At Your Service (Book Two)

Chapter 19 - Circus Magic

This isn't happening. This isn't happening. This isn't happening.

Voices in Vicência's head began to scream those exact words as she heard the echoes of her ballet shoes smacking against the wood after she had thrown them aside. If Santiago was in the trailer, he wouldn't have tolerated that. But it's her trailer, and despite his reluctance, he gave her some privacy.

It was already a long and tiring morning of training for her, and him intruding on her privacy wouldn't be pleasant as if it wasn't worse already, especially since tonight is the night she'll perform. It took her restless training and she had to move fast to perfect her ballet dancing if she didn't want Santiago to do anything funny.

For a night, she has been staying with the circus troop and was given her own trailer to settle in, which was pretty concerning since Santiago shouldn't have known if he'll get her, so his commitment was somewhat baffling. Although she was mortified, she kept calm and used her trailer privacy as an advantage. She thought it was a fool of Santiago not to frisk her of any contrabands or take any security measures, like disarming her of her phone, which was sitting on a table being charged.

What's interesting, however, is the fact that the phone that Vicência has in her possession right now, is not hers. She found out that fact when she reached for her pocket the moment she entered her trailer. She didn't check the entire time Santiago was beside her, it would put the idea in his head about frisking her.

When she did try to use her phone, she was a lot more than worried when she realized she snatched the wrong phone from the motel. Could've sworn they felt the same. If she had her eye on that nightstand, she would've grabbed her own instead of Swift's. But, she retraced her steps. She kept recalling the time she talked to Swift about his background, and one particular moment stuck in her head.

Vicência remembered him mentioning about his ties to the CIA, to which she had to be honest, sounded a little implausible. But after seeing him in action, holding a gun, not to mention his brawl against Zeno, she knew he was legitimate and not fooling around. After all, why would be fooling around if he dragged her across the world?

Anyways, his ties to the CIA made her wonder. Usually, people who have direct connections to the CIA would be tightly supervised by the agency somehow. Supervised maybe through... a smartphone. She figured maybe in some way, his phone is bugged. It's far-fetched, but it's worth a try. Noticing the phone was out of power, however, she had to ask her fellow circus performers for a charger, and one of them was kind enough to lend her one.

After sitting on her bed for a moment with her head down, Vicência took a glance at the phone charging on her table. She got up to take a look at the phone but when she did, someone knocked on her trailer door out of the blue. Shit. Someone's coming. There's a possibility that it could be Santiago and that's why she stopped herself from interacting with the phone.

"Come in." She said to whoever was behind the door. To her dismay, when the door opened, it was Santiago, and she welcomed him with an anxious look.

"Vicky," He said, letting himself in carrying a plastic tray of food. "I brought you lunch."

Vicência then shifted into a questioning demeanor while inspecting the food he brought. It's a combination of Sauté quinoa with a medley of broccoli, carrots, snap peas, and bell peppers, along with tofu added to the mix. She had to admit, it looked good. One thing that made her hesitant is the fact that Santiago brought it. She anticipated him to order someone to bring it to her.

She scoffed insultingly, "Never knew you cared."

"I don't," Santiago sets the tray down on the table near her bed. "I just need you to be in top shape for tonight's performance."