A Very Merry Hitman (Holiday With a Hitman #2)

22. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

It’s all fun and games until Santa checks the naughty list.

Aileen opened her fridge even though it was two in the morning and she wasn’t hungry at all. But she couldn’t sleep.

Not talking to Dante, not clearing the air, was eating her up inside. But it was more than that. There was something nagging her that she couldn’t put her finger on. She’d remember eventually, but until she did it was going to drive her crazy.

She knew from Theo that he and Dante had watched the Santa exchange the stolen purse for what looked like an envelope of cash. And that Linda True was the owner of the Cadillac.

And Aileen couldn’t figure out why this woman had taken issue with her or why she wanted her phone. She barely knew Calvin True, had only talked to him at soccer games or practices. And usually she used that time to walk or jog around the neighboring fields. It wasn’t like she interacted much with any of the parents. Come to think of it, neither did Calvin.

At that, she paused as she shut the refrigerator.

She’d seen Calvin True leaving practices before instead of waiting for his daughter. A lot of parents did, usually to run errands or to cook dinner at home or whatever. But some stayed, and he was hit or miss.

As she thought about it…maybe that was what was bothering her. Had she seen him driving an Eldorado Cadillac? Theo had sent her a picture of it a few hours ago and ever since then something had been bothering her.

They’d never seen Linda True driving it so they were simply assuming it had been her based on her being the owner. She needed to check her phone—which was upstairs.

She’d taken tons of pictures over the last few months at practices and games. If he’d ever driven the thing, it would be in one of them.

As she headed back toward the hallway, all the lights went out and silence filled the air. She froze at the sound of a little thump. The steady hmm of her refrigerator and freezer were no longer background noise. There was nothing now.

On quiet feet, she headed toward the living room instead of upstairs. Using the light from outside as her guide, she moved to the big window and eased the curtains back.

Her entire neighborhood had gone dark. All the front yard decorations had dimmed. One neighbor had a few lights flickering… The generator. They all had them, but hers was hooked up in the garage. This was probably just an outage but…there wasn’t any bad weather and she hadn’t heard a transformer blow.

Heart pounding, she turned and hurried through her dark house. She needed to get to her phone and to check on Nessa.

Something didn’t feel right.

As she reached the bottom of her stairs, she turned at a slight noise and found herself looking down the barrel of a pistol and a flashlight.