“You’ve got the…” he turns just as I take the final two steps. My gold heels click along the wooden floor as I approach. “Um…”
I push my hair over my ear to conceal the earpiece and brush down my dress for good measure. It’s a simple black number, with a long slit in the side that allows me some semblance of mobility.
“Um?” I press. I really am running late.
His eyes snap up to meet mine, his mouth a little wide. Was he just… “Tracker,” he blurts out. “The tracking device, did you manage to?—”
I turn to my side to hoist up my dress a little to reveal the garter underneath. Knife, tracking device, and three doses of GHB.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” I swear I hear him mutter as my eyes snap up to his. By the time I look at him again, his back is straighter, his face unemotional.
“I’m on channel three.” I indicate my ear before checking the slim, gold Cartier watch on my wrist. “And I’m late, so…”
“Right.” Leon steps to one side, clearing his throat as I pass him. “I’ll be here, keeping an eye on everything. Dante is–”
“A half mile away if I need an extraction, I know.” I tap my foot impatiently. “Can I go?”
I don’t miss the way Leon swallows, dark chocolate eyes taking me in unashamedly. I notice the whiteness of his knuckles as he clenches his fists. He doesn’t like this, that much is obvious. But he’s letting me go anyway.
“Be careful, Mia,” he sighs.
A shiver runs down my spine at the soft caress of my name.
“I will.”
“Oh! And horses,” Carmen says as we walk up to the front door of the mansion in Bayswater.
The Cartel debutant is in a breathtaking golden gown, fiddling with the tiara resting on top of her beautifully defined curls. The headgear might have looked a little tacky on anyone else, but it’s a simple, modern band that’s definitely sporting a few diamonds and it suits her.
“Horses?” I repeat as I reach over to settle the tiara on her head, pushing away her fussing fingers.
She relents and allows me to help her. “I was a part of the equestrian team at Princeton. Do you ride?”
“No,” I admit, taking a step back to admire my work. “But I would have come to see your shows. Dressage, right?”
Carmen nods eagerly, but thankfully, the tiara stays exactly where it should. She sighs and throws her hands out a little awkwardly. “How do I look?”
It’s very hard not to feel a sense of fondness for the girl. Well, woman, really. She looks so nervous, yet there’s a twinkle of excitement in her eyes, and that same enthusiasm is evident in the way she bounces on her heels slightly as if she can’t quite stand still.
“You’re going to knock them out,” I tell her, not needing to lie even a little.
She’d confessed on the ride over that it’d been four years since she last saw most of these people. Back then, she’d barely been a footnote in the life of the Cartel, always kept behind closed doors, always just hidden from view.
Now, as I open the front door of the mansion for her, every single guest turns to take a look. Each seems more curious than the next to see how Amos’ precious Princeton grad grew up.
Carmen stands for a moment in the foyer, looking more than a little overwhelmed at the sudden attention. Not that I blame her. There must be fifty people ogling her right now.
“I need faces,”Leon suddenly murmurs in my ear. It’s an unsettling feeling. He must have spent an ungodly amount of money on my gear. The clarity of the sound in my earpiece makes it seem as if he were standing right behind me.
I give myself a second to breathe, smile, and then approach the bewildered Carmen, casually looping my arm through hers. “Oh my God, Cammy! This place is gorgeous!” I gush, squeezing her arm twice.
One for bad, two for good.We’d decided in the car.
I make sure to look around at our audience, catching them with my concealed camera under the guise of admiring the extensive entrance hall.
I feel her instantly relax at my side. “You should see the ballroom.” She tugs me forward. “Come on, I’ll show you.”’
We natter on as Carmen leads me through the ground floor. We look for all the world like two excited women squealing about the grandeur of a party after four years of student living.
