triplets. It was good sometimes and sometimes not.
Patting him hard on the shoulder, I stood side by side with my brother and glared down at Dusty. I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the bloke; his family, like many others in the district, struggled to keep their farms from going under. Unlike Makena, whose farm was now part of the Triple H and under control of HBC, Dusty’s parents lost hundreds of acres of their land, sold to pay off their loan requirements. It was a shitty hand to be dealt with, but Dusty took the wrong path to help out his family.
“Dustyn, I don’t understand why your old man didn’t take up our offer to let us lease some of his land?” I enquired, adopting to play the peacekeeper until the level-headed Noxx arrived. Hendrixx was rearing to fight, we might be able to read each other’s thoughts, but you didn’t have to be his brother to know he wanted to continue dishing out some pain to our former mate. He oozed tension, but I could also see he was worried about Blake’s whereabouts, she had only taken off for the stables minutes before Dusty pulled up. She must have heard the commotion unless she was doing something she shouldn’t be.
Shit.
Lancelot.
“Dillion?” I called out without looking at the boy.
“Yeah Nixx?”
“Do me a favour and go check where Blake is, will ya mate? Try the stables, yeah?”
“Okie Dokie, damn this is much more fun than shooting hoops or kicking the footy around,” Dillion decided, laughing.
“Dill, if she isn’t in there, go straight to the horse paddock behind the main stable building,” Hendrixx huffed, knowing where my mind was going, “and if she is there, tell her she is going to get her arse … just tell her to get her arse away from the stallion.”
“Yep, so much more fun,” Dillion concurred, walking off in the direction of the stables.
“You know she would be here, ripping Dusty a new one any other time.”
Nodding my head, I agreed with my brother, if Blake saw an opening to be alone with her big black stallion, she was taking it. Pissing Hendrixx off just an added bonus in her book.
“So, Dusty, you gonna answer my question?”
“Hell, you know my old man Fenixx, he is stubborn and proud. Will would have given Dad shit if he’d asked for help,” Dusty admitted, the blood coming out of his nose, starting to slow down a little.
“Will isn’t running the Triple H anymore,” Hendrixx interjected, “that offer was made by the three of us. Our company HBC has a slew of generous and fair grants on offer to anyone in Cattle Ridge who is struggling, farmers and business owners alike. Agreeing to work for Roberts was not your smartest move, mate.”
“Fuck, I know that, Drixx. I didn’t want to take it, but Mum did nothing but cry after the bank threatened foreclosure. Then Dad went and sold off some of the best grazing land to some dude from Mansfield, then went about selling machinery and cattle. Fuck he even sold Mum’s wedding rings, he did everything arse about. By the time Mum involved me, it was too late.” Dusty stood there red-faced and embarrassed to be admitting how much financial strain his parents were under. That was farmers for you, stubborn, proud and sometimes fucking stupid.
“He sold your mum’s jewellery?” I asked, but not surprised. Makena had a similar story; her dad did everything wrong too, in an attempt to dig himself out of the hole he’d dug for himself and his daughters.
“Yeah, sold them to Bluey’s Antique shop. All I wanted was enough money to get them back for her. It’s not her fault the drought lasted for years, or that Dad is a dick.”
As I listened to Dusty’s tale of woe, an idea started to form in my head. Hendrixx was not going to like what I was thinking, and I will most likely be on the receiving end of one of his hard punches, but Noxx on the other hand? The businessman in him would see the advantage of having a man with Dusty’s farming skills and it would free me up from spending half my week in Waterford.
“Dusty, let me ask you something,” I started, discreetly moving out of arm’s length of Hendrixx.
“How do you feel about travelling for work? Steady work, like maybe four days a week to begin with?”
“Don’t bother me, why, what do you have in mind?”
Before I could proceed with laying