NFH 03 Checkmate (44 page)

Chapter 38

“
You’re fired. Get the fuck
off my site,” Connor told the bastard that he’d caught sitting on
his ass and text messaging his girlfriend while the rest of the men
busted their assess.

“
What? You can’t fire me!”
Dave, the man that he’d foolishly hired as a supervisor and gave
one too many chances to, said, getting into Connor’s
face.

“
I just did,” Connor said,
stepping around the asshole as he gestured to a few of his men to
remove the prick.

“
What the hell am I supposed
to tell my wife?” the man demanded as Connor walked
away.

“
That texting your
girlfriend got your ass fired!” Connor yelled over his shoulder,
not bothering to waste another second on the asshole.

He pulled his phone out and after one look,
shoved it back in his pocket and kicked a bucket full of sand out
of his way, not giving a damn where it went. Three days, three
fucking days without a single word from Rory. He’d never gone this
long without talking to her or seeing her and he didn’t like it,
not one fucking bit.

This wasn’t like Rory. He wasn’t the type of
asshole that expected her to check in. He wasn’t overbearing and
would never try and keep tabs on her, but he was really starting to
worry. Three days without a word. The night that Andrew received
his transplant he called her to tell her that everything was going
good so far and to tell her that he loved her, but she didn’t
answer. The next day he sent her an email update of the project and
still nothing.

Something was seriously wrong. He didn’t
know if he’d somehow pissed her off and she needed space from him,
which he could deal with, but he just needed to know that she was
okay. Rory wasn’t the type to leave a project of this size for
three days without checking in. She wouldn’t do that, not unless
she didn’t have a choice.

He called Trevor and left a message this
morning, but he hadn’t heard back from the man yet and-

“
I just got your message.
What’s going on?” Trevor asked, pulling on a Yankees baseball cap
as he climbed out of his truck and headed towards
Connor.

“
What the hell are you doing
here?” Connor asked, frowning as he noted that the parking lot was
suddenly overrun with trucks sporting Yankees bumper stickers and
Bradfords, a lot of Bradfords.

“
Is that really any way to
talk to your favorite in-laws?” Jason asked with a tsk as he threw
a tool belt over his shoulder and walked over to join
them.

“
We’re here to get this
project finished,” Trevor said absently as he tossed a hard hat to
one of his younger cousins.

“
Why aren’t you home with
Zoe and the babies?” he demanded as he headed for the office,
because he knew without a doubt that something was seriously
fucking wrong. Rory would never volunteer to play babysitter so
that someone else could finish building her dream.

“
Mom’s staying with Zoe and
the babies and so are Haley and the kids,” Jason said, following
after him. “What the hell is going on, Connor?”

“
Why did you call me looking
for Rory? Where is she?” Trevor asked, joining them.

“
I don’t know,” he said,
opening the trailer door, “but I’m about to find out.”

“
Where’s Rory?” he demanded
as he stepped inside the trailer, not giving a damn that Jacob was
on the phone.

When the man held up a finger, indicating
that he needed a minute, Connor walked over to the man, took the
phone from him and hung up.

“
Hey! That was an important
call!” Jacob snapped, moving to take the phone back.

Connor tossed the phone to Jason and leaned
over the desk. “Where. Is. Rory?” he asked, biting out each word as
he forced himself not to reach across the desk and grab the man by
his neck and shake him until he told him what he wanted to know,
needed to hear, that Rory was pissed off at him and giving him the
cold shoulder. He’d rather her be pissed at him than hurt.

Jacob frowned in confusion as he shot a look
at Trevor. “I thought she was staying with you.”

“
No, I haven’t seen her
since the babies were born,” Trevor said, starting to look worried
and for damn good reason.

“
Then I don’t know where she
is,” Jacob said, rubbing his hands down his face as Jason pulled
out his phone.

“
Craig, any idea where Rory
is?” Jason asked, pacing the office while Trevor and Jacob waited
for an answer, but he was done waiting. Something was going on and
he was damn well going to find out what that something was and when
he found Rory he was going to spank her ass until his hand fell
off.

“
Pull up her bank records,”
he said, pointing at the computer.

Jacob’s brows arched a few seconds before he
started shaking his head. “I can’t do that.”

“
Oh, I think you can,”
Trevor said, crossing his massive arms over his chest as he joined
Connor in glaring down at the nervous man.

“
No, I mean, I really can’t
do that. I don’t have her passwords for her personal accounts,”
Jacob rushed to explain.

“
Then who does?” Connor
asked, praying that someone had that information, because if they
didn’t then he didn’t know what else to do.

“
Maybe one of her brothers,”
Jacob said, sounding hopeful as he stood up and made his way around
the desk.

“
Where are you going?” Jason
asked as he placed his phone in his pocket.

“
To see if she left any
clues on her desk,” Jacob explained, heading for Rory’s office
door, but Connor already knew that he wouldn’t find
anything.

“
I’ve been working in there
for three days and I haven’t seen anything,” he said, fighting back
the need to slam his fist into something.

Where the hell was she?

Wherever she was, he wasn’t going to find
her by standing around here.

“
Where are you going?” Jason
called after him as he stormed out of the trailer.

“
To find Rory so that I can
kill her.”

* * * *

“
Oh my God yes! Oh, right
there…..yes, oh…….that feels sooooooooo good,” Rory moaned as she
settled back into the deep tub that she really needed to have her
brothers steal for her. It really would make things a lot simpler
for her if she didn’t have to sneak into Connor’s house for these
late night soaks.

Granted, this one was more of a mid-day
soak, but that didn’t change the fact that this tub really belonged
in her house. Maybe she could get Connor to install it as a wedding
gift, she thought with a pleased little smile as she looked down at
the engagement ring that she loved.

She knew that it was small and was reminded
of that fact by the catty remarks made by other women almost every
day, but she really didn’t care. She loved this ring, because she
knew how hard Connor had worked to buy it for her. He’d offered to
replace it for her and even went as far as to drag her into several
jewelry stores, but she absolutely refused to wear anything else.
This was her ring and she loved it and she loved the man that had
given it to her.

Before her unintentional mini vacation,
which had been out of this world, she’d been nervous and unsure if
she could go through with marrying Connor. She’d worried that her
feelings for him were wrapped up in the overwhelming attraction
that she felt for him. Since he’d proposed, well, told her that
they were getting married only a few short months ago, she’d been
stressing out about the future.

What if they got married only to discover
that they really hated each other after a few months of marriage?
What if he lost interest in her? What if he broke her heart? She
wasn’t sure if she could survive having her heart broken by him and
was even less sure that she wanted to take that chance on him, but
not being able to walk for a day or two had helped her sort through
everything.

It didn’t hurt that for the first time in
years she got to relax, just relax. She didn’t have to get up
before the crack of dawn, put in a minimum of twelve hours a day,
wasn’t working herself into exhaustion to meet a deadline, trying
to take care of someone, or running around trying to get errands
done. She actually had time to rest and relax. She knew that she
should have left the hotel as soon as the pain started to ease up,
but she just couldn’t make herself.

She slept in late every morning, went to bed
at a decent hour every night and took as many naps as she damned
well pleased. She lounged in the bathtub, watched television while
she pigged out on ice cream and junk food and when she wasn’t
relaxing, she was thinking about Connor. She missed him and by this
morning she couldn’t take it anymore and decided to end her
vacation and come home to him. She loved him and she decided that
she was going to tell him that. She was also going to marry him and
she couldn’t wait, she thought with a small sigh as she closed her
eyes and just enjoyed the hot water. She couldn’t wait to see
Connor’s face when she told him that she loved him.

* * * *

“
Time to wake up, baby,”
that deep sexy voice that sent shivers down her spine said, pulling
her away from one of the best dreams that she’d ever had and into
one of the strangest dreams of her life.

How exactly did she end up in her bed? The
last thing that she remembered was closing her eyes and enjoying a
nice long soak in the tub that she decided was hers. It was
possible that she climbed out of the tub and made it back to her
room, but she doubted that’s what happened since she was still
naked and she wasn’t the type to willingly give the neighbors a
show. That and the fact that her arms and legs were tied to the
bed, putting her in a spread eagle position told her that she
probably hadn’t got here on her own.

“
What’s going on?” she
asked, thankful that there was at least a sheet covering her naked
body. It wasn’t as if she was shy around Connor, but something
about this position made her feel a little too vulnerable and she
wasn’t exactly sure that she liked it.

“
How was your nap?” Connor
asked, sounding bored and drawing her attention to her left where
she found him, half-naked and lounging in a chair where he watched
her.

“
Good,” she said, absently,
wondering if this really was just a dream.

“
That’s good, Rory,” Connor
said, his eyes never leaving her face and she decided that maybe
this wasn’t a dream since he looked kind of pissed and she couldn’t
will the ropes away with just a thought.

“
Why am I tied to the bed?”
she asked, giving her restraints a slight pull, hoping the knots
were loose. After a moment she came to the conclusion that Connor
was definitely pissed and the man knew how to tie an excellent
knot.

“
No reason,” he said with a
one shoulder shrug, still watching her expectantly.

“
I see,” she murmured as she
looked around her room, but she didn’t see anything out of place or
anything to clue her into what was going on.

She did a quick sweep of the bed and was
about to move on when something caught her eye and made her stomach
drop. Her ring was gone. Oh God, she lost her ring. She looked
around the bed anxiously, but it was useless. She couldn’t see
anything and couldn’t move and she very much feared that the ring
had fallen off when she was in the tub.

“
What are you looking for,
Rory?” Connor asked in that bored tone that she really didn’t
appreciate at the moment.

“
My ring. I lost my ring,
Connor,” she said, yanking on her restraints as she tried to sit
up, but she couldn’t move. “Let me go so that I can find
it!”

“
No.”

“
You don’t understand,
Connor. I think I lost my ring in the tub,” she said, letting out a
frustrated growl as she yanked on her restraints.

“
You didn’t lose the ring in
the tub, Rory, so relax,” he said, leaning back in the chair,
appearing even more relaxed.

“
Then where is it?” she
demanded.

“
It’s right here,” he said,
gesturing lazily to the desk behind him.

“
Why’s it over there? And
why am I tied up?”

“
Because I took it back,” he
explained, getting to his feet.

“
Why?” she asked absently as
she tried to pull her hands through the rope, but there was no
give.

“
Because I decided not to
marry you.”

Chapter 39

“
What?” Rory asked, her
voice barely louder than a whisper as all the color in her face
slowly faded away.

A few days ago that hurt expression would
have done him in and had him apologizing and saying anything and
everything to make her happy, but not now, not after everything
that she’d put him through. For three days he’d worried about her,
missed her and all along she was less than five minutes away from
their houses, shacked up in a hotel with another fucking guy.

When he needed her the most, she hadn’t been
there for him. He could have used her support while he sat in that
hospital waiting room, doing his best not to lose it as he waited
for the doctors to tell him that Andrew’s body hadn’t rejected the
bone marrow and that his best friend was going to make it, but she
hadn't been there. She wasn’t there for him and now he knew
why.