“Cain, you remember Patrick, don’t you?” Vincent pointed up to the wall of a man standing quietly for an order.
“He ate a truckload of food at my house last month, so he’s hard to forget,” Cain joked and held out her hands. “How’s life treating you, Paddy?”
“Hey, Cain, I’m all right. How’s my brother handling this shitty weather?”
“Mook’s a good kid. A good kid with a big-ass coat, but he’s hanging in.”
“Yeah, he loves Hayden like the little brother he wished he’d had, so you got no worries. I’ve always told him the big-brother gig is a good one, if you can get it.” Patrick put his game face back on and looked to Vincent. “What can I do for you, Mr. Carlotti?”
“You wanna go out and talk with Cain’s pilot before we fire up to leave?”
The man left, knowing already what the talk needed to be about.
Vincent didn’t like to intimidate any bystanders, but sometimes it was necessary, especially when the bystander was being watched from one of the plane’s windows doing something colossally stupid.
Changing the subject, he asked, “What do you think of my new stewardess, or whatever the hell they call themselves these days?” He pointed to the young woman who had poured their coffee.
“Cute, but definitely not my type.” Cain waggled her hand at Vincent.
He laughed again and made a mental promise to have dinner with Cain soon. He loved spending time talking with her. “Why not, too blond?”
“Vincent, you and I know one of my main weaknesses, as it were, is women of the blond persuasion.”
“True, so what is it about her?”
“Graduate of Quantico, class of ’98, I believe. There are so many of these young arling running around it’s hard to keep them all straight. Her being here, though, gives me a hint as to who’s next on Kyle’s to-do list, or at least his replacement’s once he manages to apprehend me.”
“Are you sure I can’t marry you off to Vinny?”
“Not my type either.”
“I know you wouldn’t insult me by asking, but we swept before we boarded and the crew’s checked methodically before boarding, so all she can report is where and who I met with. The problem for her is, no one else knows we left the city, and I’m the only one with a phone.”
“Mind if I give it a shot before you treat her to a swim?”
Vincent put his coffee cup down and waved a hand in the woman’s direction. “Be my guest.” He reached into his shirt pocket and handed over a fistful of small chips. Listening devices courtesy of the blonde in the tight skirt, each one missing its battery.
Outside, Patrick stepped to the helicopter and tapped on the pilot’s door. “Cold out tonight, huh?”
He watched the man at the controls try to hide the pad he had probably written the plane’s name and identification numbers on. “It’ll only get worse, believe me. I’m glad for the business tonight since winter’s usually my dead season.”
The question didn’t sound threatening, by any stretch of the imagination. It wasn’t meant to be, but it grabbed the man’s complete attention, and he came forward out of his seat as if in a panic. “Fine, but how do you know my wife and kids?”
“Your job is to fly, mine is to know stuff about you and your family. See, when you get back to the arlin town you’re from, most likely there’ll be these guys who’ll want to know all about your grand adventure tonight. With me so far?”
The pilot resembled a bobbing child’s toy, his head was moving so much. “Yes, sir.”
“You tell them anything remotely interesting, like our talk right now for example, and I’ll come back. Only it won’t be just me, and it won’t be to talk. After I’ve done my job you won’t feel like such a hero for handing over the information, and you’ll have only yourself to blame for what’s going to happen to Bonnie and those two cute boys of yours. So now would be a good time to tell me how you spent your time out here all alone, stupid.”
The pilot handed over the pad he had used, then pleaded tearfully with Patrick to leave his family alone.
Just once he wanted one of these guys to show some backbone, but the crying always replaced the smug machismo they so obviously felt as they sat outside meetings like this and planned how they would spend the reward money. The fantasies of seeing their overweight wives in a bikini on some beach in Hawaii seemed to override their brains concerning who they would be turning in.
“Take a deep breath, Mr. Jones, and try and calm down. To tell you the truth, I want to leave here tonight and never come back. This cold weather frankly sucks, so just remember what we talked about. That way I can stay home and work on my tan, and you can go back to doing whatever it is you do in the course of a day. Make me put this coat on again to hunt your ass down, and you’re going to wish your parents never met.”
“Don’t worry, sir. I’m not going to say anything.” The reassurance came out after a series of hiccups and a couple of swipes at his face.
Patrick pulled a bottle of water from his coat pocket and handed it over. The last thing he needed was for this guy to kill Cain from nerves on the way back. “Just a few more minutes and we’ll be on our way. Try and remember the big plane over there has windows.”
Chapter Sixteen
