Chapter 10 #4
“I wanted to bring you up to date about this Jack Harley character. Maggie, you put yourself in real danger not coming forward about what was going on. Not only that, you put the kids in danger,” he told her, his blue eyes not cutting her any slack.
She could see how tight his jaw was clenched and knew he was trying not to raise his voice.
As if he would need to yell to make his point.
“This low life has a rap sheet a mile long. Assaults, battery, even a couple of weapons charges that he somehow managed to get reduced. Don’t you guys ever do a background check when you hire a new employee?”
Maggie gulped. That was her fault. She’d needed a good brick layer so badly that she had bypassed the normal screening process and hired him on the spot.
It had been her intention to get to it later, but she’d never gotten around to it.
Confessing this to Rory did not earn her any brownie points, and she could only imagine how Mason and Nick would feel about it.
“Rory, please don’t mention this to Mason or Nick. I could lose my job,” she begged him. Not to mention other painful things too embarrassing to even think about.
“I’m not sure that would be such a bad thing at this point. I’ve never liked you working at isolated sites until well after dark with God knows who. And apparently, you are often the last to leave as you were several times in this case.
“Christ, Maggie, do you ever watch the news? Read a paper?” he demanded, getting up to pace as he ran his hand through his hair.
“You have absolutely no concept of the kind of things that can happen to a woman. I’ve seen…
well never mind what I’ve seen,” he growled so frustrated he could barely keep from yelling.
“I just don’t want to find your body in a drainage ditch somewhere. ”
Maggie shivered, wrapping her arms around her body.
She really didn’t want to hear this. And she was sorry.
Sorry she hadn’t run a check on Jack. Sorry she’d kept quiet about the attack.
And sorry she came to Sunday dinner. This wasn’t going to turn out well, she could see that now.
There was no way in hell she would be able to keep this buried, not in this family.
It was an absolute miracle she’d been able to keep the one secret she had been able to keep. Jason.
If Rory was this upset with her, she could just imagine how her Da was going to react, not to mention Patrick and Noah and of course the bossy Kord brothers.
Good grief, she’d forgotten about Molly; she probably knew everything already, had probably seen it. She had to get to her and beg her not to tell anyone.
“Rory, please, I promise. I’ll be much more careful. I’ll make sure I do a check on every new hire. I’ll even make sure my cell phone is charged… if I can find it.”
“What!? Cupcake, for God’s sake, tell me you’re kidding,” he pleaded, grabbing her arms and pulling her up off the sofa.
“Sure, sure, I’m kidding. I know right where it is, and I’m going to go home and charge the hell out of it.”
Rory sighed. He knew what he should do, but he didn’t know if he could do it.
Maggie had three kids to support, and as much as he hated the whole situation, he knew she had to work.
There weren’t many places where she could make the kind of money she did, and he got that.
But if he couldn’t impress on her how serious he was, it wouldn’t leave him much choice.
“All right, I’ll try to keep this between us,” he told her pointing his finger right at her and pinning her with his icy blue eyes.
“But you better hear me. You’re going to have to testify in court, and I can’t help you there.
It will be open to the public, so you need to be prepared if it gets out.
“Keep that fucking phone charged and on you at all times. If I call you, and I will, and it goes right to voicemail, I’ll know it’s dead or off, and I will come looking for you and drag your ass right into Mason’s office.
If he’s not available, I’m pretty sure I can hunt down Nick.
Either way, I can almost guarantee you won’t like the consequences.
And, get yourself a can of pepper spray, like every other damn woman in America! ”
“I will, Rory. I’ll do all those things. Just don’t tell Nick about the background check… or the phone… or well, anything that we discussed. Thanks,” she continued, backing to the door as Rory slumped onto the sofa.
“And Cupcake, why the hell don’t you get married again? It would sure save me a lot of worry, not to mention ulcer medication.”
“Um… about that… probably not going to happen,” she told him as she got to the door. “For some reason, I can’t seem to find anyone as easy going as Jim.”
“No, I’m sure you can’t,” he replied somewhat sarcastically.
“Just remember, sometimes what we think we want isn’t necessarily what’s best for us.
I know you think Jim was a good husband, and in some ways I agree with you.
But he wasn’t what you needed, and from the looks of things, what you still need. ”
“What do you mean?” she asked, her head cocked to one side as she waited for his reply.
“Never mind. Just don’t forget what you promised and know I’m going to hold you to it. Now go see if Ma needs any help. I’ll be out in a few minutes after I try to get rid of this headache.”