“Yay!” She ran toward the door, not stopping for her shoes, leaving the rest of us scrambling behind her.
“Wait!” Keaton called. He bolted after her, carrying her shoes and his.
Mrs. Carmine chuckled huskily under her breath. She was good enough to wait for me to put on my shoes. A few minutes later, we reached the car to find Ginny still bouncing excitedly near the door.
Mrs. Carmine rubbed Keaton’s shoulder, and he looked as if he was going to burst into flames. Even the tips of his ears were red.
“You deserve the best of luck together. You’ve made one old woman happy. I thought if you ever left the park, I’d never see Ginny again. Enjoy yourselves tonight, huh?” She wrinkled her nose at us.
Keaton was so gobsmacked I couldn’t help but snicker until I had tears gathering in the corners of my eyes.
She smiled at me, and I grinned right back. I knew she thought we had a date planned, and while there would be far more bloodshed than traditionally found on a date, she wasn’t completely wrong.
“We’ll have a good time together.” I was able to keep a straight face, thank God.
The whole way home all we heard were questions about presents. As soon as Ginny hit the dining room, she was a whirlwind, ripping off paper and ribbons like a pro, but she’d been wide awake to see the first rays of sunrise on her special day, so about an hour before sunset we were tucking her in.
“No, don’t take them out! It’s still my birthday!” she cried, batting at my hands as I tried to remove her special birthday bows from her hair, so instead I dropped a kiss on the top of her head.
“Whatever you say, pumpkin. It’s your day.”
Keaton kissed her little cheek, and Mrs. Carmine was settling down in a rocking chair I’d found in the attic to read a stack of stories until Ginny finally gave in to the massive yawns that kept attacking her out of nowhere.
They both waved at us as we snuck out of the room.
“Are we actually going on a date tonight?” Keaton tilted his head and smiled down at me.
“We’re going hunting.” I smacked his side with the back of my hand. “Let’s get changed.”
“Into what?” He followed me into our room with excitement sparkling in his eyes, the same kind Ginny had before ripping into her presents.
“Something you don’t mind burning. Also, remind me to grab the bug spray. It would be a real shitter to get Goldie and end up with ticks on our asses.”
He snorted, but I was serious.
It took us another hour to change into black clothes, stop at my storage unit for handguns, go to the gas station, and drive out to the spa, but that was fine. We wanted the cover of darkness.
We left my car on a side road, pulled on some nitrile gloves, and started the walk in. We slipped on lights attached to headbands that resembled something miners from the 1920s might wear. They were silly but did the job. I had a book bag over my shoulders, and Keaton carried a red can of gasoline that he kept giving dubious looks.
“Shouldn’t we be sneaking?” he asked.
“Nah. No one is looking for us.” I shrugged.
About twenty minutes later, we spotted Goldie’s cabin glowing in the woods.
“Stop. Mask on. Light out. Let’s go.” Anticipation had my skin feeling as if it was going to buzz off my body.
Keaton followed orders like a dream, which I would reward him for later, and we snuck around to the rear of the cabin. I hummed as we came across an old Buick.
“Pour the gas on the car. I bet he has the stash of meth in there. There weren’t a lot of good hiding spots in that cabin.”
Keaton listened to me, but then he went off script and doused the wall of the cabin, too.
Shrugging, I waited for him to get clear. “Try to stay out of the smoke. You do not want to breathe this shit in. Trust me.”
Keaton gave me a thumbs-up, and a thrill fired through me as I took a brand-new red Zippo out of my pocket. I lit the flame, then threw the lighter into a nearby puddle of gasoline.
Thewhooshas it went up was satisfying.
