A sharp breeze rushed down the alleyway, howling and twisting like a starved beast. Over the steady, loud beat of his heart, Jayde still heard the angry and scared flurries of conversation from just around the corner. He leaned against the wall, a fixture of the shadows with only his gem-like eyes reflecting the neon lights. The Lilly Lounge was alight with commotion tonight and he was just barely swallowing his irritation because of it. Sighing, he managed to calm his expression enough to bring his cell to his ear, the device already ringing. "Hey, Axel," he greeted as soon as the other man picked up. "That package I gave you last week, go ahead and send it to the address I gave you." Words as calm as ever, it almost made up for the wail of siren's nearing the club's location.

After a slight thump like he just knocked over a chair, Axel managed to respond. "Hey! When are you going to tell me what this is about? The fuck is going on out there, Jayde? If this package is important, shouldn't you tell m-"

"Just deliver it," Jayde cut in. A hint of exasperation colored his voice and that shut Axel up before he could argue further. Jayde was losing his patience and he knew it. The siren's reached the light one block away from the club and blared, trying to get across the street. Cop cars wouldn't be far behind and they would look for anyone involved. Before that happened, he needed to leave. Time to end this conversation. "Got it?"

A sigh sounded from the other side of the phone, but Axel agreed a second later. Without another word, Jayde ended the call, his business done. It didn't matter that Axel questioned him or that he might seem like a suspect now. Since it wasn't like that at all. Still, this job proved to be a much longer game than anticipated. Could he pull it off? Could he stay under for so long without so much as surfacing for air? Without giving himself time to question it, he pulled up Harlan's number next and sent a quick text before he realized that he couldn't. He couldn't do this job without something to bring him back.

'Meet at 10 tonight?' The quick message wasn't even much, but on short notice, it somehow sounded desperate. One hour. That was all the time he gave himself and he sent it via text as well. He couldn't trust his voice in a call, not to Harlan. First, he needed to get out of here and maybe then he could truly regain his calm.

The ambulance finally veered into the club's parking lot and Jayde started walking, never once looking back as they loaded up a young man with tattoos down half his face and diamond earrings, now ruby with a sheen of blood. What a waste.