How the Hitman Stole Christmas - Sam Mariano Page 0,14

the same.

Me, I could never be a bank teller. Sounds so fucking monotonous, I’d rather shoot myself. But hey, it works for her and that’s all right. I don’t need to understand her work and she doesn’t need to understand mine.

I’m not ready to tell her about my work, though, so I don’t clarify any of that.

“It’s just not that simple,” I tell her.

I can feel her gaze locked on me. She must be shocked, but her voice is calm and steady. “So you have killed people?”

“Yes.”

She swallows. Her confidence is shaken. She must not trust herself to speak, because she shifts her gaze out the front windshield and doesn’t say another word.

She doesn’t speak again for a long time. When she finally does, her tone is grudging, like she’d prefer not to.

“I have to pee.”

I look over at her and her cheeks flush almost immediately in response.

Hm, not sure what to do about that. I don’t trust her enough to stop off at an exit and let her use a public restroom. If anyone else happens to be in that restroom, she’s going to appeal to them for help. While I could technically take care of any unwitting witnesses she dragged into our business, I don’t work on the fly like that. It would be a lot of extra—not to mention risky—work.

We’re out of familiar territory, too. We’ve been on the road for a while, but I wasn’t planning to stop anytime soon. The roads are emptier at night, so it’s a much better time to drive with an unwilling travel companion.

I drive for a while longer without offering her a solution to her problem, but when we pass the second exit, she sighs.

“Are you gonna make me beg?” she demands. “I have to pee. You need to stop somewhere, or…”

There’s urgency in her tone this time so I know she’s not just trying to get me to stop so she can cry out for help.

The next exit sign we pass is a lodging one with a single motel pictured. It’s a generic hometown motel, not a chain.

Those are hit or miss. Some are better because they tend to do things less officially than chain hotels do. By-the-hour motels are obviously the best, no one ever asks questions at those dumps, but not all generic motels are sleazy. Some are run by owners who are personally invested and care too much, and if you get one of those… well, that’s a fucking headache.

I decide to pull off at the next exit and see if I can get an idea what kind this is.

Fear flashes across Autumn’s face when I pull into the driveway of the little beige motel. “What are we doing at a motel?”

I pull closer, taking a slow roll through the driveway and eyeing the place up.

It’s a motel and campground. I don’t like that right off the bat. A campground attached means more through-traffic, more chances for Autumn to create a headache for me to deal with.

The sign is trying too hard as well, making me think the owners lean more toward the kind I don’t want to deal with.

The nail in the coffin is when I realize the rooms don’t have private entrances I can access from the outside. I can easily get Autumn from my car to our room without attracting notice, but only if it’s a short walk. If I have to drag her inside and down some long, communal corridor, there’s too much chance of running into other people.

This won’t work.

As alarmed as she was when I pulled in the driveway, she’s even more alarmed when I pull back out.

“Jasper.”

“I know, you need me to stop, but this isn’t the place.”

“I have to pee,” she complains, squeezing her thighs together to drive home the point.

If I could turn the jammer off for a minute without her realizing it’s there, I’d look online and see if there’s a better place up ahead. Since I can’t, I just have to hope there is.

“I’ll stop again as soon as I can,” I assure her.

She’s mad at me all over again as I pull back onto the highway. It’s her own fault, really. If I didn’t have to worry about her calling out for help, any place with a bed would work.

Luckily for her bladder, when I pull off a couple exits later, it’s a busier area with another no-frills budget motel. I was hoping for an exit with fewer businesses, but as soon as soon