Page 74 of The Midnight Order
The porch is fully restored, and there’s a line of dead foliage where the chemical agents killed everything beneath the tent.
Hammering has my eyes flicking toward the open door, and my interest piques.
Walking up the steps, I ignore the thudding of my heart as anticipation curls in my stomach like a cat beneath the sun’s rays.
I don’t know who’s inside, but I hope it’s one ofthem.
It is.
Asher bangs a sledgehammer through the drywall with such ferocity that it reminds me of his inhumanity and strength. One swing nearly takes the entire wall down.
In between swings, I say, “Hi.”
He startles, turning on me with feral eyes. It’s as if the job was quelling some dangerous energy in him, like he was taking it out on my house.
Quickly, he stows the ferocity and the eyes gaping at me from beneath his mask, clear of their lingering ghosts. “What are you doing here? Does Jasper know where you are?”
I shrug, approaching. “I didn’t take any of his precious cars this time. He’ll be fine.”
He fights a smirk. “When he finds you gone, he won’t be.”
I haven’t seen Asher since the other night when I walked in on him and Corvin in the lab. The night I can’t think about without getting so wet and needy.
I shake the thought away, and Asher seems to notice the inward battle as curiosity dances in his eyes.
“What are you doing?” I ask, diverting his attention, hopefully.
“Knocking this wall down.”
“No shit,” I joke, a laugh huffing out of me. “Why are you knocking my wall down?”
He sighs, dropping the head of the sledgehammer to the floor and leaning his weight on it effortlessly. “Well, it just seemed like the thing to do on a Saturday morning.”
I purse my lips at his banter, shaking my head and refusing to be baited.
He’s got fire and wit, and it’s hard not to be drawn into him.
“No, we found some mold in a few walls, so we’re going to gut the drywall and replace it.”
“Fuck,” I whisper, looking around and realizing a lot of drywall is already removed. “I don’t even want that bill. Send it to somebody else.”
He chuckles. “I don’t think you’ll see a bill, Sil.”
The way he shortened my name. Fuck.
I swallow thickly, trying to calm the patter of my heart because I know he can hear it. But he grins knowingly, and I know I’m caught.
He steps closer. “Why did you come down here?”
I argue internally with myself before deciding to go with the truth. “Lowell brought me down here last night to prove that you guys are invested in me and that I should do the same, and I wanted to see all the work that’s been done in the daylight.”
He narrows his eyes at me. “And?”
“And, what?”
He’s unnervingly close, and his presence is causing my body to become unbearably hot.
“And you were looking for one of us, weren’t you?”
