Free Black Friday by William W. Johnstone Page B

you to suggest doing that.”
    â€œMaybe I’m just glad to be home. I want to revel in all the things I didn’t know if I’d ever get to do again.”
    She kissed his shoulder and then bit it lightly.
    â€œI know something we could both . . . revel in,” she suggested in a husky voice.
    Tobey wasn’t going to argue with that, although a part of his brain was still occupied in thinking about how he was going to slip away from her once they were in the mall and go to the jewelry store to pick out her engagement ring.
    Certainly, it would have been easier if he had gone by himself sometime, but he kind of liked the intrigue and excitement of doing it this way, as if this were some sort of secret mission he had to carry out.
    Then, considering how she was kissing him with growing urgency, he stopped thinking about other things for a while.
    * * *
    They didn’t get in any hurry leaving Tobey’s apartment. It wasn’t like they could beat the crowds to the mall. By nine o’clock, the place would already be packed and so would the parking lot. But it was a nice day, looked like, so Tobey didn’t mind if they had to walk quite a way to one of the mall entrances.
    Ashley was as beautiful as ever in jeans, a silk blouse, and a lightweight jacket. Tobey wore jeans, a snap-front shirt, and a denim jacket.
    Ashley sometimes tried to accuse him of dressing like a cowboy, but the clothes were comfortable, he’d explained. That was the only reason he wore them.
    And if they made him look a little like a cowboy . . . well, so much the better, as far as he was concerned.
    The denim jacket had a good inside pocket, too, where he carried a Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm Shield, along with an extra loaded eight-round magazine. The little semi-auto was lightweight and accurate. It didn’t have the stopping power of a .45, but with hollow-point rounds it would be pretty effective.
    He was glad Illinois had started issuing concealed carry licenses. After being armed nearly all the time in Iraq—and having his life depend on his skill with those weapons on a number of occasions—he would have felt positively naked if he’d had to go around without a gun.
    He didn’t expect to ever actually need one again, at least he hoped not, but if bad trouble ever cropped up, he’d be prepared for it.
    To that end, he made it out to the range at least a couple of times a month and did plenty of dry fire exercise between sessions. He had a good eye and didn’t want to lose it.
    This morning, Ashley saw him slipping the Shield into his pocket and said, “Are you expecting to have to shoot your way through a horde of crazed shoppers?”
    â€œHey, you never know when a zombie apocalypse might break out. There’s a good reason why they shoot so many of those movies in shopping malls. People are more likely to be insane to start with when they’re trapped in them.”
    â€œIt was your idea to go today, you know,” she pointed out dryly.
    â€œI know, and I still want to. Come on.”
    One of the first things he’d done when he got back was to buy a pickup with the money he’d saved. He had worked construction before he enlisted and figured he’d go back to that, and having a vehicle he could use for hauling things might come in handy. He’d been right about that, too. He worked steadily and was pretty much a master carpenter.
    Tobey liked the feeling of having the pickup’s substantial chassis around him, too. Not that he expected to encounter any ambushes in suburban Springfield.
    He opened the pickup’s door for Ashley. She was a tall girl, so she didn’t have any trouble climbing in, although Tobey was right there to give her a hand if she had.
    â€œI’m still curious what it is you want to buy,” she said as they started toward the sprawling mall on the edge of town.
    â€œNothing in particular,” he lied. “I just