“We have limited time before Tim gets here with his friend,” she said with an exaggerated emphasis on friend.
Oh, my god, Daxx! I forgot about my son, and he was going to be back soon, and here I was in a screaming match with his father, what kind of mother was I?
“Huh?” Hendrixx looked at Mallory then me, trying to figure out what caused the mood in the room to swap from confrontational to downright scared. If Lenoxx was here when Tim arrived, there would be no reprieve for me from his wrath. I got that he had a right to know, but this … deception I manufactured out of fear of losing my son to Will Hott was deeper than I could cope with under these circumstances. There were still things Lenoxx didn’t know other than the reality of his son, things, if he found out, could destroy not only Noxx but his mother too. Will Hott wasn’t the man his family put on the pedestal he insisted on being on. His hatred of me went a lot deeper than disowning his son for seven months, much deeper.
One of the main catalysts for keeping Daxx so hidden. For my lies of omission to my sister and father. Now, Dad’s stupid decision to deal with HBC threatened to open that can of worms I wanted to keep tightly shut.
I had one last lie, a really big one.
One person from the Hott family had known that Daxx existed.
And even dead, he still scared the shit out of me.
LENOXX
“Jesus, I think my brain is going to explode,” I growled, massaging my temples with my fingers giving my eyes a rest from looking over the worst accounting I have ever seen in my life. Old man Rogers must have had some life skills that got him to the age of sixty-one because book work and farming certainly weren’t two of them.
“He used pencil to write in the whole month of January last year, half of it has faded away. I’m stuffed to understand how much he spent on feed, let alone ascertain how much money came in,” Hendrixx said, blowing out a frustrated breath. “And what is with all the tins filled with receipts? There has to be ten or more here alone.”
Despite myself, I let out a rueful chuckle, Makena had a thing for using her mother’s old biscuit tins to hold all sorts of crap. Jewellery, hair ties even my love notes I sent her had their own tin once upon a time. Now, it seemed, she found another use for them.
Tossing the ledger, I was currently trying to convert into something that a human being with more than a Year Nine education could understand. I stood up from the seat I had been parked in for the last hours that had gone on and on.
“This is why I hate the office. No fresh air, and too many headaches.”
Smirking at my brother, I walked around the room and let myself forget about numbers and fell back into my memories; each piece of furniture, every ornament a significant reminder of my early years with Makena.
Walking over to the grandfather clock, I couldn’t help the soft smile that spread on my lips. Makena and I used to make-out on the leather couch, we would always get hot and heavy in our sessions and sometimes forget about our surroundings or if someone entered the room. One time after nearly getting caught by her father coming in from his day’s work, we figured out that he always came in just as the clock struck eight, so after that close call, we made sure to be sitting on either side with two cushions between us from then on. Being eighteen at the time, I should have resented the hiding and covering up, but the truth was I didn’t care. Makena was worth it all, her father’s iron fist when it came to his daughter and me; my dad and I going at it every time Makena’s name came up in the conversation–it didn’t matter, because I loved her. Hopelessly and completely.
“More memories?” Hendrixx asked me coming up behind me.
“Yeah, too many and not enough, ya know?” I replied ruefully.
“I thought I would have her forever, I thought …” Moving from the clock to the window that looked out over the back of the property, I caught a glimpse of my dear wife stomping down a rocky and muddy path. The afternoon sun now long gone, early evening was starting to set in. Makena left abruptly hours ago when a car pulled into the drive. We had been going through the farm’s accounts, our earlier argument put on the back burner by mutual agreement and because Mallory let out an ear-piercing whistle, putting a stop to our heated bickering.
That unsettled me, our bickering, not Mal whistling, mostly because Makena and I never used to argue, not to the extent where I raised my voice at her, or she used swear words aimed at me. Once upon a time, she thought I hung the moon, and I believed the sun rose in the sky simply because of her. Now, she looked at me with a mixture of trepidation and fury, not the woman I fell in love with, not even close.
Shifting the lace curtain, my eyes zeroed in on her. She was still beautiful; worn jeans, flannelette shirt and cow shit on her boots, it didn’t matter, Makena had a quality about her. Her outer beauty drew me to her, but it was her inner radiance and bone-deep loyalty that hooked me. Seeing her again proved that I was still hooked.
Something about the way she was frowning, the downward cast of her eyes, the sag in her shoulders bristled my interest. Her carefree nature was gone, replaced with—
“She seems so different now, tired somehow but not from lack of sleep,” Hendrixx mused, honing in on my inner thoughts. A gift, all three of us had with one another.
“That’s because she is tired,” Mallory announced. Spinning around, I motioned with my hand for her to go on. Mallory had been part of our group back in the day, in fact, Makena and I always thought that she and Hendrixx would get it on. They didn’t, both of them claimed friendship was the only spark between them.
“Help me understand some of this Mal; the books are a mess, money missing and not correctly entered. Bills overdue and wages not paid from one week to the next. I can’t find any other wage other than Charlie’s and his aren’t registered every week either,” I pleaded, the businessman in me deplored bad management, but the other side of me, the gentler side needed to know what was wrong with my wife. Something was telling me the best place to start getting answers was with her sister.
Mallory’s expression turned angry, only one person could make the Rogers sister look that way, other than me that was.
“When she came back to Waterford, Dad ignored her. He point-blank refused to acknowledge her existence, hers and—ah he gave her the silent treatment,” Mal finished lamely, too lamely.
She was hiding something; she was about to say something else and backtracked, I didn’t make it this far in the corporate world to become one of the youngest CEOs, and not be able to read a person. Instinct was one important tool in the board room, and I had it in spades. Filing that away for a later conversation, I glanced over at Hendrixx, who was staring intently at Mallory, as I was.
He knew too.
“Mack went back to working the farm side-by-side with Dad and Charlie; she would be out in the paddocks fixing fences, feeding animals, baling hay. She did anything that needed to be done; she has become quite the mechanic, you know.” Mallory smiled, walking past me to the window, pulling back the curtain, and looked out with a faraway expression.
“It took some time, but Dad finally came around. Mack did her penance, proved her loyalty again to him, and he forgave her for running off and marrying you.”
“She has been gored by a bull, broken three fingers fixing machinery, been to the local hospital for stitches countless times only to come back an hour later jump on Banjo and ride the perimeter until dark. It happened so often I ended up learning how to suture, so we didn’t have to waste time driving to the hospital.” The rueful smile on her face, not funny to me in the least. I hated that Makena got hurt at all, but enough to go to hospital did not sit well at all.
Mallory, still with her back to me, went on with more heartbreaking news.
“We don’t pay staff because we don’t have any, Charlie is our only employee, we pay him cash in hand most times. I work as much as I can, but with my job being the most stable income, I can’t afford to take time off. It is just Mack and a man way past retire
ment age.” Mallory spun around to face Hendrixx and me, her lips set in a grim line. This new knowledge of what Makena had been put through, the hard work she was forced to do, made my natural instinct to protect her to raise its head. She shouldn’t be hurting herself, dealing with machinery, and definitely not dealing with fucking bulls! I focused back on Mallory, and I didn’t want her to stop sharing by interrupting her. She was the best source to find out why Makena had changed so much, she might not know why Makena left me, but she was giving me a good insight into why my once warm and loving woman was now guarded and cold.
“Yeah, she is different and tired and with good reason. Dad put us into debt when he let go of the olives and peanut growing and took on Black Angus. We can’t sell even if I could talk Mack into it because—”
“Because the land isn’t worth anything and your debt is greater than what you would get for the place,” Hendrixx finished sagely.
“Exactly. He did us all a great injustice with that decision, then he went and died. He never told us that he had a bad heart, never mentioned even meeting up with Will.” Mallory pursed her lips; her eyes drew together in deep thought.
“My dad and yours hated each other, why on earth would they do business together? I can’t see your father handing over one of your best bulls for any amount of money, not to my family.”
Mallory had a point. The two men hated each other well before Makena and I ever got together as a couple. Their beef went back years before that.
“Well, unless one of them put it in writing somewhere, we may never know,” Hendrixx replied with a frustrated sigh, “whatever they arranged and why is irrelevant, the most important thing is to work out how to get this place working better and making money.”
“And how exactly do we do that?” Mal asked, “Mack works fifteen hour days as it is, she needs time to rest, to spend with—ah inside.”
Again I noticed her slip and backtrack. There was something going on, something that had my hair standing on end.
“Whether we like it or not, a legal and binding contract was signed and witnessed. From what I have read of it so far, it is ironclad. Your old man agreed to the terms, and put his signature to it,” Hendrixx informed Mal, his voice gentle as if to soften the blow that there was no getting out of the agreement our fathers signed.
“But, aren’t you two in charge now? Can’t you just take the bull back and call it even?” The innocent question was a fair one, and some would say logical, even. However, a contract was just that; when Dad was alive, he had no ruling control of HBC, that company belonged to Hendrixx and Fenixx and me.
The Triple HHH was a different matter. He owned the farm and only left ruling control to us after his death. Any contracts before that date are still valid and under Dad’s terms. We couldn’t break any contract until a certain amount of the debt was paid.
Hendrixx moved closer to Mal, putting his hand on her arm, his eyes kind, but I could see the fight he was having with himself. As the COO of the company and the manager of HHH, it fell on him to see to all the dealings with the locals. As much as he would like to ease the financial pain for the Rogers family, his hands were tied.
“I had the legal team go over the contract and they all said the same thing, a release could only happen when sixty percent of the agreed amount has been paid back. That and the bull will be handed back too. I have the original contract here, Mal, you can go over it yourself.”
Mal waved her hand in front of her. “God, spare me, please. The last thing I want to do is read a lot of gobbledegook I won’t even understand. How much has been paid so far?”
I didn’t know the answer to that; the accounts in front of me made no sense, weren’t filled in properly, and the basic adding and subtracting was near impossible to fathom. Looking at Mal, I gave her my best guess. “I’d say about five percent and that is being generous.”
“You have got to be shitting me!”
“Mal, the amount loaned to your dad, was a fair chunk,” Hendrixx interrupted, seeing she was ready to explode.
“Okay, tell me exactly how much has to be paid to get to the sixty percent,” she asked slowly, rubbing her temples with her fingers.
I glanced at Hendrixx and gave him a nod, she had a right to know, but she wasn’t going to like it.
“You need to pay at least eighty-seven thousand, so far it looks like—”
“What?!” Mal shrieked, nearly perforating my eardrums.
“If he wasn’t already dead, he would be now!” Mal thundered, fire spitting from her.
“Mal, it’s doable, it is going to be fucking hard, but with some help from Fenixx and me coming over here a few days a week to help out with the herd, we can get you there … eventually. But it is going to take a herculean effort from you and Mack.” Hendrixx hurriedly rushed to encourage, glossing over the fact that they still owed eighty grand.
“Well, it’s a good thing Mack isn’t a quitter, isn’t it,” she said ruefully, not realising what a contradictive statement she just made. A statement I wasn’t going to be left unargued.
“You are joking, right?” I spluttered. “Not a quitter! She left me over the phone on nothing more than a grainy photo and some tape which is supposed to be me setting up a rendezvous with my mistress,” I spat out, hating not only that word but that my personal business was being discussed.
The back door slamming open stopped Mallory from retorting, but it was the panic scream from my wife that had me spinning around in a hurry.
Makena came darting into the lounge, her face streaming with tears, her beautiful green eyes wide with panic.
“Baby, what is—” I started then caught myself because she wasn’t my anything anymore, except on paper, but that didn’t stop my heart from thumping and aching in my chest, seeing her obviously distraught.
“Mal, did Daxx come inside?” Makena shouted as she headed straight for the hallway that lead to the rooms, not waiting for Mallory to answer her.
“No, isn’t he outside with you?” Mallory shouted back, moving fast to follow her sister. It took all of three seconds for Hendrixx and me to move our feet and go in the same direction.
What the hell was going on around this place?
Striding briskly down the long hall, we came to the room with the light on only to see both women frantically searching around the room. A room that, going by the decorations was a room for a small child. A tiny bed that had cot like sides on it sat in the middle of the room, and toys and trucks scattered the floor.
Did Mallory have a kid?
I watched half amused and half concerned as Makena dropped to her knees and looked under the bed. The denim stretched over her rounded arse like a dream, a dream I have just about every night. My god she was a work of art, hips that I loved to grab hold of and help her ride me, long legs that wrapped perfectly around my waist when I took her against a wall.
“Fuck’s sake, Noxx, not now,” Hendrixx hissed at me, his blue eyes glaring at me, then turning to look at the women who were both now completely losing it.
Silently willing my dick to get some control, discreetly adjusting my pants, I let out a loud whistle to stop the panic and gaining everyone’s attention quickly.
“Alright then, what the hell is going on? Who are you looking for?” I asked, looking directly at Mallory. I knew that the people of Cattle Ridge kept the gossip to a minimum when I went into town, but surely one of my brothers or our mum would’ve heard if Mal had a kid.
“We don’t have time for this, Lenoxx,” Makena shrieked, jumping from the floor and heading to the door where I blocked her escape with one arm across the doorway and the other settling naturally across her front, my hand resting on her hip.
“No, Makena.” Her name coming out on a growl, feeling her this close again after so long, might very well destroy me, but I couldn’t make my hand move from her soft curvy hip. My fingers brushed along the slither of bare skin exposed between her shirt and the waist of her jeans. It felt familiar an
d so different all at the same time.
“You won’t talk about why you left me; you walked out when Hendrixx and I were looking at the books. This time you will tell me what I want to know, so start talking,” I ordered firmly, my tone not giving her the out she so desperately wanted. Her eyes darted from me to her sister and Hendrixx, tears filled the beautiful green orbs, so much so that I almost felt her sadness. I could never stand to see her cry; her happiness had always been everything to me.
Once upon a time, it was all that mattered.
“Noxx, please not now,” she pleaded, her watery eyes beseeching at me. “Please.”
I nearly gave in and let her pass, nearly admitted out loud that she still owned my heart despite ruining our marriage. Nearly.
“Makena. who are you looking for? Who is Daxx? Tell me something here, for Christ’s sake.” My grip tightened on her soft flesh, her body naturally leaned into my touch, and for a moment there, we were Noxx and Makena again.
However, what she said next rendered me beyond speechless.
“Daxx is my son, our son.”
Five words.
Five fucking words.
I had been wrong, Makena leaving me didn’t destroy me.
What she just told me did.
MAKENA
I didn’t wait for Lenoxx to react to the news that he and I had a son. Instead, I wrenched out of his hold and pushed through the door, leaving him silent and shocked, taking advantage of getting a head start on him because it wasn’t going to take him long to come after me. Well, he could do whatever he wanted after I found Daxx.
After Tim’s mother dropped Daxx off, I met her outside before she could make it up to the house. Daxx wasn’t the quietest of kids, and after an outing, he always got so excited, talking loudly about what he did and what he saw. His enthusiasm for life on the land rivalled that of his fathers. My boy was an outside kid, getting him into the house for a bath and bed a constant struggle and an exercise in patience. So much so, I mastered the usage of parental blackmail, hence why he has so many toy cars. I wasn’t ashamed to use anything in my arsenal to get him inside so I could go in, too. Fifteen hour days weren’t exactly fun, but they were bloody tiring.
Hott and Taken (The Hott Brothers Book 1) Page 8