t a scratch on him,” I grimaced, rubbing at the bump that was now forming on the back of my noggin.
“What are you doin’ up here anyway?” Mallory asked, looking around, “I haven’t been up here for years, it hasn’t changed much, still full of—”
“No swearing Aunty Mal, Blake said the F word, and now she is gonna be in big trouble,” Daxx sing-songed, army crawling back over to us, a GI Joe action figure in one hand and a strange-looking dude in an orange wet suit and flippers in the other.
“I know someone who is going to be in bigger trouble,” I muttered, pasting a smile on my face for Daxx’s benefit. The little guy adored his aunty, and the poor kid couldn’t help his taste at this young age.
“You found them! Okay, let me grab these, and we can get out of here,” I said to Daxx, ignoring Mallory’s question. Now I wasn’t a rude person, but the last thing I wanted to do was bond with the woman who sits on my boyfriend’s lap from time to time and has him massage her feet. Not saying I wasn’t comfortable with their friendship, because I was … now, it was just that I didn’t like her because she obviously didn’t like me.
Hastily shoving the files and papers back into the box, I kept out a few of the ones marked with the two names, then pushed the box beside the suitcase, so Hendrixx could easily find it.
“Hey, that’s my last name! Is that about my dad?” Mallory barked, reaching for the box, but I blocked her from it with a swift move of my body.
“I don’t know exactly, but until the guys take a look, you aren’t going to touch it.”
“Hey, that is my business too. I have every right to see it,” Mal argued as she launched herself
