When Mia finally reached her apartment it was a wave of relief that she had been craving since the time she set foot outside her room. For the first time since she moved to New York, she has missed her home terribly.
It was the first time she had even called this apartment her home.
As soon as she opened the door to the apartment the scent of cigars made its way to her nose and she felt disgusted.
"Robert Earl." Mia acknowledged the man standing right in the middle of her living room smoking a cigar leaving traces of smoke inside the apartment.
"Stop smoking inside the apartment, you will make the fire alarm go off. Also, who the hell gave you the permission to barge inside my house?" Mia had a strict demeanour.
She walked inside the apartment and kicked off her heels as soon as she reached the couch set right in front of the TV.
Robert sat right in front of her and threw down his cigar right on the carpet. Before the cigar could burn a hole in Mia's carpet, the man used his heels to extinguish the fire that could have been.
"I came to congratulate you." Robert was as usual the ugly hag that he already was for Mia.
"Do I need it?" Mia crossed her legs and spread her arms on the couch behind her.
Tony walked out of Samantha's room right on cue and saw the scene in front of him. Robert had barged inside the apartment right after Samantha planted the virus in the Jones' IT system.
Even after many warnings issued by Leo and Tony, he decided to stay right inside the apartment and wait for Mia to personally congratulate her.
"Do you want it?" Robert was annoying. He was hard to look at and it was pissing Mia off.
Right now, she was in no mood to entertain anyone. Her head was dizzy and her ankle was swollen.
"Mi- Pericolosa!" Samantha was the next person to enter the living room after Tony. She was accustomed to calling the leader by her real name but she was allowed to address her by it in front of any client.
"How is your ankle?" She sprinted towards her leader and kneeled down in front of her, taking her ankle into her hands.
"It's alright." Mia tried to pull her ankle away from the soft grip but it was of no use.
Samantha was already ready to tend to the wound.
"Are you hurt, Pericolosa?" Robert gave out a proud chuckle. "This is a sign of bravery that needs to be rewarded."
"I want no rewards." Mia softly said as she watched Samantha lather her ankle with an ointment made to heal twisted ankles.
Mia witnessed a lag in the speed at which Samantha's hands were working for a second but then everything went on as normal.
"What?" The man narrowed her eyebrows at Mia, looking at her in surprise.
Mia had asked him for a reward right before saying yes to the mission. She wanted this.
"You want no rewards?" Robert raised one of his eyebrows at the girl sitting by the couch.
"No." Mia casually replied and stared at the now bandaged ankle.
"But you asked for a reward yourself and now you are refusing the opportunity?" Robert's voice was getting harsh with every passing minute.
He knew better than to leave this strange change in Pericolosa's demeanour unquestioned. He had heard horror stories of people getting betrayed by her.
Was this one of the master plans of Pericolosa? He had no idea.
"Not only am I refusing the reward but I am also refusing to do any extra work for you besides my main mission which is to kill the heir." She had a hoarse voice.
"What?" Robert had no idea what was going on inside Pericolosa's head.
"You heard me," Mia said with little to no pleading in her voice.
She was not going to plead anyway, she was not even requesting Robert to not give her any extra mission. She was commanding him that she would not be taking up any extra mission other than just killing Carys which she had to do even if she didn't want to.
Thinking of Carys, for a second she went back to the moments that she lived through fifteen minutes ago.
When Carys' hands touched the back of her knees, she had his warmth electrified all over her body.
When they finally reached the entrance of the house, Carys softly sat her down in the backseat of the car.
'You sure you will call your roommate to help you up your apartment?' Carys had asked her. She was so flustered that she didn't have words to answer his question so she just nodded.
What was she supposed to say, anyway?
If she had shaken her head to answer negatively, would Carys have carried her up to her apartment? And when he had carried her up to her apartment and opened the door how would he have reacted seeing Robert smoking a cigar here?
This was a long and thoughtful scenario that Mia would think about again and again when she would be unable to sleep at 3:00 AM but right now she was inside her living room and it was 4:00 PM.
She came out of her dreamland when Samantha put her bandaged ankle on a soft pillow.
"Now I demand you to leave my apartment right now or otherwise I will have you kicked out of this place by calling my bodyguards right now," Mia announced before resting her head back. She had had enough of the Cigar smell and the ancient Italian accent.
Samantha was still sitting by Mia's feet thinking about the words that the leader had just said. She was thinking about the day when Mia accepted this mission.
She has seen the hesitation on her face. It was very evident to her.
"Peri-"
"I am sorry but I will have to call security if you are not leaving as of right now." Tony interrupted the sentence that Robert was about to say next.
Robert had no choice but to back up and walk right past Tony standing by the living room entrance.
"She's gone mad," Robert whispered while passing Tony and finally got out of the apartment without any further questions.
This was Pericolosa's safe place. To be honest, every place on earth was her safe place, Robert knew that whatever he did he could never defeat Pericolosa or understand what she was thinking.
"Mia…" Tony walked towards the couch and stood right in front of Mia.
"You don't have to discuss anything right now. She is hurt and we need to let her rest." Samantha softly whispered as she looked at her tired best friend resting on the couch.
"Sugar." This was Tony's way of saying that this was a serious conversation and he really needed to talk to the leader.
Samantha had always listened to her big brother because that was what she was told to do. Even if she was right she knew that she would always be proven wrong.
"What, Tony?" Mia finally asked.
"This is not fair," Tony said. This was enough for Samantha to stand up from her spot.
"Tony." Samantha tried to intervene again. She knew what Mia was going through, she looked weak and frill.
"You want the money?" Mia bluntly asked and both of the siblings looked at her in astonishment.
"Take it." Mia opened her eyes and looked at Tony standing with his mouth ajar.
"This…" Tony tried to make up sentences, "is not about money."
"Then what is it about?" Mia asked. She knew why Tony was mad. She was not stupid.
She knew that Tony was mad that they worked so hard on this mission but Mia decided to throw it away in the bin just like that.
"It is about you!" A sudden rise in Tony's tone made Samantha jump. She looked at her brother, his nose flared up and his eyes looked hurt.
He was never like that. Who made him like that? Then Samantha looked at Mia who sat unfazed on the couch and she knew her answer.
"And I take the decision." Mia said after a second, "I do not want the reward."
"Why?" Tony was not ready to back down. He wanted Mia to say the things that he knew that she would never say.
He had listened to all of that. He had listened to the way Carys had tended to Mia's wound. He had listened to the nervousness which took over Mia's ability to form full sentences when Carys picked her up.
He hated it. He hated this.
He knew what Mia meant when he refused to take up more such missions. She meant that she didn't want to be close to Carys. She meant that she didn't want to see Carys.
All of this meant that she had something to do with Carys and it was eating him alive.