Metà (COMPLETED)

7. I Have A Flight To Catch

"BEEP. BEEP. BEEP."

I fiddled with my phone as I tried to locate the off button. With my eyes half shut, I managed to silence it and place it next to me. My body ached and all I wanted to do was to sleep.

"I can sleep on the plane," I told myself as I slipped out of bed. It was 8:00 am and my flight was in four hours.

I ordered room service and showered while waiting. There was a soft knock at my door and a small voice announced itself.

"Room Service," he said. I opened the door and a kid who appeared to be around 18 years old gave me a lopsided smile.

"Ms. Zhara, correct," he asked.

"Sono io," I replied (T: that's me). He smiled and pushed the cart into the room. I gave him a $20 tip which he accepted with a small bow of his head.
I grabbed my plate and went out onto the balcony and stared at the city below me. Taxis honked and people yelled from across the street, even as early as it was.

I gulped down my three coffees that I'd desperately needed. My phone vibrated violently against the glass surface of the table.

"Ciao, come stai questa mattina," I answered (T: Hi, how are you this morning.)

"You're in Italy for a night and suddenly you're fluent, huh," asked Max. "My morning is great, thank you for asking. You?"

"Surprisingly great, seeing as though I'm running on 7 total hours of sleep in the last 3 days."

"Well, I'm about to make it better. It's not within our jurisdiction to arrest Anton there so he's been sent back to the US. We have him in custody. Case closed on our end." I smiled.

"That did make my morning better," I said. I wolfed down the last of my pineapple bowl and stood. It'd already been an hour and a half since I'd gotten up. I needed to start heading to the airport or I'd miss my flight.

"I gotta start heading out. Thanks for the news," I told Max.

"No problem! Just wanted to give you guys an update. Remember, we resume work in 2 weeks. I'm heading to Bora Bora as we speak so I don't want to hear from any of you."

"Noted. Tell whoever the flavor of the week is to watch out. Ex wife number 3 has eyes there along with knives," I joked.

"Don't worry. I've booked us a hotel far enough from her radius. She won't even know I'm there," he replied with a huff. We ended the call and I leaned over the balcony. The air whipped through my blowout and I closed my eyes.

Maybe a vacation would be nice. It would be free of charge, thanks to Madison. I could even bring Sofi with my mom, just as a little before-the-first-week-of-kindergarten- trip.

Courtesy of the Royal Family.

"Absolutely not," I mumbled with my eyes still shut. I could hear car doors slamming below me near the entrance. Valet was working over time with people wrapping up their summer vacations and probably heading home too.

I looked down and saw a sleek Mercedes leave the premise and an SUV pull up. A man stepped out of the drivers side and from the passenger side stepped out a woman. Their kids weren't far behind, two of the youngest arguing over some sort of handheld device.

What I didn't see were two other SUV's that had pulled up behind them.

I carefully set the plates and glass I had eaten and drank from onto the cart and grabbed my bag.