She placed her flashlight on the floor against the opposite wall so that the light was pointed on the crates. With a resigned sigh, Rory set to work moving the crates on top first. The crates were empty and she was able to move them quickly and stack them on the other side of the room. When she had the crates cleared at chest level, she squinted her eyes, trying to see what she was dealing with. She was almost positive that it was-
“This ends now,” Connor suddenly said, scaring the living hell out of her.
Rory whirled around, hand to chest, heart pounding violently as she fought to catch her breath. “What in the hell is wrong with you?” she managed to get out.
Connor stood in the doorway with a flashlight in his hand and even in the dim light, she could tell that he was having a hell of a time stopping himself from crossing the small room and throttling her. She had to give him credit because if it had been her, there would be no stopping the ass whooping that he had coming.
“You went over the line today with that bullshit, Rory,” Connor said, taking a step into the dark room.
She had to roll her eyes at that. “You’re only pissed because you didn’t think of it first,” Rory said, turning her back on him and effectively dismissing him. She didn’t have time for this today. She needed to move her ass and get back to the roof.
“That’s bullshit,” Connor snapped. “You chained me to a toilet, Rory, and took away any way to call for help. What if there had been a fire?” he demanded.
“I paid Mr. Henderson fifty bucks to watch the house and keep an ear out for you,” Rory said in a bored tone as she started moving the rest of the crates to the other side of the room.
“Mr. Henderson is ninety years old and wears a hearing aid the size of my fist. How the hell was he supposed to hear me screaming for help over that garbage you left blasting?”
She picked up a crate and moved it to the other side as she said, “He had his binoculars.”
Connor snorted in disbelief. “Of course, he had his binoculars! He can’t see without them!”
“Obviously, nothing bad happened,” Rory said with a shrug as she grabbed the second crate from the top, not mentioning that she’d also paid Katie, her seventeen-year-old neighbor who specialized in babysitting, fifty bucks to keep an eye on Connor’s house. Then again, she wouldn’t be paying Katie that extra fifty to call her when Connor broke out.
Oh, yes, she would, Rory realized a moment later, sighing as she reached for her cellphone and remembered that she’d put it down on her desk when she’d changed and forgot to put it back on her belt. Damn, a warning would have been nice.
“What about kicking my men off the site? What’s your excuse for that?” Connor demanded, sounding truly pissed.
“You mean the men standing around, getting in the way?” Rory asked, wondering when he was just going to give up this line of questioning and move on to whatever it was that he had planned for her.
“I don’t care what they were doing-”
“Well, you should,” she cut him off as she reached for another crate.
He simply continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “Those men work for me. If there’s a problem, then I’ll handle it,” Connor said evenly.
“But you weren’t here,” Rory pointed out innocently, knowing that would drive him crazy. It was probably wrong to torment him right now, especially after this morning, but she didn’t care. It was one of the few pleasures in life that she allowed herself.
“If it hadn’t been for you, I would have been here and my men wouldn’t have been delayed,” he snapped, sounding truly pissed.
With a sigh, Rory removed the final crate and carried it over to join the others. “You shouldn’t have to babysit your men, Connor. It’s a waste of time and resources,” Rory simply said as she walked back to the area she’d just cleared and inspected the wall.
The wall was made of wood, rotting wood, but that would work. She frowned as she looked down at her feet. Although the area matched the rest of the room’s floor, dirt mixed with a heavy layer of dust, it didn’t feel like dirt beneath her feet. Was it a wood floor? Rory wondered as she dragged her foot across the surface, shifting the dirt and sand to the side to reveal old rotting wood.
“Don’t tell me how to handle my men, Rory. In fact, I’d appreciate it if you just stayed the hell out of my way completely,” Connor snapped.
“That’s going to be kind of hard to do with us working together, don’t you think?” Rory mused, still trying to figure out why they’d laid wood down on the floor.
“We’re not working together, Rory. I’m running this site with the use of your men and equipment. You’re going to stay the hell out of my way. If you can manage to do that and cut the bullshit like this morning, then you’ll come out of this a very rich woman,” Connor said, ramming his fingers through his hair in frustration.
She ground her teeth together as she reminded herself that she had to play nice, well, at least, while they were at work. Outside of work, she didn’t have to take his bullshit. “We signed that contract together, Connor, so whether you like it or not, I will be working on this project and if you don’t like that, then you can-”
She never finished that sentence as the sounds of planks cracking beneath her feet cut her off. Before she could take her next breath, the floor beneath her gave way and she found herself falling into darkness.
“Rory!” she thought she heard Connor yell, but she wasn’t really sure since she couldn’t hear much of anything above her own screams of agony.
Chapter 10
“Rory!” Connor yelled again as he gripped the edge of the splintered wood floor and pulled, uncaring that the rotting wood was tearing into his hands as he widened the hole she’d dropped through. “Answer me, goddammit!”
