Chapter Two: Elena
“Congratulations on a job well done, agents.”
Elena couldn’t help but roll her eyes gently at the words, letting her left hand stroke casually through her long, blonde hair. It wasn’t as if this was anything new. After all, she and Gerard had never failed a mission that they worked on together, so success was practically a foregone conclusion. Still, she didn’t mind being praised and offered a smile to Charlie, the man who was speaking to them.
“Thanks, Charlie,” she said gently, taking a moment to take a good look at him. Charlie was an older gentleman in his early fifties who always dressed in expensive looking business suits that she didn’t even want to think about how much they had cost. She liked to think that she made a decent amount of money doing what she did, but even she knew that there were others who were far wealthier than she was. Hell, Gerard himself was a self-made billionaire, but even he chose to wear more casual clothing in his free time. She snuck a glance over in his direction, noticing immediately that Gerard didn’t seem too interested in the events currently taking place.
“It was just another day’s work,” Gerard said passively, holding his hand out to take the glass of brandy being offered to him by one of Charlie’s servants. “It was barely even a challenge.”
“It probably helped that you knew exactly where to look for it. I imagine it would have taken a little more time had you been required to sneak through the whole mansion to try and find it, no?” Charlie asked cheekily, the older man reclining back in the large leather chair that sat behind his large metal desk.
“Well, thankfully we didn’t have to deal with that. After all, our inside guy happened to be good enough friends with the target that he could set things up without a hitch. Isn’t that right, Charlie?” Elena asked poignantly, her bright blue eyes twinkling as she gazed directly at him. “Doesn’t it feel kind of bad for you to betray someone that you called your friend?”
“I suppose I do regret that things have had to work out this way, but business is business. Besides, Ortega is not going to have much time to lament the fact that he lost these papers anyway,” he replied, tapping the top of the envelope with his pointer finger. “Especially not after I informed the authorities of his money laundering. The IRS is no doubt thumbing through his files as we speak, and once they see that he has been funneling money out of the country for years Ortega will be going away for a very long time.”
Such a two-faced business. Almost makes me wonder why I go through the trouble of staying. I could just as easily be the next person that Charlie chooses to turn on, and what would become of me then? I’d either be dead or locked away for the rest of my life.
“Now, why don’t we get down to why you are here. In honor of your successful assignment, you are both entitled to a fifteen-thousand-dollar reward,” Charlie said, motioning to a sunglasses-wearing bodyguard who had been standing silently beside him this whole time. “Wallace here is holding your money in those briefcases.”
The man who had been referred to as Wallace moved to place the two briefcases that he held side by side on the small coffee table in between the chairs that Elena and Gerard were sitting on, his thumbs moving to click open the fasteners of each case before lifting the lids. The blonde smiled widely at the sight of one-hundred-dollar bills sitting in rows within, her hand reaching over to pluck one of the bands of cash from within and flipping through them before slapping the stack of cash against her palm. “I always love this part of the job,” she said giddily, sliding the cash back into her case and pulling it over onto her lap.
Gerard gave a dismissive nod as he grabbed his own case, resealing the fasteners before setting the case down beside his chair. “Is there anything else that you need us for right now, Charlie, or might I possibly excuse myself. I happen to have some business ventures that need to be seen to. I’m quite a busy man, after all,” he said, rising to his feet.
Elena sighed internally at the sight of Gerard, a small smile playing creeping along the corner of her lips. He was so handsome that it felt like it should be a crime; every one of his features looking as though it would have looked more in place on a carving of some Greek God rather than the no-nonsense man who had become my partner, and his lightly tanned skin offered him a slightly exotic look. His black hair hung down to his shoulder, his strong jaw framed by a beard and mustache combo that he always kept trimmed. His steel-grey eyes glinted in the light as he turned back just in time to meet her gaze, his arms crossing gently to avoid wrinkling the black and white suit that he was currently wearing. Not wanting him to realize that she had been staring, Elena allowed her eyes to pass from him back to Charlie, hoping that her action came across as inconspicuous enough to not attract too much of his attention.
“I suppose that the two of you do deserve a break. How about you take a week off from assignments, and I can call you in next week so that we can get started on the bigger score that I have in mind?” Charlie said, rubbing his hands together greedily as he spoke. Even without him having said anything yet about his next mission, he had the feeling that it was going to offer quite the payout. Those were the only kinds of missions that ever seemed to get Charlie this excited about anything.
“Sounds good to me,” Elena said quickly, grabbing her own briefcase and climbing to her feet, absently brushing a hand down the front of the Oriental red dress that she had worn for this meeting. “I haven’t been able to take some time to myself in quite a while, so I think a week off would be just what the doctor ordered.”
“Maybe you can take the time to fix that attitude of yours,” Gerard said snidely as he rose to his feet, giving her a lingering look as before he reached down to pick up his suitcase. “Or deal with your breakup before you come back so I don’t have to deal with you bitching at me through every mission, yeah?”
“I do not bitch at you through every mission,” she snapped petulantly, feeling a flush of embarrassment spreading across her face from him having put her on the spot in front of Charlie like this. She had prided herself on making sure that their mysterious employer knew as little about her personal life as possible, particularly when it came to who she was dating.
“What about last night? You seemed to be quite snippy with me over the communicator if memory serves me well,” he replied, the two of them now glaring at one another.
“It was cold outside!” she exclaimed incredulously, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “Forgive me if I wasn’t in the best mood while I froze my ass off outside while you got to sit inside a nice, warm mansion for a while.”
“I told you that you could have been the one to actually go inside of the mansion, but you chose not to. You have no right to complain when you put yourself in the position that you were in,” he replied coolly, shaking his head as he turned his attention back to Charlie. “I’ll be taking my leave now, Charlie. I’ll see you in a week.”
“This conversation isn’t over yet, Gerard,” she said angrily, moving to follow him only to be stopped by Wallace, who shook his head silently.
“I believe that it is, Elena. Good day,” he said curtly, pulling open the heavy wooden doors to Charlie’s office in a way that made it look almost effortless. Then he was gone, leaving her alone with only Charlie and Wallace, both of whom seemed to be doing their best to not comment on what had just transpired.
“Do you think you could arrange for someone to drive me back home? You were kind enough to send a driver to my house earlier today, and I admittedly didn’t really put much thought into how I was going to get home,” Elena said awkwardly, clearing her throat embarrassedly.
“I can certainly do that, but do you need to rush off? I was going to invite both you and Gerard to stay for lunch, and I would hate to think that my kitchen staff put in all of the effort that they did if only I am going to end up eating it,” he said, the older man offering her a gentle, understanding smile. “It might help to take your mind off things for a little while. After all, what is wrong with a nice little meal and conversation among friends?”
Elena didn’t want to tell Charlie that she considered him her boss and not her friend. It was bad enough that she had managed to anger Gerard despite how badly she wanted to get along with him; she didn’t figure that she needed to ruin her good standing with Charlie too. “That sounds like an excellent idea, Charlie. Thank you for the kind offer,” she said after a moment, forcing a polite smile to her lips.
“Excellent,” he replied, clapping his hands together. “I’m starving.”