Waters of Lethe, Book 2

19. Connecting Sins

"If you let anything happen to him.." I warned Deebo before his team departed. I was referring to Enzo, and he knew it.

"Chill," he told me, putting his hands up with his palms toward the floor. Deebo was making us omelets while I sat at the kitchen bar, watching him, trying to breathe deeply and keep my blood pressure down. It was three in the morning, no one else had gotten up. Most of the people who were to leave in an hour were trying to squeeze in those last few minutes of peaceful slumber. Deebo continued. "Very public place Shanghai is. We have a saying about safety: The larger the city the target is in, the safer. More places to hide, more places to run in case things get... messy. But, there's also a major downfall for us that actually turns out as a positive for you and Alex."

I rubbed my neck with my hand. "What's that?" I asked. The hamster wheels in my head weren't turning this morning. I hadn't yet had food and didn't eat much yesterday.

Deebo flipped an omelet in the skillet, looked at me. "Our target is harder to acquire. Your target will be pretty easy to locate."

I understood what Deebo was saying, thought about it as we all exchanged goodbye's and well wishes on the airport tarmac where two private jets would take both teams to two totally different locations. With our bags packed and situated on the planes, our guns and extra ammunition loaded and sitting on the seats, we were ready.

The roar of the engines was loud. I knew Enzo could still hear me, however, when I spoke my final words to him in a soft manner, as if I might not ever see him again.

"Please stay with them. Please don't lose sight of Deebo or the others and please please please be safe."

Enzo laughed. "Yes, mother. Ditto to you. I feel sorry for you, you know?" he said as his team began to head up the staircase to their plane in the lit darkness. Alex stood twenty feet behind me, watching Enzo and I talk. "The others tell me that Alex is a bit beastly on these missions. Likes things to go a certain way."

"I can believe that," I smiled.

Enzo quickly hugged me. From over Enzo's shoulder, I watched Deebo hop down the stairs and slowly jog our way. I pulled away from Enzo as Deebo reached us, clapping Enzo on the shoulder in a brotherly way. Deebo looked past me to Alex.

"Hey, bro! Don't forget to tell El about the Deadly Sins!" Deebo yelled with a smile.

I looked back at Alex, who had an impatient look on his face. He nodded and held an arm out to me and waved it back toward our plane. Come your ass on!

I turned back to Deebo and Enzo, then pointed at them both and raised my eyebrows.

To Enzo: Watch yourself. Don't get killed.

To Deebo: Watch him. Or I'll kill you myself.

Both men nodded and smiled, turned away, boarded their plane.

I didn't realize I was standing still, just watching their plane roll down the runway, until a large hand gripped my upper arm.

Alex pulled me toward our plane. "We're about to be late. We don't do late around here."

On the plane, I sat by a window while Alex fiddled around in the small kitchen that was at the front of the plane, behind the cockpit. We were in the process of taking off, but he ignored the lights that came on telling us to buckle up in our seats. I didn't bother scolding him. If he got hurt, he got hurt. Apparently he hadn't gotten hurt enough as a kid to learn any better. Or he was just too damn headstrong.

I figured it was the latter.

I rolled my eyes. Looking around, it seemed like were on an expensive plane, which led me to wonder about how the heck Scott could afford two private planes and one of the biggest buildings in Toronto.