Page 24 of The King of Halloween
“We’ll talk later,” he said, easing into his car.
“Adam!” She called out, her hand high. He paused in closing his car door to stand and stare at her. “Heavy is the head that wears the crown.”
Sure. Helpful as always. “Thanks, sis,” he called out and slumped into his seat. As he stared at his phone and the blurry nose on the edge, he wondered if Mr. Choudhary would be at the festival.
Most of him reviled at having to deal with that man, but an acorn in his heart hoped to see him once again.
Accepting that fate was always a bitch to him, Adam pulled out, leaving behind the macabre cottage of Elizabeth ‘Baphomet’ Stein.
?CHAPTER EIGHT
?
EVERYTHING WAS BACK on track.
“Duck!”
Raj hit the deck just as a metal beam swung neck-height across the room. A few construction workers chased after it, offering apologies to the boss half watching. He had his other eye out the door on the gift shop teeming with kids shoving their sweaty faces into masks.
“Raj, man?” Logan shouted above the whir of tools.
“We’re almost on schedule,” Raj said. Okay, he hadn’t slept in two days, but he was fine. A little jittery from the espresso shots, but fine. This was going to work. “The rooms are staged, the props in place, the fountain’s working. There’s a few parts of the haunted house that need work, but we should get the scare actors in soon for a run-through and training. All good.”
“The store…?” Logan began using his cautious voice. He snapped up one of a hundred clipboards scattered around the construction site.
Raj stuck his hands behind his back and smiled. “It’s working out well. Look how popular it is.”
“Yeah, with teenagers who are just as likely to throw a rock at a prop instead of buying it. And what’s this invoice for masks? I thought we were only doing hotel merch?”
“Just an idea I had. Be a one-stop Halloween shop for people without costumes or tourists looking to get in on the action. The masks are flying off the shelves.”
“Because you’re selling them for twenty-five bucks a pop and they cost us…thirty-three each?” Logan dropped the papers, then looked again, before staring Raj in the eye.
It’d been slow that first night with a handful of people wandering in from the muddy parking lot, staring at the cheap Halloween stuff, then leaving. He’d needed a hook, a way to get them here and in droves, so…
“It’s a loss leader. Stores do that.” And not that he got so wrapped up in being the center of attention that he discounted them over and over until bottoming out at seventy-five percent.
“Big stores that can take the hit, on Black Friday, who then make it up by jacking the prices the rest of the year. We’re gonna have to hit even by next July or—”
“Look, we needed to get people excited, and we did. Our book is full for the entire season, the town’s talking about the haunt. It’s working.” Raj tried to beam, but his eye twitched.
“You okay, man?”
“I’m great,” he shouted. “Just great. Everything’s great.”
So they wouldn’t technically have the only haunt in Anoka, but it’d be the best no matter the cost. People were going to talk about his place for years after. Then, as the town crowned him the new Halloween king, he’d rub it in that bastard’s face. Shove him against the wall, yank back his hair and…
Raj jerked, his stomach roiling at the idea of him touching the man he despised. Or maybe it was the breakfast of black coffee and Red Bull. Logan watched him leap onto one foot, then put the other back down with a careful eye. “Hmm?” Raj asked.
“I didn’t say anything.” He shifted his arms, and a bold flyer caught Raj’s eye. The word Halloween leaped out at him. He slid the paper free. “Maybe you should go get some sleep. We’ve got this under control…”
“What’s this?” Raj asked even as he read the itinerary from the Chamber of Commerce. It was every Halloween activity in the town up to the thirty-first. Most of the options were listed in small black font, but one simply called The Festival was in bold red, and it started in an hour.
“Don’t worry about that.” Logan tried to pull the paper away, but Raj was fixated.
He’ll be there, in his tight-ass suits with that one button undone, hip cocked, and long slender fingers around his tie. Ruling the whole community like he’s an actual king.
“I should go,” Raj said.
