Page 104 of Brian and Mina's Holiday Hits
I need to start figuring out an alternate game plan. The storm system coming through is huge. If the planes get grounded we might not be flying for days and this job needs to happen on Valentine’s Day, specifically, or we’ll have to start the plan all over again.
“Oh, my,” Sandra—the only one following the name tag rule—says. “Do you think they’ll send the kids home early?”
“They should have already sent the kids home,” Katie’s mom says. “But there’s only thirty minutes left in the school day, and the snow came out of nowhere. There really wasn’t time to notify parents early. And you don’t want to have people rushing around in this weather. It’s probably better this way.”
Sandra nods sagely. “I thought they should have called a snow day anyway, you know how often the weather report gets it wrong.”
“Too many classes having their Valentine’s parties today. I guess they thought they could risk it.”
Sandra sighs heavily.
I continue to work through contingencies as I put myself in charge of the delivery of the cupcakes Aidan brought.
Just like he requested, they’re chocolate with pink frosting and red sugared candy hearts and white sprinkles. I recognize the branding on the bakery’s box. I don’t usually like to eat sugar, but I’ve been to that bakery before—a fact that would scandalize the entire house who thinks I eat nothing but protein and wash it down with the blood of the innocent. And the kid is right, they do make good cupcakes.
Aidan has managed to sit across from Madison, his one true love.
“Hey Maddie, I brought the cupcakes. I got them because I know you like pink.”
She turns from her friend, just now noticing Aidan. She looks at him like he is a tiny gross bug that she’s examining under a glass.
“That’s nice,” she says, turning back to her friend.
“Did you like my valentine? I made it special for you.” Aidan says, not yet understanding he’s striking out hard with this brat. She is a cute kid, but he could do better.
“Oh, was that from you? The one with the little drawing of two stick figures holding hands, and all the glitter?”
He nods, hopefully.
She just rolls her eyes. “I have a boyfriend already. His name is Brayden, and he’s in Mrs. Hancock’s class. And even if I didn’t, I wouldn’t beyourgirlfriend. You’re weird.”
She giggles, and turns back to her friends who giggle with her. I want to burn the school down right now, but I reign in my psychopathy.
Aidan is about to start crying but he gets up and runs from the class before the tears can fall.
I am enraged right now. I know she’s just a kid, and kids are like this, but I really want to do something... bad. I’m disturbed by my insane reaction to this childhood rejection. It happens to everyone. It’s normal, I tell myself. I have gotten way too enmeshed in this kid’s life. It’s unhealthy. It’s psychotic. And it has to stop. Why am I watching him?
Why am I checking up on him all the time? What the fuck do I hope to accomplish here? I have to end this imaginary parent-child relationship I’ve made up in my head. What the fuck is wrong with me?
One of the moms chases after Aidan to make sure he’s okay, and I use the opportunity to slip out of the classroom. I go down the hallway in the opposite direction from where I can still hear the kid’s sniffling. I’ve got a job to focus on, and it isn’t being Aidan’s fake dad.
I am so glad I get to go kill some people now.
FIFTY-THREE
mina
I stare out the window,and I’m sure I look like a sad kitten from an ASPCA commercial right now. The snow is coming down hard and the flights are grounded. I know because I already checked. The hit isn’t until Monday, so maybe we could fly in a day or two. We’d still make it. But this storm system is insane. I don’t know if anything is flying out of here before Valentine’s Day.
Fuck. I need to be some place warm. I’ve been hanging on by a thread, knowing that at least I’ll be able to get this brief reprieve from winter. And now it might not happen. I’m about ten seconds from just flinging myself onto the ground like a toddler and having a fit over this new turn of events.
Now we’ll have to figure out a new way to take these two out, and there’s no guarantee of when we’ll be able to catch them both together away from their people. We could even lose the contracts to someone else—someone local to the area. We promised a Valentine kill, after all. They aren’t going to want to wait beyond that, but if we can’t even get out there…
The hamster running feverishly on the wheel in my head stops abruptly, his little cartoon eyes bugging straight out of his head as I notice Brian coming toward me with intent. I haveliterally forgotten all the thoughts in my head and probably couldn’t even reconstruct them on penalty of my own death.
Sure, he’s got the same violent and terrifying vibes as normal, but I have to say, it’s not landing the same way it normally does right now.
“What the fuck are you wearing?” I ask under my breath when he reaches me. And I’m really trying not to laugh because we’ve made every strong effort to maintain Brian’s image and my demure submission to the Big Bad Wolf. And we have been more-or-less successful up until now, but I’m standing in the cafeteria—a common gathering space for the girls at the house—so we have an audience.
