How the Hitman Stole Christmas - Sam Mariano Page 0,26

phone. “Autumn, where the hell are you? The shops are closed, I’ve been calling you for hours… Why aren’t you picking up? Is your phone dead? I told you to take a car charger. You know you can’t get anywhere without a damn GPS. I hope you didn’t run out of gas again. I’ve told you a thousand times not to let it get so low, especially in this weather.” He sighs heavily. “This is really inconsiderate of you. Everyone has been asking where you are all night—I’ve looked like an idiot for not being able to reach you. My smug brother started cracking jokes that you probably met someone while shopping and ran off with him, so I guess at least someone thinks this is funny. I don’t. I’m pissed. You have my credit card, you have the rental car I paid for, and I’m stuck here waiting for you to get back. I don’t know why I thought I could trust you with this. I hope you’re having a really great time, whatever you’re doing. If you could find a minute to call me back, that’d be really fucking great.”

My fist curls around the phone so tightly, I think I might break it.

I’m tempted to break it deliberately.

My focus pulls to Autumn. The anticipation on her face, the sparkle in her pretty blue eyes as she waits to find out what her stupid fucking worthless asshole of a boyfriend is saying.

There’s no way in hell she’s going to listen to that bullshit.

I’m grumpier about the idea of letting her call him, but my concern that she could change her mind has dissipated. I don’t know what she ever saw in this callous asshole, but even semi-captivity must be better than being his.

What a dick.

His girlfriend is missing and all he can think about is how it makes him look.

The memory of earlier tonight flits across my mind. Autumn stranded on the side of the road with her face buried in her hands, worried about her boyfriend being angry at her because she broke down.

Now I see firsthand why she thought that.

This isn’t just some stressful off-night for him—he really is that much of an asshole.

Well, he’s her ex-asshole now. He’s never going to see her again.

And she’s not going to hear this goddamn message.

I pull the phone away from my ear and press delete.

“Jasper!”

“Oh, shit. Sorry.” I cast her an apologetic glance. “Force of habit.”

Her jaw hangs open, her expression alarmed, almost worried. Maybe it’s an old instinct. Maybe she thinks he’ll get mad if she doesn’t know what he said.

His anger is no longer relevant to her, but I realize she’s not used to that yet.

“Well, what did it say?” she asks, glancing down at the phone in my hand.

“About what you’d expect,” I answer, making an effort to loosen my grip. “He wanted to know why you haven’t been answering his calls, where you were. Standard stuff.”

Autumn huffs, shooting me a look of mild annoyance. “Well, I wish you’d have let me listen to it.”

“I meant to. I delete all of my voicemails, so I pressed the button without thought. I’m sorry,” I lie.

Even though I didn’t mean it, my apology smoothes down her ruffled feathers and she offers me a faint smile. “It’s all right. Accidents happen.” She barely misses a beat. “I can just call him back. Let him know—”

“Not tonight,” I tell her, turning the phone off so the bastard can’t call back. “You can call tomorrow.”

“But… it seems cruel to make him worry all night.”

Don’t fret, snowflake. The bastard isn’t worried.

Obviously, I can’t say that, but I’m all right just telling her no and playing the bad guy for the moment. I’d rather let her think poorly of me than let her call to reassure him and be met with the uncaring bullshit I just had to listen to.

If he ever talks to her like that again now that she’s mine, it’ll be the last time he ever speaks to anyone. I’ll cut the fucker’s tongue out and see if he can still spew his venom without it.

After such a long, eventful day, Autumn falls straight to sleep.

Me, I have trouble sleeping. Never been very good at it.

I don’t mind lying awake with her in my arms, though.

After all that trouble setting up the restraints, I didn’t even use them. I was feeling a little softer toward my captive girlfriend after I heard the way her ex talked to her, decided to