The Hitwoman and the Chubby Cherub (20 page)

Chastised by her boyfriend’s gentle reminder, Susan looked away.

I nodded at him curtly, letting him know I was grateful for his intervention. “I have to change clothes and get to the school.”

Yanking the basement door open, I ran down the stairs, leaving the three of them to discuss my shortcomings.

Tears of frustration burned my eyes as I went through the motions of changing clothes.

“What’s wrong, sugar?” Piss purred.

“I’m a failure,” I spat. “I had one job to do for the party. One job and I couldn’t even do that right.”

I was still beating myself up, despite the incessant pep talk God was giving me from his hiding spot in my bra, when I reached Katie’s classroom fifteen minutes later than I was supposed to.

I took a deep breath to fortify myself as I walked into the room, which was buzzing with the students’ excitement.

Megan had outdone herself with the decorations. The classroom was plastered with red and pink hearts from the floor to the ceiling.

Marlene would have approved of the cheesy romanticism. Personally, it made me want to gag.

“You made it.” Megan smirked as though she already knew she had the upper hand as she walked up to me. “I was getting worried we’d have nothing for the children to eat.”

Glancing around, I realized with horror that Cam hadn’t arrived yet. Had she failed too?

I focused on Katie who, unlike most of the kids, had her head bent and was studiously writing something with a red pencil.

Knowing that she was waiting for a response, I said with false enthusiasm, “It looks great in here. I thought we’d hand out Valentines first.”

Megan shook her head. “That’s not how it’s done.”

“Oh,” I retorted snippily. “Guess I didn’t get that copy of the rule book.”

Megan glared at me.

I’m sure mere mortals found their blood frozen by her cold countenance, but I’d stared down professional killers, so I wasn’t impressed. I met her gaze steadily. We stood there for a long moment, scowling at one another, each fighting to gain the upper hand.

“Soup’s on,” Cam crowed cheerily, bursting into the room, pushing what looked like a luggage cart, loaded with boxes stacked higher than her head.

“What is
she
doing here?” Megan asked with disgust.

“She’s helping me out,” I replied coolly, despite the fact I was doing an internal fist pump now that the catering cavalry had arrived.

“We’ve got flourless chocolate cupcakes and…” Cam looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to say “ice cream”.

I shook my head.

I’ve got to give her credit, the woman didn’
t even blink. 

“And who’s ready to eat them?” Cam continued.

The kids broke into cheers.

“That’s it,” God drawled from my chest. “Ramp up the little hellions on sugar.”

Fortunately I was the only one who could hear him over the excited roar of the children.

Cam took the two top boxes off her cart carefully and handed me one.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized looking down through the clear cover of the box at the cupcakes topped with white and pink frosting.

Her only response was to wink at me and begin passing out the sweet treats.

I carried my box to the other side of the classroom and distributed cupcakes to kids on that side.

“Vanilla or chocolate?” I asked Katie when I arrived at her desk.

She looked up at me. Misery was etched on her face.

“Hi kiddo. Everything okay?”

She shook her head and crooked her finger, wanting me to bend down so that I was level with her. “I don’t have any Valentines,” she whispered, her lower lip trembled as her eyes welled with tears. “Mommy didn’t get them for me.”

Putting the box down on the floor, I wrapped my arms around her trembling little body, feeling my heart break a little. “Don’t worry, baby girl,” I whispered. “I took care of it.”

“I miss Mommy,” she sniffled.

Swallowing down the painful lump in my throat, I tried to blink away the tears that leaked from my eyes. “I know, sweetheart. I miss her too.”

She raised her tear-filled gaze to meet mine. “You do?”

I nodded and choked out, “Every day.”

Katie threw her arms around my neck and whimpered.

I hated not knowing what to say to make her feel better. I felt so helpless not knowing what to do.

I lifted her out of her chair and stood there holding her, just letting her cry.

I became aware of the room growing silent as everyone focused on her sobs.

“Perhaps you should take her into the hall,” Megan suggested.

Nodding, I headed for the door.

“After all,” Megan added. “This is
supposed
to be a party.”

I halted, stopped cold by her insensitivity. I whirled around, opening my mouth to yell at her for being a heartless bitch, but then I thought better of it.

Instead, I looked at the sea of worried little faces watching us and explained gently, “Everything’s okay. Katie is just missing her mommy, so she’s really sad.”

Then I turned around and walked out of the classroom, carrying Katie in my arms.

By the time we’d turned the corner of the hallway, she had stopped crying.

I carefully put her down and, kneeling in front of her, wiped her cheeks dry with my thumbs. “You okay?”

She nodded. “Does this mean I don’t get a cupcake?”

Taken aback by her question, I broke into laughter.

“Everything okay?” a male voice asked.

My niece and I looked over and found Angel, carrying a couple of shopping bags, watching us with concern. Anwen, she of the melodic peaceful voice, stood beside him, holding enough heart-shaped helium balloons for every kid in the class.

“We’re fine,” I assured him, standing up.

“Hi Anwen. Nice to see you again.”

She smiled benevolently. “The pleasure is mine.”

“What have you got?” Katie asked Angel curiously.

Angel grinned. “Ice cream.”

“Gluten-free?” I asked, worriedly.

He nodded.

“Where’d you find it?”

“Sometimes my family connections come in handy.” He focused on Katie. “Want to help me pass this out to your classmates?”

She nodded excitedly and accompanied him back to the classroom.

I held the door open so that Anwen could get her massive balloon collection inside the room.

The kids oohed and aahed at the sight of the balloons. Megan scowled.

While Anwen and her daughter Sindhu passed out a balloon to each child, Angel and Katie started making the rounds.

I watched in amazement as, together, the strong, big man and the weak little girl handed out ice cream cups.

Cam, who’d finished distributing the cupcakes strolled over to my side. “You okay?”

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak as I watched Megan looking annoyed as the kids dug in to their delicious food.

“Your niece okay?”

I shrugged. “I never know from one day to the next.” 

I watched as Katie sat back down at her desk and Angel affectionately ruffled her hair and was rewarded with a sweet smile.

“She’s got good people watching over her,” Cam opined. “It’ll take time, but she’ll be okay.”

“Look,” I apologized. “I know I dropped the ball on this whole thing.”

“Don’t worry about it. You gave me my shot when others wouldn’t and I appreciate it.”

“Which one is your kid?” I asked, realizing I didn’t know.

She pointed at a curly-headed boy who looked like he had a knack for mischief in the back row. He waved at her. She flashed him a thumbs-up.

Angel strolled over to us, extending his hand to Cam. “Hi. I’m Angel.”

“Cam.” She shook his hand. “So you two…?”

“No,” I hurried to tell her. “Angel is Katie’s physical therapist.”

“And manny,” he added with a good-natured grin.

“Takes a confident guy to admit that,” Cam said with an impressed grin.

“Okay children,” Megan called out, clapping her hands. “Let’s clean up so that we can hand out our Valentines.”

Katie glanced over at me worriedly.

I winked at her, even while asking Cam, “Did you…?”

“It’s gonna be epic,” she promised. “Get ready to watch that bitch go down.”

My stomach soured a little, wondering what I’d gotten myself and niece into when I’d agreed to Cam’s plan for revenge. I knew it was too late to back out, but I found I wanted to run away.

When the kids had finished cleaning up, Megan had her daughter, who happened to sit in the front corner of the classroom, hand out her Valentines first. The cards were attached to little cellophane bags tied with red ribbons and filled with candy and stickers.

The kids were all appropriately impressed.

“Oh this will take forever, everyone hand out their Valentines,” Megan ordered after her daughter had her moment in the spotlight.

All the other kids jumped out of their seats and began rushing around. Only Katie remained seated. She turned to look at me uncertainly.

“Have her stay there,” Cam said.

I held up a finger, indicating Katie should wait a minute.

Pointing at the luggage cart, Cam said, “They’re personalized and boxed according to the seating chart. Start with Megan’s daughter and work your way around the room.”

I stared at the cart that still contained six boxes, each designed to hold a case of printer paper.

“I’ll push it,” Cam assured me as the kids trickled back to their seats. “Maybe the manny can help unload?”

I looked to Angel who’d been listening in.

“Sure,” he said with a shrug, like me, having no idea what he was getting himself into.

“Isn’t Katie passing anything out?” Megan asked with a sweet smile that was anything but.

I grabbed Katie’s hand as I marched toward the front of the classroom. Angel walked behind us. Cam pushed the cart bringing up the rear.

I stopped in front of the desk of Megan’s daughter. Angel opened the top box. His eyes widened a little as he saw the contents of the box.

My stomach roiled as I wondered what Cam had done.

He pulled out a silver backpack with “Diane” embroidered across it and handed it to me. It was filled with unknown stuff that didn’t feel like packing material. I gave it to Katie. She looked at me uncertainly.