Better Off Dead in Deadwood Read Online Free PDF Page A

shoulders over-filling the back of my chair.
    Who in the hell was that?
    I glanced at Ray, who hated me in plain sight with a sneer on his overly tanned face.
    Darn. So much for the two of us forming a chummy new friendship after I had risked my hide to save him and his family jewels from a scalpel-happy albino.
    The stranger spun around. A wide smile was carved on his face, joining the fans of crows’ feet around his eyes and deep-set lines across his forehead. He was good looking in a used-to-be-a-surfer way and had managed to keep from going to seed south of his chin. I was trying to guess his age when he planted his feet and stood all the way up, up, up.
    Holy shit! I took a step back, gaping all the way to the top of his sun-bleached-blond crew cut and back down to his clown-sized shoes. The guy had a good five to six inches on Doc, who stood a head taller than me.
    Who ordered the Nordic giant?
    Judging from his square-cut jaw and rock-hewn cheekbones, someone must have chiseled him out of a cliff that overlooked a Scandinavian fjord.
    “Wow,” I said aloud. Whatever else I’d been about to say had been knocked clear out of my head.
    Thor, the God of Thunder, smiled down at me, his teeth tight, even, white rectangles, like extra-large Chiclets. Maybe he’d come looking for his big hammer. Maybe I could borrow it to knock that stupid smirk off Ray’s face.
    “You must be Violet Parker.” His voice was as deep as he was tall. “I was just telling Ray that I was hoping to catch you here today.”
    Oh, no no no. Nuh uh. Nope. There was absolutely no way I was taking this guy on as another client. I had my fill with a dirty old man, a sexy medium, a frustrating ghost hunter, a soon-to-be single dad, and a crotchety detective. I drew the line at a blond giant wearing a green shirt big enough to make into curtains.
    Heck, he probably wouldn’t even fit in the Picklemobile unless I turned him lengthwise in the cab.
    “You were looking for me? Really?” Pasting a smile on my face, I trekked around the monolith and dropped my bag on the corner of my desk. “Have we met bef—”
    My desk phone rang.
    We both looked at it. I saw the incoming number and recognized the area code.
    “If you’ll excuse me,” I said to the giant, “I need to take this.”
    He nodded and spun my chair around, holding it out for me.
    Nodding my thanks, I picked up the handset on the fourth ring. “Hi, Cornelius.”
    “I’d like to talk to Violet Parker, please,” Cornelius said in my ear.
    I rolled my eyes. How many times had he heard my voice now?
    “It’s me, Cornelius.”
    “Who’s me?”
    “Violet.”
    “Excellent. Your secretary is quick on the draw.”
    Cornelius wasn’t an idiot; he just gave oblivious a new look, which included a top hat, a long black frock coat, and a cane.
    “What do you need, Cornelius?”
    “There’s a slight problem with my funding for the hotel.”
    My knees gave out, my butt hitting my chair. “Define ‘slight problem.’”
    Ray snorted.
    I tried to shrivel him alive with my glare.
    “The money is sort of tied up at the moment,” Cornelius said.
    Turning my back to Ray, I said in a low voice, “You spoke previously of an abundance of cash.”
    “I know, and there will be … if we can dump the other property.”
    “The due date is in a week.”
    “Could we file some sort of extension?”
    Maybe, but … “This isn’t your taxes.”
    “I’m detecting some tension in your voice, Violet.”
    “You think?”
    “Have you ever had your chakras realigned? It’s very good for releasing tension and stimulating your mental health.”
    I was going to realign his chakras with my shoe.
    “Cornelius,” I said. I may actually have snarled between each syllable.
    “Relax, Violet. I just wanted to test you and see how you’d respond to this kind of a situation.”
    “So you’re joking then?”
    “Not at all.”
    I closed my eyes for a moment and counted to five. “Would you like me to