Page 14 of My Violent Valentine

Before I can make a decision one way or the other, I hear a bone crack and then the guy’s body drops to the ground. His eyes stare up at me sightlessly from under the gap in the door.

“One gas station attendant down,” Brian says. “Don’t worry, I’ll let you get the next one.”

I put my knife back in the holster, my hands shaking. Of all the terrifying situations we’ve been in, this backwoods bubba is somehow the scariest. I should have worn my gun.

I unlatch and open the door to find Brian staring down at him. “I think this dude has body dysmorphia. There’s no way he’s big enough to kill me by sitting on me.”

I climb over the guy and fling myself into Brian’s arms. He strokes my hair and presses a kiss to the top of my forehead. “Did you pee?”

“No. I forgot.”

He chuckles. “Pee, I’ll guard you.”

So gallant. “I feel like if I do it in front of you it’ll kill the romance.”

“I’ll stand outside.”

“Will you drag him over into the corner first, so he can’t watch me?”

“He’s dead, Mina.”

“Yeah but his eyeballs are still gonna get a front row seat.”

Brian sighs but drags the body away.

“I’m going to get rid of the video evidence and take the money out of the till. When you get out, grab us some free snacks.”

“Aye, Aye, Captain.”

8

BRIAN

Monday, February 14th. Valentine’s Day.

“Let me do the talking. Gremlin isn’t exactly the most enlightened arms dealer.”

“There are enlightened arms dealers?” Mina quips.

This is a fair point. Probably not.

“His name is Gremlin?” she asks as I pull the rental car through the iron gate of a large and gloomy estate.

“You’ll understand when you see him.”

I wanted to leave her at the hotel while I do this, but it’s the day of the kill and there is no more hotel. We checked out this morning. Now we’re checked in—with cash—to what is decidedly a dump, but it’s almost kill time, and we can’t be calling attention to ourselves. It’s safer for her here with me than alone at that motel.

There was one thing I forgot in the rush to get out here and out of the weather—cash from the ATM. Happily, the money I liberated from the till at the gas station easily covers our motel for tonight.

I got a bad feeling about that guy the second Mina walked into the gas station. I should have just gone in with her from the start. When I saw the way he watched her ass as she walked to the bathroom, I wanted to slowly torture the life out of him. But we were on a schedule. I was filling the tank and glanced quickly away when he looked to check if I was paying attention. The second I saw him move toward the bathroom, I put the nozzle back and went inside.

This guy must have had a few screws loose. How the hell he thought he’d just assault someone who wasn’t even traveling alone and get away with it, I have no idea. His brain and dick were clearly not connected. Maybe he was just trying to scare her, but even that is a killing offense with me. It’s been nearly three days and I’m still not over it.

Before switching to our current lodging, I downgraded us to a less attention-getting rental car because the whole point from this moment until we leave to go back home is invisibility.

Mina was surprised we actually were booked at the Four Seasons Friday night. I don’t joke about accommodations. We stayed the past two nights at the Arizona Biltmore and lived on five star room service from our suite while we finalized our plans, planted listening devices in Cole’s home, and looked at blueprints of the house via public records.

How did we plant listening devices at a location outside our home turf at the estate of a paranoid crime boss keeping a secret lover? Oh, just in the inner rim of the vase of roses we had delivered.

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