“She’s awake!” he yelled back, only to bite back a curse when Rory released a pained groan. Her head was probably killing, he realized and having five brothers fussing over her wasn’t going to help with that. “Stay up there and make the hole big enough for the EMTs to get a stretcher down here!”
There was a short pause before they started bitching, but thank-fucking God they did as they were told. He looked back at Rory and even in the dim light cast off by the flashlight, he could tell that she was pale. Her mouth was pinched tightly and he had no doubt that she was struggling not to cry.
“Where does it hurt, Rory?” Connor asked quietly, trying to keep his tone soothing even though he was fucking panicking. What the hell was he supposed to do? He didn’t know jack shit about first-aid. The one and only time he’d attended a class on first aid hadn’t ended well.
Then again, if the instructor had read the memo the school had given her, she wouldn’t have made the mistake of placing them in the same class. She certainly wouldn’t have ignored the other students’ pleas, shouts and warnings about placing them in the same group. Of course, he could have said something, and Rory sure as hell could have said something, but they’d both been more than eager for a little payback after the incident at the convenience store the night before. It really shouldn’t have surprised anyone when a demonstration in the Heimlich maneuver turned into him on his back with Rory straddling his waist and trying to shove a fistful of gauze down his throat or him flipping her off of him and onto her stomach so that he could hogtie her with medical tape.
He still wasn’t sure why the principal kicked them out of the class or blamed them for the woman’s meltdown. It’s not like it took her an hour to spit up all that fucking gauze. Curling up into the fetal position beneath the desk had been a bit much for something so minor. Clearly, the woman had no business teaching kids if something like that would set her off into a full-blown panic attack that needed five teachers, four cops, and the paramedics to get her to come out from beneath the desk.
Now, he was regretting not taking that course they offered every year at the community center. After this, he was going to make sure that he went and he’d make his men do it as well. It was stupid not to have all his men trained in first-aid, Connor realized as he grabbed the flashlight and ran it over Rory’s body, taking a closer look to make sure that there wasn’t any other damage.
“I think my arm’s broken,” Rory said, sucking in a breath before she continued, “and a few ribs might be bruised.”
“Well, then try not to move,” he said lamely, feeling like an idiot.
“Yeah, I’ll get right on that,” Rory said dryly as she noticeably cringed.
Her smart-ass remark helped ease some of his worries, but that only made way for the anger that had been simmering in the background. Now he couldn’t hold it back any longer. She’d scared the shit out of him when she fell through the floor.
“What the hell were you doing down here by yourself in the first place?” Connor demanded as he continued to look her over, ignoring the way his hands shook.
“My job,” Rory said tightly as she sucked in another deep breath.
“You had no business being down here, Rory,” Conner said, noting the way she shivered. He pulled his shirt off and laid it over her, leaving him in a white tee-shirt.
“McGill called and asked me to look into making the wine cellar bigger,” she explained with a tremor in her voice as she did her best to hold it together.
“Then you should have waited for me, Rory,” Connor snapped, feeling like an asshole for yelling at her, but he couldn’t help it. He knew that he was taking it out on her, but God help him, he really couldn’t help it. He’d never been this fucking scared before.
“You were kind of tied up at the moment,” she said, smiling weakly.
“And if you weren’t interfering with my job, Rory, I would have been here!”
“Stop yelling at me, you insensitive bastard! You had it coming and you damn well know it,” Rory said, forcing her eyes open to glare at him, then immediately winced and closed them again as she grimaced in pain.
“All I know is that better be the last time you pull a stunt like that, Rory. Whether you like it or not, this is my project and if you want to stick around, you’re going to start doing things my way and that includes not taking any more chances,” he bit out through clenched teeth as he fought against the urge to pull the infuriating woman into his arms and hold her.
“Doing my job is not taking chances and this is my project as well, so you need to get the hell over-ow!” Rory cried out, turning her face towards the dirt floor as though she was trying to hide from the pain.
“Rory?” Brian yelled down the hole.
“She’s fine!” Connor yelled back, never taking his eyes off her. Not knowing what else to do, he reached over and took her good hand in his and held it. He was surprised when she didn’t try to pull her hand away.
“This is my project too, Connor, and if you can’t accept that, then we’re going to have a problem,” Rory said evenly after a minute.
He sighed heavily, knowing that she was right.
They were going to have a problem.
“I’m going to kick his ass,” Craig said, earning approving nods from the rest of her brothers.
“I told you,” Rory said, sucking in a breath as a sharp pain shot up her left arm and raced around her ribs as she slowly made her way from the bathroom to her bed, “he didn’t do this.”
Her brothers grumbled something but let it go, which she would forever be grateful for. Her head was pounding, her side hurt, she was starving, and her arm was killing her. She couldn’t wait to get in bed and take the painkillers the doctor sent her home with.
As soon as she made it to the bed, she let out a sigh of relief and proceeded to take her pills. She considered asking her brothers to get her something to eat, but that would mean having them stick around longer. Unfortunately for her, her brothers weren’t exactly known for their domestic skills or their ability to be quiet, and right now, peace and quiet were the things that she craved more than anything.
Carefully, Rory lay down and closed her eyes, releasing another sigh of relief. Sleep, she just needed a little sleep and she’d be fine, Rory decided as she felt the first tendrils of sleep pull at her.
