It took Mia and Leo long enough to reach their destination. In the meantime, Mia had been staring at her phone screen without blinking. Leo might have noticed the weird behaviour of his leader because Mia was the person who normally hated screens. She would often struggle with technology and preferred to call people rather than text them.
Now, when Mia was sitting in the back seat of the black car that Leo was driving, she had been busy burning holes in her phone screen with her stares.
Leo cleared his throat to grab Mia's attention, but it was of no use. Mia was frozen. People often said that the leader of Serpents was made of ice, but today Leo has literally seen that hyperbole in person.
"Pericolosa." Leo tried again and this time the leader looked up from her screen.
"Yes," she said and shoved her phone into her pocket as if she was just charged as guilty of a crime.
"We are here," Leo informed her, and she peeked out of the window for a quick view of the gallery.
"I will enter first. You can go ahead and park the car." Mia took a pause and looked at her watch. "Enter after five minutes." She said and opened the car's gate.
Mia quickly checked her outfit and took a deep breath. "Here we go." She said to herself before walking up to the entrance.
The place was huge, exactly what Mia has expected from Gonsalves. Mia took small steps towards the security standing by the entrance.
"Your ID please." One of the security guards said to Mia.
Mia took out her student ID from her back pocket and handed it over to the guard. The guard took a look at Mia's ID and then at Mia herself.
Moments like these irked Mia because she was not otherwise used to the uncomfortable treatment. She had visited places in Italy where people had recognised her solely by the sound of her boots. She hated New York; she thought to herself.
"Go ahead, ma'am." The guard said to Mia, and Mia went past the entrance.
It was ethereal, the gallery and also the people there. It was heaven for Mia, the paintings and the art decorated on the walls. The beautiful atmosphere made Mia calm for some reason.
"Excuse me?" it has only been a minute for Mia standing in the middle of this beautiful mansion and someone had already interrupted her. She felt like she had heard this voice before.
"Bracelet Girl!" Before she could even process what was happening, Carys showed up in front of her.
"You are here." He said with so much excitement that it made Mia angry. How can someone be so happy to exist?
"Yeah…" Mia said and looked around. Mia had not forgotten that this was in fact the area of her competitors and they could recognise Pericolosa anytime. Half of these people were from the extended Gonsalves family. It was a miracle that people had not started recognising her. Maybe her disguise as a student was working.
"You look so bummed to have to meet me here," Carys said with a little frown.
"I am." Mia sighed and spotted Leo standing at least 10 steps away from the both of them.
"How are you here, by the way? I never thought that you were an art kind of girl." Carys said and turned his head to look at the paintings hung by the wall of the mansion. "It is so beautiful," he said and looked at one particular painting.
"I like Art," Mia said and turned to look at the painting which had grabbed Carys' attention. "Why are you here again?"
"I was-"
A sudden thud was heard. Mia looked in the direction of the sound and quickly realised that the situation was serious. A commotion had already begun, people started to run and the sounds of bullets firing kept rising.
"What was that?" Carys questioned with horror on his face.
"Get down!" Mia commanded, and Carys looked at her in bafflement.
"I said get the fuck down!" Mia said and grabbed Carys' upper arm to shove him and also herself under the drink tables by the corner.
"Is it a shooting?" There was a clear terror on Carys' face, and it made Mia sick, too. This was not the plan. This was not supposed to happen.
"It is," Mia said to Carys and took a peek from under the tablecloth which acted like a curtain in front of them.
"What are you doing? You are gonna get us killed. Stay hidden." Carys immediately grabbed Mia's shoulder to prevent her from peeking.
Things happened so fast that Mia forgot about not being Pericolosa. It was in her blood to act like a mafia leader whenever she heard even the slightest sound of a gunshot.
She took a deep breath. "We need to run." She said.
Carys looked scared, "How?"
"Just run as fast as you can," Mia said, looking deep into Carys' eyes. Whenever she had to look into his eyes, she had seen all the water on this planet there. She had seen the thing that quench her thirst.
Carys nodded.
Mia took a peek outside from her position. She tried to spot Leo, but she couldn't. She could never afford to let these people see Carys or her.
The hall was now completely empty. People have already evacuated the place.
"Now!" Mia said to Carys, and they immediately ran towards the door.
They sprinted towards the entrance and almost made it out of the building when they heard it, "Hands up, right now."
A heavy voice spoke. Carys froze on the spot and looked at Mia. They had their backs to the person and Mia knew how dangerous that position was for her.
"Turn Back." The voice said.
Mia nodded to Carys. They both turned their faces towards the man. He was dressed in black overalls with a black monkey mask on his face. A gun in his hands made Mia unsure of what could happen there. There was no chance that they were surviving this.
"Try to run away and you will be dead." The man said in his heavy voice and gestured for them to trace back their steps to make them away from the exit of the building.
Mia followed his commands and stood right in front of the drinks table. Carys was still in shock. It was very predictable that this was Carys' first encounter with a gun.
"It is okay." Mia slowly whispered to Carys, and he looked at her. He was scared but was more surprised to see that Mia was comforting him.
"Ay! Stop talking, you bitch." The man yelled at Mia and gave her a smack with the huge gun in his hands.
Mia grunted. "Don't touch her!" Carys said, and immediately catered to the spot where the man had hit Mia.
"What did you say? Do you want one too?" The man closed the space between himself and Carys. The man put his gun right on Carys' forehead. "I will give you a better one." He said with glee in his voice.
Carys looked directly at the man. "I will see you try." He said.
Carys had a changed demeanour. It looked like he had grown up in just a matter of a few minutes. He no longer looked like the scared boy who had never seen a gun in his life before.
Right now, it was not the time to think about Carys, Mia thought to herself. Mia had a chance. She slowly picked up the champagne bottle from the table behind them and hit it right on the man's head.
"Ugh." The man wept in pain. It was music to Mia's ears.
"Run." Mia grabbed Carys' hand as soon as the man fell back.
They sprinted towards the exit of the building and finally out into the streets where all the other guests were gathered.
"We are alive." Carys looked at Mia and took her into his embrace. "Mia, you saved me." He said, with tons of emotions appearing in his voice.
Mia was engulfed in Carys' embrace and it felt like she was inside of another universe altogether. Carys has his hands all over Mia's back. It felt like a betrayal to Mia.
'Mia, you saved me' - these words echoed in Mia's mind and all she could hear was the sound of betrayal and nothing else.
How could she have saved Carys when she was the one who was appointed to kill him?
"Yeah, you can let go of me now. You are safe." Mia said after a minute's pause.
Carys immediately let go of her 'saviour' and smiled like a shy kid.
"I am sorry. I was overwhelmed." He said with a shiver in his voice.
Mia just looked at Carys and then looked away. "What actually happened, though?" Carys asked and looked around, too.
"It was a robbery, apparently." A lady appearing behind them said.
"It was a robbery?" Mia confirmed.
The lady nodded and gestured at some of the paintings resting on the pavement. "These are some expensive art pieces. They were shipped from Italy."
Relief washed over Mia when she realised that Carys was safe. The shooters were not for killing Carys. They just wanted the million dollars paintings. Carys was safe; she thought to herself.