Free NFH 03 Checkmate by R.L. Mathewson

they
needed.
    When she spotted the familiar beat up red
pickup truck parked near the coffee truck she nearly cried. Why did
he have to come here today of all days? Why couldn't he have come
when she had this situation under control? The last thing she
wanted him to see was this or the fact that Connor was treating her
like some weak woman.
    "You planning on handling this?" her father
asked as she stepped past the coffee truck.
    She looked to her left to find her father
leaning back against one of Connor's trucks with his impressively
large arms crossed over his standard black tee shirt covered chest
and a hint of annoyance in his blue eyes as he looked past her
toward the men arguing.
    "Just give me a minute, Dad," she said,
wondering when all this nonsense would end so that she could go
back to focusing on Strawberry Manor. Right now she should be
inside assessing the water damage in the attic, but thanks to
Connor, she was stressed and needed a hot cocoa fix soon or she was
afraid that she was going to kill someone. If that wasn't bad
enough it seemed as though all hell was breaking loose among her
and Connor's employees. Having her father around to witness it was
just the icing on the cake.
    He nodded firmly as he pushed away from the
truck. "I'll be in the building looking the old girl over when
you're finally ready to get down to work," he said, making her
inwardly cringe at the unspoken criticism. She wasn't handling the
job right and her men were not only wasting her money, but they
were also wasting time and that was something her father taught her
never to do.
    Relieved that he was going to let her handle
this without an audience, she walked around the crowd, stole the
bullhorn from one of Connor's men since the man was just standing
around looking useless, and moved to stand between the manor and
the large crowd of men. As she turned the bullhorn on and scanned
the large crowd she couldn't help but wonder where her brothers
were. They should have handled this.
    "You have exactly sixty seconds to go back
to work or you're fired," she announced, keeping it simple and
direct.
    Her men noticeably startled amongst the
large crowd. Not even ten seconds later they were shoving Connor's
men aside as they rushed back to work. One thing she made sure of
was that everyone that worked for her understood on the first day
that they were hired was that she always backed up her word.
Whoever wasn't working in sixty seconds would be fired. She didn't
play games and she definitely didn't have time for her men to screw
around.
    With an annoyed sigh, Connor took the
bullhorn from her hands and made his own announcement, "Get back to
work or leave," he said before tossing the bullhorn back to his
supervisor, who was still standing around looking useless.
    "Try to keep your men in line, okay,
cupcake?" Connor drawled as he walked past her.
    "Don't call me that," she bit out as she
yanked out a pair of pliers from her tool belt and walked past him,
careful to wait for just the right moment and when that moment came
she didn't hesitate.
    "Son of a bitch!" he snapped as she
sauntered past him, whistling a jaunty tune as she returned her
pliers back to her tool belt.
    She sighed contently as she made her way
past the men hustling to get back to work. It never ceased to amaze
her how torturing Connor always seemed to calm her down. It wasn't
as good as a hot cocoa fix, but it would do.
    When she saw her father waiting for her in a
half-gutted room with his arms crossed over his chest and his lips
drawn into a frown she was tempted to hit Connor with the
sledgehammer that was close by. Her fingers literally twitched with
the need to get one good hit in. But that went against the rules.
They weren't supposed to do anything that left permanent damage,
pity.
    "Rule ten," Connor said, chuckling as he
walked past her.
    She glared at his back even as she wondered
how he knew. Then again, they'd been at each other's throats since
they were kids so he