Page 13 of A Raging Merry Christmas
“Don’t worry. There’ll be plenty to go around,” Blaze answered blithely. But Jett looked worried. Yeah, he was thinking along the same lines as me. This was going to be a shit storm.
“Here, we’ll take a page each,” Hunter said, handing out a list to each of us.
“Okay, let’s meet at the Lego aisle in an hour,” Blaze suggested, and before anyone could agree or disagree, he disappeared.
“Fine,” I muttered, eyeing the crowds.
???
An hour later, I was ready to yank my gun and blow some fucker away. This wasn’t toy shopping; this was war with demanding mamas who owned sneaky attack tactics.
Those bitches threw elbows, kicked ankles, and pulled hair. What the ever-living fuck? I’d even had one bitch try to steal a doll out of my cart. Seriously, the shop needed policing with these women around.
I was guarding my cart and pissed. Half the items on my list the store didn’t have. The other three, hopefully, had done better than me. This was a task I would never repeat. I’d rather clean the toilets in Rage for a year than ever do this again. How the old ladies coped I’d no idea, but I made a mental note to ensure they all got a special gift from now on. Not just the toiletries I usually bought them.
Hunter approached, his hair a mess—seemed he had fallen victim to that attack as well. He also had a bruise forming under his eye. Good, because I was sure a couple of my ribs were broken. Jett showed up at the same time, looking relativelyunscathed. I wondered how he’d managed it. He must have caught my silent question.
“I’ve been shopping with Sin for the kids. The tricks these bitches pull are well known to me, and Sin has some of her own,” he explained.
“Right,” I groused.
Blaze turned the corner frantic. Some woman was dogging his heels, and he was holding a box above his head.
“That’s the last one. My child needs it! It’s at the top of their Santa list and she’s sick,” she was yelling at Blaze.
Blaze hesitated as he glanced at the toy and back at the desperate lady.
“Don’t fall for it!” Jett shouted. “They all say that. Trust me, I know!”
The woman scowled at Jett and lunged for the toy. Blaze quickly raised it above his head with a matching dark look.
“Get lost,” Blaze warned and tossed it at me, and I shoved it in my cart. The woman assessed her chances of getting to it and finally stormed away.
“I’ve got a load of stuff missing,” I announced.
“Snap,” Hunter replied.
“I’m serious, we need to find these toys, or the kids will be total assholes Christmas Day. This is their Santa toy,” Jett explained.
“You said we wouldn’t have any trouble,” I snapped at Blaze, who clearly wasn’t in the mood to be provoked.
“The toy makers do this shit on purpose. They only release so many items, so it drives up demand,” Blaze retorted.
“Yet you knew and decided to leave this to the last minute despite us three all saying we should have gone shopping weeks ago?” I demanded.
Hunter and Jett were shaking their head.
“Shut up. We’ve got a couple of weeks until Christmas; how would I know they’d have sold out of shit already?” Blaze snarledas he glared at a lady who was eyeing a toy in his cart. “Back the fuck off!”
The woman gaped and scurried away.
Hunter snorted in amusement. “What are we going to do?”
“Don’t ask me; I’ve not got a clue,” I replied.
“We will do this together. Take another walk around the store, see if we can find any of the missing items. Then we’ll jump online and see if we can order anything we ain’t got,” Jett informed us.
“Great idea,” Blaze agreed, perking up.