It was Christmas Eve, and the rain came down like it had a grudge, rattling the windows of Casa de Jonny while the four of them hid from the world in velvet chairs and bad intentions. The tree glowed soft and guilty in the corner, presents stacked beneath it like evidence nobody planned to log. Jonny slipped into the other room when his phone rang, the door closing on the sound of the storm, and Linda watched the black water streak down the glass like tears that knew better than to fall. “I don’t know how Santa can make it through this,” she said, her voice filled with holiday sentiment. Pussy snorted from the couch. “Who cares? We’ve got our loot. If a few third-rate countries wake up empty-handed, the planet’ll keep spinning.” Boris said nothing, as he was too addicted to the way Pussy licked the castration scar where his nut sack once dangled to want to upset his woman.
Linda was drawing breath to unload on the tomcat when Jonny came back, his face set in that way that meant the night had just taken a sharp turn. “That was Saint Nick,” he said. “The rain grounded the reindeer. World’s flooded, sleigh’s useless. He needs our turbo boat to cover the mess.” Pussy grinned, all teeth and trouble. “Fine. Just tell the elf to knock first. I’m giving Boris his Christmas present when we go to bed and I don’t want some little green freak to interrupt his barks of ecstasy.” Jonny was already stripping down, pulling on a waterproof thong like a man who knew fate didn’t wait for modesty. “You don’t get it,” he said, voice flat as a dead battery. “We’re not lending the boat. We’re driving it. North Pole. All four of us.” Outside, the rain hammered harder, like it approved of the plan, and somewhere in the dark the world waited for a Christmas delivered the hard way.