Checkmate (Neighbor from Hell 3)

“I told you that you weren’t leaving until you told me what’s going on,” she said, getting out of the shower and moving to block his path, but he simply ignored her as he grabbed a towel and headed for the door.

He didn’t make it far. In fact, he’d barely made it five feet into her bedroom when Rory took him by surprise and tackled him, taking him off guard and down to the ground. It was something that she hadn’t done since she grew br**sts and that unfortunate incident in the apple orchard when she went to teach him a lesson, but instead ended up giving him a glance at her developing br**sts that had him grinning like a fool.

He wasn’t grinning now. No, now he was pissed. Barely aware of what he was doing, he rolled them over and pinned Rory to the floor, ignoring her dog’s demands to be let in the room and the pain shooting through his hands as he held her arms down.

“You really want to know what’s going on, huh?” he asked, roughly, settling himself between her legs and grinding his hardening c**k against her damp slit. “Huh?”

“Yeah, I’d love to know why you’re being a prick,” she said, not sounding scared, but just pissed, Rory level pissed as she tried to get her arms free, but he wasn’t ready to let her go yet. Not yet.

“Because my best friend is dying,” he announced, watching as the anger quickly disappeared from Rory’s beautiful face and was replaced by sympathy.

“Oh my God……,” she mumbled.

“Mmmhmmm,” he said, continuing to grind against her. “Leukemia, but you want to know the real kick in the ass? He has a chance, a f**king chance to live and he’s ignoring it. Do you know why?” he asked, barely aware of the way that his voice shook or the way his body trembled as he spoke.

“No,” Rory said, her voice hollow as she laid there, no longer fighting him.

“Because the ass**le has a rare blood type and he’s afraid that if he takes the bone marrow that he’ll be taking away the chance for a kid or someone with a family’s chance to live. He doesn’t care that I need him and that I’m going to miss him,” he said, grinding against her, harder. “He doesn’t f**king care!”

He kept grinding against her, not feeling anything as he looked down at her, watching as the tears rolled down her beautiful face. “He doesn’t care that I’m going to miss him. He doesn’t care that he’s making me watch him die and he won’t let me f**king help him! Now that he quit, he doesn’t have health insurance and can’t get the medicine that he needs. He won’t even let me be there for him now. The stubborn ass**le doesn’t want anyone to see that, but I need to. I need to be there for him and let him know how much I love him and he won’t give me that!”

“Shhh, it’s okay,” Rory said, putting her arms around him and pulling him down, but he wouldn’t allow it. He didn’t remember letting her arms go or moving to get away from her and didn’t care. Suddenly he couldn’t stand the thought of her touching him, of her comforting him. It made it feel too real, like his best friend really was dying and there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t deal with it, just wanted to pretend for a little while longer. He-

“Shhh, baby, it’s okay,” Rory said as she gently pushed him back down until he was sitting on the floor with his back against the bed. Before he could move, she was climbing onto his lap and straddling him. He went to push her off, desperate to avoid her touch, but when he moved to push her off he found himself instead grabbing her and pulling close, suddenly desperate for the comfort that she was offering him, needing it more than his next breath.

“Everything is going to be okay, Connor,” Rory said soothingly as she wrapped her arms around his head and held him against her chest. “Shhh, it’s okay.”

He tried to tell her that it wasn’t, but he couldn’t. The only thing that came out was an agonized sob and then another and another until all he could do was hold onto her as he lost control and finally gave into the pain.

* * * *

“What do you mean, you and Connor aren’t coming in today?” Craig demanded, sounding stressed and for good reason. They had less than two months to finish the hotel and they were barely keeping their heads above water. They should be at work, but Connor needed some rest and she needed to do something.

She leaned over and kissed Connor’s cheek as he slept, his stubble tickling her lips and making her smile sadly as she looked down at him. He’d been shouldering this secret for far too long. She hated seeing him in this much pain and she refused to let it continue. With that in mind she said, “Our cousins aren’t coming in today either. I need their help with something.”

* * * *

“This has to end,” Andrew said, his legs giving out beneath him, dropping his ass to the ground before he could make a half ass attempt to hold himself up against the wall. He was tired, too damn tired and couldn’t wait for it to end.

He was ready. He’d said his goodbyes and accepted his fate. He’d just wish fate would stop f**king with him and get it over with, because he wasn’t sure that he could-

“Rory?” he asked, sure that he was seeing things as he watched the stunning woman climb through his window. When two very large men followed her inside, he prayed that they were there to finish him off. The woman hated him, always had and he really couldn’t blame her, because he had been an ass**le. He’d love to say that he’d had an excuse to treat her the way that he did, but unfortunately he’d been a dumb kid, a jealous dumb kid who’d crushed on her and hated the fact that Connor loved her. Connor was his best friend, more like a brother and because of him, he never tried anything with Rory, but once upon a time he’d dreamed of making her his own. He’d hated that she was off limits, but as the years passed he realized that he’d simply been harboring a childhood crush on her and had been a complete ass**le to her for no good reason.

“Oh good, you’re ready to go,” she said, smiling when she spotted him.

Frowning, he looked down at his bare chest and boxers and had to wonder what she was talking about. He moved to open his mouth, but no words came out as he watched more men crawl through the window, a lot more. A few he recognized, but most of them he’d never seen before. He knew by their builds, their dark hair, and bad boy looks that they were all related and they were all looking at him.

“W-what’s going on?” he asked, hating how weak he sounded.