Page 86 of The King of Halloween
“I’ll text you later,” he called, letting the door swing as he hobbled into his underwear and pants. Ramming his sweater on, he called back. “Have fun at the run.” He couldn’t hear Adam’s response as he was already out the door.
?CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
?
HARRIED, EXTREMELY LATE, and willing to bite his own leg off to get away was how Raj stumbled onto the mayor. More specifically, he caught Raj fishing under his car for the keys he stupidly dropped while his phone blew up.
“Good morning, my boy,” the mayor called. Then he hunched down beside Raj, who was nearly face-planted on the cement.
How in the hell did those things bounce so deep under his car?
“Problems?” the mayor asked.
Ah ha! He caught his keychain and yanked the infernal things out. Nearly spinning it on his finger, Raj looked to the man, then smiled. “Nope. All good. Nice to see you.” He reached to unlock his door when the mayor stepped in closer.
“What brings you to this part of town?”
“Oh, you know.” Raj peered back at the little blue townhouse with the white trim. “I’m here to do Adam.”
“Huh?”
Raj’s eyebrows shot up at his tongue ramping over his brain. “Errands. I’m taking care of a few errands, but I’ve got to get back to the hotel. Right now.” He gave a quick wave, then pried open his door and sat inside.
That should have been the end of it, but the mayor knocked on his side window. Gunning it seemed the easiest solution, but running over the mayor’s foot would not endear him to the city. And he couldn’t afford to spend Halloween in jail. Rolling down the window, Raj looked at the mayor.
“It’s fortunate I ran into you like this.”
Late for my job after a night of hot sex?
“Every year, Anoka hosts a masquerade ball…”
“Oh yeah, I heard about that,” Raj interrupted.
“Did a local beauty invite you?” The mayor snickered, his brows bouncing in case Raj didn’t get that he meant a comely lass.
Over the quiet air of a suburban neighborhood in late morning came the slam of a front door. Raj peered through his rearview mirror to catch a familiar peacock coat. He shifted in his seat, watching as Adam locked his door then walked down the path. At his mailbox, he paused, glancing down both streets.
Damn. The streams of sunlight turned his mahogany hair into a rich auburn. An autumn breeze tickled the ends and tugged out his scarf. Adam shivered and pushed it back into his coat. Seemingly happy with whatever he was looking at, he took off the other way, becoming a dot in the distance.
“Yes, very handsome.”
“How quaint,” the mayor said. “Well, we have a bit of a problem. See, we always host it in the VFW gym. Lots of room, great price. Everyone has a blast. But dang it if they didn’t have a fire there. The whole place is out of commission thanks to smoke damage. We’ve been scrambling to find a new place to host it for days.”
Oh no.Raj swiveled his gaze away from Adam’s retreating form to the mayor.
“And here I remembered this kind, new young man in town, who’d be more than happy to loan us the use of his ballroom.”
“You want…”
“If it wouldn’t be too much trouble. Most of the setup will be handled by us, of course. Decorations, food, security, entertainment.”
Raj bobbed his head to all of those until he jerked. “Security?”
“Children who think it’s hilarious to dress as Stitches and pull fire alarms, drop cherry bombs into toilets…drive a tractor through the front door.”
“What?”
“That’s why we have security. They do an excellent job of keeping the mischief to a minimum. Naught. It’s nothing. So, what do you say?”
