How the Hitman Stole Christmas

“You killed her.”

He nods, his gaze locked on mine, watching me for a reaction. “I had to. I made it look like a heart attack and we had our guys handle the logistics so there was no way for it to come back on us, but she couldn’t be muzzled, so she had to be silenced. That’s just the way of it. Now, it should end here, right?”

I nod because it seems like I should, but I don’t know where a line of murders is supposed to end.

“But it doesn’t, because she had entrenched herself so deeply in this crusade, she started getting a little dirty herself. Since she was doing all this very publicly, certain kinds of people had started approaching her, preying on her grief or anger or whatever it was, looking for an excuse to pick a fight with us. Turned out, before she died, she hired some half-cocked pack of gang members to ‘get revenge’ on the Morelli family. She wanted them to take out someone close to Mateo, one of his brothers—you know, an eye for an eye.”

My eyes widen.

“Now, we have a lot of threats on our radar, but there are some that are beneath our notice, and this just happens to be one of them. We gather as much intel as we can from as many places as possible, but we can’t catch everything. We can’t know that somewhere in our city, some beer-bellied hillbillies from Tennessee are in their hotel room drinking beers and talking about the glory and celebrity they’ll experience when they take out a prominent member of the Morelli family. There’s just no way to get that information.”

I have no idea what to say to that, but I feel like I should say something, so I offer up, “No, I would imagine not.”

“So, when one night Adrian decides to take his wife and kids out for dinner, of course he has a usual amount of caution about being out in public. Of all the family members, he and Mateo are the most recognizable. Adrian has a scarred face, makes him easy to pick out, and Mateo… well, don’t worry about why people notice him,” he mutters.

Despite the darkness of his story, a faint smile tugs at my lips, remembering how he reacted back at the bar when I said I found his boss interesting. “Is he handsome?”

He slides me a look to let me know he’s not entertained by my question.

I grin, totally entertained by his jealousy.

“Anyway,” he says firmly. “There’s nothing on Adrian’s radar to make him think anything would go wrong tonight. The guy’s just trying to have a nice time with his wife and kids in a public place. So, when the bullets start flying, it’s quite a surprise. Those guys we didn’t know about, they shot Adrian—only grazed his arm, and only because he had his back turned. They shot at his wife, his son, at his little girl. They shot a hole through the fabric of Candace’s dress, that’s how close they got to hitting her. And of course, Adrian handled it. Had a little help from his wife, actually. I didn’t know she was a badass until this happened, I’ve never even heard her speak, but she grabbed one of the fuckers after they shot at Candace and rammed a steak knife through his neck. They all emerged relatively unscathed except for the mental scars it left on them, but that night could have ended his family, and none of us would have seen it coming.” He holds my gaze, his more serious than I’ve seen him before. “And that could have been any one of us, Autumn. That’s a risk we all live with. I can live with it when it’s just me, but a wife, kids?” He shakes his head solemnly. “Not in the cards for me.”

His story is horrifying—every single bit of it. I don’t know what to say, but my heart is heavy for everyone involved. “That sounds like quite a burden,” I say softly.

“It can be.”

“And… you never think about getting out?” I try not to sound hopeful. I tell myself it has nothing to do with me. I do really like Jasper. I have fun with him, and I’d love to keep seeing him, but I know that’s not possible.

At least, I tell myself I know that.

It doesn’t keep the note of hopefulness out of my voice.

“You said the people you work for are reasonable, that you weren’t born into it so they’d probably let you out if you asked, right? So… if you were seeing someone that you wanted to get serious with, if you decided you did want a family of your own… it’s not impossible. Right?”

Jasper’s heavy gaze lingers on my face. He’s not stupid—he knows why I’m asking. He can hear the hope in my voice, probably see it glinting in my eyes. He knows that as reckless and crazy as it is, I can’t resist thinking about having more with him than just Christmas in Stillwater.