Checkmate

Chapter 8

Later that night.......

"Looks like he let the air out of your tires," Sean said, chuckling as he pulled up in front of Rory's house.

"That's not too bad," she mumbled, shooting glances around her dark property, wondering what else he had in store for her. At this point in their lives, letting air out of her tires was child's play and she knew, just knew, that he wasn't done. Oh no, not Connor, especially not since that look he shot her earlier told her as much.

That was fine, more than fine actually. She could handle anything he dished out and probably do worse. She no longer got nervous at the prospect of Connor settling a score, because she knew that he would at least make sure that he didn't do any permanent damage. That was something at least, she mused as she grabbed her lunch cooler and empty hot chocolate thermos.

"Are you going to need a ride in the morning," Sean asked, sounding amused.

"Yes, and an apple fritter or two," she said, throwing him a wink as she climbed out of his truck.

"I'll see what I can do," he said, chuckling as she shut the door.

She sent him one last wave as she walked towards her Jeep and sighed. She was just too tired to mess with the air compressor right now and was glad that Craig had given her an AAA membership last year for Christmas. Bunny came running around the house as she pulled out her cell phone. He jogged over to her and sat by her feet, obediently waiting for her to finish her phone call.

With a promise of an hour wait she gave Bunny his customary behind the ear scratch and headed for her front door, forcing herself not to look around like some paranoid chick in a horror flick. Whatever happened, happened. She wasn't about to live the rest of her life looking over her shoulder. He just wasn't worth the effort. Besides, she was too tired at the moment to really care.

After feeding Bunny she went upstairs and took a quick shower. Normally she would have taken her time and allowed the hot water to ease the ache in her sore muscles, but tonight she really needed a hot cocoa fix. She quickly dried off, pulled on a light blue tank top that ended just above her belly button and pulled on a pair of Craig's old grey gym shorts with the fading Mickey Mouse on the leg and tied them off so that they wouldn't fall off and headed towards her much needed fix.

Ten minutes later she was carrying an extra large mug of cocoa as she walked up the stairs with Bunny on her heels. She walked down the hall, letting out a loud yawn as she gestured Bunny towards her bed. As she pulled back the thick curtain she sent up a silent prayer for a Connor free night and nearly cursed when she spotted the bastard in question lounging on his deck with a bottle of beer and a magazine.

Hopefully, he was too exhausted to annoy her. For a moment she considered going downstairs and relaxing on her couch, but it wasn't the same. She liked relaxing on her deck after a long day and wasn't about to let Connor take that away from her. She took a sip of her cocoa for fortification, opened the door and stepped out onto her porch.

Connor didn't so much as bat an eye in her direction. Hmmm, that was interesting, she noted as she took another sip from her cocoa before setting it down on the small table. Well, maybe she got her wish and he was too tired to do anything, she thought as she sat down on her lounge chair and stretched out.

When he still didn't say anything a few minutes later she became a little nervous and shot him a look only to find him taking a sip of his beer as he continued to read his magazine. It was a little unsettling and unexpected, but if he was willing to let it go for one night, then so was she. Perhaps he realized that they needed to get along for the sake of the project.

"Are you going to move your trailer tomorrow?" Connor asked in a bored tone, never taking his eyes off his magazine.

Maybe not.

"No," she said on a sigh.

"Okay," he said, shrugging.

She cocked a brow at that. "Okay?"

"Yup," he said absently as he took another sip of his beer.

She narrowed her eyes on him, wondering what the hell he was up to. He never gave up this easily, never. Not even when they were fourteen and she may have pantsed him in front of the entire school one afternoon and he may have broken his arm in an attempt to pull her out of the air duct where she might have been hiding. He simply waited until the cast was dry and his mother was looking the other way before he snuck out of the exam room at the clinic over on Chestnut and made his way to the waiting room where he knew her father would make her wait so that she could give him the customary muttered "sorry."

As soon as Connor stepped into the waiting room she knew that she was in deep shit. She'd barely turned to run and hide when he clamped his good hand around her wrist and dragged her kicking and screaming into the staff kitchenette where he found a strawberry yogurt three years past its expiration date in the back of the fridge. For the next ten minutes he sat on her back while he forced her to eat the brown concoction and even when the doctor, three nurses and his mother tried to drag him off of her, he still managed to shove a large spoonful of the fuzzy gunk into her mouth.

No, he was definitely up to something, she thought as she picked up her mug of cocoa and gave it the attention that it deserved. Since there really was no way to prepare herself for his little antics she didn't even bother trying. Whatever he did she would make damn sure that she did something ten times worse to him.

"I'm drawing a blank here and I was wondering if you could help me out," he said in a thoughtful tone and just like that the small hairs on the back of her neck stood up, but she refused to visibly react to him in any way.

She didn't answer and he didn't seem to care as he continued, "What was the name of that guy, you know the one that you bitch slapped at McGill's Bar last year for no reason at all?"

Rory wasn't sure where he was going with this, but she was sick of people, especially Connor for some weird reason, thinking that she attacked the jerk for no reason at all like she was some crazed bitch with a bad case of PMS. She hadn't told her brothers why she slapped the man, because she thought that she'd taken care of it, but obviously she'd been wrong. By the next morning he'd spread rumors all over town that she begged him for a quickie in the bathroom and that he turned her down, making her look pathetic and slutty. Her brothers' fists had taken care of the rumor, but men still thought she was easy thanks to him.

"Oh, you mean the guy that cornered me in the small hallway near the jukebox and grabbed my breasts while demanding that I give him a blowjob in the bathroom?" she asked in a bored tone even though the memory of that night still had the power to make her feel weak and vulnerable, something she didn't like.

Connor paused just as he brought the beer to his mouth. He looked thoughtful as he took a slow sip and placed the beer down on his small table. "He attacked you?" he asked in a deceptively calm tone that didn't match the way his jaw clenched tightly and the little muscle that ticked just below his eye.

"You didn't really think that I would slap some jerk for no reason, now did you?" she asked with a shrug.

He sighed heavily as he took another sip of his beer. "No, I didn't, but I didn't know the asshole was that stupid," he said, shifting in his seat to look at something over his banister. "Speaking of the asshole, you called triple A to take care of your tires?" he asked, conversationally.

"You mean for my tires that mysteriously deflated sometime after I got home last night?" she asked dryly. "Yeah, I hoped they'd send someone else, but it figures that they'd send him," she said, not even bothering to get up to look since she didn't need to sign anything for him to fill up her tires.

She didn't need any added drama to her night and she sure as hell didn't want to face Barry tonight. The guy was a prick and took being shot down a little too personally. As far as she was concerned the man should just be grateful that she hadn't told her brothers what he'd done, because the man would still be eating through a straw if she had.

"Hmmm, looks like he's towing you," Connor said in an innocent tone as he watched Barry do whatever the hell he was doing.

"Yeah, right." She snorted in disbelief. It was really sad that Connor had to resort to lame jokes to try and scare her. Seriously, like she'd believe Barry was really stupid enough to tow her truck away. There was no way Barry would ever.......

Did she just hear chains rattling? she wondered, trying not to panic as she quickly climbed off her lounge chair and made her way over to the railing just in time to see Barry throw the switch.

"Stop!" she yelled, looking around desperately for a way to get down there and stop that madman before he took off with her Jeep. "What the hell are you doing?" she asked, even as she contemplated climbing over the railing and jumping.

With her paved driveway right below her, she didn't want to take a chance of twisting her ankle or breaking something. She uselessly waved to get Barry’s attention, but the damn man was too busy looking down at his clipboard to see her. Groaning in frustration, she shoved away from the banister and ran towards her room.

She ran across the room, startling Bunny and down the long hallway, down the stairs, taking them two at a time and damn near falling to her death several times in the process, and across her small foyer. She threw the front door open, ran outside and across her freshly mowed lawn towards the tow truck just as Barry set the locks on the back wheels of her Jeep, the Jeep that was now firmly secured on the back of the tow truck.

"Get it down! What the hell are you doing?" she demanded.

Barry shrugged helplessly. "I have orders to tow it."

"What the hell are you talking about? That's my Jeep! Put it back!" she ordered, resisting the urge to punch that smug little smile that was playing on the corners of Barry’s mouth off.

"Sorry, you'll have to take that up with the city," he said, not sounding sorry at all as she followed him around the truck to the driver's side.

"City? What the hell are you talking about?"

"Jeep's being impounded for unpaid parking tickets," he said with that damn shrug again.

"Tickets? I don't have any tickets. I just got this thing," she pointed out to the stubborn man as he opened his door and threw his clipboard in the truck's cab.

"Like I said before, you'll have to take it up with the city," he said, looking past her and gave a slight nod. "Thanks for the tip."

"Not a problem," Connor said from somewhere behind her.

Slowly, she turned around to face her nemesis. "You did this?" she demanded, barely holding back her rage.

"It was my civic duty," he said with an exaggerated sigh.

"I just bet it was," she said, forcing herself to walk past him.

This battle was lost and she knew it. Barry wasn't about to unload her Jeep and she sure as hell wasn't going to give the neighbors any more gossip.

"Motherfucker!" she heard Barry wail as she reached her front door, but she was too focused on what needed to be done to care. If Connor wanted to play this game then that was more than fine with her.

Early the next morning............

"What the hell!" Connor yelled as he came fully awake in under three seconds flat. He reached over and slammed his hand down on his alarm clock, silencing it on the first hit and glowering when he saw what time it was. He hadn't set his alarm for two in the morning. Why the hell was it going off?

"Oh, good. You're awake," Rory said, sounding upbeat and chipper as his bedroom lights were thrown on, momentarily blinding him.

"It's two in the morning, Rory! What the hell are you doing?" he demanded as he opened his eyes, wincing as his eyes adjusted to the suddenly bright room and when they did they narrowed on the woman sitting on top of his desk, looking amused and oddly triumphant.

"Just thought I'd swing by and thank you for having my Jeep towed," she said, smiling sweetly.

"Uh huh," he said slowly as his sleep dazed mind worked to take everything in, "you woke me up at two in the morning to thank me?" he clarified, sighing.

Clearly the woman was losing her touch. It was annoying and a bit frustrating to be woken up this early, but once he tossed her ass out onto his balcony and crawled back into his warm comfortable bed he'd fall back to sleep without a problem. He moved to do just that when something on his foot caught his attention.

She wouldn't have.......

After throwing her one last glare, he tore the sheets away, uncaring that he was only wearing a pair of boxers, and glared at the evidence that the damn woman had lost her mind.

"You chained me?" he asked in disbelief as he examined the handcuff clasped around his ankle and the thick chain that was attached to it.

"Mmmmhmmm," was Rory's only reply as he jumped off the bed and followed the chain to his bathroom where the crazy woman had tied it off around the base of the toilet with three padlocks. He tried to pull it up, but the damn woman hadn't left any slack in the chain. After a minute, he realized that trying to get the chain off the toilet was useless and so he focused his attention on the cuff.

Thankfully, she hadn't placed the cuff too tightly around his ankle and cut off circulation, but it still wouldn't go over his ankle bones. With a muttered curse and a few promises of violence to her beautiful ass, he grabbed a bottle of shampoo and coated the damn cuff. The only thing the shampoo seemed to do was make a mess.

By the time he washed his foot off in the shower and stormed out of the bathroom he was ready to kill her with his bare hands. He kept his eyes locked on her as he stepped around the bed and headed for the bureau.

"You went too far this time, Rory," he bit out tightly even as he imagined wringing her neck. He would take his time and savor it, he decided.

"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.

"Unfucking 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.