“The itch will go away. Then it will feel weird when you take them out. I’m sorry I’m ruining your break. You came for three days. The last thing I wanted was to make you work while you are down here.”
“No sweat. I love catching up with the guys. Besides, your corporate flights are a walk in the park compared with my two-hundred-passenger tourist ones.” Or maybe it was the Boston weather that made everyone cranky, because in Florida even the regular flights were a piece of cake. “And I’m not on vacation; I’m just arranging some paperwork for my mom while she’s on a cruise with Ron.” If anyone should be grateful, it was Elle. She hated taking time off, and running her mom’s errands hadn’t taken as long as she’d expected. “Are we still on for tonight?”
“You bet,” Marlene answered. “The old gang together. We’ll burn up the streets!”
Elle laughed. Yep, Marlene was a hot package.
“Good. I gotta go,” Elle said. “I’m in the car. Or I’ll be late.”
Elle couldn’t see her friend’s face, but she was sure she was grimacing. “Please don’t wreck the car during my shift.”
“It wasn’t my fault. The driver of the pushback wasn’t watching.”
“Maybe he didn’t see you since you were driving like a maniac?”
Elle chuckled. “Okay, maybe I was a bit over the speed limit. But don’t worry, I’ll stick to the rules now that I’m you.”
After they said good-bye, she drove to the parking spot assigned for her first flight. The plane was already there, and the fuel she’d ordered was being pumped into it.
She walked on the tarmac toward the private jet. It was early in the morning, but the sun was blinding so she put on sunglasses and hurried on. Man, she’d forgotten how hot it was in Florida, even in April.
Her cell beeped. A message.
Girlie, Mr. Asshole will be flying from Logan in two days. You’ll be back in Boston?
Mr. Asshole had gotten a restraining order on her when she’d called him out on his shit, so it was her moral duty to be there every time he planned to fly. To bother him and delay him and generally speaking pester him. The arrogant twit always asked for special treatment, so his name came up on their lists beforehand, allowing Elle to be ready for him.
Sign me in for that shift she texted back.
Whatever shift it was, she would make it work, and she would be there.
He thought the world revolved around him because he was worth more than the Queen of England. Elle didn’t have an issue with rich people, but she despised entitled assholes.
As she finished supervising the catering, the passengers arrived. Three men. She quickly glanced at the documentation. Joaquín Maldonado was listed as the owner of the jet and the one who had handled the red tape and scheduled the flight to Cuba. Two of the men looked like security detail, from the way they moved and scanned the surroundings, so the one in the middle had to be Mr. Maldonado.
“Good morning, Mr. Maldonado. Everything is on schedule. We don’t expect any delays today.”
“Good,” he said, and without a second glance, headed for the plane.
The security detail stayed behind, near the stairs.
“Marlene Cabrera,” one of the guys said, looking at her ID. “Bonito nombre para una bonita chica.”
A pretty name for a pretty girl, she thought he said.
She nodded, but remained silent. And that was why studying Spanish would have been a better choice than Italian, especially considering how big the Spanish-speaking community was in Florida. Marlene’s parents were Cuban, and she spoke Spanish fluently. The two girls did look similar, and the hairdo and sunglasses helped, but Elle couldn’t fake the language skill.
Fortunately, he didn’t ask anything more. He turned to the other man and continued their chat in Spanish too fast for her to understand. After the pilot arrived, Elle handed him the preflight briefing documentation. They were all set to go when a big black car stopped near the one from the airline. The driver opened the back door and a man in his late sixties or early seventies, dressed in a suit, stepped out.
“Last-minute passenger,” one of the bodyguards told her while his boss and the newcomer shook hands. “Now we are ready for takeoff.”
Well, they might be ready for takeoff, but she wasn’t. The newcomer wasn’t on her passenger manifest. There were only three passengers on it. Mr. Maldonado and the security detail. Elle checked her watch. When dealing with last-minute changes, they were supposed to drive back and print an updated copy, but only for big things. This was small potatoes. Besides, going back to the office, never mind how fast she drove, would risk losing their assigned slot, and that would not only piss the passengers off, but it would mean changing all the flight documentation, weather report included. Too many waves that would raise questions for poor Marlene afterward.
She sprinted up the stairs and to the cabin.
“All in order?” the captain asked.
“Yes. Let me add something.” She reached for the passenger manifest and wrote “+1pax” to it. “There. All ready. Have a safe flight, Captain.”
They took care of takeoff procedures and she watched the plane fly away.
Okay, one flight dispatched. Four to go.