Carmen & Gray: A Tale of Two Thieves (Book 2)

The Peruvian Ruby Caper: Part 1

my eyelashes have gotten longer during quarantine and it's made my self esteem skyrocket

Carmen's POV

Walking down the ramp off the jet, I breathed in the familiar surroundings of Peru. I had left the day after Gray, and would be staying at a different hotel. Hopefully, we wouldn't meet until the actual caper. I only had a few hours until it was actually supposed to take place. So, I had to hurry. I made my way through the crowded streets, keeping my head down enough to not be spotted, but not too much as to look suspicious. I arrived at the hotel and quickly checked in. Making my way up to my room, I decided to take the elevator. As it made it's slow ascent towards my room on the 9th floor, I looked around aimlessly. I noticed a small piece of paper sticking out of the side of the pull-out box that typically held an emergency phone for calling 911. I pulled it out, and was surprised at what I read. The note said,

"Moving it up an hour. Suspicion of a former turned member in the nearby vicinity. Destroy this as soon as you read it." - LC🐐

"No way..." I muttered under my breath. This seemed too perfect, me finding a secret note between V.I.L.E. about the caper on the way to my hotel? And from Le Chèvre of all people? I quickly placed it back as I found it, and began to think. Maybe it really was a coincidence, and I was just overthinking things. That's how everything had been recently. I overthought every thing I did, always second-guessing myself. Nothing was a coincidence anymore to me. But I had to stop thinking like that. It was ok for me to catch a lucky break every now and then. I decided I'd take the advice. But that'd mean I'd have to let Gray in on it... The door dinged and opened, revealing a long, brightly lit hallway. I made my way to my room, before opening it and locking the door behind me. I tossed my stuff on the bed, and took my phone out of my pocket. It was 8:30 P.M., and the caper was now at 10 instead of 11.

"Might as well tell him..." I sighed as I called up Gray.

"Hey! What's up, Carmen?"

"Listen, can you come to The Leopard's Jewel Hotel? Room 217. Floor 9."

"What? Why? Wait, Carmen... ARE YOU IN PERU? I told you not to come!"

"Just get here as soon as you can, alright? There's something I need to tell you." He sighed and hesitated for a few seconds before answering.

"Yeah. I'll be there in 10. I'll knock twice, then wait 3 seconds, then knock once."

"Alright. See you soon."

10 minutes later (time skip brought to you by my lazy ass)

Two knocks, and three seconds later, another knock. Gray was here. I opened the door to see a flustered and frustrated Gray.

"Carmen what are you doing here? I thought we agreed you'd stay home!"

"I know, I know. But I needed to come. If I don't get back into the swing of things quickly, I'll never be able to. I'll keep telling myself "I can help next time," and never actually help or go on any missions." He sighed, but nodded his head.

"Fair enough. I understand and will support you no matter what. Now, what was it you needed to tell me?"

"They moved the caper up an hour. Le Chèvre suspects that you're here and left a note for El Topo in the elevator I took. I thought it was a coincidence, and it very well could be a trap, but what if it's the real thing? Besides, Le Chèvre didn't know I was coming, so it's more likely that it's actually been moved up an hour."

"That definitely changes things. If it's a trap, one of us should go at 10 and let the other know if it's safe or not."

"Alright. If it is a trap, they don't know I'm here, so it would be better for you to go. If you get caught or something, I'll come at 11 when the actual caper is. I'll have the element of surprise and be able to stop them and save you."

"Then let's do it."

1 hour later, it was go time.

AHHHHH

FINALLY A GOOD (enough) FUCKING CHAPTER
Gordon Ramsay lmao

ANYWAYS
thank you ALL that have stuck with me through this! I'm so SO sorry for how long it has taken me to write this! I have had a lot of stuff going on (physically and mentally) that has stopped me from writing, and I hope you can all forgive me. It's a rather long explanation that I'd rather not go into, so here's the long story short. I've had multiple sports and academic commitments I've had to deal with over the summer and in preparation of the new school year. When it comes to mental blockages, my anxiety and ADHD have gotten progressively worse throughout this whole stay at home thing, so I've not really been getting ANYTHING I've wanted to get done done.
Well, hope you enjoy!

And I'll be announcing two special things in the very last chapter so please enjoy the story till then!