The shopping cart kept jamming, and I kicked it.
“That’s not very festive,” Jack said with a grin as he grabbed a tree stand.
“I’ll wish it Merry Christmas when I do it next time.” I scanned the shelves. “What did you ask Santa for this year?” I asked with a wink.
“You.”
My face heated, and I busied myself with a few mugs; they were suddenly so interesting. “Well, considering you’ve been naughty, I’m guessing you’ll get coal.”
He leaned toward my ear. “Maybe I could draw on your naked body with it.”
I pushed him away with a giggle, trying my best not to combust into flames. He hadn’t said it loudly at all, but in public, he might as well have shouted it.
I grabbed a cylinder of bobbles, turning it side to side so it would sparkle in the light. “How about these?”
“I love the way you handle balls,” he muttered.
I whacked him with the cylinder, convinced I was redder than most of the decorations around us. “You stop that right now, or I’ll?”
“What?” he asked, pulling me closer to him as he chuckled. “Since when are you so shy?”
“Since there are other people around us,” I hissed, but I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Hardly.” He motioned at the empty aisle we stood in. “There are maybe four other people in this place, and most of them are already paying for their things near the entrance.”
I put the bobbles into the cart, then stared at the lights. “You like the different colored ones?”
“Do you?” he asked as he grabbed a box. When I nodded, he put it in next to the cylinder. “Then those are the ones I want.”
After our quick shopping trip in the nearest town, we put up the tree together while Christmas music played in the background. I couldn’t believe I was spending the holidays with Jack after everything; it all was so surreal. It was forever ago I spent time with someone who felt like family.
At the thought, my chest squeezed, but I pushed away at the unease. Part of me didn’t know if I wanted to go through with my plan anymore. But it had been in place for so long, I didn’t know a life outside it anymore.
He returned from our room with a black binder and handed it to me without a word. I arched an eyebrow as I took it, my heart pounding in my chest as I opened it.
Inside was a card collection of different kinds of jacks, all with a bloody fingerprint on the corners and names written on the cards. My pulse throbbed in my ears as my mouth opened, and I realized what this was: his trophies. I flipped through them, trying to do the calculations in my mind. There were at least a hundred.
“How did you get all their names?” I asked quietly.
“Checked their wallets for IDs. If there weren’t any, I put down John or Jane Doe.”
I stopped on a page, recognizing my foster parents’ names. Side by side. One drowned, the other choked to death.
“Do you mind if I take down some notes real quick?”
He nodded, and I rushed to my suitcase, pulling out my notebook. It wasn’t long before I was scribbling down what I saw inside the binder?obviously without mentioning any names. Before I knew it, I had everything I’d ever wanted for my report and more.
I bit my lower lip as I put my notebook aside and pulled the binder back. “You asked if I had a good childhood. I didn’t lie when I said it was filled with love, but...” I let out a shuddering breath, unable to meet his gaze. “My aunt passed away from cancer when I was thirteen years old. There was no other family who could take me in, so I ended up in foster care.”
“I see...” His tone was unreadable, so I looked up at him. Darkness lingered in his gaze. “I’m sorry that happened to you.”
“I didn’t lie, but I know that’s a technicality to say my adolescence wasn’t great. And I’m sorry I lied.” I stared back down at the names swimming in front of my eyes. “My foster parents were... very abusive. Melanie belittled and beat me often, and Don... he forced himself on me more than once.”
His hands curled into fists as he slid closer to me on the loveseat. I forced a smile as I pointed at both names. “And you don’t have to threaten to kill them because you already did. Twelve years ago.”
He froze, staring at me as though he was suddenly seeing a ghost.
“I was suicidal by the time I was fifteen years old. I wanted everything to end. For the pain to stop. And one night, someone broke into our RV, and I hid in the closet...” I held his gaze this time. “I watched as you killed them both and became my hero. The one who saved me from suffering.”
