Checkmate (Neighbor from Hell 3)

“Keep pushing us by touching our sister and see what happens,” Craig, who’d just arrived, said, between sips of his coffee and a yawn.

“Better watch your back, bitch,” Bryce said as he stole Sean’s coffee. Sean, who had just opened his mouth to take his turn threatening Connor, quickly forgot all about Connor and focused on bitch slapping the hell out of his brother and stealing back his coffee while Connor let out a bored sigh.

Oh, he was sure that they meant it and would love to pound him into the ground. Any other man would probably be pissing his pants and running the other way, but after listening to this bullshit day in and day out for the past month it had lost its effect. Not that it ever really had much of an effect on him. It didn’t. He’d gladly take an ass whooping for Rory. She was more than worth it.

“Hey, ass**le? Did you hear me?” Brian called out, sounding pissed.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re going to tear my throat out and kick the shit out of me or some other bullshit,” he said dryly, daring a glance down at his watch and wondering what was taking Rory so damn long.

“Um, actually no. I was wondering if you had any cream and sugar that I could borrow. They messed up on my order,” Brian said, sheepishly as he gestured to the coffee in his hand.

“Help yourself,” Connor said, focusing his attention back on Rory’s front door.

“Thanks, man,” Brian said, walking towards his front door only to pause and add with a shrug, “You know you’re a dead man, right?”

“Yup.”

“Good, good,” Brian said with a nod as he headed for Connor’s house.

“That’s right, your ass is grass, you little prick,” Johnny said, sounding smug which was a little sad.

Connor was just about to go see what was taking Rory so long when her front door opened and she walked out, smiling sweetly when she spotted him. He pushed away from his truck and walked past her brothers, ignoring their muttered threats to keep his “dirty hands off their sweet little sister” and met her halfway down her walkway. He didn’t care that her brothers were watching or half the neighborhood who still hadn’t moved on and gotten over the initial shock of the relationship was also watching, he had to touch her, had to kiss her and he did just that.

“Ow!” he winced, stepping away from Rory as he rubbed the back of his head where it suddenly throbbed. He looked over his shoulder and found all five of her brothers watching them with innocent doe-like expressions on their faces.

“It was a squirrel,” Craig said, somehow keeping a straight face.

“Vicious little bastards,” Bryce added solemnly.

“You should really be careful,” Johnny added before mouthing “bitch.”

Oh, this was going to be a long f**king day.

Chapter 34

“Can we stop at Henderson’s?” Rory asked, noting that it was almost six in the morning and the little dinner/convenient store should be open by now. At least she thought it would. Granted, it had been more than ten years since she’d been allowed within thirty yards of the store, but she was pretty sure that it still opened early and closed late.

Connor took a left on Long Pond Road, pissing her brothers off if the sounds of their horns blaring was any indication. They weren’t happy that Connor was going with her and they were pissed that their pathetic little attempt to get rid of him failed.

They yanked out the battery from Connor’s truck along with the spark plugs, a few hoses and let the air out of his tires, probably thinking that would stop Connor from coming with them. Just in case that didn’t work, they did the same to her Jeep and explained with smug smiles that they only had room for one more passenger. It was an amateur move.

She knew that Connor really didn’t want to spend the day with her brothers and she really couldn't blame him. Even though she wanted him there, wanted to spend a whole day away from work with him, she’d understood and was willing to go without him. Just as she opened her mouth to let him off the hook, he flipped off her brothers and set to work. It wasn’t exactly surprising to discover that Connor kept spare parts in his garage. She did the same thing. They’d screwed each other over enough in the past that they were pretty much prepared for anything and everything.

“Do you want to go to Henderson’s or do you want to hit McDonalds when we get to the highway?” Connor asked, gently caressing the back of her hand with his thumb as he took a right at the lights.

“McDonald’s is a half hour away,” she pointed out, starting to feel giddy at the prospect of going to Henderson’s for the first time in years. It used to be her favorite store as a child and she’d missed going there every Sunday for a stack of pancakes, bacon and a cup of hot cocoa.

As much as she would have loved to blame Connor for getting banned from her favorite store, she couldn’t. Getting banned from Henderson’s had been one hundred percent her fault. Then again, the ban probably would have been shorter if Alex, her boyfriend at the time, hadn’t decided to get in her face and call her a f**king bitch for getting him tossed out as well. That’s not what pushed Henderson into banning her for life though. It was Connor grabbing Alex by the throat and shoving him into the shelves of penny candy that got them the lifetime ban, which had been lifted on a probationary period a week ago.

In fact, every ban and restriction in town had been lifted. People were still placing bets on them, but at least they could now go to whatever restaurant or store they wanted to without worrying about restrictions. They hadn’t had much time to enjoy the bans being lifted, but they did manage to grab dinner at Steph's Diner last Tuesday, a place neither had been allowed to set foot in, in over five years and they even went grocery shopping together. Granted, on both occasions the managers had assigned someone to watch their every move and follow them, but still, it was progress.

“You just want to see if Henderson still has those little chocolate balls that you used to love, don’t you?” Connor asked, chuckling softly as he pulled into Henderson’s cracked parking lot.

“No, I’m just hungry,” she only partially lied because she planned on getting three bags of those delicious little chocolate balls and eating every last one of them.

“Uh huh, sure,” he said, smiling that sexy smile of his as he handed her two twenties.

Frowning, she asked, “You’re not coming in?” and nearly cringed at how needy she sounded. She wanted to share this with him, to enjoy visiting her favorite childhood store with him.