Chapter Four
Rory
‘What doyou mean they’ve walked out?’
‘Downed tools. Pissed off site. All of them. Which part of this are you having trouble with?’ Kit’s huff is audible down the line. ‘I hope you’re happy.’
‘Me? It’s not my fault she’s become a fucking nightmare to deal with since she took over the company.’ I look around the room that’s supposed to be well on its way to resembling a high-end cocktail bar. It looks more like a demolition site. ‘The way she runs the business, I’m surprised her da hasn’t risen from the dead.’
‘Me, too. To kick your arse.’
‘Nah, he was a sensible man. He’d be angrier about his business right now.’
‘You think?’
‘You’re not looking at what I am.’ I touch the scratched surface of the rounded top of an antique newel post.It’s bastarding sacrilege.It looks like the thing has been rolled around the floor like a football. ‘If I didn’t know better, I’d say she’d employed a bunch of cowboys.’
‘As punishment, maybe. Couldn’t you have dumped her some other time? Some time we weren’t on a bloody deadline?’
‘Am I a gigolo now?’
‘Surely you must’ve, I don’t know, had some clue that she’d go off her nut?’
‘Go off her nut? Kit, the womanisa nut.’
‘All the more reason to consider how she’d react. You weren’t expecting a kiss on the cheek and a hearty handshake when you decided to, oh, I don’t know, break her fucking heart!’
I pull the phone away from my ear—my brother’s angry words all but rattling my eardrum—but I don’t have an answer beyond the grimace he can’t see. How could I foresee she’d pull her construction company’s services? I wouldn’t have poked her with Kit’s dick, let alone my own, if I’d known what a psycho she was.
‘Firstly,’ I say, trying to keep my tone even, ‘dumpedimplies some level of prior commitment. There was none—we were clear about that at the start.’Too busy for romance, she’d said. ‘As for breaking her heart, I’m not all that sure Beth has one.’ Not that I spared much time to investigate. She had all I was interested in stashed in a neat little package between her legs.
‘Come on, you’re not that green. You know there’s always a secret part of them that hopes they’ll land something beyond fuck-buddy terms.’
‘Are you speaking from experience, now?’
‘Fuck you.’
‘Bunny boiling’s a breed, no’ a gender, you fuckin’ muppet.’ As usual, my accent gets stronger the more agitated I get.
‘The bottom line is, she’s pulled the plug on both sites.’
For a minute, I can see him in his office, one hand irately ploughing through his hair. My temper dies almost immediately; I’m the older brother—by quarter of an hour—yet, he’s the one always dragging me out of the shit. He has a lot on his shoulders without managing the fallout from my sex life. Again.
‘Both?’
‘Crews have set down tools and walked off site with no word of when they’ll return.’
‘Can she do that? Surely we’ve something in the contract—penalties? What about legal?’
‘Rory, you fucked the wrong girl. You want me to take that knowledge beyond the three of us? I’m hoping it won’t come to that.’
‘Meaning?’ A cold stone forms in the pit of my gut as he inhales slowly.
‘Call the girl. Talk to her.’
‘I’m not whoring myself out for this,’ I say, half laughing, even though the implication stings.
‘Come on, man. She doesn’t seem to care about the repercussions. Meanwhile we’re counting the costs by the day.’
