NFH 03 Checkmate (9 page)

If there was one thing he knew about Mr.
James, besides the fact that the man absolutely hated him, it was
that he took the job very seriously. Everyone in town knew the man
didn't believe in bullshit at work and he stressed that little rule
big time to his kids. It didn't exactly take a genius to figure out
that Mr. James was pretty pissed off about what just went down with
their employees so of course he had to cash in on that.

"If you can't handle your men then I suggest
that you find someone that can," he said to her back, loving the
way she suddenly went tense and stumbled over her own two feet. He
wasn't at all surprised when she threw a murderous glare over her
shoulder or mouthed a few unpleasant words in his direction as her
father's scowl intensified.

"We have a deadline that we need to make and
we're not going to be able to do that unless you get your men
organized and under control," he said firmly as he sent Mr. James a
nod of acknowledgement before he headed off to see what his men
were up to and of course to hide his shit eating grin.

Was it wrong that he enjoyed making Rory's
life a living hell? He really didn't think so. In fact, he decided
that if he was going to get her out of his hair then he was going
to have to up his game.

* * * *

"This is a big project," her father
needlessly reminded her quietly, but not low enough that she missed
the familiar disapproval lacing his words. "Maybe you should step
aside and let one of your brothers handle this just to make sure
that it's done right," he said, confirming her suspicions.

Even after all these years she still wasn't
good enough in his eyes. Why she thought landing this project would
mean anything to him, she didn't know. She was neither a daughter
nor a son in his eyes, but something in between. When she was
little she hadn't been girly enough in his eyes to be a daughter
and growing up she hadn't exactly been boyish enough to be treated
as a son.

Nothing she did ever seemed to be good
enough for him. When she was a kid she busted her ass just as hard
if not harder than her brothers, but instead of telling her that
she did a good job he simply grunted and told her that she needed
to move her ass faster or work harder. When she mastered the skill
saw and far surpassed even his abilities he made her practice more.
It didn't seem to matter what she did, he always found a flaw or
pushed her to do better. Nothing she did made him happy.

When she started Shadow Construction she
thought that he'd be happy that she was following in his footsteps,
but instead of being proud of her, he sighed heavily and suggested
that perhaps she should go work for one of her brothers instead.
Her brothers, who had been proud of her, had all gone deathly
silent at their father's announcement. Then, one by one they each
told her that they'd be working for her and that she damn well
better not try bossing them around or they'd kick her ass.

It was one of the sweetest things her
brothers had ever done for her.

"I have it under control, Dad," she said,
forcing herself to sound casual when all she wanted to do was
scream at the man.

"This is a big project, Rory," he mused as
his eyes shifted to follow the life ruining bastard as he walked
away. "Maybe you should let Connor take the lead," he said,
shocking the ever loving hell out of her.

She couldn't believe how much it hurt to
hear her father say that. It was one thing to constantly have him
second guess her, but quite another for him to suggest the one
person on earth that he knew that she couldn't stand, to take over.
In that moment she realized something, in her father's eyes she
might not be good enough, but Connor was.

"He's got a great reputation and as much as
I hate to say this, his work is some of the best that I've ever
seen. The boy has talent, Rory and maybe it would be for the best
if you let him take the lead on this one," her father said,
stunning her into silence, because really there was nothing to say
to that.

"Where are you going? I thought you were
going to give me a tour?" her father asked as she walked away. She
knew that she was being rude, but she couldn't help it. If she
didn't get away from him now she knew that she'd do something
stupid like cry and that wasn't happening. Her father might think
that she was weaker than the boys, but that didn't mean that she
had to go and prove him right.

* * * *

"Where's your sister?" Connor asked as he
stepped into the once impressive kitchen, which was sadly nothing
more than a room full of broken tile, rust and debris.

None of the James brothers looked at him,
never mind paused in demolishing the room and the connecting
pantries. That really didn't surprise him since the whole family
seemed to hate him. Not that he could really blame them. He did
seem to go out of his way to make Rory's life a living hell. He was
actually surprised that none of them had tried to kill him yet.

"She's checking the attic," said the deep
voice that used to give him nightmares as a kid. It was a little
unnerving that the man still had the power to make him want to run
and hide.

He forced himself to relax as he turned
around and once again forced himself to stay where he was when blue
eyes very much like Rory's, but colder, so much colder, locked on
him.

"She shouldn't be up there by herself," he
said, ignoring the disbelieving snorts from her brothers.

"Oh? And why's that?" Mr. James asked in a
bored tone as he crossed his still impressively large arms over his
chest.

"Because she could get hurt," he said with
an annoyed sigh as the James boys once again snorted and chuckled.
"She's also getting in the way and holding back this project," he
said firmly, never taking his eyes off the man in front of him. He
wasn't an idiot after all.

"Oh puhlease," Brian said, chuckling.
"You're acting like she's some chick."

Connor blinked. "Because she is," he said
slowly, wondering what the hell was wrong with these men. Of course
her brothers laughed while Mr. James considered him with a hard
glint in his eyes.

What in the hell was wrong with them? They
overprotected her everywhere else in life except for this when they
should be dragging the damn woman away from the tools and dangerous
conditions. Hell, it was taking everything he had not to run up to
the attic and drag her ass away from his job site. She had no
business here.

He wasn't a sexist pig or anything, okay,
maybe just a tad, but Rory had no business working here. It wasn't
because she was a woman, but because it was Rory. He had several
women working for him that could easily keep up with the men, but
Rory.........

For some reason he just couldn't stomach the
idea of her doing this. Not only because she was going to get in
his way, but because he didn't want to see the damn woman hurt.
Sure, he liked to torture her and make her life a living hell, but
he'd never done any permanent damage and that was really all that
mattered.

This was the biggest project of his career
and if he could pull it off it would mean bigger and better things
for Highland Construction, but that wouldn't be happening as long
as Rory James was around. He didn't want her screwing with his site
and he sure as hell didn't want to have to worry about the stubborn
woman getting hurt. Judging by the amused smirks on her brothers'
faces he was the only one that was concerned.

Hell, he was never going to get any work
done while she was around.

The only choice he had was to drive her off,
just her. He still needed her men and equipment if he was going to
finish this project on time after all. With an inward sigh, he
decided that he was going to have to go ahead and make her life a
living hell.

"Sunday," Mr. James said, interrupting his
thoughts.

"Sunday, what?" he asked, unable to hide his
confusion even as he noted the looks of shock on the rest of the
James men's faces. They'd all stopped working to stare at their
father in wonder and shock.

"Dad, you can't be serious," Johnny finally
said.

Mr. James never took his cold eyes away from
him as he addressed his sons. "Last time I checked, I was still
head of this family and if I decide that Connor needs to join us
this Sunday then he's going to join us," he said firmly, giving
Connor the impression that he wasn't exactly being asked to come,
but commanded.

Since this actually worked in his favor,
Connor didn't argue. "What's going on Sunday?"

"Every Sunday, rain or shine we go fishing
as a family at six," his eyes narrowed ever so slightly as he
added, "no women allowed. We take our fishing seriously. If you
bring a woman you better make sure that she knows that she stays at
the house with the rest of them. While we're fishing you can tell
me about the plans you have for this old house."

He nodded even as he thought that over. Huh,
no Rory......that could actually work for him. He'd be able to get
her old man on his side and work on starting to convince the James
brothers that their lives would be so much better if they came to
work for him. This could really work in his favor, he thought as he
looked at the men in question and had to bite back a smile. Oh
yeah, the James boys were as good as his.

* * * *

"We're having Dad committed," Bryce said in
way of a greeting as he climbed up the rickety steps to the
enormous attic that she was even at that moment making plans for.
The client wanted the roof fixed, a new attic floor, fix the stairs
and update the utilities, but they were passing up a golden
opportunity with this space and she was going to convince them to
allow her to make three very large, luxury suites out of the space
and she was going to make damn sure that Connor stayed away from
the area.

It was going to be her signature touch to
the hotel, the thing that drew people to this hotel and the thing
that came to mind when Strawberry Manor was mentioned. It was going
to be Shadow Construction that got all the glory. She had a meeting
set up this Friday and she was going to convince them to stretch
their budget just a little more to accommodate her dreams.

While other little girls were day dreaming
about their wedding she'd been thinking about all the things that
she would do to this large old mansion to make it perfect and now
that it was all hers, well, half hers, to remodel she was going to
make damn sure that it lived up to her dreams.

"Did you hear me? I said we're having Dad
committed," Bryce said as he carefully stepped up onto the plywood
she laid down for safety and glared at her.

"Yeah, I heard you," she said distractedly
as she looked at the ceiling and frowned at the structure beams
that were going to have to be replaced. She'd hoped that they could
salvage some of them to help get the new roof on faster, but it
looked like they were going to have to tear the entire roof off and
start from scratch. Actually, that could work for her because-

"Don't you even want to know what he
did?"

"Nope, just tell me where to sign," she
said, wondering if she would be able to convince some of Connor's
men to do a little side work for her, only the ones that met her
standards of course. She didn't tolerate sloppy work and she sure
as hell wouldn't tolerate substandard work on this project.
Unfortunately, she already had a feeling that she was going to have
to have some of her guys double check Connor's men's work.

"You really don't care?" he asked, eyeing
her cautiously as he stepped up to stand beside her.

"Not at all," she said as she considered
using skylight windows and just as quickly dismissed the idea. The
whole point of this project was to give it that eighteenth century
feel and placing modern day skylights on the roof would wreck the
effect. No, it was better to go with her original plan, she
decided.

"Fine. Then I won't tell you," Bryce said,
clearly fighting back a smile as he crossed his massive arms over
his chest.

"Uh huh," she said absently, earning a loud
drawn out sigh of annoyance from Bryce and probably an eye
roll.

"Shouldn't you be working?" she asked as she
checked her watch. It was a quarter to five and she was too excited
to call it a night. Not that she would and she doubted that her
brothers would either. They'd probably put in another three or four
hours until hunger forced them to head home.

"Probably," Bryce mused.

"Is there a special reason why you're not
working?" she asked as she turned to face him.

He shrugged. "We wanted to know if you
wanted us to handle Connor's men the next time they pull any
bullshit or just let him deal with it," he said, reminding her of
the earlier mutiny that she'd been forced to handle in front of
their father.

"What the hell happened?" she asked, walking
over to a rotting post and to grab her bottle of lukewarm water.
"And most importantly, why didn't you guys handle it?"

He gave her a “duh” look as he said, "We had
our hands busy with the fire inspector."

"The fire inspector was here?" When he
nodded, she gave him her own version of the “duh” look. “Why the
hell didn't someone come get me?"

"Because they were all fighting over petty
bullshit. It wouldn't have been too bad, but Connor's foremen are
incompetent and started bitching about being in charge. We got sick
of their bullshit and decided to let them beat the shit out of each
other while we made sure that we weren't shut down."

She bit back a groan. Being shut down this
early in the game would kill their schedule. They needed to get off
the ground running. "Did he shut us down?" she asked, trying to
stay calm.

Bryce snorted. "He almost did, but lucky for
you Dad showed up."