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Chapter Eighteen
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Ididn’tgetthetalk I wanted, but on Tuesday, Ididget woken up at three a.m. by a series of texts.
Ellie:I need help.
Ellie:I need to borrow a wrench. One that will fit a water pipe.
Ellie:You can leave it on your porch. I’ll be over in five minutes. If it’s not there, I’ll assume you don’t have one.
Ellie:Or you could be sleeping. Either way, I’ll form plan B.
When she showed up five minutes later, her silver hair glinting like the moon against the midnight-black sky, I was sitting on my porch waiting for her, toolbox at my side.
“Not the tool I was looking for,” she said dryly.
I patted my toolbox. “What do you need a wrench for?”
“Do you have one I can use?”
“I do. Tell me what it’s for.”
Through the dark, she leveled me with a glare. “Murder.”
My lips twitched. “Then you’ll need a shovel to bury the body.”
She huffed, approaching the bottom step. Her hair was swept up in a braid that was tucked into the neck of my hoodie. If she had pants on, they were hidden. With her, it was fifty-fifty, pants or no pants.
She huffed with impatience. “It’s kind of time sensitive. Just give me the wrench.”
“If it’s time sensitive, then you’ll accept my help without arguing.”
Arms folded, her foot tapped on the ground. One, two, three. “Fine. You’re driving, though.”
“Never doubted it.”
I threw my toolbox in the back seat and climbed in. Normally, I would have gotten Elena secured first, but she buckled herself in faster than I could get to her. That bothered me more than I cared to admit.
She directed me to an address two streets over. “It’s one of my rentals. A pipe under a bathroom sink is spraying water. I want to try to fix it myself before shelling out for an emergency plumber.”
I glanced at her as I drove. We were the only ones on the street. “You know how to fix leaky pipes?”
“I’ve watched YouTube videos. I take my job as property manager seriously. I wanted to be able to do the basics for cases like this, I just don’t have all the tools I need. That was my mistake.”
“Good thing I’m here.”
“I could’ve done it.”
That made me grin. “I don’t doubt it. I’m glad to help, though.”
We pulled up to a house similar to mine. A red-haired girl opened the door before we even made it up the walk.
“Thank you for coming so fast,” she called.
As soon as we were inside the door, she led us through the house and upstairs into the hall bathroom. There were towels everywhere and a steady stream of water coming from under the sink.
I sank down on my haunches, and El joined me on her knees, sticking her head under the counter. She looked good like that, her sweet ass in the air. I tried not to stare for long. That wasn’t what she needed from me, and it definitely wasn’t what I should’ve been doing.
