Hidden Tracks | ✓

41 | bonnie and clyde

"Guns?"

"Check."

"Taser?"

"Check."

"Knives?"

"Check."

"Everything in holsters?"

"Yup."

I nodded. Soler and I were currently in his room, along with Miranda, and only a few minutes were left before we'd begin our journey towards the Ianucci mansion.

Miranda came up to us and fit a microscopic chip in our shoes. "This will help us track you at all times." We already had watches wrapped around our wrists, which in reality were recording devices that could pick up even the smallest of decibels.

Soler and I were dressed in semi-formal attire- simple shirts and trousers with blazers, to hide our weapons and give us a no-nonsense look. Our bulletproof vests were secure underneath.

"Remember your code?" Miranda asked. We nodded. We'd decided on a code to let Miranda and the other agents know when to infiltrate the mansion and capture Mason and Amélie. If we found them both, I'd tell Amélie I liked her outfit. Basically compliment her fashion sense. Miranda and the TIA team would pick up my words through the earpiece and that would be their cue to get inside the mansion.

When we were all set to start, we got into our waiting car and sped off towards Casa Ianucci.

Soler and I hadn't exchanged a word since that night, except the basic requirement of cross-checking each other's resources for today. I didn't know where I stood with him, whether he'd been feeling especially charged up that night and just kissed me back in the heat of the moment, or whether he genuinely felt something, like me.

I didn't know, and I couldn't ask him. Usually I wasn't this tongue tied when it came to him, but somehow, I felt afraid of his answer if I asked him the one question burning in the back of my mind.

And anyway, today was different. Today neither of us had time to dwell on these things, and if he wasn't going to bring it up, I wouldn't either.

We reached the mansion in a few minutes, that familiar tree lined property with the woods stretching out into the background. By now I'd memorised the perimeter entirely, and the map of the interior was ingrained in my mind.

This shouldn't be a problem. You've got this, Kaia. You've all got this.

I had completed several deadly missions before, missions which had required me to go undercover in a den of criminals, assignments which had almost cost me my life.

But this mission was by far the most complex and difficult one I'd ever been on, mostly because this had required the maximum use of my thinking and detection skills. I'd never really investigated this much in a mission before, but then, this was my first time in a team, and team missions at TIA were usually expected to carry out their own investigation.

And today, it seemed like the mission was finally building up to its conclusion, and we still had no idea how it might be. That was the unnerving part.

°

Once we got out of the car, Miranda parted ways with us and walked over to the team of TIA agents, who were standing at one side. I nodded my greetings at Agent Schiff, who'd helped us a lot at the start of this journey. He smiled and nodded back.

Miranda already started barking instructions at them, as we noticed a few men in plain clothes scattered among the trees. The Italian police. Two of them were even perched atop tall branches, binoculars in hand, getting a vantage point to view the property from.

Just before Soler and I walked up to the huge gate, he held my hand to stop me. My heart involuntarily lurched as I looked at him.

"Be careful, Winter," he whispered, green eyes soft and warm. I'd never seen that look in his eyes before. "Don't want you dying on me."

I was frozen for a moment before I regained my bearings. "Don't worry," I smiled. "You be careful too."

He nodded and squeezed my fingers a little. He'd been right the last time we'd been here--he did give a shit about me.

I sighed as we walked up to the gate. The security guards gave us a small nod, nothing giving away the fact that they were actually on our side.

"We're Alcacer and Sofia, here to meet Signor Ianucci," Soler said smoothly. "I believe we have an appointment."

The guard nodded and buzzed the intercom. "Sono arrivati il Signor Alcacer e la Signorina Sofia." A deep voice crackled to life on the device, "Lasciarli entrare." The guard opened the wrought iron gates for us. We walked inside and were greeted by acres of freshly mown grass, with a cobblestoned path leading up to the mansion.

The mansion itself was a huge stone monstrosity, ivy lining its old walls and the shutters painted white. Frankly speaking, I didn't find anything quite beautiful about it; it just looked like it needed some more efficient maintenance. Maybe Ianucci didn't live here all year long, and that's why it was not that well looked after.

We went up to the mahogany door and before we could knock, it opened to reveal a tall man, wearing a pressed black suit and a silver watch. I noticed the hem of the sleeves were a bit worn, and the suit itself looked pressed to perfection. This must be Ianucci's butler.

"Benvenuti, Signor Alcacer e Signorina Sofia. Buongiorno. I believe you would like to meet with Signor Ianucci?"

We nodded, and were ushered in by the butler. We walked through a dimly lit corridor before entering a huge living room.

"Please wait here, the Signor is speaking on the phone. He'll meet you at his office when the call is over."

We nodded and greeted the man back.

"Let me prepare some refreshments for you while you wait, Signor e Signorina."

Soler started to protest, but I held his arm, and smiled at the butler as he went his merry way.

After the butler was gone, I turned to Soler and hissed, "You know it's rude to refuse food and drinks here! We don't want to make a bad impression right at first, remember?"

Soler glared at me. "But what if he mixes anything in the drinks?"

I rolled my eyes. "Right now we're Alcacer and Sofia, two people who've come to do business with Ianucci. They have no way of knowing who we really are, so why would they try to kill off potential business partners?"

"What if Rubio snitched on us and told our plans to Ianucci?"

I blinked at him. "Now you're just being ridiculous. TIA hacked into Rubio's phone and we placed a tracker in his necklace. If he snitched to Ianucci there's no way we couldn't know."

Soler finally conceded but didn't stop scowling.

While waiting in the living room, we took a look around us. Even though the exterior of the house needed more care, the interior was definitely top notch. There was a huge crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling, with a majestic marble staircase leading up to the next floor. The old mahogany of the furniture glowed richly in the dim golden light, and oil paintings of generations of Ianucci men stared down at us, as if telling us to kindly get lost.

Just then, when Soler was about to open his mouth to argue about the food again, a deep, slightly familiar baritone cut in from the side.

"Buongiorno."