CHAPTER ONE
WYATT
Sweat trickles down the back of my neck as I lift another stack of squashed boxes.
Raising my head, my gaze goes to Jaxon, who is casually sitting on top of the metal shelves we store supplies on, his bent legs parted slightly as he scrolls through his phone. My teeth clench as I slam the boxes down hard, shaking the trolley.
With a scowl, Jaxon focuses his sharp green gaze on me.
“Problem?” he drawls.
“Yes. Are you planning on doing any work this morning or are you going to sit there whilst I do it all?”
Annoyance gleams in his eyes as he jumps down from the shelves. He strolls over to the boxes and lifts one easily.
“Sorry. I’m worried about Lily. I left her sleeping in bed this morning. She didn’t feel well last night when she got back from work.”
I can’t help but roll my eyes at his remark. He would be worried about Lily regardless of whether she was sick or not. She started back at work once they got back from their honeymoon, towards the end of January. She was meant to start back once term started, but when she thought she and Jaxon broke up, she told them she needed longer before going back.
If I didn’t know Lily as well as I think I do, I would accuse her of manipulating my brother and having him wrapped around her finger. But five minutes with Lily Carter and you would know she wouldn’t do anything like that. Probably wouldn’t even know how to. So, I know my brother’s worry comes from his love for her, because it’s Lily. You couldn’t be around her and not want to please her.
Still…
“She doesn’t need you hovering over her twenty-four-seven, Jax. She’s been sick before and managed to survive. What won’t survive is your face if you keep letting me do all the work.”
“Fuck you,” he snaps. “You’re just in a pissy mood because Evie didn’t melt when confronted with your charm.”
I rest my hand over my chest. “Aww, you think I have charm.”
Snorting, he throws a pack of packing tape at me, hitting me in the shoulder. “Just leave her alone. Between you and Reid, I’m worried you’ll scare her away.”
“Like she’d fall for Reid’s crap. She wants me, not him. I’ve seen the way she watches me.”
Evie, short for Evelyn, started working for Hayes Removals towards the end of January. She started after we had to let the last girl go, since Reid was caught fucking her in the room Jaxon used to use as a bedroom. Jaxon got pissed after that and put Reid on desk duty while he found another receptionist.
But Jaxon fucked up when he hired the stunningly beautiful, blonde bombshell. It isn’t that she’s incompetent; quite the contrary. She is in fact overqualified. I don’t understand why someone who has a degree and diploma in business, who was top of her class, wants to work here. She could go anywhere. Or at the very least somewhere with a better heating system and a decent break room.
According to her CV, she has only previously worked as a barmaid and a waitress. It’s strange that someone with her skill isn’t already in the prime of her career.
No, Jaxon fucked up because since she walked into the office to start her first shift, I have done nothing but imagine myself spreading her sweet little thighs as she sits upon my desk, and going down on her. She has a beauty that’s angelic but naughty at the same time. She is simply stunning, with her slim build yet voluptuous arse, tits and hips.
Jaxon snaps his fingers in front of me, and I pull myself out of my daydream. I glare up at him.
“You’re imagining fucking her, aren’t you?”
I grin. “Yeah.”
His eyebrows pull together as he steps closer. Lowering his voice, he says, “Don’t start anything, Wyatt. We have enough shit going on. We don’t need to be dealing with a scorned woman. And I can’t have her being distracted. Not now.”
“He hasn’t done anything,” I remind Jaxon, knowing he’s talking about Black.
Andrew Black owns a moving company called Big Move. They are an international company with bases in many towns and most major cities. He came to us before Christmas and expressed an interest in buying our company, including our storage units and overseas shipping containers. All things a company like his must already have. Which is why none of us can get our heads around why he wants to buy our company from us.
When we refused, that’s when things began to heat up. Whenever we rejected one of his offers, there was retaliation, and over time, it only escalated. He’s done everything in his power to run us out of business. He wants us in a place where we have no other option but to sell. None of us will let that happen though.
He smashed our vans’ windows, poached potential and current clients, bribed customers into leaving us bad reviews, and most recently, tried to have our factory burned down. He nearly succeeded, and would have if it weren’t for an updated security system. The guy who set the fire left with a nice tattoo and a reminder not to fuck with a Hayes.
We also left a parting gift for Black: we doused his warehouse with petrol. We didn’t set it alight, though. We wanted him to know we could get to him, that we weren’t scared to retaliate. After that incident, we didn’t hear from him and assumed he’d left town, until Reid saw him on a date with a redhead.
So, we know he’s still here, waiting, biding his time. At the minute, however, we’re still playing catch up. We don’t know his true goal, and to beat a man like Andrew Black, you must know his motivations, and his strengths and weaknesses.
In one visit, we found out through his receptionist that he has a year to get business booming again or his dad will cut him off all together. Giving him control of the company is kind of a test run, to see if his son has what it takes to generate a successful business. So far, he’s done a shit job, losing clients here, there and everywhere.
The receptionist also let slip that he approached an art dealer in the hope to get his custom but was turned away. She never told us the dealer’s name, but it didn’t take a scientist to figure out it was one of our clients. Mr Yang is a billionaire who could have gone with a company that has tighter security but decided to take a contract out with Hayes Removals. When we asked why he chose us, he said that we had good security and it was the last place people would think he’d store his collections.
Although Mr Yang does have a container here at the farm, our business with him is mostly through our shipping containers. Through him, we managed to get our shipping route contract and it’s worked out best for all.
He’s been out of the country for a while now but is due back any day, and when he is, we will be paying him a visit to get all our ducks in a row.
Thankfully, our business is picking up, and not just because we are good at what we do but because Maverick and Maddox Carter have been directing work our way.
Maverick flips houses, either to sell them on for profit or rent them out. He and Maddox, who owns a construction business, refer our company to their clients. Once Jaxon found out it was because Lily had asked them to, Jaxon promised to do the same, referring them to our clients.
“Christ, are you even listening to me?” Jaxon snaps.
“Yes,” I lie.
“Look, we can’t risk it. Let’s leave it at that.”