Honeymoon from Hell III (2 page)

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 stopped her by moving in front of
her.

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 stepped in front of the elevator with Reese by
his 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 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 and 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? 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 she’s in pain or worse that she 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 that 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
stubborn,” he said with a sigh. “You need to know that you can
always call me,” he said, stepping aside only to pause and 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, as he took her hand in his and led her off the
elevator. The scene that met them 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 fly, connecting with Connor’s face
and splitting his lip.

“
Stop!” she screamed,
releasing her father’s hand. She tried to help him, but Reese
grabbed her 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 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 them over. 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’d
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.”

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 so that I can make it for
you.”

“
Highland Construction is
mine?” she asked, already deciding a month ago to combine their
companies into one 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.”

Chapter 1

One Week Later…

“
Mmmm,” Rory murmured with
a sleepy little smile as she slowly sank down into the
old-fashioned clawed tub that was now legally half hers and closed
her eyes as she savored the scent of lemongrass and mint carried by
the steam rising from the tub.

She couldn’t believe how wonderful this past
week had been. She’d slept in late every single morning, caught up
on her chores, took naps, moved her stuff into Connor’s house,
well, their house now, sold her house at a very tidy profit to
Andrew, caught up on e-mails, managed to make Jacob’s life a living
hell for a few days for all the trouble he’d caused and simply
because she could, and just enjoyed herself. All in all it had been
a very productive and relaxing week. It was the first time in years
that she actually took time for herself.

Then again, it wasn’t really as though she
had a choice in the matter, not since all of her brothers and most
of her cousins had disappeared over a week ago, taking Connor with
them as well as the decision to work out of her hands. Since she’d
overestimated the time that they would need to complete Strawberry
Manor, they actually had a few free weeks before their next job
started. Normally when that happened she would have her guys
organize their supplies, manage supplies for future jobs, provide
estimates and make bids for future jobs. To her, there was no such
thing as down time…

Until this past week when her brothers had
stolen her husband that is. Granted, she’d given them permission to
give him the official Bradford welcome to the family. Since they’d
disappeared, she’d had nothing but down time and she hated to admit
this, especially after priding herself for her strict work ethic
for so long, but it had felt wonderful to wake up with absolutely
nothing to do. Just so she didn’t feel completely lazy she did get
a few things done, but for the most part she’d lounged.

She’d lounged in this tub…

On the bed…

On the couch…

On the porch…

And if it hadn’t been so
damn cold out she would have bought a kiddie pool and lounged
outside in it with Bunny. When she wasn’t watching mindless
television and her favorite movies, she was napping, soaking in a
hot bath, making chocolate chip cookie batter at two in the morning
just so she could eat raw cookie dough in bed while she watched
a
Harry Potter
marathon and just basically doing absolutely
nothing.

It was without question the most decadent
week of her life and even though she missed Connor and was actually
a bit concerned about his safety, it was still the most relaxing
week that she’d ever spent in her life and no matter how much she
tried, she couldn’t make herself regret this past week. It didn’t
hurt that she knew that her brothers and cousins wouldn’t let
anything bad happen to Connor, so she wasn’t too worried about
him.