"You sure about this, Pericolosa?" Leo asked his leader, giving her a look in the rearview mirror.
Mia took a deep breath before meeting Leo's eyes and nodded her head. There was no looking back now. It was a step that Mia needed to take.
There has to be an end to this. The chase that she has started, not knowing what the future holds for her.
"You can take me inside." The enormous gates that lead to Carys' house were wide open. Luxury cars were seen entering the premises one after the other.
It was a tremendous deal.
A new product was about to be launched at a private party. The place was a goldmine for people looking for future business endeavours.
"I wanted to say this to you back at the house." Leo cleared his throat and adjusted his necktie. "You can call the mission off at any time and I'll escort you out."
"Do you hear yourself, Leo?" Mia's anger flared in her voice.
"Pericolosa," Leo immediately tried to rephrase the sentence that he had spoken, "I just want you to know that you're not alone at any step in this mission."
"Enter the house." Mia just sighed and closed her eyes, resting her head on the seat.
"I'm sorry if I spoke too much." Leo apologized and drove ahead.
Mia had a lot of things going on inside her brain, but the only thing that concerned her was facing Carys after he confessed that he liked her.
The image of drunk Carys professing his attraction towards Mia did round in Mia's mind.
What did he see in her?
The sound of the tires screeching made it to Mia's ears, and she sat straight up.
She elegantly combed her hair through her fingers and lightly tapped her lipstick into place.
After giving a small nod to Leo through the rearview mirror, Mia took a step outside of the vehicle.
The guard who held the door open for Mia looked at her in astonishment.
Mia smiled at the man and swiftly walked towards the main entrance.
A middle-aged woman stood with a letter pad right next to the entrance. She looked trained and had a retail smile.
"Can I get your name, Ma'am?" The lady laid emphasis on the last word after scanning Mia from head to toe.
"Mia Ricca." Mia softly said, and the lady looked through her letter pad.
After turning about two pages, she looked for the foreign name.
"Oh, one of Carys' acquaintances." Her face lit up after reading the name from the list.
"Can you please sign here, Ma'am?" The lady politely asked.
Mia took the pen extended by her and proceeded to sign the paper to mark her entry.
The lady gestured to the guard to lower the red ribbon fixed at the door to forbid entry without acknowledgement.
Mia felt the changed atmosphere as soon as her heels hit the floor.
"I'll call Master Carys for you." The lady called from behind.
Before Mia could ask her not to, she had already sent a guard with the word.
Mia sighed.
There was a slight chance that she could escape Carys' vision for a little longer, but the lady had wrecked Mia's plan.
Mia stood in a corner and observed the room. The house was just as Mia remembered, homely and warm. There were people chatting and laughing. It was a safe place. It looked like a safe place.
"Mia…" the voice said in a whisper.
Mia had shivers down her spine.
She looked towards the sound of the voice and gulped.
Carys stood at a distance. He was dressed in a navy blue suit, with his hair combed away from his forehead. It was a completely changed sight for Mia.
The blue in his eyes perfectly complemented the blue in his suit.
"Carys…" Mia had a sudden urge to call Carys' name.
Carys had an unrecognizable expression on his face as he took painfully slow steps towards her.
For some reason, Mia wanted him to come closer quickly.
"I thought you were never gonna make it," Carys said after he closed the distance between him and Mia.
He had never seen something so beautiful and endearing. He was sure he would never see something so beautiful and endearing, ever in his life.
Mia stood in front of him in a pink dress. Mia was in a pink dress and she looked like magic. If magic was a person, it was Mia.
"I came for Mark and Ashley." Mia diverted her gaze from Carys to the expensive carpet on which her heels were currently leaving prints.
"I'm glad you came." Carys might have noticed the slight blush that had appeared on Mia's cheeks but he decided to not address it.
"New girlfriend?" A squeaky voice interrupted the awkward conversation.
Mia immediately looked at the person.
"Aunty!" Carys managed to stop the middle-aged woman before she could say anything further.
"Hello, there! I'm Carys' Aunt, Sharon." The middle-aged woman introduced herself as Mia tried to comprehend the things that were happening.
"Hello," Mia replied and looked at Carys in confusion.
"Is she not your girlfriend?" Sharon questioned looking at Carys.
One hand rested on her hip and the other was holding red wine.
"No, Aunt. She's not!" Carys sternly said.
Mia paused for a second.
Something about that sentence hurt her. She wasn't sure what.
"Oh, I'm sorry for calling you his girlfriend, my bad." Sharon gave an apologetic smile to Mia.
Mia smiled back. "It's fine."
"Every lady he brought home has been his girlfriend." Sharon teased and nudged Carys.
"Stop it, Aunty." Carys was having a visibly hard time calming down his hyperactive aunt.
All these stories about Carys being popular with women never fazed Mia. She saw what every woman saw in Carys.
She knew why he was a ladies' man.
"Excuse me, I'll be right back." Mia excused herself right after.
"Mia," Carys called behind her.
She paused in her steps.
"I'm sorry about Sharon. She's a bit energetic." Carys seemed embarrassed for some reason.
Was he so embarrassed because someone assumed that he was dating Mia? Mia didn't know. She wanted to know.
"It's alright." Mia dismissed the issue. "Can I visit the restroom now?"
"Oh, yeah. Sure." Carys immediately stepped aside.
It took about ten seconds for Mia to walk to the restroom at the end of the long corridor. This part of the house was not very crowded.
She quickly went inside the room and checked her purse for the device once again.
The shiny black device lay safe in her purse. Mia took a deep breath.
After almost five minutes, Mia slowly got out of the washroom.
The party went on free from any interruptions. Mia looked for Carys inside the room, but he was nowhere to be found.
Mia took out her phone and dialled Samantha.
"Is the study empty?" She whispered.
A clicking of keyboard keys was heard. "Yes," Samantha replied.
"The upstairs corridor?"
"Yes."
Mia carefully started going upstairs. She made it look as casual as it could be.
"Where's Carys?" Mia asked on the phone.
"Garden," Samantha answered after a good five seconds.
Mia speeded up her steps and finally reached the second floor.
"Which door?" Mia whispered against the phone.
Her lungs were running out of oxygen even though she had climbed the stairs in a normal phase.
"The second one to the left." Samantha's voice started to sound strained too.
Mia quietly walked towards the second door. She pushed it inside and it slowly screeched open.
Mia took a deep breath before stepping inside the huge library.
The hardwood floor made an echoing sound as soon as Mia's heels hit it.
She swiftly removed the noisy heels and left them by the door.
The silver laptop lay on the black oak table. The scene was straight out of the picture that Leo had shown her earlier.
"You need to plug in the pen drive, Mia." Samantha practically yelled on the phone.
Mia sprinted towards the laptop and turned it on.
"Just plug it."
"I am doing that," Mia growled on the phone before throwing it on the desk.
Mia struggled to switch on the laptop. She finally pushed the power button and opened her purse immediately.
After getting hold of the device, Mia stuck it in the USB port of the laptop.
She then picked up the phone resting on the desk, "Is it there?"
"I am trying," Samantha answered.
"What do you mean you're trying?" Mia sounded agitated.
"Give me some time." Sugar replied and passed the phone to Tony.
This was their first real mission. There was no margin for failure.
"She's trying to make it work," Tony spoke.
Mia peeked through the large window in front of the desk. The garden was visible from where Mia stood.
"Trying to make it work is not good enough, Tony!" Mia was not having it. "Carys will start looking for me any minute now!"
"I think he already is."