Page 4 of Christmas Trouble

It took about another minute to realize that none of the customers in line ahead of his friends were moving.

The cashiers were standing still, except for one, but the people in the front of the lines were like statues.

“This is bullshit,” a customer in the back of the line complained.

“I should have gone to Walmart,” another customer joked.

Two customers started talking smack to each other and a tall thin woman dropped her items to the floor and walked out.

Lifting on his tip toes, he could see the top of Joshua’s head. Nobody was moving in the line.

Perhaps someone ahead of them had a return?

Now that was just bad luck.

Azrael started working his way through the busy store toward his friends—who still hadn’t moved up in line. Slipping through the crowd of people took finesse, but getting in and out of places was Azrael’s specialty.

He was skinnier and shorter than most of the men and women in the crowd so slipping up behind Tyler was an easy move for him.

“What’s going on.” Azrael whispered next to Tyler’s ear. Tyler glanced at him, they were almost the same height.

Then slowly and without turning his head, Tyler swept his eyes to the left.

Azrael casually slanted a look about three checkout lines down and found a man with a scraggly beard wearing baggy clothes.

In the man’s hand was a gun pointed at the cashiers.

Azrael pulled his phone from his pocket and shot Seven a text message that simply said,Send the calvary.

It had been said as a joke during the drive back from the airport and Azrael remembered clearly how the conversation had started.

“What do you do if you get separated from us?” Seven had asked Joshua as he left the airport and guided the passenger van onto the highway—a road that would take them to the nearest Target and from there to the winter lodge they’d rented for the week.

“Stay put?” Joshua said.

“And?” Seven frowned at his brother.

“What?” Joshua squinted at Seven.

“Text me.”

“What if I don’t have my phone?” Ever the smart mouth, Joshua smiled.

“I’ll beat your ass.” Seven smirked.

Joshua laughed. “You’ve never raised a hand to me.”

“What is he supposed to texttoyou?” Azrael wanted to know.

“Help?” Seven flipped Azrael a quick glance in the rearview mirror.

Azrael scoffed. “Send the calvary?”

“Do you even know what the calvary is?” Kellum teased.

“Erebus, Pegasus, Phoenix, Genesis.” Azrael said with a shrug. “Choose your pick.”

“This area isn’t like California,” Seven warned. “There is a lot of forest out here. The woods are deep and dense. People die out there.”

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