Page 13 of Brother In Arms

A muscle in his jaw flexed and he gave a nod, “Crystal, ma’am.”

“And don’t call me ‘ma’am.’”

“Yes, ma’am.” He smiled and I wanted to punch him.

“Where did you get this replacement timber?” I demanded, looking at the neat pile on the ground and pieces in the back of his truck.

“Would you believe I just had them in the back of my truck?”

“No.”

“It’s the truth, I like working with wood. Had a plan to put up some decorative fence line at my twin’s girlfriend’s place but there seems to be a more immediate need here.”

“Oh god, there’s two of you?” I demanded. Fuck, which one did I sleep with?

“After a fashion, Nox, that’s my twin, doesn’t look like me. We just shared the same momma.”

I let that pass, I didn’t much care for his entire family history except to know who I’d fucked in the back of that cheap ass bar the night I’d gotten wasted. It’d been the night that my brother had pretty much told me that it didn’t matter that Mom had just sold me her share of the farm; that I needed to know my place and get on board and just trust that he knew best and sign it over. Condescending asshole.

I’d gone out, gotten drunk, and had decided to take the biker for a ride because I knew just how much it would have pissed everyone in my family off. They hated the dirty little family secret, and this guy had been conveniently there at the right time, or wrong time, depending on how you looked at it. The next morning had been a hangover to remember, and the encounter from the night before? God, it was hard to forget. I still woke up from dreaming about it, sweat soaked and slick between my thighs.

I realized I was just standing there staring at the guy, both him and Renaldo staring back at me waiting for me to say something. I tore my gaze from the guy’s and stared at the split timber resting on the ground nearby.

“How much are you going to want for this?” I demanded.

“Nothin’.”

“What? Why?”

“I got it for free off Craigslist, no sense in charging you for it. Should be just enough with what Renaldo says you have stashed to make the repairs here and you’re already paying me a wage.” He shrugged and I hated him for a moment for upstaging me at my own game.

“How long you think it’s going to take you to fix it?”

“Better part of today and tomorrow, I’d guess.”

“Fine. The sooner the better. This is one of our most used pastures.”

“You got it, boss lady.”

Well I guess it was an improvement over ma’am. I jerked my head at Renaldo and with an amused look he came back over to me and the truck after shaking the new guy’s hand. We got in and he started it up.

“I like the new guy, he’s alright,” he stated and it made me silently fume even more.

“Don’t get too used to him,” I said. “I’m still not sure I like him.”

Renaldo chuckled, “Whatever you say, boss lady.”

I swear to god, I blushed all the way up to the roots of my hair and Renaldo just sat there and laughed and laughed at my expense. Anyone else and I would have given them every shitty job I could think of around the farm, but not Renaldo. He was my most experienced groom and a former jockey. Not only that, if there were anyone on this farm I considered a friend, he was it… hell, he was almost more family than my actual family.

“Shut up,” I mumbled and he laughed some more.

I think the thing I hated most of all was that Renaldo was right and that I didn’t really hate the new guy at all. I just hated who I was when I was around him, which was just about everything my cousin Dray, had professed about hating rich people. Users, full of themselves, and rude as fuck to the people that made them… it’d been a conversation we’d had when we were teens, one of the last times we’d seen each other before Aunt Tilly was murdered.

It’d hurt having my cousin angry at me, and it’d hurt even more that he’d been right. I’d busted my ass to never be that way again, but here we were and here I was, the same thing he’d professed to hating all those years ago and I couldn’t exactly be sorry. If I wanted to keep this farm then I needed to play by high society rules and the rules were that the game was cutthroat as hell while still holding a thin veneer of civility.

It was exhausting, but this farm had become my whole life and I wasn’t going to give it up for some fucking subdivision or amusement park, or some shit to go on it. Instead, I focused on keeping the farm making the kind of money that my father would’ve been proud of. Of course, it helped a lot that Blue Hills had the sterling reputation that it did. There wasn’t much my brother could do to ruin that, not with me holding two-thirds ownership of the place.

“When do you want to move Starry to the little barn?” Renaldo asked and I thought about it.

“Under usual circumstances I’d say leave her in the main stable another month but I don’t think it would be such a bad idea to move her early. She’s the only one far enough along to warrant a move though.”

The rest of the ride back to the farm proper was mostly planning and making arrangements for our boarder’s accommodations. Not all of the horses here were owned by us. Most of them were simply on loan or being boarded by their actual owners.

I sighed and sat back in the seat and worried about not only our missing employees but my mangled fence. I knew he wasn’t done. I had the same red warning lights flashing that my mother did. I just didn’t know to what extent my brother would be willing to go to on this one to get his way.

It was food for thought… It was definitely food for thought.

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