NFH 03 Checkmate (43 page)

“
Oh good, you’re ready to
go,” she said, smiling when she spotted him.

Frowning, he looked down at his bare chest
and boxers and had to wonder what she was talking about. He moved
to open his mouth, but no words came out as he watched more men
crawl through the window, a lot more. A few he recognized, but most
of them he’d never seen before. He knew by their builds, their dark
hair, and bad boy looks that they were all related and they were
all looking at him.

“
W-what’s going on?” he
asked, hating how weak he sounded.

Rory gestured a few of the men forward.
“Nothing much. We’ve just come to get you and end the
bullshit.”

“
Oh shit,” he mumbled when
they came for him.

Chapter 37

October

“
Get the hell away from me
with that, you psychotic harpy!” Andrew shouted, making Connor
smile as he headed downstairs, more than ready for this morning’s
battle.

It had been almost a month since Rory and
her cousins kidnapped Andrew. Well, “talked him into leaving his
house and come live with her” as Rory had explained it to the nice
police officer that showed up when Andrew managed to get his hands
on a cell phone and called for help. The two of them fought day and
night and they seemed to hate each other more than ever, but Rory
didn’t let that stop her from making sure that Andrew was cared
for. She took care of him in the morning, came by several times
during the day to check up on him and even had that little snot rag
of an assistant of hers help out, and she took care of him at night
as well.

Andrew, who’d been ready to give up, hated
every last second of it. He bitched and whined and tried to make
several escape attempts, but unfortunately for him, the Bradfords
decided to take a special interest in him. They now had three
Bradfords a week, two to work on Strawberry Manor and one to hang
out at Rory’s during the day and keep an eye on Andrew. He’d only
managed to sneak past a Bradford one time, but he didn’t get very
far, not with Bunny on the job. One vicious growl and Andrew was
making his way back to the bedroom Rory had set up for him on the
first floor.

Thanks to Rory taking over, Andrew gained
back some weight, had health insurance and all his medication. He
also made it to all of his medical appointments and Rory somehow
managed to browbeat the man into putting his name on the wait list
for a transplant. He was somewhat lucky that a bone marrow donation
should heal him. The only problem was that he had a very rare blood
type, but that didn’t stop Connor from praying for a miracle.

“
Take your medication!” Rory
snapped.

“
Go to hell!” Andrew shot
back.

“
Take it!”

“
Make me!” Andrew snapped,
making Connor cringe on his behalf as he stepped over Bunny and
headed for Andrew’s room.

When he stepped into Andrew’s room and
discovered that Rory had his best friend in a headlock and was
trying to shove a pill into his mouth, he wasn’t all that
surprised. The man had set down a challenge after all.

“
Would you two cut the shit?
We have to get going or you’re going to be late for your
appointment,” Connor said, ignoring the little power struggle going
on behind him and grabbed some clothes for Andrew.

“
Actually,” Rory said,
pausing just as Andrew muttered and made a few gagging noises, “if
you have room for one more, I need a ride to the medical center,
too.”

Frowning, he tossed the clothes he grabbed
to Andrew, who was chugging down a bottle of water as he glared at
Rory. “Are you okay?”

“
Yeah,” she said, waving it
off like it was no big deal, “I just have a checkup.”

“
Then why do you have to
come with us?” Andrew asked, watching Rory suspiciously, probably
because Rory had a tendency of taking over Andrew’s appointments
and interrogating his doctors, making Andrew feel like a five year
old.

Rory rolled her eyes as she snatched the tee
shirt out of Andrew’s hands and returned it back to the drawer only
to pick out a different shirt and toss it to him. He tried to bite
back a smile as Andrew shot him an “I told you so look.” The man
bitched day and night about Rory babying him and even though Connor
told the man that he was imagining things, he wasn’t. Connor wasn’t
about to interfere, for several reasons. One, he knew that Andrew
secretly liked the attention. It had been a long time since anyone
took care of him. Secondly, it entertained the hell out of him and
her cousins. It lightened the mood and helped relieve some of the
stress of trying to get the manor done and it kept their minds off
of what would happen if the doctors didn’t find a match.

“
Because I lent my Jeep to
Max so that he could check up on some orders in town for us and
help with the manor. Now stop your bitching, eat your breakfast and
get your ass dressed or you’ll make us late,” she said as she
walked out of the room, only pausing long enough to give him a kiss
and then she was off, probably to double check Andrew’s afternoon
pills.

“
I hate her,” Andrew said
evenly as he picked up the toast that Rory had slathered with
butter, peanut butter and jelly, part of her effort to put some
weight back on the man.

Connor chuckled. “No, you don’t.”

Andrew sighed long and loud as he took a big
bite, knowing the little general would just shove it down his
throat if he didn’t eat it. “You’re right. I don’t. But if she
tries to check up on me in the bathroom one more time, I’m going to
throttle the little pain in the ass!”

“
I’ll let her know,” Connor
said, chuckling as he headed out the door to give his friend
privacy.

“
You be sure to do that,”
Andrew mumbled and Connor didn’t need to look back to know that his
friend was smiling. Rory was a hell of a woman and he’d been damn
lucky to snatch her up before some other asshole realized how great
she was.

Damn lucky.

* * * *

“
What's taking them so
long?” Andrew asked as he fidgeted in the waiting room
chair.

“
No idea,” Connor said,
looking at his watch, again. It was a doctor’s office so they
usually were running behind, but never like this. They were running
an hour and a half behind schedule and if Rory hadn't already gone
in an exam room and Andrew needed this appointment, he would have
told his friend to reschedule. He had a lot of shit to do
today.

“
Connor, can you go see how
long Rory is going to be?” Andrew asked, sounding tired, which was
a side effect of the medication and something the doctors should
have considered before making him wait this long.

“
Yeah, no problem,” he said,
trying to figure out how to convince his friend to wait a little
while longer.

He walked through the door that led to the
examination rooms, not bothering to ask where Rory was since he
overheard the nurse tell her which room to go into. Plus, they’d
just tell him to wait in the waiting room since they weren’t
related and he wasn’t her husband. Next month could not come fast
enough as far as he was concerned.

“
Rory?” he asked as he
knocked on room ten’s door.

“
Connor?” Rory asked,
sounding happy, which of course pleased him.

“
Can I come in?” he asked,
already opening the door and walking in just as Rory pulled on her
shoe.

“
Yes,” she said, smiling and
looking happy, which was a bit unexpected, but he wasn’t going to
complain since he liked seeing her happy.

“
Andrew’s appointment is
running behind. I just wanted to see how much longer you were going
to be,” he said, leaning in and kissing her.

“
Just a few more minutes.
Can you sit with me?” she asked, taking him off guard.

“
Is everything okay?” he
asked, not that he had a problem with sitting with her, but it was
just an unusual request coming from Rory.

“
Yeah, it’s just boring in
here by myself. Do you mind?” she asked, giving him a sweet smile
that he was helpless against.

“
Sure,” he said, returning
her smile as he moved to stand next to her as she sat on the exam
table.

They didn’t have to wait long before a
doctor came into the room, looking surprised to see Connor. But
when Rory quickly explained that he was her fiancé, the doctor
nodded and sat down.

“
Your test results all look
great, Rory. I ran a pregnancy test,” the woman announced, making
his heart skip a beat.

Oh shit…………

“
The test came back
negative. You’ve been under a lot of stress and have been working
too hard. I think once you’re able to slow down and take a break
then your cycle will go back to normal,” the doctor announced with
a polite smile.

“
Thank you, Dr. Hahn,” Rory
said, quietly.

Connor chuckled as he leaned down and kissed
the top of Rory’s head. “I guess we got lucky, huh? Maybe you
should see if you can get a prescription so that we don’t have to
worry about this for a while.”

“
I can write you a
prescription for birth control if that’s what you want,” Dr. Hahn
said, smiling. “But, I’d like to talk to you about your other
request first.”

Connor was just about to ask what the other
request was when a nurse popped her head in the door. “We found a
match for your friend,” she said, worrying her bottom lip as relief
surged through him before she added, “We also need you to help pick
him up. He may have passed out when we told him the news.”

“
Aw, shit,” he said, giving
Rory a quick kiss on the cheek before he followed the nurse out the
door, thanking his lucky stars that he’d managed to avoid becoming
a daddy and been given a chance to keep his friend for a little
while longer.

Definitely a great day.

* * * *

“
Do you think that you could
swing by and visit Andrew in a couple of hours?” Connor asked,
sounding excited when all she wanted to do was curl up into a ball
and cry and mourn the child that wasn’t meant to be.

It had been foolish to let herself get her
hopes up. She should have gone to the doctor sooner or at the very
least, bought a home pregnancy test, but she’d been so damn
positive that she was pregnant. She’d never been late before a day
in her life. It was only natural to assume that she was pregnant.
She’d been stupid, so damn stupid and now her heart ached and all
she wanted to do was cry, but she couldn’t.

Connor was happy and she didn’t want to
wreck that for him. He didn’t want a child yet and as much as that
hurt, it would have hurt a heck of a lot more having a child with a
man that didn’t want it.

“
Rory?” Connor asked as he
pulled into Strawberry Manor’s parking lot.

“
Yes?” she asked, feeling
like she was in a daze.

“
Can you check up on him for
me later?” he asked, reminding her that at least she had something
else to focus on for a while.

“
I’ll try to, but I might
not be able to,” she said, avoiding his eyes as she lied to
him.

“
Why not?”

“
I have to go away for a few
days.”

“
What the hell are you
talking about? Now? You need to go away now when Andrew is getting
his transplant?” Connor asked, sounding confused and a little
disappointed.

“
I’m sorry, but I got a call
from Trevor while you went to check up on Andrew. I guess with the
all the excitement I forgot to tell you, but Zoe’s not feeling well
and Trevor is running himself ragged between work and taking care
of both sets of twins. Everyone else is trying to help, but they
really need someone to stay with them. I’ll only be a few days,”
she said, forcing a reassuring smile.

“
Okay,” he said, sighing and
not sounding particularly happy, but at least he let it go. “Drive
safe, baby, and give me a call when you get there to let me know
that you’re okay.”

“
I will,” she said with
another forced smile as she gave him a quick kiss on the lips, glad
that this at least bought her a few days to get over her
heartache.

* * * *

New Haven Hospital

The next
day
……

“
We’re not supposed to
release you unless you have someone to take care of you,” the nurse
explained even as she helped Rory out of the wheelchair and into
the waiting taxi.

“
My brothers are going to
take care of me,” Rory said as another wave of dizziness shot
through her head and threatened to make her lose the green Jello
lunch that they’d forced down her throat.

“
Are you sure?” the nurse
asked, looking uncertain.

“
Yes,” Rory assured her,
thankful when the nurse took her at her word and closed the door
behind her.

“
Where to, miss?” the driver
asked.

“
The Holiday Inn on Tremont
Street,” she said, closing her eyes and letting her head drop back
against the faded cloth seat as she did her best to ignore the
throbbing that was starting to make itself known in her
hip.

Thirty minutes later she was letting herself
into the hotel room and praying for death with each step. She
thought a soak in a hot bath would help, but by the time she made
it to the bed, it was obvious that she wouldn’t be making it that
far, at least not today.