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 probably could sense these things.

Now that she thought about it, she realized that perhaps the sledgehammer was a bit of an overkill. The only thing he was guilty of today was annoying the hell out of her, she realized as she pulled her needle nose pliers out of her tool belt and walked towards her father, loving the startled little groan Connor let out as her pliers accidentally pinched him on the ass. He didn't say anything as she walked past him and she didn't expect him to, but she would have to keep her guard up for the rest of the day, because if there was one thing that she knew about Connor, it was that the man liked immediate retribution.

Chapter 7

First his poor defenseless ni**les and now his ass, Connor thought with disgust as he barely resisted the urge to rub the sore spot on his ass as he narrowed a glare on Rory's retreating back. If that wasn't bad enough her men were already causing problems for his men and cutting into the work day with their bullshit. Not only was he going to have to find out what her men did to interrupt his work day, but he was going to have to find a way to get his trailer brought onto the property. There was no way that he was going be stuck doing his paperwork in his truck while Rory had a large comfortable trailer to work in.

Oh, she was going to pay for this shit.

When his eyes landed on her old man he knew exactly how to get the little brat back and out of his hair. As long as he had the use of her men and equipment he'd be able to get this project done on time. What he didn't need was the little pain in the ass getting in his way and he knew just the man to help him with this little problem.

If there was one thing he knew about Mr. James, besides the fact that the man absolutely hated him, it was that he took the job very seriously. Everyone in town knew the man didn't believe in bullshit at work and he stressed that little rule big time to his kids. It didn't exactly take a genius to figure out that Mr. James was pretty pissed off about what just went down with their employees so of course he had to cash in on that.

"If you can't handle your men then I suggest that you find someone that can," he said to her back, loving the way she suddenly went tense and stumbled over her own two feet. He wasn't at all surprised when she threw a murderous glare over her shoulder or mouthed a few unpleasant words in his direction as her father's scowl intensified.

"We have a deadline that we need to make and we're not going to be able to do that unless you get your men organized and under control," he said firmly as he sent Mr. James a nod of acknowledgement before he headed off to see what his men were up to and of course to hide his shit eating grin.

Was it wrong that he enjoyed making Rory's life a living hell? He really didn't think so. In fact, he decided that if he was going to get her out of his hair then he was going to have to up his game.

* * * *

"This is a big project," her father needlessly reminded her quietly, but not low enough that she missed the familiar disapproval lacing his words. "Maybe you should step aside and let one of your brothers handle this just to make sure that it's done right," he said, confirming her suspicions.

Even after all these years she still wasn't good enough in his eyes. Why she thought landing this project would mean anything to him, she didn't know. She was neither a daughter nor a son in his eyes, but something in between. When she was little she hadn't been girly enough in his eyes to be a daughter and growing up she hadn't exactly been boyish enough to be treated as a son.

Nothing she did ever seemed to be good enough for him. When she was a kid she busted her ass just as hard if not harder than her brothers, but instead of telling her that she did a good job he simply grunted and told her that she needed to move her ass faster or work harder. When she mastered the skill saw and far surpassed even his abilities he made her practice more. It didn't seem to matter what she did, he always found a flaw or pushed her to do better. Nothing she did made him happy.

When she started Shadow Construction she thought that he'd be happy that she was following in his footsteps, but instead of being proud of her, he sighed heavily and suggested that perhaps she should go work for one of her brothers instead. Her brothers, who had been proud of her, had all gone deathly silent at their father's announcement. Then, one by one they each told her that they'd be working for her and that she damn well better not try bossing them around or they'd kick her ass.

It was one of the sweetest things her brothers had ever done for her.

"I have it under control, Dad," she said, forcing herself to sound casual when all she wanted to do was scream at the man.

"This is a big project, Rory," he mused as his eyes shifted to follow the life ruining bastard as he walked away. "Maybe you should let Connor take the lead," he said, shocking the ever loving hell out of her.

She couldn't believe how much it hurt to hear her father say that. It was one thing to constantly have him second guess her, but quite another for him to suggest the one person on earth that he knew that she couldn't stand, to take over. In that moment she realized something, in her father's eyes she might not be good enough, but Connor was.

"He's got a great reputation and as much as I hate to say this, his work is some of the best that I've ever seen. The boy has talent, Rory and maybe it would be for the best if you let him take the lead on this one," her father said, stunning her into silence, because really there was nothing to say to that.

"Where are you going? I thought you were going to give me a tour?" her father asked as she walked away. She knew that she was being rude, but she couldn't help it. If she didn't get away from him now she knew that she'd do something stupid like cry and that wasn't happening. Her father might think that she was weaker than the boys, but that didn't mean that she had to go and prove him right.

* * * *

"Where's your sister?" Connor asked as he stepped into the once impressive kitchen, which was sadly nothing more than a room full of broken tile, rust and debris.

None of the James brothers looked at him, never mind paused in demolishing the room and the connecting pantries. That really didn't surprise him since the whole family seemed to hate him. Not that he could really blame them. He did seem to go out of his way to make Rory's life a living hell. He was actually surprised that none of them had tried to kill him yet.

"She's checking the attic," said the deep voice that used to give him nightmares as a kid. It was a little unnerving that the man still had the power to make him want to run and hide.