NFH 03 Checkmate (35 page)

“
If they stay with me then
everyone will figure out who they are and we’ll lose the extra
help.”

“
And we’ll also face a night
in jail, a large fine and community service,” he said, dryly,
noting her wince.

“
I’d actually forgotten
about the community service part,” she admitted with a frown, but
it quickly disappeared as she waved off what he said. “Don’t worry
about it. No one is going to figure out who they are. We’ll get the
help we need and everything will be fine.”

He cocked a brow as he looked pointedly
around his now barren kitchen. “How exactly do you propose that we
hide this little problem of theirs?”

She worried her bottom lip as she followed
his gaze. “It will be fine,” she said, but she didn’t sound like
she believed it. “We’ll just keep both houses filled with food and
avoid taking them out to eat in public. As long as they don’t get
hungry, we should be fine.”

“
How exactly do you propose
keeping one Bradford, never mind two, full?”

Her answering smile nearly undid him, but
her next words had him cursing up a storm.

“
Sam’s Club.”

* * * *

“
So, you think you’re good
enough for our cousin?” Jason asked, offhandedly as Connor pulled
his truck into the parking spot of the wholesale food store,
wondering how exactly he let Rory talk him into this
bullshit.

He remembered putting his foot down and
telling her that there was no way in hell that he was going to
harbor Bradfords when the kissing started. He barely remembered the
rest of their conversation, but he definitely remembered the way
she yanked his mouth down to hers and kissed him until he forgot
about her cousins, his empty refrigerator and everything else that
no longer mattered. He would have made love to her on his kitchen
table if the bastard sitting next to him hadn’t stormed back into
the house and demanded that they feed him.

“
Yes,” he answered, deciding
to be honest and noting twin looks of surprise on her cousins’
faces. No doubt they thought he was going to give them a kiss ass
answer, but he didn’t play those games and never would.

“
Why exactly is that?”
Trevor, the larger of the two, asked, looking seriously pissed off
by Connor’s answer. Well, that was too fucking bad because it was
true.

“
Because I piss her off,” he
said with a shrug, shutting the engine down and grabbing his
keys.

Instead of getting angry and tearing into
him like any sane relative would have done, her cousins’ glares
turned into shit eating grins. They shared a quick look, nodded and
focused back on him which was kind of unnerving and he really
wished that they’d rode with Rory instead. They’d insisted on
riding with him and he’d just assumed that they were going to try
and kill him. He’d been fine with that, expected it even.

“
You’re that scrawny kid
that crashed our family reunion, aren’t you?” Trevor asked,
chuckling as he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees
while he considered Connor.

“
I wasn’t scrawny,” he bit
out tightly.

Jason shrugged. “Compared to us you
were.”

“
Point taken,” he sighed
with a nod.

“
You know, you were lucky
that Grandma Beth showed up when she did, don’t you?” Trevor asked,
and Connor couldn’t help but wonder if either one of these men was
one of the large boys that had been ready to tear him apart with
their bare hands all those years ago. A couple of them got in a few
good punches before this sweet little old woman put an end to it.
She swatted the much larger boys away and even demanded that they
help him to his feet. Of course when the boys explained why they
wanted to kill him, the sweet little woman reached up, grabbed him
by the ear, twisted it and dragged him the half mile back to their
campsite where Mr. James and a very pissed off and embarrassed Rory
waited.

By the time she released his ear, it had
been numb, but at least he’d managed to tell his side of the story.
It probably stopped Mr. James from killing him, but it didn’t stop
the man from grabbing a few of his large relatives and hunting down
the real culprits. They hadn’t believed that he wasn’t the one
spying on Rory as she changed out of her bathing suit. When he
showed them that his hands were bloody and raw from beating the
shit out of the two men that he’d caught watching her, they
believed him.

“
You really should have told
us why you were there,” Jason said around a bored yawn. “We
probably wouldn’t have made you cry like that if we
had.”

“
I wasn’t crying, asshole!”
he snapped back, still pissed after all these years about the ten
hours he was forced to wait at the campsite while every single
Bradford and James taunted him for crying.

“
Really? Then why were tears
streaming down your face?” Trevor asked as his attention went to
searching the glove compartment for something to eat.

“
Because one of you dumb
bastards shoved my head in the pond! That was pond water streaming
down my face!”

“
Are you sure? Because I
could have sworn that I heard you sobbing,” Trevor said, letting
out a disappointed sigh when he didn’t find anything to eat in the
glove compartment.

“
That’s what it sounded like
to me,” Jason agreed, gesturing for Trevor to get out of the
truck.

“
I was embarrassed for you,”
Trevor admitted, his tone laced with pity as he opened the door and
jumped out.

“
I wasn’t sobbing, you
asshole! I was choking on the slimy pond water one of you forced
down my throat!”

“
Wow, this is just getting
sad,” Jason said, shaking his head in disgust as he followed after
his cousin. Before Connor could tell both men where they could go,
Jason shut the door and headed for the warehouse club, leaving
Connor to curse and move his ass as he resigned himself to spending
a night in jail.

* * * *

“
Hands off, woman!” Trevor
demanded, but she ignored him as she shoved him back against the
brick wall. She threw a warning glare at Jason as the man tried to
step away and head for the warehouse that promised unlimited free
samples.

She pointed her finger from one man to the
other as she leveled a hard glare on them. “I am not going to jail
for the two of you so listen up and listen good. You are only
allowed to hit each sample cart ten times and that’s it.”

“
You bitch!” Trevor and
Jason gasped in outrage.

Ignoring them, she continued. “And while
we’re at it, let’s get to the other rules.”

“
Rules?” Trevor repeated
slowly, his eyes narrowing to slits on her.

“
You are not allowed to eat
in any of the restaurants in town or within twenty miles of the
town unless I am there with you.” At that announcement, Jason’s
eyes narrowed on her, too. “Also, you are not to buy anything that
requires you to show your driver’s license. If you hit the grocery
store, you’re each limited to one carriage full. You can order in,
but you’re only allowed to order enough for six people.”

“
I’ve always hated you,”
Jason bit out in a huff as he turned his back on her and headed for
the double doors of the warehouse.

“
Ditto,” Trevor said even as
he threw his arm around her shoulders and gave her a reassuring
squeeze or a warning, she wasn’t sure. The warning wouldn’t exactly
surprise her since she’d basically just put them on a strict
diet.

As they walked through the double doors, she
pulled her club membership card out of her pocket, hoping against
hope that the ban the manager threatened them with seven months ago
was just a warning. She really hoped it was, otherwise they were
going to have problems keeping her cousins fed enough to follow her
rules.

She really didn’t want to spend another
night in jail.

“
Good evening and welcome to
Sam’s Club. Can I see your card please?” the smiling greeter
holding the clipboard asked as they approached the
entrance.

“
Of course,” she said,
making sure to give the man a flirty smile, praying that he just
gave her card a quick glance and let them be on their
way.

Before she could hand her card over, a large
tan hand covered her good hand and stopped her.

“
They’re with me,” Connor
said, holding her hand by his side as he handed over his
card.

“
You folks have a good
evening,” the greeter said, still smiling as he handed Connor’s
card back.

“
You too,” Connor said,
giving her hand a slight tug, effectively pulling her away from
Trevor’s side so that she was walking with him. She heard her
cousin’s amused chuckle, but ignored it as she walked with Connor
to the oversized carriages.

Once she was sure that they were out of
earshot of the greeter, she asked, “What the hell was that all
about?”

Connor let out a long suffering sigh as he
pulled a carriage loose. “You’re banned, Rory.”

“
I know that, but so are
you, so what was that all about?” she asked, giving him a gentle
shove out of the way and stealing his carriage.

“
I didn’t get banned, baby,”
he said, swooping in and giving her a swift kiss as he deftly stole
the carriage back, “only you did.”

“
How the hell is that
possible?” she demanded, gesturing wildly towards the automotive
department. “You were the one that started it!”

His answer was a chuckle as he walked away
and she considered running him down with a carriage for old time’s
sake.

“
You got banned from a
warehouse?” Trevor asked, coming up to her right side as Jason
joined her on the left.

“
What kind of loser gets
banned from a warehouse?”

Chapter 31

“
Ow! Stop hitting us!”
Trevor snapped, grabbing Jason and shoving him towards the slap
happy Rory as the woman let loose on the men that turned her
yearlong ban into a lifetime ban in less than twenty
minutes.

“
How many samples did I tell
you that you could have?” she demanded as she moved to kick Jason
in the shin, but before she could make contact, Connor had her in
his arms and over his shoulder. That didn’t seem to slow her down,
not at all.

“
How many?” she demanded
when her cousins didn’t answer her fast enough.

“
Ten,” they muttered
sheepishly.

“
And how many did you
take?”

The men muttered their answers. Not that it
mattered. Rory was too busy flipping out to actually listen to
them. “You scared the hell out of everyone in that warehouse! You
made men and women cry and run screaming for their lives! And
thanks to you, my photo now hangs in front of the building next to
the Recall Notice board, you greedy bastards!”

“
Hey! It’s not our fault
that those samples were so damn yummy!” Jason snapped
back.

“
We wouldn’t have had any
problems if they hadn’t been so fucking cheap with the portions!”
Trevor added.

“
That’s it. Put me down. I’m
going to kill them,” Rory demanded as she struggled to escape from
his hold, but he’d been prepared for her escape attempt and kept
his arm firmly locked around her.

He looked past the two pouting men towards
the front of the warehouse where the manager and about twenty
employees stood on the sidewalk, watching them warily. No doubt
they’d already called the police. Not that he could blame them, but
he really didn’t want to deal with having to tackle Rory when she
went for the cop’s billy club to beat the shit out of her
cousins.

“
Listen,” he said, pulling
his keys out of his pocket and tossing them to Jason. “There’s an
all you can eat buffet about thirty-five miles from
here.”

The two men’s pouts instantly disappeared as
a predatory gleam took over. “We’re listening,” Trevor said,
focusing on him.

“
It’s in Haverville. There’s
a map book in the truck. The restaurant is on Copper Street. They
close down at one in the morning so that should hold you over and
keep you out of trouble.” Rory snorted at that announcement, not
that he could blame her.

“
Let yourselves into the
house and be ready to work your asses off by five,” he said,
determined to keep her cousins busy and out of his way.

He wasn’t an idiot. He knew why they were
here. They were definitely here to help them with Strawberry Manor,
but he knew that the main reason for their presence was him and
Rory. It wasn’t difficult to guess that her brothers were behind
this one. They probably thought their cousins would manage to scare
him off. They wouldn’t, but he appreciated the effort.

That didn’t mean that he’d put up with this
bullshit. He’d keep her cousins busy with work and food so that
they didn’t come between him and Rory. He had less than five months
to convince Rory to spend the rest of her life with him and he
wasn’t about to let anyone fuck that up.

“
Put me down, Connor. I need
to kick their asses,” Rory demanded, but he simply ignored her as
he headed for her Jeep.

“
You can kick their asses
later, Rory. Right now we have to get out of here before the cops
show up,” he said, placing her on her feet and stealing her keys
out of her pocket. He had the door open and her inside before she
could put up much of a fight. Not that he expected her to put up
much of a fight, not with the police on the way. They’d been in
this situation enough times to know that it was time to haul
ass.