That’s when Cam’s mom comes rushing in. “Sorry, sorry, I was working outside, and my hands were all dirty, so I needed to wash…” She hesitates before smiling. “Wash them off.”
“I’m Jackson,” my dear oblivious husband tells her.
Her smile is perfectly in place. “Sophia.”
Instead of giving her a name, I smile back at her. It’s not like she can’t figure out my name by simply asking her son, but the idea of just readily handing it over irritates me. At times I had questioned changing my name to avoid situations like this, but when I gave up the life of being a hitman, I assumed it would come with quieter times.
“Come, come,” Nathan says as he ushers Jackson off. Then Cam directs Waylon to his room and Sophia and I are left staring at each other.
“It’s just… so nice to meet you,” she says as she keeps smiling.
I wave her off. “NO, the pleasure… all mineforsure.”
“Yeah? Noooo, the pleasure is mine.”
“Are youpositive?” I ask. “I think it’s mine.”
“Haha… would you like a cookie? I have cookies,” she says while she backs into the kitchen.
“Oh, I would love nothing more than one of your cookies. Did you make them?”
“My husband did! Such a talented man,” she replies as she backs past the table. She continues to back her way around the kitchen island and picks up a homemade cookie which she sets on a napkin before sliding it across the counter toward me.
“These look… delicious,” I say, slowly walking around the counter.
“Oh please, you’ll make me blush.” I hear the slightest noise of a drawer opening. Sophia has her body positioned in a wayto keep me from seeing it, but the noise betrays her at the last second.
“So. Delicious.” I slide the cookie off the counter and into the trash. “Just… perfect.”
“Thank you,” she says as she sidesteps around the kitchen island while I slowly draw my knife out. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
“So much!”
“Would you like another?”
“I would but I just can’t right now! Too many sweets already today,” I say as I see her slip around the edge and take a quick step forward a moment before Cam peeks into the room. She freezes from where she’d been prepared to leap the kitchen island to go after me.
“Hey, Mom, can I show Waylon the pool?”
“You can show himanythingyou want,” she responds, never looking away from me. Does she really think I’m going to stab her while her child watches? Then again, in her line of work, she’d have taken out the whole family in a case like this.
“Ohhh… kay? Weird… whatever, let’s go,” Cam says, but Waylon hesitates. Surely, he can’t see the knife tucked against my leg, but there must be something that makes warning bells go off.
“Uh… is that okay?” Waylon asks me.
“Sure is. Have fun. But nottoomuch fun,” I say, assuming he’ll be safe with Cam. He’s been alone with him all night, after all.
“Thanks?” Waylon seems uncertain, but he does go out the door with Cam, leaving me alone with Sophia.
“Ha ha… teenage boys. Adorable, right?” Sophia asks.
“So much!” I say. “Just the cutest.”
“They’re so cute it makes you feel like you’ll do anything to protect them, you know? Literally anything.”
With a flick of her wrist, she flings a knife at me that I avoid a second before it embeds itself in the wall. It was clearly a distraction as she rushes a drawer that likely has a gun in it. There’s a plate on the counter that I throw at her face, and she ducks it. She uses the sound of the plate hitting the wall and shattering to yank open a cupboard.
Sophia gets the gun out, but I throw a ladle so hard that it smashes into her hand and she involuntarily drops the gun with a “Fuck.” I swing up onto the counter and over it, slamming her into the far counter.
