“What the hell are you doing?” Rory demanded as he yanked her into the elevator, pushing her behind him as he slammed his finger against the “Close Door” button just as her brothers and cousins abruptly turned and headed for them.
“Come on, come on, come on!” he muttered, panicking as the door started to close, but not fast enough as her brothers got closer and closer until all they had to do was put their arms out to stop the doors from closing and take his only chance away. Just when he resigned himself to a trip to the hospital and losing Rory, something unexpected happened. The two Bradford twins reached out and grabbed Craig and Johnny just as they reached out to stop the elevator and yanked them back, allowing the elevator doors to close and confusing the hell out of him.
“What is going on?” Rory demanded.
“First things first,” he mumbled as he reached out and pulled the emergency elevator knob. The elevator shook hard once as it came to a complete stop. When the alarm began to blare, he flicked it off, took a deep breath and turned around to face the woman that he loved.
“I love you,” he said, needing her to know that. “I’ve always loved you and no matter what happens, I will always love you.”
“You son of a bitch!” Bryce shouted, reminding Connor that it probably wouldn’t take the brothers long to crack those doors open and kill him.
“I love you too, Connor, but what is going on?” Rory asked, shooting a nervous look past him at the closed doors.
“I need to tell you something,” he said, cringing when the banging behind him started.
“Yeah, looks that way,” Rory mused, shifting her gaze right back on him.
“Did I mention that I love you?” he asked, shooting her a nervous smile as he tried to figure out how exactly to explain the whole fucked up deal without Rory going for his balls.
“Start talking, Connor,” Rory said, arching an expectant brow as she folded her arms over her chest.
Since time was a serious factor, he decided to get right to the point. “I fucked up.”
“And…..”
“There was more to the deal than I let on,” he said in a rush. “I didn’t think it was worth mentioning because once I realized that I was still in love with you, I didn’t want it any longer.”
“What didn’t you want any longer?” she asked with a put out sigh, the same way she always did when he was telling her how he’d screwed her over. He felt himself relax, somewhat.
“The plan,” he said, searching desperately for the right way to explain his original plan to her without making her hate him.
“And why did Darrin and Reese attack my brothers?” she asked.
“Because of me,” Mr. James suddenly announced from behind him, making him curse when he realized that at some point during their conversation the doors had been opened.
At least the doors worked quietly and efficiently, he thought as several pairs of hands grabbed him and yanked him out of the elevator. As Craig pulled back his fist and let it fly, Connor hoped that they didn’t break his jaw so that he could beg Rory for a second chance. That’s if she came to visit him in intensive care.
* * *
“Mother fucker!” Connor gasped as Craig punched him in the stomach, causing his legs to give out, but before he dropped to the ground, Bryce and Sean were there, picking him right back up for more.
“Stop!” she cried, moving to help him, but her father blocked her and kept her in the elevator.
He kept his eyes locked on her as he told the twins, “She doesn’t get past me until we’re done and you make damn sure that no one interrupts us.”
“Sure thing, Uncle David,” Darrin said as he and his identical twin, Reese, stepped in front of the elevator and stood side by side, standing guard and blocking her view of Connor getting his ass kicked by her brothers.
“Shit!” she heard Connor groan a few seconds later.
“Dad, please tell them to stop,” she begged, panicking as she placed her hands on her face, struggling to keep it together.
“I’m sorry, Rory, but he has this one coming.”
“They’re going to kill him,” she said, trying to stay calm.
“Probably,” her father agreed with a shrug.
“Dad, please-“
“Why didn’t you call me when you were hurt? For that matter, why don’t you call me when you need help? And why the hell did you just get married without me there to give you away?”
“What?” she asked, taken off guard. “Why would I call you?” she blurted out before she could stop herself.
“Because I am your goddamn father!” he shouted, losing his temper for the first time in her life. While her father could get pissed, really pissed, he never lost control, never shouted, never at her.
“When you’re hurt or need someone, I should be the first person that you call! Do you have any idea how fucking scared I was when I found out that you’d been rushed to the hospital by ambulance? I had to hear it from the fucking mailman that my daughter was seriously injured because no one called me!”
“Dad, I-“
“Do you have any idea how it feels to have to sit outside your child’s house, scared to death that they were in pain or worse that they might not make it through the night? Do you?” he snapped, looking angrier than she’d ever seen him before.
“But, you taught us to be self-reliant. I didn’t think that-“
“That’s bullshit your brothers shoved down your throat! You are my daughter and there will never be a time when I don’t worry about you or want to take care of you. You were stubborn and didn’t want to let your brothers think that you were weak so you tried to act tough. You were my little girl, my little princess and you used run into my arms crying my name every day when I got home from work until you turned five and your brothers decided to treat you like a little brother. From that moment on, you thought that you had to be as pigheaded as they were and you stopped being my baby girl,” he said, his voice softening, his expression turning sad.
“You are my baby girl, Rory. I love you more than you will ever know, but you are so damn pigheaded,” he said with a sigh. “You need to know that you can always call me,” he said, stepping aside only to pause and shoot a glare at her. “And the next time that you’re hurt, sick or you need help, you better call me, because if I have to hear it through the mailman again, you and I are going to have words, young lady,” he said, shooting her a wink to soften his words, making her relax as he stepped back.
“I will, Dad,” she said, feeling close to crying. Her daddy loved her and she’d probably be rubbing it in her brothers’ faces if she wasn’t very much afraid at the moment that they were killing her husband.
“Step aside, boys,” her father said, reaching back and taking her hand into his and leading her off the elevator. The scene that met her had her heart skipping a beat and her stomach dropping.
Johnny and Brian held back a struggling and still weak, Andrew while Craig and Sean held Connor up as Bryce pulled back his fist and let it go flying, connecting with Connor’s face and splitting his lip.
“Stop!” she screamed, releasing her father’s hand and tried to go help him, but Reese grabbed her before she could so much as take a step and pulled her back. She went to elbow him, but the large bastard was fast, too fast and he had her arms behind her back and restrained before she could take her next breath with a simple hold, but a damn effective one.
“Okay, let’s clear this up, shall we?” her father said, gesturing for Jacob, who looked like he wanted to take a swing at Connor, to come forward. He didn’t look like he was going to listen, but one hard look from her father had him swallowing hard and stepping forward.
“Okay, tell her what you told my boys,” her father said, gesturing for him to get on with it. She was just thankful that Bryce had stopped punching Connor to listen.
“Connor’s plan was to use you to get your brothers. He was using the relationship to look good in your brothers’ eyes to win the
m over and when the project was finished, he was going to get them to come work for him and run you out of business,” Jacob said, shooting Connor a murderous glare, which explained why he’d been acting like such a jerk for the past couple of months. He’d known about the plan and knowing Jacob, he wasn’t happy about it, but he’d obviously trusted her to handle it on her own.
“Don’t fucking listen to him, Rory!” Connor yelled, but he was quickly silenced by a punch to the gut from Bryce.
“And how exactly did you find out about that?” Darrin asked.
“Because I overheard Connor explain it to Andrew,” Jacob said, gesturing to Andrew who closed his eyes in resignation and cursed.
“When?” Reese demanded.
“In June I think,” Jacob said, looking thoughtful, “he was just using her. He wasn’t in love with her. As long as he didn’t hurt her, I stayed out of it. I didn’t know that marrying her was part of the plan. I thought he was just going to screw up and Rory was going to end their deal.”
“That’s bullshit!” Andrew snapped, but thankfully no one hit him, probably because none of them were mean enough to strike a man recovering from a life threatening illness.
“I heard every word!” Jacob said firmly, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I love her!” Connor shouted.
“Then why are you after her company?” Jacob demanded.
“Okay, let’s get this over with, I have somewhere to be in an hour,” her father said, gesturing to her brothers to drag a bloody and panting Connor forward.
“I’m a little confused about something,” Johnny said. “If he was trying to get on our good side, then why didn’t he try sucking up to us?”
“He only kept telling us to fuck off,” Sean said, sounding confused.
“He punched me,” Bryce bitched.
“That’s because I didn’t want any of you!” Connor snapped.
“What the hell do you mean that you didn’t want us?” Johnny demanded in outrage.
“We’re a fucking catch!” Sean snapped.
“You’d be lucky to get guys like us! Lucky!” Bryce said, sounding pissed and insulted.
“I don’t want any of you!” Connor snapped.
“You bastard!” Johnny gasped as her brothers glared at him.
“Rory?” her father said, drawing her attention, but not enough to look away from Connor who was looking up at her through one swollen eye.
“Yes?”
“Do you love him?”
“Yes,” she said softly with a small nod that had Connor noticeably relaxing.
“And what are you willing to do to prove to my daughter and my boys that you’re telling the truth and that you love her?” her father demanded, watching Connor intently as he waited.
For a minute, Connor stood there, not saying anything as dread twisted in her gut. She wanted to tell her father that he didn’t have to prove anything, but she needed to know that their deal was truly a thing of the past.
Connor looked up and met her eyes as he said, “Anything. Everything. She can have my house, my business, everything that I have. I don’t care about any of it. The only thing that I want is her.”
In that moment, she knew that their deal truly was a thing of the past. Connor loved his house and would never willingly give it up. She'd been expecting a fight over it. Giving it up wasn't easy for him. It wasn't something that he'd ever planned on doing, but to prove how much he loved her, he gave it up, gave up everything for her.
She bit back a smile as she walked over to him, making a show of thinking it over. “What about the bathtub?”
“It’s yours.”
“Will you stop stealing my hot chocolate?” she asked, reaching up to cup his slightly bruised handsome face.
“No,” he said, turning his head so that he could press a kiss against her palm. “But I’ll learn to make it the way that you like it and make it for you.”
“Highland Construction is mine?” she asked, already having decided a month ago to combine the companies and run it with him.
“Yes,” he said with absolutely no hesitation.
“You’ll work for me?”
“Yes.”
“Fetch my drinks?”
“No.”
“Be at my by beck and call?” she asked, loving the way his poor abused lips kicked up into a grin.
“No.”
She sighed heavily as she said, “You really suck at interviews.”
“Do I have the job?” he asked, giving her that bad boy smile that she loved.
“I’ll have to think about it,” she said with a shrug as she turned to walk away.
“Uh, Rory, what do you want us to do with him?” Johnny called after her.
“Give him the official welcome to the family,” she said, laughing as she walked away.
“Rory?” Connor called after her, sounding uncertain and for good reason. “Rory!”
She paused long enough to look over her shoulder and wink as she announced smugly, “Checkmate.”
Epilogue
1 Year Later…..
“Who do you think we should call?” Rory asked as she snuggled closer to him.
“Your dad?” Connor suggested, not sure that calling his father-in-law at two in the morning to come bail them out of jail was the best idea, but that’s all he had at the moment.
“No,” Rory sighed, laying her arm across his chest as she did her best to get comfortable, but the bench in the holding cell made that pretty difficult.
“Why not?” he asked, pressing a kiss to the top of her still damp head.
“Because I’d have to explain to him why we got arrested,” she said with an adorable little pout.
Connor chuckled as he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer. “In a couple of hours everyone in town is going to know what happened.”
“This town sucks,” she muttered, making him laugh.
“You have no one else to blame but yourself,” he said, wincing when she poked him in the side, hard.
“You could have just said no,” she said, tilting her head back so that she could glare up at him.
“True, but you would have gone for my nipples if I had said no,” he said, laughing when she poked him again.
“At least it’s not the worst thing that we’ve ever done,” she muttered, giving up on trying to get comfortable on the wooden bench and moved to sit on his lap.
“Put some space between you both, now,” the police officer manning the desk barked at them.
Connor placed his hand on the large swell of Rory’s belly as he stared the officer down, “If you want to put some space between us, let my wife out of here.”
“I can’t do that and you know it,” the officer said, not looking too happy about having a pregnant woman locked up in a cell. Connor wasn’t exactly thrilled with it either. If his hormonal wife hadn’t reached over while he’d been driving them home, after making another late night run out for burgers and shakes, and started rubbing him through his pants, he would have used better judgment and not turned into their old high school’s parking lot to help her take care of another craving.
In his defense, he really hadn’t thought that anyone would be able to spot his truck from the road, not with that storm going on and making it difficult to see anything. At least this time they hadn’t come banging on the window until after they’d finished and Rory was dressed. He hated anyone else seeing his gorgeous wife’s body, but it did happen on occasion when things got out of hand, kind of like tonight.
“Let’s call my brothers,” Rory suggested, laying her head on his shoulder.
“Can’t. They’re refusing to bail us out for five years, because of what happened last month at the Halloween Festival.”
“That wasn’t my fault!”
“Shhh, I know, baby,” he lied. It was completely her fault, but he wasn’t about to point that out to his hormonal wife. He wasn’t a fucking idiot after all.
“Andrew?”
she suggested, sounding hopeful.
“Nope, he’s down in Boston for the weekend, helping with the walk to raise money for leukemia research”
“Oh, damn,” she said, sagging his arms. “What about Jacob?”
“Not until after six. You know his rules,” Connor said, pressing another kiss to the top of her head as he shot another glance at the clock, wishing it would speed up so that they could call their assistant. If the man wasn’t so damn good, Connor would have fired the bastard’s ass months ago, but the man was a freaking god with a computer so they were screwed.
For a few minutes she didn’t say anything and he actually thought that she’d fallen asleep, so when she climbed, with difficulty, off his lap and waddled over to the door, he was taken by surprise, but her next words had him groaning.
“I have to use the bathroom,” she announced, cradling her stomach as she leaned against the wall.
“You have to wait for a female officer,” the officer said, shooting her a sympathetic look, probably thinking that would be enough to make Rory waddle back over and sit down.
It wasn’t.
“No, you’re going to have to take me,” she said, shifting.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but you’ll have to wait for a female officer.”
“I am nine months pregnant with a boy whose idea of fun is to play kick ball with my bladder and you really think that I can wait?” she demanded and he knew that if there wasn’t a set of bars separating them that she’d be kicking the shit out of the officer’s shin right now.
Connor stood up and joined his wife at the bars. “Just let her out. She doesn’t need to be in here. Have someone take her home and I’ll stay.”
“How in the hell is that going to work?” Rory demanded, turning a murderous glare on him and he knew that the hormones had taken over once again.
Yup, pregnancy was a fucking blast.
“I need help getting up the stairs and with Andrew in Boston, there won’t be anyone to help me!” she snapped and he really wished at that moment that Andrew had stayed home. Eleven months ago Andrew bought his old house so that Connor didn’t have to watch it go to strangers and it had been the best decision that any of them had ever made. Rory and Andrew still liked to give each other shit, but they’d grown very close over the past couple of months. He went out of his way to help Rory out whenever he was home. He was very protective of her. She’d saved his life after all and was always there for him.