••••
𝐏𝐡𝐨𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐱
••••
The next day Aspen and I started getting ready earlier since we had more to do than the guys.
The event starts around five in the afternoon, so we started getting ready a little after noon.
Aspen told me to put my own makeup on and once I was ready for her, to call her in. I applied foundation and concealer with a beauty blender, covering the freckles on my face. Then Aspen started to do her work.
"Okay..." Aspen trails as she brushes off the powder from reverse contouring, "Done!". I turn around to look at her work, and at first I don't recognize myself. She contoured my nose making it look skinnier and somehow made it look like there was a ridge in the middle. She also applied make up to my chubby cheeks making them look more hallowed out. She made my jawline less sharp.
To say the least, she did fucking amazing. I'm gonna need to ask her for makeup tips.
"Holy shit..." I trail as I look closer at myself in the mirror, "Pure talent man,"
"I know," She cockily flicks her hair behind her shoulder, "Make up is so powerful it's scary," I nod in agreeance.
Aspen finishes my look with a warm brown eyeshadow combo. She overlines my lips with a nude lipstick to put everything together.
"Okay, I'll be downstairs in the lobby," Aspen speaks after she slipped on her dress and sprayed some perfume.
I had a few more strands of hair to curl and then I had to put on my dress. It was just a simple sleeveless black dress that had a slit going up to my thigh. I didn't want to stand out too much.
I hair sprayed my hair then went over to my bed and slipped on the dress. I try to zip it up all the way but I can't reach.
"Fuck," I mutter in realization.
I try to angle my arms differently to see if it'll work but nope.
"Oh my god," I grunt in frustration still trying to zip it up.
The connecting door to the boy's room opens and Hayes comes out.
"Can you hurry the fuck up we're gonna be late." He groans.
"Fuck you," I glare at him still trying to zip up the dress, "Maybe if this dress didn't need a fucking zipper."
"Are you kidding me?" He walks over to me.
"What are you doing?" I step away from him.
"Helping you so we're not late, idiot," He spins me around quickly and quickly zips up my dress, "No bra? So scandalous darling." Hayes smirks at me.
"Fuck off. You're such a dick. A bra would ruin the look with the straps showing." I mumble as we walk out of the hotel room and onto the elevators.
In the lobby Aziel and Aspen are at the doors waiting.
"Sorry," I apologize for being late. We get into a cab and head over to the event.
Nerves fill my stomach as I look out the window of the car. I haven't seen Andrey since I was fourteen. I don't want to ever see him again but I have to. For Dad and for Mom. If anything goes wrong during the event we loose our vital advantage. We need the element of surprise. If he doesn't think that anyone's after him, he'll start to get sloppy in hiding his tracks, then we can find where he's staying and hopefully find his warehouses and other properties. With that we can find Mom.
We go over the plan one more time in the 20 minutes it takes to get to the event.
Once we pull up to the venue I pay the taxi driver and get out of the car.
"Everyone have their 'invites'?" Aziel puts air quotes between the invites since we had Aspen make us a replica of the actual invites. We all nod.
There is a line to get into the event hall. Plenty of people are dressed up in luxury fancy clothing. Some people enter the event alone and others are accompanied by someone. Strong aura's dance around everyone here. You can just tell that you wouldn't want to mess with any of them.
Once it's our turn to get our invites checked, we all stand confidently, fitting in like all the other criminals here. The bouncer nods and lets us into the hall.
We enter the grand hall and turn on our ear pieces heading our separate ways. I head over to the bar. Hayes goes over to a waiter whos serving champagne. Aspen stand at the end of the hall where the elegant music is coming from and Aziel is talking to a girl trying to blend in.
I wave the bartender over and just ask for a red wine.
I take a sip from the scarlet liquid looking around the room for Andrey.
Finally I see him at Aspen's end of the hall chatting with a group of people. I feel my heart beat quicken but my face remains calm and collected. He looks the exact same. He's gotten a few more wrinkles over the years and he now has a scar going down his left cheek.
Flash backs try to enter my mind but I just blink them away and keep sipping my wine.
"Stop staring at him, you're gonna attract attention to yourself," Hayes grumbles through his ear piece. I look over to where he's stand and make sure I visibly roll my eyes for him to see.
"Aspen, can you eavesdrop on their conversation and see if you can get any names?" I ask. I see her nod across the hall.
"What kind of business are you here for?" A man asks me as he sits down in the bar seat next to me. He looks to be about in his late fourties. He light brown hair and a long stubbled beard. His dark brown eyes look over my face.
"Drug selling and...other things," I smile at him, "You?"
"Mafia business..." He trails, "Who are you?"
I take a sip of my wine before answering, "Eva, and you are?" I use a fake name.
"Gio," He introduces putting his hand out for me to shake.
"Mafia huh?" I shake his hand, "You must know a lot of people here then?" He nods in response. "I'm looking to business with someone here, could you give me some information on him. I wanna know if it's worth it,"
"Depends who it is," He says.
"Him over there," I point to Andrey.
"Andrey Petrov?" His eyes widen. I nod my head. "I don't know if that's someone you want to get into business with..."
"Why?" I feign confusion.
"He's...he's difficult," Gio starts, "If you ever make a deal with him, he will always hold it up to your end, but when it comes to his end he'll always find a loop hole out of it. Trust me, I've experienced it first hand,"
"Interesting."
"He also has committed crimes related to human trafficking,"
"You know your son deserved it, human fucking trafficking, how the hell is that okay?"
I blink at the memory as he continues, "He's probably not a person you'd want to do business with,"
"May I ask what kind of business you've done with him?" I turn towards him more.
"Weapon shipping," He takes a sip of his scotch, "I shipped him some of the weapons we had in our cartel, and he was supposed to send us money for it, but we never got it. Anytime I've tried to ask him about it he claims he sent it over, and that I probably have a rat and they're the ones who took all the money," Gio's eyebrows furrow in annoyance, "I would know if I had a rat. They'd be dead instantly. My people know not to fuck with me,"
"Does he ever hold up his end of deals?"
"Very rarely. Only when it's beneficial for him to," He sighs, "I don't think he always used to be this selfish. A while ago his son was killed by some agents and ever since then he's been a ruthless, selfish, dickhead."
Should I kill you both quickly or slow and painfully like you did my son?
I blink away the memory again.
"Some people never grief correctly..." I trail.
"Yeah. Apparently he killed one of the agents who killed his son," Gio shakes his head.
A loud gunshot. Blood seeping from Dad's chest.
"Heard he took the other agent. Rumors have been saying he hasn't killed her yet. He's been torturing her for years. But no one's seen her so who knows if that's true. Rumors in the criminal world are fucking crazy..."
"Take her"
"Damn..." I say barely being able to keep myself together. I down the rest of my wine, "If you could excuse me,"
"Before you go," Gio hands me a business card and stands up, "If you ever need help agent," He whispers the last part. My mouth gapes at him in shock and he just winks at me and walks away. I look down and read the card he gave me.
Giovani Ricardo
Ricardo Cartel Don
331-456-8712
I walk out of the hall unsuspiciously heading over to the bathrooms. Once the door shuts behind me I let my eyes water, but I don't let the tears fall. I blink rapidly trying to reel the tears back in. I try to not focus on the information Gio just told me about my mom being tortured and instead on how he knew I was an agent.
The door to the bathroom swings open, almost hitting me in the face if I hadn't stepped back.
"Hey dude? You might be in the wrong bathroom," I say to Hayes trying to blink away my tears faster.
"How did he know you were an agent?" He asks.
"Wha-" I then realize I had my ear com on through the whole conversation, "I don't know that's what I was trying to figure out myself,"
"You compromised the mission, just fucking grea-"
"Hey, first of all, fuck you. Second of all, no I didn't. You were listening to our conversation. He seems to have a hatred towards Andrey as well. He wouldn't rat us out. Plus when he gave me his card, it didn't seem like that was his intention..." I mutter in thought. I look up and see Hayes staring at me. "What?" I ask annoyed.
He just bursts out in laughter before answering, "Y-you look like a fucking raccoon," He answers through a laugh pointing at my face. I turn to look in the mirror and see that my tears actually had fallen earlier and my eyeshadow and mascara are now smudged all over my eyes.
"You're such an asshole," I shove him into the wall angrily, "Still the same asshole from two years ago,"
"I'm the asshole? You're the one who broke my nose over a stupid gun and dagger." He crosses his arms over his chest.
"Wanna see what else I can break this time?" I smile sweetly at him. He just rolls his eyes at me.
"Whatever. Fix...that," He gestures towards my face, "Then get back out here," He leaves the bathroom leaving me to fix my make up.
♚♚♚
𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞
how do you guys think Gio knows that Phoenix is an agent?
this chapter was fun to write because it had some undercover shit. There'll def be more of this kinda thing in the future. I can't wait to write the parts that have more action in them.
also thank you guys so much for 1k reads on this!! thank you guys for giving my book a chance it actually means so much to me, i love you all<3
in honor of 1k i've made this update a double update, so the next chapter is already up!!