How the Hitman Stole Christmas

I move off the creaky old bed as quietly as I can and head for the bathroom. Even though I feel kinda bad for it, I worry she’s not as asleep as I thought she was, that as soon as I shut the door, she jumped out of bed and fled the motel room.

It’s not her fault, I’m just not a terribly trusting individual.

When I step back out of the tiny bathroom, Autumn is still asleep in bed. I breathe a sigh of relief, then I get to work.

I’m not worried about getting to my family’s house by any certain time, so we can stay at the motel as late as we want to. We’re only about an hour and a half away now, so I won’t even leave until my sister tells me they’ve arrived.

I do want to get this Brady shit handled, though.

I stewed over his words longer than I wanted to last night. At the very top of my priority list for today is making sure I protect Autumn from his callous bullshit. When she calls today to formally dump his ass and tell him that his belongings are in the mail, I want to be as sure as I can that he’ll be nice to her.

That means I need to make a call, and I need to do it early enough in the day that what I’m asking for can be done. It also has to be out of Autumn’s earshot, because I don’t want her to know about it.

That means I have to run to the post office to mail his crap back to him and leave Autumn here, and that makes me all kinds of nervous.

There’s no way around it, so I just have to hope she’s tired enough to stay asleep while I’m gone. I grab the notepad and pen the motel provided on the nightstand and jot down a note for her just in case.Autumn,

Ran to the post office.

Back in 20 minutes.

I’ll bring coffee.

Stay put.

-JI place the note on the pillow on my side of the bed and look at her one last time before I slip out of the room.

There are plenty of people I could call to help me out with this little problem since I’m out of town and can’t do it myself, but given its spot on my priority list, I decide to go straight to the big guns.

The phone rings a couple time before he picks up.

“Hello,” he answers brusquely.

“Adrian. It’s Jasper. You got a minute?”

“Sure,” he says. I hear him moving around, probably giving himself a little privacy to talk to me. “Everything all right?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine.”

“The job went okay?”

Oh, shit, I forgot about that. Yesterday was so long, I didn’t even remember I worked last night. “Yeah, yeah, of course. There was a minor hiccup, but I took care of it.”

Adrian is not a man who ever lets his guard all the way down, but I hear the faintest trace of relief in his voice. “Good.”

I nod even though he can’t see me. “Yeah, I’m not calling about that. It’s actually a personal matter.”

“Oh?” He sounds understandably surprised.

“I need a favor,” I tell him.

“You need a favor?” His surprise deepens. “That’s not how this usually works.”

I crack a smile. “Tables have turned, I know. Like I said, it’s a personal thing. Normally I’d handle it myself, but as it happens, I’m out of town. On my way up to visit my family for Christmas.”

“No shit. I didn’t think you ever went home for the holidays.”

“Yeah, I usually don’t. I’ve got some family stuff to deal with this time though, so I’m going up for a few days.”

His tone remains stoic overall, but he extends as much concern as is appropriate given our working relationship. “I hope everything’s all right with them.”

“Yeah, all good. Thing is, I’m bringing my girlfriend with me.”

“Girlfriend? I didn’t know you had a girlfriend.”

“It’s a recent development,” I inform him. “So recent, in fact, that she didn’t have a chance to dump her last boyfriend before we left. That’s what I need help with.”

Adrian sighs. “I’m listening.”

“The guy isn’t from around here, he’s not one of us. He’s some finance guy from Syracuse—a nobody, but…”

“A civilian.”

“Right. But he’s a grade-A asshole, borders on emotionally abusive. I told her she could call him today and make the break-up official, but he left her a voicemail last night that… well, it’s not how any man should talk to my woman, let’s say that.”

“Got it.”

“She was staying with him, too, so her things are still at his parents’ house. I have the address. His name is Brady. Her name’s Autumn. I need someone to swing by his place and pick up her things, give him a heads-up she’ll be calling—and when she does, he better be fucking nice or he’s gonna deal with me when I get back. Obviously, there are other people I could’ve called, but we both know some people wouldn’t handle this right. I need someone smart enough to apply the right amount of pressure so he knows it’s serious, but not so much that it makes trouble where we don’t need any.”