Page 107 of Brian and Mina's Holiday Hits
“I saw it on Groundhog Day, Mina.”
“What? How do you remember it was Groundhog Day, and what is it with you and the fucking groundhog?” These words sound mad, but I’m not mad, more surprised. I seriously cannot believe he’s been holding this in for nine days. When he didn’t mention it for a day or two, I thought maybe I was wrong and he didn’t see it. But nope. He was just waiting for his moment.
“Did you just take the one card?” he asks.
“Ummm, no. I took the whole deck.”
“Why?”
“Because they were beautiful.” It’s not a lie.
He takes one hand off the wheel and skims the back of his fingers down my cheek. “I get that.”
We drive for another five minutes with only my villain playlist filling the car when he says, “Learn anything worth knowing?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” I say. Is he actually open to this?
He shrugs. “I think we’ve both thought about that tarot reading more than once since Christmas Eve. The Lovers. The Devil. The Tower.”
I can’t believe he remembers it. I thought he would have brushed it completely away.
“I thought you didn’t believe in that stuff.”
“I don’t.”
“Okay, then,” I say.
“Okay, then.”
I’m not about to tell him that the death card has shown up four more times since Groundhog Day. And the tower, twice.
FIFTY-FOUR
mina
After four hoursof creative driving, we’ve managed to get out of all the bad weather and snow. It’s still cold outside, but at least there’s no inclement weather now that we’re out of the storm’s path.
The sun set two hours ago, and we’re parked at a gas station using the free WiFi to schedule a flight for tomorrow that will take us to Phoenix which will give us one day to do any last minute in-town recon and setup for the hit on Valentine’s Day. Our targets live a bit farther out in the desert, but it’s not a long drive. Just a couple of hours.
Weapons are weird logistically. We can’t take them on the plane. You can’t exactly carry an arsenal around without questions. A very small amount of our gear won’t be recognizable as anything important when it goes through airport security, but we’ll have to leave all our weapons: knives, guns, ammo, behind. We’ll be leaving the car in a secured parking garage and storing our weapons in hidden side panels inside the SUV. This vehicle isn’t just equipped with snow tires. Brian thought of everything.
Once we get to our final location, we’ll meet up with a guy Brian knows to restock weapons for the job. We’re paying arental fee. I had no idea you could rent assassin weapons like a 1990’s video store. It feels very retro.
“I need to pee,” I announce.
“Again? Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“Hurry. We still need to drive a few more hours tonight.”
I’ll be so glad to get to a hotel. “Are we staying in a dump?”
“Of course not. I got us a reservation at a Four Seasons.”
“Are you being sarcastic right now?” With Brian, it’s so hard to tell.
“No. We really are staying at the Four Seasons. And I got us a late checkout. We’re flying out in the early afternoon tomorrow so we can get some sleep.”
