Checkmate (Neighbor from Hell #3)(25)

"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.

"Unf*cking 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.