Checkmate (Neighbor from Hell #3)(26)

When Connor wasn't around they seemed to give up the pretense of working, instead choosing to hang out while the rest of the men worked. Connor must have to micromanage the hell out of each project, she realized, nearly wincing in sympathy for the man. She couldn't imagine the kind of time and effort it would take to go around supervising each part of the job and having to take the time out of her day to explain each and every job as it came up. She didn't have time for that nonsense.

"Gentlemen," she said, gesturing to the men standing in the foyer and getting in the way of the men working, "if you're not working then you need to leave the site."

"We're waiting for Connor," Andrew, Connor's oldest friend and one of the biggest ass**les she'd ever met, explained.

She hadn't liked the jerk back in school when he was nothing more than one of Connor's lackeys and she sure as hell didn't like him now. He was cocky, arrogant and lazy. As much as she hated Connor, and dear god did she hate the life ruining bastard, she thought he could do better. She wasn't sure why the man kept this ass**le in his life for so long, but that was his problem. As long as they didn't interfere with this project she didn't care what they did.

"Then wait for him outside," she said, gesturing to the wide open battered doors that were going to have to be replaced sometime today since construction sites had the unfortunate luck of drawing vandals.

With a nod, they headed for the door. They'd probably bitch and moan to Connor the next time they saw him, not that the man was going to need much encouragement to flip out on her. The last time she checked on him, he was making all sorts of promises to her ass that didn't sound like fun for her so she left him where he was.........

After she taunted him one more time of course.

Not only had she gotten back at Connor first thing in the morning, but she'd made damn sure that he wouldn't be bothering her for at least a day....or two. She'd definitely have to let him go before the forty-eight hour mark passed just so she could avoid someone filing a missing person's report on him since the last time that happened hadn't exactly ended well for her.

Then again the judge clearly agreed with her that the circumstances of his "imprisonment," weren't really her fault. No one had forced Connor to follow her into the old shed on the back of her uncle’s property. Just because she might have “accidentally” locked the padlock and ignored his demands to release him didn't make her responsible.

Of course, the judge may have thrown the case out because they'd only been seven at the time and he had kind of asked for it by chasing her with his pet python. It also didn't hurt that the judge thought that Connor's mother had overreacted to the whole thing. Not really a big surprise since the woman always overreacted to everything that involved the two of them.

It didn't matter whose fault it really was, it was always Rory James' fault according to Janice O'Neil. Her son was a perfect angel and only acted up because of Rory. It never mattered how many witnesses there were or if the incident had been captured on camera, it was Rory James' fault and Janice made damn sure that everyone knew it. Not that anyone believed her, they didn't, but that hadn't stopped Janice O'Neil from bitching about Rory since the first time Rory and Connor came to blows.

The only thing that had saved Connor from a broken nose for all the trouble his mother caused her was the fact that he seemed embarrassed by his mother. Again, not that she could blame him. The woman gushed over him and treated him like a baby up until about five years ago when she passed away. It had always been that way. She knew it embarrassed Connor when his mother showed up at school or at one of his games and fussed over him, making a huge scene if someone got too close to her son on the football field. So of course Rory made sure that his lovely mother had a front seat at all of his games and then sat back and laughed her ass off at him.

She turned on her flashlight and opened the thick oak door leading to the large basement. She closed the door behind her as she carefully navigated the old stone stairway. The stairs were in pretty good shape, but like the rest of the house it had been damaged over the years by wear and tear and needed a little TLC. She was reminded of that fact several times as her foot landed in ruts where rocks were supposed to be and she almost went flying on her ass.

Thankfully, the designers of this basement had the foresight to add plenty of windows so that the area wasn't pitch black, but she still needed her flashlight to get around. Although she knew the measurements of the entire manor by heart as well as the layout, she still needed to look around the large basement rooms to get a better idea of how she was going to work a much larger state of the art wine cellar into the plans.

A half hour later she still wasn't sure how she was going to do this without causing some serious damage to the foundation. She looked over at the cracked plank door of what she assumed was used as a storage room since it still had a wall lined with old crates. Maybe she could break through that room and keep the original spot she had planned for the wine cellar, but that all depended on what was behind those crates. If it was stone then she'd have to come up with something else, but if it was wood then she'd have the space that she needed and could go up and help the guys with the roof. She'd change the plans later tonight.

Eager to get this over with and help the guys with the roof, she made her way over to the crooked door and pushed it open with her shoulder. She swung her flashlight around the damp dark room, praying that she wasn't about to have a run in with some furry little friends or some of the eight legged variety. When nothing came running out or dropped from the ceiling she focused her flashlight and attention on the wood crates stacked against what she was hoping was a wall constructed of wood.