Checkmate anfh-3 Page 8

  "Yeah, right." She snorted in disbelief. It was really sad that Connor had to resort to lame jokes to try and scare her. Seriously, like she'd believe Barry was really stupid enough to tow her truck away. There was no way Barry would ever.......

  Did she just hear chains rattling? she wondered, trying not to panic as she quickly climbed off her lounge chair and made her way over to the railing just in time to see Barry throw the switch.

  "Stop!" she yelled, looking around desperately for a way to get down there and stop that madman before he took off with her Jeep. "What the hell are you doing?" she asked, even as she contemplated climbing over the railing and jumping.

  With her paved driveway right below her, she didn't want to take a chance of twisting her ankle or breaking something. She uselessly waved to get Barry’s attention, but the damn man was too busy looking down at his clipboard to see her. Groaning in frustration, she shoved away from the banister and ran towards her room.

  She ran across the room, startling Bunny and down the long hallway, down the stairs, taking them two at a time and damn near falling to her death several times in the process, and across her small foyer. She threw the front door open, ran outside and across her freshly mowed lawn towards the tow truck just as Barry set the locks on the back wheels of her Jeep, the Jeep that was now firmly secured on the back of the tow truck.

  "Get it down! What the hell are you doing?" she demanded.

  Barry shrugged helplessly. "I have orders to tow it."

  "What the hell are you talking about? That's my Jeep! Put it back!" she ordered, resisting the urge to punch that smug little smile that was playing on the corners of Barry’s mouth off.

  "Sorry, you'll have to take that up with the city," he said, not sounding sorry at all as she followed him around the truck to the driver's side.

  "City? What the hell are you talking about?"

  "Jeep's being impounded for unpaid parking tickets," he said with that damn shrug again.

  "Tickets? I don't have any tickets. I just got this thing," she pointed out to the stubborn man as he opened his door and threw his clipboard in the truck's cab.

  "Like I said before, you'll have to take it up with the city," he said, looking past her and gave a slight nod. "Thanks for the tip."

  "Not a problem," Connor said from somewhere behind her.

  Slowly, she turned around to face her nemesis. "You did this?" she demanded, barely holding back her rage.

  "It was my civic duty," he said with an exaggerated sigh.

  "I just bet it was," she said, forcing herself to walk past him.

  This battle was lost and she knew it. Barry wasn't about to unload her Jeep and she sure as hell wasn't going to give the neighbors any more gossip.

  "Motherfucker!" she heard Barry wail as she reached her front door, but she was too focused on what needed to be done to care. If Connor wanted to play this game then that was more than fine with her.

  * * *

  Early the next morning............

  "What the hell!" Connor yelled as he came fully awake in under three seconds flat. He reached over and slammed his hand down on his alarm clock, silencing it on the first hit and glowering when he saw what time it was. He hadn't set his alarm for two in the morning. Why the hell was it going off?

  "Oh, good. You're awake," Rory said, sounding upbeat and chipper as his bedroom lights were thrown on, momentarily blinding him.

  "It's two in the morning, Rory! What the hell are you doing?" he demanded as he opened his eyes, wincing as his eyes adjusted to the suddenly bright room and when they did they narrowed on the woman sitting on top of his desk, looking amused and oddly triumphant.

  "Just thought I'd swing by and thank you for having my Jeep towed," she said, smiling sweetly.

  "Uh huh," he said slowly as his sleep dazed mind worked to take everything in, "you woke me up at two in the morning to thank me?" he clarified, sighing.

  Clearly the woman was losing her touch. It was annoying and a bit frustrating to be woken up this early, but once he tossed her ass out onto his balcony and crawled back into his warm comfortable bed he'd fall back to sleep without a problem. He moved to do just that when something on his foot caught his attention.

  She wouldn't have.......

  After throwing her one last glare, he tore the sheets away, uncaring that he was only wearing a pair of boxers, and glared at the evidence that the damn woman had lost her mind.

  "You chained me?" he asked in disbelief as he examined the handcuff clasped around his ankle and the thick chain that was attached to it.

  "Mmmmhmmm," was Rory's only reply as he jumped off the bed and followed the chain to his bathroom where the crazy woman had tied it off around the base of the toilet with three padlocks. He tried to pull it up, but the damn woman hadn't left any slack in the chain. After a minute, he realized that trying to get the chain off the toilet was useless and so he focused his attention on the cuff.

  Thankfully, she hadn't placed the cuff too tightly around his ankle and cut off circulation, but it still wouldn't go over his ankle bones. With a muttered curse and a few promises of violence to her beautiful ass, he grabbed a bottle of shampoo and coated the damn cuff. The only thing the shampoo seemed to do was make a mess.

  By the time he washed his foot off in the shower and stormed out of the bathroom he was ready to kill her with his bare hands. He kept his eyes locked on her as he stepped around the bed and headed for the bureau.

  "You went too far this time, Rory," he bit out tightly even as he imagined wringing her neck. He would take his time and savor it, he decided.

  "And what are you going to do about it?" she asked tauntingly, making no move to run away, he noted.

  "I'm going to-what the hell?" he roared with rage as his chain stopped short mere feet from his prey. Maybe he could still reach her, he hoped as he reached out to grab her and drag her over to him only to discover that she was safely out of his reach.

  "Unfucking chain me, Rory," he snapped, standing up. Every muscle in his body literally ached to go after her and drag her over his knee to give her the spanking that she was practically begging for.

  "Well," Rory said brightly as she ignored him and got to her feet, "as much as I'd love to hang out with you, I'm afraid that I have to get some more sleep since I have a big day ahead of me." She walked over to the sliding glass doors with a pleased smile on her face.

  "Don't do it, Rory," he warned as he yanked at his restraint.

  She blinked, looking innocent as she pulled the remote to his stereo out of her back pocket. "Do this you mean?" she asked seconds before the most frightening song in the history of mankind started playing.

  "Mmmmbop, mmmbop, mmmmmmbop," blasted throughout the room, taking his rage to a whole new level.

  "Don't worry!" she yelled over the incoherent noise, "I set it to repeat so you don't have to worry about it ending!" With a wink she left.

  He rushed over to the stereo only to discover to his horror that it was out of his reach. After a quick search, he discovered that the little brat had taken his cell phone, his house phone, and his tools.

  Oh, Rory James was going to pay for this shit. He'd make damn sure of it.

  Chapter 9

  "Where's Connor?" Craig asked as Rory handed him a crowbar.

  "I, um," she had to swallow back a chuckle and force herself to keep a straight face as she continued, "I think he's taking the day off."

  "Are you serious? The second day on the job and he's taking the day off?" Craig asked in disgust.

  "It's shameful," Rory said, struggling not to laugh.

  "It's bullshit. We have enough to do without adding supervising his men to the list," Craig said, sighing heavily as he grabbed a pair of work gloves off the top shelf in their double wide portable storage unit.

  "It won't be that bad," she said, initialing the order form before tossing it back to Eddie, one of the few supervisors she had working for her that wasn't blood related. He looked it over
before nodding and heading out to get the supplies they needed. "Decide which of his men are qualified to help you with the roof today. Have Sean put the rest to work on gutting the first and second floor. I don't want anyone working outside unless they're on roof detail. We don't need accidents this early in the game," she explained, knowing just how quickly accidents happened when people swarmed areas that should be kept cleared.

  Today and probably for the next few days they'd work on taking the old roof off. The last thing they needed was men working on the grounds around the manor where boards, nails and shingles were going to fall. They'd have a small ground cleanup crew working the property that was trained to move their asses and knew better than to take any chances.

  The rest of the men would work on gutting the walls and checking for damage to the frame and while they were doing that she was stuck with basement duty. She'd been looking forward to getting to work on the roof, but McGill called this morning while she was on her way to work and asked if she could reconfigure the plans for the basement. Apparently after a talk with his partners, they decided that they wanted to double the size of the planned wine storage.

  Even though it changed her plans for the day she agreed to look into it today and draw up new plans for the basement. Having the client call up with changes this early in the project was not a good sign, but she wasn't about to complain since it meant more money for Shadow Construction and it made the client happy, which is what she really cared about since she needed them to okay her plans this Friday. As long as they allowed her to design and build the attic suites she'd bite her tongue and nod when they suggested something that irritated the hell out of her.

  "That sounds fine," Craig said, heading for the open double doors. "Do you want me to send any of the men to help you in the basement?" he asked over his shoulder.

  She shook her head as she grabbed a flashlight. "No, I shouldn't be more than a few hours. I'm going to measure the rooms again and see what I can shift around," she said, biting back a sigh. A few hours was being optimistic. She had a feeling this particular project was going to take up most of her day. "As soon as I'm done I'll come up and help," she promised as she grabbed her water bottle and headed towards the manor that was already bustling with activity.

  As she made her way through the large foyer she wasn't at all surprised to find a decent amount of her men already working on gutting the first floor and tearing down the old grand staircase. Her men knew what was expected of them. When things needed to be done they did them without having to be told. It was one of the benefits that she found from treating her men like equals and making sure they knew the game plan from start to finish and she kept them updated of any changes.

  She wasn't too surprised to find a few of Connor's men standing around, talking. Honestly, she didn't know how he built the reputation he had by having slackers work for him. The majority of his men were hard workers, but the rest of them left a lot to be desired. From what she'd seen it was his friends, the men he'd made foreman, who caused most of the problems.

  When Connor wasn't around they seemed to give up the pretense of working, instead choosing to hang out while the rest of the men worked. Connor must have to micromanage the hell out of each project, she realized, nearly wincing in sympathy for the man. She couldn't imagine the kind of time and effort it would take to go around supervising each part of the job and having to take the time out of her day to explain each and every job as it came up. She didn't have time for that nonsense.

  "Gentlemen," she said, gesturing to the men standing in the foyer and getting in the way of the men working, "if you're not working then you need to leave the site."

  "We're waiting for Connor," Andrew, Connor's oldest friend and one of the biggest assholes she'd ever met, explained.

  She hadn't liked the jerk back in school when he was nothing more than one of Connor's lackeys and she sure as hell didn't like him now. He was cocky, arrogant and lazy. As much as she hated Connor, and dear god did she hate the life ruining bastard, she thought he could do better. She wasn't sure why the man kept this asshole in his life for so long, but that was his problem. As long as they didn't interfere with this project she didn't care what they did.

  "Then wait for him outside," she said, gesturing to the wide open battered doors that were going to have to be replaced sometime today since construction sites had the unfortunate luck of drawing vandals.

  With a nod, they headed for the door. They'd probably bitch and moan to Connor the next time they saw him, not that the man was going to need much encouragement to flip out on her. The last time she checked on him, he was making all sorts of promises to her ass that didn't sound like fun for her so she left him where he was.........

  After she taunted him one more time of course.

  Not only had she gotten back at Connor first thing in the morning, but she'd made damn sure that he wouldn't be bothering her for at least a day....or two. She'd definitely have to let him go before the forty-eight hour mark passed just so she could avoid someone filing a missing person's report on him since the last time that happened hadn't exactly ended well for her.

  Then again the judge clearly agreed with her that the circumstances of his "imprisonment," weren't really her fault. No one had forced Connor to follow her into the old shed on the back of her uncle’s property. Just because she might have “accidentally” locked the padlock and ignored his demands to release him didn't make her responsible.

  Of course, the judge may have thrown the case out because they'd only been seven at the time and he had kind of asked for it by chasing her with his pet python. It also didn't hurt that the judge thought that Connor's mother had overreacted to the whole thing. Not really a big surprise since the woman always overreacted to everything that involved the two of them.

  It didn't matter whose fault it really was, it was always Rory James' fault according to Janice O'Neil. Her son was a perfect angel and only acted up because of Rory. It never mattered how many witnesses there were or if the incident had been captured on camera, it was Rory James' fault and Janice made damn sure that everyone knew it. Not that anyone believed her, they didn't, but that hadn't stopped Janice O'Neil from bitching about Rory since the first time Rory and Connor came to blows.

  The only thing that had saved Connor from a broken nose for all the trouble his mother caused her was the fact that he seemed embarrassed by his mother. Again, not that she could blame him. The woman gushed over him and treated him like a baby up until about five years ago when she passed away. It had always been that way. She knew it embarrassed Connor when his mother showed up at school or at one of his games and fussed over him, making a huge scene if someone got too close to her son on the football field. So of course Rory made sure that his lovely mother had a front seat at all of his games and then sat back and laughed her ass off at him.

  She turned on her flashlight and opened the thick oak door leading to the large basement. She closed the door behind her as she carefully navigated the old stone stairway. The stairs were in pretty good shape, but like the rest of the house it had been damaged over the years by wear and tear and needed a little TLC. She was reminded of that fact several times as her foot landed in ruts where rocks were supposed to be and she almost went flying on her ass.

  Thankfully, the designers of this basement had the foresight to add plenty of windows so that the area wasn't pitch black, but she still needed her flashlight to get around. Although she knew the measurements of the entire manor by heart as well as the layout, she still needed to look around the large basement rooms to get a better idea of how she was going to work a much larger state of the art wine cellar into the plans.

  A half hour later she still wasn't sure how she was going to do this without causing some serious damage to the foundation. She looked over at the cracked plank door of what she assumed was used as a storage room since it still had a wall lined with old crates. Maybe she could break through that room and keep the original spot she had planned
for the wine cellar, but that all depended on what was behind those crates. If it was stone then she'd have to come up with something else, but if it was wood then she'd have the space that she needed and could go up and help the guys with the roof. She'd change the plans later tonight.

  Eager to get this over with and help the guys with the roof, she made her way over to the crooked door and pushed it open with her shoulder. She swung her flashlight around the damp dark room, praying that she wasn't about to have a run in with some furry little friends or some of the eight legged variety. When nothing came running out or dropped from the ceiling she focused her flashlight and attention on the wood crates stacked against what she was hoping was a wall constructed of wood.

  She placed her flashlight on the floor against the opposite wall with the beam of light pointed on the crates. With a resigned sigh, she set to work moving the top crates first. The crates were empty and she was able to move them quickly and stack them on the other side of the room. When she had the crates cleared at chest level she squinted her eyes, trying to see what she was dealing with. She was almost positive that it was-

  "This ends now," Connor suddenly said, scaring the living hell out of her.

  Rory whirled around, hand to chest, heart pounding violently as she fought to calm her breathing. "What in the hell is wrong with you?" she demanded, taking a deep breath to calm herself as she looked at Connor.

  The man stood in the doorway with a flashlight in his hand and even in the dim light she could tell that he was having a hell of a time stopping himself from crossing the small room and throttling her. She had to give him credit, because if she was in his place there would be no stopping the ass whooping that he would have had coming.

  "You went over the line today with that bullshit, Rory," he said, taking a step into the dark room.

  She had to roll her eyes at that. "You're only pissed because you didn't think of it first," she said, turning her back on him and effectively dismissing him. She didn't have time for his whining today. She needed to make sure that the whole wall was made of wood and then help the guys with the roof.