The Darkest Corner (Gravediggers #1)(43)

       
         
       
        

"Good grief. You're quiet as the dead. You just missed Axel and Elias. They headed over to Keaton's to pick up a few things."

She decided to give him a taste of his own medicine and move around him like he'd done with her earlier that morning.

He moved to the side and blocked her.

"Your pipes are rattling in your bathroom. I can hear them outside."

She raised a brow in confusion. "Oh, did you want me to go put on my overalls and grab a wrench? I'm sure I can have it fixed in a jiffy."

He rolled his eyes and she tried to move past him again, with no success. "If you weren't so quick to interrupt, you would've heard me offer to fix them for you."

"Oh," she said.

"Do you mean, 'Oh, Deacon, thank you so much for offering'?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Don't push it." He grinned and she tried to move around him once again. He was making her crazy. She wasn't sure she'd ever seen this playful side of him before.

"Don't worry," he said. "I'll make sure I'm done by the time guests start arriving."

"I . . ."

But he didn't hear what she was going to say. He moved around her and headed off to presumably go get his tools. Her mouth hung open, and she found she was a little perturbed that he'd once again been the one to walk away.

"I was going to say thank you," she yelled after him. "You rude . . . man." She heard his chuckle just before she heard the door close to the garage. She shook her head and stomped off toward the kitchen for her coffee.



SHE WAS MAKING him crazy.

He'd spent the better part of his afternoon observing Levi while he went through each stage of the psych evaluations. It wasn't pleasant. He'd strapped him into the chair and attached the virtual reality goggles to his head. And then he'd punched play on the program that had been designed specifically for Gravediggers, and hoped like hell Levi was strong enough to withstand it. Each phase of the testing got more difficult. It wasn't easy for someone with the most rested mind and body. He couldn't imagine what it was like after just having woken up from a death induced by medication that caused hallucinations, when it was a struggle to keep the contents of your stomach down and the headaches were debilitating. It was normally a five-day minimum before psych evals could be administered.

Tess had never left his mind. And that was dangerous. Distractions in his line of work could be catastrophic. After watching Levi tortured for two hours, recalling Eve's words about using Tess however he could, and thinking of kissing Tess again, he was in a damned foul mood by the time he unhooked Levi and all but carried his sweat-soaked body back to the bed. 

What he needed was physical labor, which immediately made him think about laying Tess out on the first available surface and doing wicked things to her. Since that wasn't the best idea, considering all the cameras, he figured hammering something might be the next best option. And Tess's pipes were at the top of the list.

He'd caught sight of her on the cameras, and he could tell she was agitated about something because her hair had grown a couple of sizes by the time she finally told Elias and Axel to hit the road. He waited until they were out of the picture to tell her about her noisy pipes, and then it didn't take much poking and prodding to get her all riled up.

He must have some kind of sickness, because watching her cheeks color and her hair practically crackle with energy had made him feel a whole lot better than he had when he'd walked into the house. And now he had the plus of putting tools in his hand and getting rid of the rest of his frustration.

"Ohmigod," she said, standing in the doorway of what had been her bathroom.

He'd been waiting for it.

"Ohmigod," she said again.

"You already said that," he said. "It'll look worse before it looks better. Trust me."

Tess threw up her hands in frustration. "I thought you were just going to fix the pipes. How am I supposed to shower? Where are the walls? Where's all my stuff?"

"That's a lot of questions," he said. "And I am fixing your pipes. But the pipes are the least of your problems in here. The floor is rotted and none of the plumbing or electrical is up to code. It's amazing you haven't electrocuted yourself. No wonder your hair always looks like you've just been shocked."

She scowled at him and he couldn't help but grin. Her freckles had turned white with rage. Boy, was she mad. Her jaw was clenched tight, and he was willing to bet her fingernails were making little indents on the palms of her hands.