Spicy Sugar

Japan: Detour

Andrei's POV:

Hiroshi Takanawa certainly was one of the more interesting businessmen I met in my line of work. I was merely joking with him about having him take me to the airport. And yet, here I was sitting in a cargo plane from his 'company' on my way to Tuscany. Who would have ever thought that holding a gun to a man's neck would be the beginning of doing business together.

He even showed me to one of the best jewelers in town to get a gift for Briar. The three-hour wait for this little, special piece was worth it. It looked stunning, and would look even better around Briar's neck. I closed the box back up and packed it into my backpack again, placing it on the floor close to me. The small suitcase I would need in Italy was right beside it.

The door to the cargo bay opened and three guys came in, two of them carrying guns and pointing them at me while the other approached me, "Mr. Kroll. We are very close to your exit point."

"Exit point? You mean we're landing soon?"

"No Mr. Kroll. We do not land in Italy. We merely fly over it. I suggest you use this." he answered and handed me a parachute.

THE FUCK!?

I glared at the man and narrowed my eyes, "Your boss failed to mention the tiny detail about me having to jump from this damn plane."

He just shrugged and the cargo hatch behind me began to open suddenly, "You will get out here right now, or we will toss you out."

To emphasize his words, the two guys with the guns loaded them through and aimed at my head. Knowing full well that I could not argue here, I strapped the parachute to my back and the backpack over my chest. After collecting my suitcase, I walked up to the edge of the hatch to take a look down, mentally cursing myself right after.

Fuck that's high!

I could try and argue now that I am not scared of heights. Or that I just hated the fact that my ears felt weird while flying, but that's pointless right now, I guess. I just hated the feeling of not having steady ground to walk on, beneath my feet.

Maybe I can try and kill them and hijack the plane? I mean, it's only three guys. It's not a whole army. Yeah, I will simply pull my gun, turn around and-.

My train of thoughts was interrupted quickly when I felt a kick to my back that sent me forward and tumbling out of the plane. I flailed around a few times before stabilizing myself with my face looking at the rapidly approaching ground.

This is fucking bad. It's been a while since I did that kind of shit. Okay, okay, breathe, Zane. Breathe. That's right. You need to stay calm. You just look at where you want to land and open the parachute.

Opening my eyes again, I looked down towards the ground and reached for the line to open the parachute. I pulled with all force and no panic at all. I did this before I knew how to land.

'Snap.'

You got to be shitting me!

Staring at the piece of rope in my hand for a few seconds, I let go of it and faced the ground again. This was it then. This was how I would die. Not like I pictured it, guns blazing and stuff exploding around me. Just slamming into the floor hard enough to spread my insides out in a ten-meter square.

I closed my eyes, mentally preparing for my death. An image of Briar showed up before me. Happily holding a child in her hands with a large, bulky man besides her. She surely won't be missing me. At least she's going to live a happy life, and certainly a safer one without me.

Did I ever tell her how much she meant to me? No? Well, that would be my only regret then. And maybe not being able to find the last two people of my old squad and pummel the living shit out of them. Goodbye world. It was nice messing with you for as long as I did. Too dramatic? Well I'm going to die so who cares.