Family. I am part of this family and nothing Mallory Rogers said could refute that.
Handing the papers to Fenixx, I finally looked at Hendrixx. His blue eyes were rimmed with wetness, his beautiful, soft mouth in a firm hard line. I could see him struggling with his emotions and I couldn’t have that. He didn’t do anything wrong, other than leaving me alone with Mallory when he should have known better.
“Move back, honey,” I ordered gently, letting him know with my endearment I was okay. Shifting my legs, I sat on the edge of the opening and waited for the guys to move back so I could step down on the ladder.
“I didn’t know,” he rasped, jutting his chin in the direction of Mallory, affirming it wasn’t him that sent her. Not that I thought he did, Hendrixx knew Mallory and I were like a jerry can of petrol and a lit match.
Nodding at him, I placed my hand on his stubbled, roughened cheek.
“I know you didn’t,” I agreed softly, shimmying my butt closer so I could kiss him gently.
“I’m going to take Daxx to the stables, I’ll see you later, okay?”
“Blake,” Hendrixx’s guttural whisper of my name broke through the anger directed at Mallory, lessening it some. Pressing my lips to his again, I held them firmly there until he kissed me back.
“You need to do this now honey, I got Daxx for as long as it takes. What did they name the baby?”
A small smile appeared on his lips, his love for his new niece shining in his troubled blues. “Onyxx Victoria, double x, of course.”
“Of course,” I laughed quietly, “pretty name, I can’t wait to cuddle her.”
“I think I want one,” Hendrixx announced, looking perplexed and confident at the same time.
Patting him on his chest, I nodded knowingly.
“We’ll get there babe, us first, then kids.” He needed this, to hear my reassurance that nothing Mallory said had gotten inside my head doubting him or myself.
Hendrixx dropped his head, his breathing slowing down. Looking back up at me, he nodded once, his jaw tight, but I saw the determination and clarity come back to him.
“I love you, Blake.”
“Love you too, Cowboy.”
Nothing or no one was going to change or destroy that.
HENDRIXX
Mallory’s presence pissed me off for the first time since we started our friendship. Sitting in the home HBC office with her and my brother, Noxx, on the phone, all I wanted to do was ask her to leave.
“Have you read all the documents?” Noxx asked through the speaker, his question bringing back my focus to the matter at hand.
“Most of them, enough to ascertain Dad simply did this so he could own old man Rogers for the rest of his life, get him into so much debt Makena and Daxx would suffer too,” Fenixx answered, giving me an eyebrow lift and a look that insisted I get my head back into gear.
It was a hard ask considering all that had gone down since finding Blake up in the roof wrestling and arguing with Mal. The shit Mal said to my girl still played in my mind on a reel, rewinding, playing and rewinding again. Nothing made sense about the papers, though, except for one thing, my dad hated Makena and her father and nothing, not even his own flesh and blood, would have stopped him from ruining them.
“Fuck me, how did we not know he was like this?” Noxx muttered, and even through a phone call, I could feel the heart-gutting pain he was feeling because I was experiencing the exact same revelation as was Nixx.
He hadn’t said very much since Noxx answered our call over an hour ago, he sat quietly on the other side of the desk from me, thumbing through pages reading the correspondence between Dad and his crony, not saying anything.
“The contracts Rogers signed pretty well fucked him in the arse,” Fenixx spoke up for the first time, “let’s say he pulled off a miracle and made money out of the farm, and even if he managed to pay off the interest on the loan, the principal amount would never be paid off even if he lived to be a hundred. And where is the money? We know he borrowed to lease the bulls, but there is no sign of the cash. Mal any ideas?”
I fixed my gaze on Mallory, she was sitting on one of the leather couches looking far too smug and comfortable. Whatever game she was playing or thought she was playing confused the hell out of me. Mal was not normally a mean person, she was sarcastic and sometimes brash but vindictive and cruel … no way, not the Mal I knew.
“Nowhere Mack and I could find it. His solicitor didn’t have a clue either, Dad didn’t even use him for the contracts. As far as we know, he went into that business transaction without legal guidance.”
“That is obvious,” Fenixx huffed, “this contact is a one-way ticket for Will to own Rogers. No legal rep worth his diploma would allow someone to sign it.”
“The money has to be somewhere, buried maybe, locked in a box in the house. Over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars is sitting silent and I would match every cent just to find out why your dad didn’t use it to improve Waterford,” Noxx said suddenly, reminding me that he was still on the phone.
Nodding in agreement, I pushed away from the desk and walked around it to stand in front of the fireplace. I was tired of talking about the feud between two men that should have died with them. Trying to figure out the whys and hows was a waste of time and
