A/N: I know a lot of you expressed your disappointment that their confinement comes to a sudden end, but all good things sooner or later need to come to an end. I will probably take a bit longer with my next updates since I decided on changing the end. As of now the end comes pretty sudden and is more along a lines 'and they lived happily ever after' without going into lenghty chapters once they are back in Trenton. Since so many of you expressed their hopes for how it will go on once they are back home, I decided on trying to rewrite my end slightly. I hope that you won't mind waiting for updates a little therefore.
Enjoy for now
"I... What? How?" I asked, confused. I hadn't received another update on my flight schedule and even if I had, I figured it would inform me about another delay rather than an earlier flight.
"Just... Trust me," he replied ominously, and I figured for whatever reason that I should. So, without any more questions, I collected my purse, went into the bathroom to stuff the few toiletries I had in it and re-emerged a few seconds later. Grabbing my phone from the nightstand and my coat from the closet, I was ready to go. And so was Carlos, still not looking like he might let me into the secret of how he managed to get us out of here.
We made a quick stop at the reception; he settled the bill and a few moments later we were in an already waiting cab.
"Is this the way to the airport?" I wondered after we had driven for a while and somehow the surroundings didn't seem familiar. Though, in all fairness, the last time we did these trips it was at night and I hadn't seen an awful lot.
"Yes and no," Carlos answered almost mysteriously. Since I hadn't paid a lot of attention when we got into the cab, I wasn't sure what he had instructed the driver with.
"Yes, and no? How can it be both?" I wondered, seeing him look intensely at his phone. "Is this the moment you confess you are a serial killer and have chosen me as your next victim?"
My question seemed to make him stop typing on his phone for a moment. He looked at me and started laughing out loud a second later.
"If I was a serial killer, I'm almost certain there would have been easier ways early on in this adventure. Waiting for a last-minute cab ride seems rushed."
His amused reply made me laugh as well, seeing as he was right. If killing me had been his intention, there certainly had been plenty and easier ways up until now.
We drove for another twenty minutes and had left Fargo behind a while ago. "We are not... driving to Trenton, are we?" I asked confused, since I really didn't understand what we were doing. He obviously hadn't rescheduled our flights, so what else was there left?
Before he could reply - if he even intended to - we left the main road stopped for a second a moment later at what seemed to be some gate or security check point. Carlos got out, talked to the guards for a short while, and got back into the cab. We were waved through and continued our drive for a few minutes until we stopped again.
"And we have arrived," Carlos announced, and I was sad confused as before. I saw a building but nothing else. Getting out of the cab, I figured I hopefully find my answers soon enough.
The building I saw was nothing special and rather small, giving no indication of what we were expecting to accomplish here. Carlos set into motion and I figured I should follow him, walking into the small building and towards what looked like a reception desk of sorts.
"Carlos Manoso, RangeMan LLC. I believe you are expecting us," I heard Carlos say and saw the girl behind the desk first looking through books and finally nodding.
"Yes, they arrived fifteen minutes ago. We are ready when you are. I just need a form of ID from everyone traveling."
Carlos produced his driver's license while I rummaged around my purse for mine, putting it on the counter a moment later. The girl looked at both, made a copy of both, and handed them back.
She wrote something down, signed something else, stamped some more papers and seemed to hand half of the stack to Carlos, before she smiled at him.
"Straight ahead through that door. Security is waiting for you. After security, you'll find a departure lounge." And then she was done, hunched back over whatever she had been doing before we arrived and Carlos already set into motion once more.
Figuring I should follow, I stepped through the aforementioned door, which was held open by Carlos, and saw something that loosely resembled airport security. Just nicer. In a way, anyway. I still had no idea what was going on or where we were, but followed Carlos's example once more: getting out of my coat, placing my purse onto the belt and walking through a metal detector at the end.
The departure lounge looked like a very cozy and extremely expensive living room, with plush sofas, comfortable looking chairs, and a small bar with a hostess, offering us drinks and snacks the second we appeared.
"No need," Carlos just said, walking through the lounge and opening a door to the outside.
I figured I should follow suit and was staring a plane a few moments later. Carlos stood by the small stairs that lead up into the jet and let me go first.
I was greeted by a hostess once more, dressed in black and smiling widely at me.
"Welcome aboard," she said, smiling a second later at Carlos behind me. "Sir, we are ready whenever you are."
Carlos pushed me softly ahead into the cabin of the plane, which consisted of ten very comfortable chairs from what I could gather.
I sat down somewhere in the middle, not sure what was going on, or what the hell happened.
"Any luggage with you, Sir?" I heard the hostess ask and Carlos replied that we traveled light this time. This time? He sat down on the chair next to me, over the aisle and fastened his seatbelt a moment later, indicating I should do the same.
"Can I get you anything, Mr. Manoso? Black coffee maybe?" the hostess asked, and I saw Carlos just nod. She turned towards me expectantly. "And for you, miss? Coffee? Or maybe something a little stronger?"
"I'll take a coffee as well," I said, figuring she meant alcohol with the rest of her question.
"Certainly. How do you take it? Black? With sugar? Milk?"
"Um… yes. Two sugars if you have it and plenty of milk, please. Thank you."
She left swiftly, and I turned towards my companion, who looked at ease.
"Would it be stupid for me to ask what is going on? I still don't get what's happening," I asked.
"We are at a private airfield, ready for getting back to Trenton," he said and, if that explained anything. Which it didn't.
"Okay. And… um… what's this? I mean… how. Or… why? Maybe the 'how' is more important, really. I don't quite understand."
He took a sip of his coffee, which had been placed in front of him a second ago. My coffee followed shortly after.
"This is the company jet. I just made arrangements to pick us up," he said almost offhand, making it sound as if this wasn't a big deal. Which it was. At least for me.
"Wow, you need to be rather high up to get a jet sent to you, just like this. Or they really can't do without you," I stated, seeing him shrug.
"Technically, I own the company, so I guess I'm as high up as one can be," he said with humor.
I didn't say for a moment, trying to process what he had just said. "So... when we talked yesterday, and you said if one would convince the CEO, CFO or COO of that company you work for in regard to needing an executive assistant, you were basically saying you needed to be convinced. I guess it makes sense why you seemed so amused throughout the whole conversation."
"Guilty as charged, I suppose. But in my defense, it hadn't been my intention to mislead you and the conversation simply developed in an unexpected way," he replied, sounding almost sorry. Almost.
My coffee arrived and taking a sip, I had to admit it might have been single-handedly the best coffee I ever had. But maybe my whole experience and the surrounding was influencing that opinion.
"Any snacks or light meal I can bring you? We have salad onboard, or some chocolates as well as stir-fry, chicken or some simple pasta."
"I'm...I'm fine. But thank you."
To say I was in awe would be an understatement. This was an experience that seemed to overwhelm me slightly.
The jet was small but offered plenty of room for the few people who it could carry. The interior was a mix of warm beige and soft cognac brown, sleek and small black tables and trays and all in all, it offered space for about ten people, I figured. All in all, it was luxurious throughout. But maybe it was also just standard. Seeing as I never had been on a private jet, my experience and therefore knowledge was rather limited.
"If there's a jet at your disposal, why would you fly like everyone else?" I asked, realizing too late how my question must sound. "I mean... not that I'd expect you to always travel like this and... um..."
I heard a soft laughter coming from him and looked up to see his amused expression.
"Actually, I usually do travel like this since most of my trips are business related and this form of travel makes journeys a lot easier, especially when considering that I usually travel armed and that is a pain in commercial travels."
"So ... why didn't you this time? If you don't mind me asking..."
"It was kind of last-minute trip that was stowed upon me and the jet was already scheduled for maintenance and also for another trip that was a lot more important than my business trip."
"Shouldn't you, as the boss, somehow have priority?" I asked jokingly and saw him shake his head in equal amusement.
"That's not really how it works, Babe," he more or less smiled as a reply. "And it isn't how I would want it to work. Whatever is more important gets priority. I just need to suck it up."
"How often do you actually travel for business reasons? Or any reason, for that matter?"
"Not that often, to be honest. A handful of times a year - if that much even."
"I might repeat myself, but you really seem to lead an exciting life," I said, amused.
"Oh, I don't, trust me. Most of my trips really do not take me anywhere exotic or where people really would want to go. And most often my trips are not necessarily of pleasant nature."
"I guess meetings don't always need to be pleasant," I mumbled and saw him shake his head.
"I hardly ever travel for meetings. I'd say I'm more of a ...transporter."
"A transporter?" I asked, confused. That sounded ominous and a little strange. Especially seeing as he had stated, he owned a security company, but maybe... transporting things fell within their job description as well.
"Yes, we sometimes have to bring people from ...um... one place to another."
"What kind of security business do you run again?" I asked with a smile. It didn't make a whole lot of sense to be honest, especially with the people and him stating he was a form of transporter.
"The government sometimes asks us to help ... find certain people. And to bring them back for trials. It is easier getting them back to wherever they are supposed to be when you fly private."
Okay, that definitely made a lot of sense. But still was extremely extravagant. Though, I definitely was not complaining, seeing as his company jet made sure I was actually getting home now.
The flight attendant came once more before we took off, taking our empty cups and asking whether we wanted anything else for now. And then we started to roll and were in the air about five minutes later.