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“I take it that’s the place?” I asked. “Not a crawl space if it’s off the ground, Pax.”
“Fair point. I just didn’t know what else to call it. But, yes, that’s the place.” He leaned over and picked up a white jumpsuit, goggles, a headlamp, and a mask and handed them to me. “Your costume for the day.”
I rolled my eyes. “Ah, just what I always wanted. Who’s the designer? Odd? Toga? Ponti?”
“All I just heard was ‘blah, blah, blah.’”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. I double-tapped him on the cheek with the lengths of my fingers. “It’s okay,Papi. I know it’s hard for that old brain to compute such modern concepts, especially when it comes to fashion.” I set the gear on a little table nearby and unzipped the jumpsuit, stepping into it. When I looked up, Pax had an odd look on his face and the set of his shoulders was stiff.
“What?” I asked.
He squinted, causing his brow to wrinkle. “Why do you do that?” he asked.
I frowned. “Do what?”
“Constantly poke fun. You rarely call mePadrelike the rest of the team, but you never seem to miss a chance to call me something similar that I know you don’t mean in a nice way.”
I furrowed my brow and shook my head. “I didn’t mean anything by it, honest.”
“Whatever,” he said and turned away to grab a step stool.
Someone’s touchy.But I had to wonder . . .didI do that? I thought about it for a second. Yeah, I did. Huh. I’d have to watch myself. I hadn’t realized it bothered him so much.
When I secured the hood and donned the mask, goggles, and headlamp, I turned around and found Pax staring at me.
“Don’t you dare laugh. You laugh, and I will punch you in the ‘nads. Seriously.”
“What? I didn’t say anything.”
“Your face says it all, mister.” I pointed and circled my finger in the direction of said face. “Now, how are we doing this?”
He indicated the stool. “Hop on up. I’ll give you a boost, and you can crawl on in. Then I’ll hand you the bag of equipment. It doesn’t look to be so bad once you’re in there. It’s the getting in that’s tight. Once you clear that, you should have a bit of room to maneuver and even stand if you want. But we have absolutely no idea what’s up there or when in the last one hundred and sixty-odd years it was put there. This area could be original, or it could be something they modified—which would be my guess if I had to wager. We just aren’t sure yet. So, I guess what I’m saying is . . . be careful.”
“Always,” I said and got up onto the stool, hopping up to brace myself on the ledge of the opening. “It would have been nice if someone had left the ladder I assume was used to access this before they walled it off. Okay, boost me.”
Pax’s hands went to the backs of my thighs and the curve of my butt, and I couldn’t help but suck in a breath.I did mention that he’s hot, right? Once I had some leverage, I hoisted myself over the ledge and swung my legs into the dark space with the rest of me, clicking on my headlamp, only to come face-to-face with a body part.
A freaking hand.
I let loose a scream that could probably rouse the dead.
CHAPTER2
~Paxton~
Schuyler’s startled shriek froze the blood in my veins.
“Sky! What’s wrong? Are you okay?” I yelled, scrambling up onto the stool to try and see inside the niche.
“Jesus fucking Christ. I mean . . . um . . . cheese and fluffy rice. Yeah, I’m fine. But holy sea of shit.”
That made me laugh, but I had to give her credit for creativity—and for trying. Sort of. I laughed harder but then got serious. She was clearly okay, but I still didn’t know what was wrong. “You’re killin’ me here. What’s up?” I called.
“There are freaking mannequin parts up here, Pax. Creepy-ass, life-sized doll pieces. Bodies, I can do. Soul-stealing, plastic wannabe humans? Nope. Nuh-uh.” I heard her shuffling around a bit.
“When I flicked on my headlamp there was a frickin’ hand in my face. Ahand. Scared the ever-lovin’ hell out of me.” She blew out an audible breath that I heard even from where I stood now down below, and it made me grin. “Get me a bigger flashlight, would ya? I need to take a peek around.”
I smiled wider and then stepped up onto the stool so I could reach in farther and hand her the LED flashlight from the pack. Schuyler Liu, fearless forensics expert, lover of horror and disbeliever of anything supernatural was afraid of . . . dummies?
