"He is roaming all around the garden. He is probably asking about you." Tony said on the phone and Mia immediately jumped away from the window.
This plan was not it. Mia knew better than to rely on a small piece of technology to bring the whole Care company down.
"We don't have time, Samantha." Tony's voice was weak. He tried to muffle his words on the phone but Mia could even hear his breathing.
"Don't rush me!" Samantha growled at Tony.
Mia calmed herself and sprinted towards the laptop.
"Can I do something?" She asked on the phone with an eye fixed on the library door.
"We can try plugging in the device again. I can't access the data. There must be something wrong with the way the device is plugged into the computer." Samantha snatched the phone from Tony and spoke haphazardly.
Mia immediately pulled the device out of the USB port. She then closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
She was not allowed to be a failure because every chance she was getting could be counted as her last chance on this mission.
Carys was probably out in the garden looking for her and she could be caught any minute.
A guard or even a waiter could open the door of the library and get hold of Mia at any given point in time. The good thing was that Samantha had already hacked the CCTV footage of the house.
Even if someone was currently overseeing the footage of the house they could never see Mia inside the library. The room would appear empty to the one monitoring the CCTV cameras for the house. The library camera would play footage from one day earlier which means that the library would appear empty as of right now.
After whispering prayers to some unknown God, Moa plugged in the device again into the laptop thinking that this was the last time that they could try infiltrating the party.
The sound of the device getting plugged in echoed in the library.
Mia's throat was dry and she anxiously knocked her knuckles on the black oak. The library seemed huge and it somehow managed to eat Mia up.
Was there a way to escape the anxiety that Mia was going through? Even if there was one, Mia was not sure how to stay on that path.
Carys also reciprocated the same feelings as Mia. He was going around asking people if they had seen his only friend at the party.
"That one hot girl in the pink dress?" asked Raven, his cousin.
"Yes, Raven. The hot one." Carys shook his head in annoyance.
Mia had excused herself to go to the restroom at least 15 minutes earlier and still, there was no sign of her back in the party.
Carys was sure that Mia had been embarrassed after his aunt asked her if she was Carys' girlfriend. The look on Mia's face after he denied the allegations was unreadable to him.
"I saw her walking up the stairs, I think." Raven squinted his eyes as if remembering something important.
"Upstairs, you say?" Carys asked.
"Yeah," Raven replied. "I am not sure though."
"Thanks, bud." Carys patted Raven's shoulder and walked inside the house.
"Maybe, she's looking for me," Carys said to himself before crossing the hall to walk up to the staircase.
The huge hall inside the house was filled with people who were the best in the field. Jones has been on top of the business for the last 10 years and has also normally gained a lot of friends and foes. One of them being, Earl.
Thinking about Earl and the reward he had promised Pericolosa on the fulfilment of this mission, Mia sighed and clenched her fist.
"What was I thinking?" She cried in frustration.
"Mia! It is working." Samantha squealed on the phone.
"What?" Mia immediately scanned the laptop's screen which had numerous codes running.
"Holy Shit!" Tony laughed and the sounds of his feet hitting the floor reached Mia's ears.
"How many more minutes do we need?" Mia asked.
"Just ten!" Samantha answered.
"What's Carys' location?"
"Shit. He is inside the house." Tony's demeanour changed.
"Oh, Lord," Mia whispered against the phone.
This mission could go wrong at any point in time. Carys could push open the library's door and find Mia fiddling with his father's computer.
"Sugar, please hurry." Mia pleaded on the phone.
"Mia, I'm doing my best," Samantha replied desperately.
"Just 5 more minutes," Tony said on the phone and Mia looked at the clock hung on the opposite wall.
Just five more minutes.
"Carys is about to walk up the stairs," Tony said in a muffled tone, biting the skin under his fingernails.
"Lord, help us," Samantha whispered into the air.
Apparently, her words carried weight.
On the screen, where Tony could see Carys walking towards the stairs, an unknown figure suddenly approached Carys.
Carys stopped and looked at the man, analyzing him.
"Mia, we have a distraction," Tony informed Mia and she gave out a light chuckle.
"Leo." She softly said as if acknowledging the efforts of her head bodyguard which she would never do in front of him, ever.
"We just need two more minutes," Samantha announced.
Mia desperately kept an eye on the library door. Carys wasn't coming upstairs in the next second but that doesn't mean no one else will.
Numerous digits danced on the laptop screen and it made Mia very anxious although she knew that Carys was distracted as of right now.
"We are almost there." The desperate voice of Samantha echoed in the room and Mia tried to calm herself down.
Mia's knuckles had now turned red because of the constant knocking on the black oak table. Her feet were cold and her eyes were dry by constantly staring at the laptop screen.
"We are down to the last ten seconds, Mia." Tony said, "But-"
"But what, Tony?" Mia questioned in frustration.
There is no margin for another "but" or "ifs".
"It looks like Carys has dismissed the distraction and he's about to come upstairs at any moment now," Tony informed and sucked in air.
"Fuck!" Mia cursed and looked at the clock again.
These were the longest ten seconds of her life.
It took about ten seconds for Carys to walk upstairs to his room on average. As he set foot on the first step of the enormous staircase inside his house, he took one last glance at the people downstairs.
He had been looking for Mia ever since she had excused herself to go to the washroom. He was desperate to look at her again.
These were the longest ten seconds of his life.
He was so desperate to step on the last step of the staircase. He sped through the staircase with as much power as he had.
When he reached the second floor a certain sound of something falling on the ground was heard. The sound came from his room and it made him feel anxious.
The door to his room was already opened and he pushed it open further to reveal the person inside.
"Are you okay?" There was surprise in Carys' tone.
The sight in front of him was surprising. Mia was sitting on the ground with one hand on her ankle. Her feet looked white and her face was pale.
"I…I am." Mia spoke in stutters.
She looked hurt. Her heels lay beside her and she tried to stand up straight.
"Did you twist your ankle?" Carys approached her and took a seat next to her on the ground. "Don't stand up yet."
"I think I did." Mia straightened up her legs in front of her and pulled down her dress to at least cover her knees.
"I was looking for you," Carys said and shifted towards the area where Mia's feet lay.
"The downstairs washroom was occupied so I thought of using yours. I'm sorry, I should have asked first but-"
"You don't need to ask, Mia." Carys softly called Mia's name.
Mia wasn't sure what was said before Carys said her name. She just stared at him in bafflement and then diverted her gaze.
Carys looked at the foot on which Mia had her hand when he walked inside the room and gently touched it.
"Does that hurt?" He asked with his mouth while his eyes pierced Mia's soul.
"No." Mia honestly answered. She knew that lying about an injury could cause her a lot of distress in the future.
Although, she might have actually twisted her ankle while she sprinted from Mark's library to Carys' room all within just a matter of a few seconds while Carys was running up the stairs with supersonic speed.
Carys pressed Mia's ankle a little harder this time and it truly hurt. A light squeal left Mia's mouth.
"Does that hurt?" Carys questioned.
Mia nodded.
Mia was not sure how cold her feet were but against Carys' warm hands, it felt like she was ice and he was all of the fire that she ever needed in this cold weather.