The heist

~04~

Chiara

If I could not crush him, I'd find ways to please him into calling off the wedding. Something extremely valuable for his business. He was a greedy man after all. And I happened to know how to deal with them.

I'd received a potential intel from Xander, and it was too risky if caught. But then again, danger was introduced into my life years ago, and I wasn't born yesterday.

A day ago…

"What is the most challenging thing in your business currently?" I held the phone up again, my finger just a press away. If he dared to move, I was going to blow his office up. He silently thought it over before facing me, "Clean transportation? Why are you asking?" I let out a breath. "What if I tell you, I can help you get something that would ensure clean and undetected transportation across any port and airport that you want?"

His frown deepened as he tilted his head up. "And why would you do that?"

"Call off the wedding in return. Tell Antonio you have changed your mind." I stated.

A torturous silence passed. He then threw his head back laughing at me. My grip tightened around the phone, eyes not leaving his hideous face. "God, Chiara. You never cease to amaze me." He leaned back on his chair, sitting as though he owned the entire world. "Bring the package first, then we'll talk further." I stood up, gave him a nod, and walked out of the room.

Back to present.....

So here I was, attempting to free myself from Enzo even if it meant risking my life. Marco and Xander were waiting outside. I followed their instructions through an earpiece, carefully avoiding the motion detectors or the patrolling guards on the corridors.

"Room number 302," said Xander after a short silence. I took out the stolen keycard of a high-ranking officer and pressed it on the biometric scanner. The door beeped, and I hurriedly got in before it automatically shut. Once inside, I let out a deep breath, looking around. The room was lined with rows of high-tech servers and secure cabinets. It almost made my head ache. There were too many cabinets.

"You have only 40 minutes before the guards make a turn." Said Xander.

 A familiar hiss followed, "You didn't have to get her even more nervous." Marco uttered.

"She had to know the stakes," Xander replied. "No, she didn't!" Marco refuted.

"Shut the fuck up! I'm killing both of you fools once I'm out of here." I scream in silent frustration. They both went dead silent. Good.

The hard drive was inside a temperature-controlled vault. I still needed to go for the decryption tool on the fifth floor before the alarm was triggered. So, I had no time to waste, especially not on two fully grown men. Marco never liked Xander. "Tell me the code." I crouched down on the same level as the vault. 

"I got the drive. Now lead me to the fifth floor." I uttered, shutting back the vault.

"That was clean, I must say." A third, unrecognized voice of a man greeted me from behind. I stilled, eyes widening. The man was inside the room with me. I quickly pulled out my gun, turned, and aimed it at him.

"Chichi? Chichi, are you there?" Marco called out. "Chichi, talk to us. Who the fuck is there?" Xander said. Worry reeked in their tones. But I was rooted in my place. He looked so unconcerned about my gun at all, casually leaning against the cabinet. The calm ones were the deadliest.

"Do we have a problem?" I asked.

"That depends on how things will go from here. But judging from how smart you were just now, you must know why I'm here." He replied, his words slow and unhurried.  "And I'm sure you know that I will not give it to you, right?" I said, not taking my eyes off him.

"I know. But what's good is the drive to you, if I possess the decryption code already? Hand it over, nicely, nobody has to get hurt." He said.

Fuck! He went for the code while I came for the drive. Meanwhile, Marco and Xander kept shouting in the background, asking about the masked man. My grip on the gun tightened. "None of you will come after me. And no, I don't know who the fuck this guy is. But I got this." I said and pulled the trigger.

And what followed next was an utter mess. So much for not getting caught. Silently, a hand-to-hand struggle in the dimly lit room. We both kicked and punched each other, causing us to fall on our backs on opposite sides.

At the end of the day, we came to a mutual understanding after our masks fell off. Behold! I was fighting with the infamous Jr. Conti, the Mafia lord. And guess what? Nonchalance ran deep in their blood. I gave him a nosebleed. He gave me a split lip, stinging as fuck, but I’d snatched the encryption tool from him while fighting, so now I had both items.

We had an agreement; I give him a casino in Milan, which was Antonios, and I would probably get killed for it later, and in return, he let me go with the items.

"Hey, wait." He shouted, and I paused, not turning to look at him.

"How will I reach you?" he asked.

"I will look for you."

"How can I be sure of this deal?"

"You can kill me if I don't keep it," I said and walked to the parking lot. It's been a long fucking day.