13. Chapter 13
thirteen
“ T ell them, Lina,” Curtis said.
Lina looked at the audience before her and stifled a sigh. She’d been irked at Curtis for insisting on gathering his family for a meeting. This wasn’t time for a discussion. It wasn’t a democracy. She made the calls.
It was time to take charge of the situation. But she needed their cooperation.
“We got intel that a couple of Serafina’s enforcers got on a flight from JFK to De Gaulle,” she started.
“How the hell do a couple of criminals get on a commercial flight?” Brandon interrupted.
“Fake passports,” Lina answered.
“And TSA didn’t catch them?” Callie questioned with ridicule.
“Some fake IDs are really sophisticated. The documents themselves may not be fake, and the identities are mostly real and stolen for this purpose,” Lina explained with patience she didn’t have.
“That’s so wrong,” Julien said.
“How did you know they were Serafina’s people if they were using fake passports?” Henry asked.
Lina squeezed the wrist she was holding behind her back to stay calm. “We have our ways of accessing the monitoring system and caught them with facial recognition software. But there was a delay, and for obvious reasons we couldn’t tell the authorities directly.”
“You hacked the airport security?” Brandon asked, his eyes wide with astonishment.
Lina didn’t answer. “What you need to know is we have two assailants coming our way. We don’t know yet how they found out our whereabouts, but obviously it isn’t safe for Curtis and maybe the rest of you to be here.”
Callie looked at Lina sharply. “If you know these people are coming in with fake passports, why can’t you just inform our police here and have them apprehended when they arrive?”
“It’s in the works. But it still means Paris isn’t safe anymore,” Lina said. “We need to mobilize and get everyone to a new safe location.”
“All of us?” Genevieve asked. “That’s ludicrous.”
Lina agreed with Genevieve. It would be difficult to get a family this size to safety. They needed to be divided and sent to different places, far from the others.
“We’re staying. This is our home. We’ll have our own security set up if needed, but I doubt they’ll come after us,” Ana?s said.
Genevieve nodded. “But I understand the Bissets are at the most risk. We have a summer house in Provence that might be far enough from here for you to stay safe.”
Lina had assessed that possibility, and it wasn’t a bad idea. That summer house could accommodate the Bissets better than any of their safe houses.
“We appreciate it, Genevieve,” Callie said. “If we have to go, we’ll go. But I don’t like running because once we do that, when do we stop? Is there something we can do to stop this Serafina person, Lina?”
B&Y didn’t usually deal directly with eliminating the threats to their clients' without working through official law enforcement. Occasionally, they had to be the negotiator in kidnapping cases for their clients. But unfortunately, this time, they had to rely on the NYPD to handle the Stilettos. Lina didn’t like that she couldn’t give the answer Callie wanted.
“My boss is working with the NYPD to make sure they stay on the Stilettos, but there’s not much we can do directly,” Lina said. “But we can make sure this family stays safe.”
“How? You can’t keep moving us,” Susan, who had been quiet, asked. “My mother is seventy-nine years old. And my granddaughter is only four. We can’t be running.”
“No, it’s not ideal,” Lina said. She glanced at Curtis, who had been uncharacteristically silent. Guilt was all over his face. Gone was the playful man she’d seen earlier. She wanted to reach out to him and tell him this wasn’t his fault.
“Can you arrange to get extra people to escort my family to Provence?” Curtis asked.
“Within the hour,” she firmly said. She’d already had Paul start the arrangements for a quick getaway.
“Do that,” Curtis said. “I’ll stay. It’s me they want. They won’t touch my family if they know they can get me.”
“Are you crazy?” Callie blurted out.
“No fucking way!” Brandon snapped.
The rest expressed their outrage over Curtis’ idea. But Lina saw the merit of his thinking.
“I’m not throwing myself at them! Just to distract them while you get to safety,” Curtis said.
Lina held out her hand to quiet the crowd’s arguments and eyed Curtis. “You’re thinking of a bait and switch?”
Curtis glanced at her with a twinkle in his eyes. “Kinda.”
“What are you guys talking about?” Brandon demanded.
“You’re not playing the bait, Curtis,” Callie said.
“We will not dangle him for them to catch, but we can feed them with false leads of his whereabouts,” Lina thought out loud. “There might be a mole in the NYPD who’s somehow getting the Stilettos info on Curtis. We can use that to our advantage. We’ll feed them false leads that Curtis is heading somewhere else while you all go to Provence.”
“That’s a good idea. But I think I need to go far and keep these people on my tail and away from my family,” Curtis added.
“No, Curtis. You stay with us,” Henry said.
“Dad, I can’t have my problem endangering all of you,” Curtis said. “I need to do this. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if any of you got hurt because of me.”
“Curtis, we won’t let that happen,” Lina said.
“But you can’t guarantee that,” he sharply said to her. “If I can lure them away from my family, that’s what I’ll do. Now, can you help me do that or not?”
Lina saw the fear for his loved ones mixing with determination in Curtis’ eyes. She understood his feelings and didn’t take offense at his words. He was right. It was the best strategy to keep Serafina’s thugs trained on their prize. With her help, Curtis could always stay a couple of steps ahead.
Lina nodded. “Yes, I can do that.”
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, you hear?” his sister warned.
“You mean fight the crazy person who imprisoned you?” Curtis reminded her of exactly what she’d done just over a year ago.
Callie grabbed his face. “I’m not kidding, Curtis. I don’t like this already. Don’t do anything stupid!”
“Listen to your sister, Curtis,” his dad said.
“I wish you’d come with us, honey.” His mom squeezed him hard. “Please, don’t do this.”
“Mom, we’ve talked about this.” Curtis kissed the top of his mother’s head. “I’ll be fine. Lina will keep me safe.”
He looked up to find Lina a few feet away, listening intently to Popo. She held Popo’s hands in her own, and nodded at whatever Popo was saying to her.
“Let me hug my niece,” Curtis said to Brandon, who was holding the sleeping Ella.
This wasn’t the first time he’d said goodbye to his family, but this was the hardest one. He might not see them again. Shit was getting real.
Get it together, asshole. Don ’ t let them see how afraid you are.
“You take care of yourself, okay?” Brandon said. “Listen to Lina. Do not go rogue on her. Not this time. This is your life we’re talking about.” Brandon knew all the shenanigans he’d done in the past to evade the security protocols.
“I know,” Curtis said solemnly. “Keep my family safe, okay?”
“I will. They’re my family, too,” his best friend said and hugged him.
Curtis hugged his grandma last and told her he loved her. He promised her she’d see him in the new year.
“I’ll hold you to that,” Popo said. “Or you won’t get a hóngbāo. ”
Curtis laughed at her threat. Hóngbāo was the red envelope filled with cash that elders give out to the children and any unmarried young people in the family during the Lunar New Year celebration. The money itself, though it was fun to collect as a kid, was only a symbol of the elders’ prayers for the youth. Being a successful thirty-something musician didn’t stop Popo from gifting him a hóngbāo each new year because he was still unattached.
After the hugs and goodbyes, Paul’s four-man team whisked his family to their private flight to southern France in the dark of the night. Next to him stood Genevieve, Ana?s, Madeleine, and Julien. They all collectively heaved sighs as they turned away.
“I’m sorry I brought this to your doorstep,” Curtis said to the French family. “You must think we Americans are trouble.”
“Curtis, you are family,” Genevieve said. “Don’t you forget that. Callie felt we could provide a haven for you and your parents, and we’re glad we could.”
“But it seems we’re dealing with a more determined adversary than we anticipated,” Ana?s added.
“Thank you for your hospitality. Lina and I will be out of your hair soon. Hopefully, our leaked misinformation will lead them away from Paris,” he said, hoping their plan would work.
“Don’t worry about us, Curtis,” Madeleine assured him. “We can take care of ourselves.”
Curtis could only nod. If anything happened to any of them, he’d…what would he do?
What could I do?
From the corner of his eyes, Curtis spotted Lina coming toward them after putting her phone away. Dressed like a backpacker trekking through the continent, complete with the backpack, she looked younger than she really was.
“We’re good. Things are in place. Whoever is leaking information to the Stilettos will hear you’re heading to Amsterdam for a hop to Norway,” Lina said.
“Where are you really going?” Julien asked.
“We’ll decide when we get to the train station,” Lina answered, then she looked at Curtis. “You’re ready?”
He picked up his own pack and guitar case. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”