Empire of Blood

X

"We need to find that document," Milan told Leilani, causing her to turn to her with an incredulous expression.

"Are you crazy? We just spoke about the possibility of it being a trap and now you want to go back in?"

"I know," Milan whispered, not once taking her eyes off of Leon who was staring right back at her. "But what if the drug they were speaking about is The Reaper? What if Andiamo isn't our supplier but Leon Alexiou is?"

Leilani sighed and shook her head, "Alia told us not to put ourselves unnecessarily in danger, remember? You can try again next time."

"But what if there is no next time?" Milan finally turned to look her friend in the eye. "What if this is the only time Andiamo decides to invite me over? This may be our only chance."

"Fine," Leilani groaned. "But if things go to Hell, it's on you."

Milan grinned and nodded at her friend. She was about to say something but Leilani quickly stopped her and pointed at her to turn around with her head.

"Ladies," the deep voice she recognized as Leon greeted. Milan turned to face him and they held eye contact before a large grin adorned his handsome face. "Milan."

Leilani looked from Milan to Leon before she decided to greet once of the most dangerous men she would possibly ever come across.

"I'm Leila, Milan's friend," she greeted him, holding her hand out for him to shake. He finally removed his gaze from Milan and turned to Leilani with a charming smile.

"It's a pleasure," he said as he placed a soft kiss on her hand. Leilani wanted to feel disgusted at being kissed by a criminal, but instead she felt an electrifying pleasure. She blushed as she turned to her friend.

"How do you two know each other?"

Milan's eyes met Leon's and before he could answer, she did.

"We don't," she lied. "He must know my name through Luca."

Leon held her gaze for a moment before he nodded with an unrecognizable expression on his face.

"Everyone here is aware of Miss Ossani. Her beauty is the main topic of interest," he smiled at Leilani, causing Milan to release the air she did not realize she was holding. Leilani didn't believe him but she didn't press on the matter. She knew that Milan would tell her and the rest of the team once she was ready to talk about it anyway.

"I would have thought the scene on stage would have been the main topic of interest," Milan humorlessly said despite there being a smile on her face.

"I take you don't enjoy this type of show," he said, causing both girls to look at him in disgust.

"Do you enjoy it, Mr. Alexiou?" Milan asked, silently hoping he wouldn't. She didn't want her image of him to be tainted even further.

"My interests aren't of importance. I'm here simply for business purposes."

They held eye contact once more and it was only until Leilani spoke that they broke it off.

"Do you also work in the fashion field?" she asked.

"You don't actually think fashion is Andiamo's only business venture, right?" Leon chuckled.

The girls shared a look and instead of responding, simply shrugged.

"We would love to continue chatting, Mr. Alexiou," Milan gave him a faux smile, "but we'd like to enjoy the party now."

Leon smiled back before he nodded and told them to enjoy themselves.

"What do we do now?" Leilani asked.

"I should make an appearance in front of Luca so he doesn't realize I'm missing. And then we'll continue on with our mission."

"I'll start looking around to make sure there's no trap. If anything happens, we only know each other as stylist and client. Don't try to save me because we need you for this mission to be a success."

Their conversation may have seemed pretty dramatic, but both girls knew that death was part of their job description. They were in a building filled with some of the most dangerous people in the country. If they were to get caught, they would never make it out alive.

They separated with Leilani trying to find the documents and Milan looking for Luca Andiamo.

"Luca," she grinned at the man once she finally caught sight of him, "I have been looking every where for you!"

"Mio angelo," he placed his hand on her lower back, "how are you enjoying your night so far?"

Milan looked around at the semi-drunk adults as they danced with another faux smile on her face.

"I'm having so much fun," she lied. "This is like a more mature version of the high school parties I used to attend!"

Luca chuckled and handed her a drink, "Drink up, the real party is yet to start," he said as he turned his face towards the women who were still crouching on all fours. Milan tried her absolute hardest to smile but she just could not bring herself to. She felt nothing but complete and utter disgust.

"What are they doing up there?" she asked him, feigning innocence.

Luca grinned, liking the innocent act Milan was putting on.

"Let's just say, we're going to have lots of fun with them tonight."

Instead of responding Milan simply giggled, pretending to be excited for the show.

"Where is your friend?" he suddenly asked, almost catching Milan off guard.

"She was dancing with a man before," she lied smoothly, "I'm not sure where they went."

"I see," was all Luca said before he proceeded to talk to a big, burly man who had approached them. Milan took this as her chance to escape and find Leilani. She didn't have to go far because Leilani was already standing in the corner waiting for her.

"What happened?" Milan asked.

"I scaped the whole third floor, there was not a single person guarding it. In fact, even the second floor was clean."

"Andiamo really can't be that trusting, can he?"

Leilani shook her head, "I have a bad feeling about this. It's just too easy, he has to be planning something."

"He has no reason to test me so there must be someone else in attendance today that he's testing."

Before Leilani could say anything, the music suddenly stopped and Luca called for everyone's attention. He walked up to the stage with the women and began to speak to the audience, causing everyone to laugh and cheer. Milan was so disgusted that she tuned out everything he was saying.

"Let's go now," she said and both girls quickly made their way to the third floor. They were lucky enough that the third floor only consisted of three rooms. One was an office and the other was just an extra bedroom. It didn't take them long at all to find Andiamo's room but unfortunately, there was no safe whatsoever present in the room.

"There  has to be a hidden compartment somewhere in here," Milan said as she pulled each of the books  on the bookshelf towards her. She was unsuccessful in her attempts however.

"There's nothing," Leilani sighed. "It seems Alia received false intel. His room is clean."

They swept through the room one last time before deciding to not waste anymore time in there. 

"We should check his office as well," Milan told Leilani who quickly shook her head.

"I don't think we should do that now. I'm having a really bad feeling about this so let's go back downstairs and we'll check again later if we have time."

As much as Milan wanted to check through the office, Leilani had a very strong sixth sense. The girl wasn't a fortune teller by any means, but if she said something was going to go wrong, then something almost always went wrong. So Milan decided to go along with her friend's gut feeling this time.

However, she soon found out that it was already too late.

Once they reached the party hall, the main show was over. Two women were lying on the floor unconscious, one was puking and the fourth was bubbling at the mouth.

But that wasn't where the problems lay. Andiamo was standing on the stage with a group of large, dangerous looking men around him, grinning down at Leilani and Milan who had just entered the room.

"And there she is," Andiamo said, his grin widening, "the main star of our show. Come on up, Milan,"

Milan and Leilani shared a look, confused by what was going on. However, neither of them wanted to make a scene so Milan hesitantly walked up the stage towards Luca.

"What a beauty," Luca said to the crowd, who cheered in response. Milan awkwardly smiled at the attention. "I was shocked when I saw her, I didn't think such beauty was possible in our world."

"You flatter me," Milan said, shyly smiling at Andiamo.

"Too bad she has to die so young," Andiamo suddenly said, causing Milan's eyes to snap up to meet his. She turned to the stage to find Leilani only to see that two men had a tight grasp on her, making it impossible for her to move. They had been caught and it was when they had least expected it. They were too unprepared.

"E-Excuse me?" Milan asked, turning back to face Andiamo.

Andiamo suddenly had a tablet in his hand and was playing the scene of Milan and Leilani sweeping through his room. Milan closed her eyes and cursed at herself for being so careless. They knew there was some sort of trap but because of Milan's stubborness they had gotten caught. If only she had listened to Leilani from the start and hadn't been so greedy to complete the mission. 

"You have two seconds to explain exactly what you and your friend were doing in my room?"

Milan turned towards an expressionless Leilani. Leilani was an excellent fighter. She may not have been as good as Stella, but she was right after Stella in terms of skill and stealth. And Milan could tell that she was ready to fight. Her only concern was Milan. She may have trained in combat fighting but this was her first field operation. She had never actually fought an enemy before.

"My friend got drunk and decided to rest in the room. She ended up losing her phone so we went back to look for it."

Andiamo's face was far from happy from her response. He turned to one of the men beside him and whispered something in his ear. The man nodded and began to look through his tablet. Once he found what he was looking for, he showed Andiamo. Andiamo turned the screen towards Milan and just as she had said, a tipsy Leilani walked into the room before dropping on his bed. Milan mentally grinned, glad that she had prepared for this earlier that that.

"Your alibi checks out," Andiamo said, "but too bad I don't trust you."

He suddenly lifted the gun and pointed it right in-between Milan's eyes again.

"But I didn't do anything wrong," she said, her voice hardening.

Andiamo completely ignored her and clocked his gun, preparing to shoot. As expected, the mafia was unforgiving. They would rather get rid of anyone who could possibly pose as a threat than to trust them. The world called that unforgiving but to them, they were simply careful.

"Any last words?" Andiamo asked, a cocky grin on his face as he held a gun to Milan's forehead. Milan really felt as if it was all over until her eyes met Leon's. He was standing in a corner, looking like he was prepared to kill someone. Milan didn't know why he looked so angry, but seeing him suddenly made her realize that she had a way out.

"Yes, actually," Milan said as she turned her gaze away from Leon's and to Andiamo's, "you can't kill me."

Andiamo's brows raised before he burst into a fit of laughter. Soon after, the rest of the people in attendance burst out laughing too. Milan's eyes once again met Leon's, who seemed to be the only man not laughing during the whole fiasco.

"Humor me," Luca grinned, "why is it that, I, Luca Andiamo, can't kill you, a stupid little girl?"

Milan turned her whole body to now face Leon, who tilted his head to the side, seeming to know where she was going.

"Because I am Milan Mancini," she paused for a moment before she let her eyes rest on Andiamo once again, "Alfonso Mancini's daughter."