AWAKENING (19 page)

Ye
i
,
could have taken a connection flight to Miami or points south but this would leave a traceable itinerary. Her business for the most part was in New York. The hotel room there had its check-in, a woman fitting her description who by now was traveling up the elevator to her room for a week sight-seeing excursion. She’d take copious pictures for the travel magazine and upload them each day with an article for publication in the Indonesian travel magazine,
Perji
. The stand-in was fully compensated and
Ye
i
was
n’t concerned with blowing her cover because her
American cousin Lila was a far better writer and
they looked enough alike to fool people. She’d used L
ila in the past and everything went smoothly. This time would be no different.

In her business,
Ye
i
trusted no one, except Lila. They were family and the money
Ye
i
received
kept
many of
them
out of poverty. They were loyal
and d
ependency was the gun
that assured they remained
so
.

“Good morning miss,” the sun-burned Captain greeted when she climbed on to the chartered boat.

“Morning.”

“We’re ready as soon as you get settled in down below.”

“Thank you.”

She carefully descended the narrow steps to the cramped cabin and put her bag in the overhead bunk and lay down on the firm cot. She
closed her eyes and slept the entire
voyage
. There wasn’t a need for small talk, she despised talkative people. The Captain was paid to get her to
Washington, D.C. He
received
payment
already,
and conversation wasn’t included in the compensation.

                                    
      *
***

Nico waited at
a nearby table, sipping on his mocha latté. This place didn’t serve herbal teas. It was a coffee shop. He’d changed the drop-off spot at the last minute, testing the contact, watching from
his new
location the deli across the street. He could see everything through the window, even the man walking with the brown bag tucked under his arm who just entered the deli. Nico scanned the streets, seeing if he was tailed, looking for anything out of the ordinary. He never dealt with this guy before and newbies well, were too green to even know if they were under surveillance. He called the cell number and the man answered. Nico gave him an instruction, “Order a bagel and coffee then ask to use
the bathroom. Pay first, though then I want you to go inside the restroom, open the window and sit the bag there.” Nico instructed as he got to his feet and exited the coffee shop. He didn’t cross the street yet, he had to watch the cars. He did it easily in the dark shades without being obvious. He traveled to the corner then crossed the street with the other pedestrians still clutching the cell to his ear. He heard the man order as told then Nico added, “Ask to use the bathroom, now.”

The man did and Nico walked hurriedly toward the side street adjacent to the deli and slipped through a back alley. He made it to the window just as it lifted and the bag was placed there. He cupped his hand over the cell and leaned his back against the wall, listening for the man inside. He heard him say into the phone, “Okay, I did it.”

Nico kept his voice low, “Go back and wait for your order then take a seat and wait until I call you back.”

Once he hung-up
,
Nico strained to hear the bathroom door close then reached up and retrieved the bag and split. He exited
the alley
in the opposite direction and got into a car parked
near the southern corner. He
drove
a quarter of mile
,
found a tree lined residential street
and pulled to the curb. He checked the contents of the bag
to find a
passkey, map and a schematic of the building. There were
p
en marks indicating the
location of the security. Shit this wasn’t going to be easy, he thought. He took the items out,
laid
them on the seat then removed a bug detector from the glove compartment and checked the items. No beep
ing. Good, because he’d hate to go back and the kill the sonovabitch. He preferred clean jobs without unnecessary loopholes. Filling the gaps was a pain in the ass. Amateurs didn’t plan, of course there were moments when he had to improvise but those were few. Selange put him in
a
position a couple of years ago when she got her BIG idea to hit Frank Mon
ticelli.
Now, t
hat was definitely a rush assignment and
the woman failed to listen. Gung-ho, hot-heated Selange, she was worse than Alfonzo when she wanted something done.
You know what happens when a novice killer leads a duo of expert hit-men? It’s an unprofessional job and
shit tends to
unravel
somewhere. He nearly died.

He
unconsciously
rubbed his thigh muscle, sometimes there were annoying aches from his last injury.
A
bullet
caught him in t
he stomach, damn slug
emptied out its
contents and he swore someone doused his insides with battery acid. None of the solid organs were affected, which was a miracle but man did he almost wish for death in lieu of the pain. Fortunately, he survived.
He made a ‘tsk’ sound when he realized, twice near death and in each incident Selange was present.
An omen or crappy fucking luck?
He couldn’t decide, but surmised he was running out of lives being near that woman
, yet he didn’t know how to stay away.
  

He phoned the man back, “Go across the street to the coffee shop, order a latté,
and ask
to use the bathroom then check inside the receptacle for a black plastic bag with a red tie. Your money’s in there.”

Nico disassembled the phone then drove off. He had
three
days before they moved Gregorio to another safe house. He was a day’s drive
away
. He
frowned;
this job was a fucking stinker.
Three
agents, a safe house across from a precinct
,
he didn’t like it, not one bit!

CHAPTER
TEN

Alfonzo awoke
. He felt different
, h
appy or close to it. He also experienced a booming headache
, a
sex-hangover, is how he described it.
Selange
covered
his chest like
a blanket. She didn’t have a stitch of clothes on and at first he thought he was
hallucinating.
He’d experienced quite a few
wild dreams
after the divorce
and
sometimes wondered if reality was the liquid fillings of a bottle.
He
consumed a lot of
ch
ampagne and then some.
How he functioned the next day was often the result of flushing out the poison through exercise,
copious fluids and then
taking
a long
piss.

Quite frankly, if
he
were
out of it
, then –shit it
was the best
fantasy
yet. He stretched his neck back, when hair tickled his nose
. He
sniffed
a
familiar fruity scent mingled with his musk. This apparition was warm, pressed on his flesh with its ear to his heart as if it listened to the workings of his tormented soul. He moved his hands down the curvaceous body of his human blanket;
traversed
the waist to the indented spine
and the slope of
the feminine b
uttocks
. Such softness and
beauty he found
, it cause
d
his chest
to rise rapidly.
The
sleep
cleared
and
an
electric sensation in his fingers
sho
t
straight to his brain. Selange
was not a
figment of his imagination
,
but cliché ‘flesh and blood.’ His hands stopped moving and stayed attached to her sexy ass. He smiled; he didn’t have to lie anymore about how much he missed her. His body
displayed
the deception
. He missed this woman every day. He went to see the kids
,
covertly wanting to
see her too. He drank to drown the depression but it only made it worse. He fucked indiscriminately to silence the desire for her and this too deepened the
emotional ache. He was screwed up in knots, self-destructive and callous, a man he wasn’t when they were together
.
He needed her and she came at the perfect hour.
She’s the part of his heart which went missing but since she returned, it functioned properly, beating healthy and strong.
Yes, it wasn’t a dream. He remembered in the dawning hour the night. He had his
woman back at
his side. This round he’d lay motherfuckers in their graves if any tried to steal her away!

He slowly
swiveled
his head
to view the digital clock
. S
even
twenty three,
‘ugh’, today was the day, the moment of
reckoning
.
He
inhaled;
it was futile to consider skipping out. He agreed to turn himself in to the federal authorities by eleven and he planned to keep his word.
There wasn’t
much time to do anything except shower, get a nice breakfast and call his lawyer to let him know he was ready.
He would be a liar if he said he wasn’t a little worried, last time he was in a similar
situation;
the cockiness got kicked out his ass. He’d come a long way in the organization since then, acquired friends in high and low places, but Vincent taught him one important lesson, eliminate problems beforehand
and
this goddamn time he
listen
ed!

He surveyed the bedroom
.
There were e
mpty
glasses and
two champagne bottles
strewn about
. Women’s
lingerie
mixed with men’s clothing near the divan. Alfonzo
chuckled
, yep
l
ast night
he threw one
helluva
party!

His eyes traveled to
her profile and
chuckled
.
Man
, she had him going, they were at it like a man and woman released
from
a long stint
in
prison
.

To get the blood circulating, he stretched his limbs then s
uddenly
she
wiggled and the urge started
, not the one to relieve his bladder but the other one
. Damn, she
got him
horny
. How the hell she accomplish
ed
it simply
by jiggling
her ass was testament to
his
passion for
Selange
.
H
e traced the outward curve of her hips
and
followed
the slope
s
with his hands. Once he
truly
forgave her
, as well as
himself
,
the anger
annulled.
With clarity he
gained wisdom. After many months of
loneliness and self-destructive behavior he no longer suffered any emotional turmoil.

It’s
simple;
he wanted his babe, imperfections and all. She
accepted hi
s shortcomings from the onset and now it’s his
turn to reciprocate. He’d love her
unconditional
ly, because in
maturity he recognized
they were each
heavily
flawed.