Artifice (H.S)

N I N E T E E N

I took one long drag of my cigarette as I turned the page of a novel I was reading. I smirked when I looked up to see one of my men walking into my office. I was currently at one of my villas in Italy. I was hoping they would be bringing me good news.  

"Sir, they got away. Everything had been destroyed. Just liked you said." Carlos had been with me since the beginning. Since I decided to go rogue and try to take over the Syndicate. If everything worked out how I imagined it to be, I was one step closer.

 I always chuckled whenever Carlos came to me for anything because it was clear no matter how much time passed, he was still a scared little man. You wouldn't get far in life if people walked over you. The same could be said with respect. When I was working with the agency they always walked over me, treating me just as a number, not caring if any of their men and women died. We would just be thrown out and replaced. 

"And we also have these." Carlos added as he walked over to the dark mahogany desk I had obtained from the last drug lord that crossed paths with me. I always loved taking tokens of people I had taken down or wronged me in the past. He placed the folder in front of me and took a few steps away as he waited to see how I would react. 

I took another long drag of my cigarette as I opened the folder. I chuckled loudly as I saw who was in front of me. The bitch herself. She hadn't changed one bit. This time she wasn't wearing that ridiculous wig I had seen her wear back in France. "Ah, Cecilia.." I said to myself as I looked through the folders. 

My friend had done a wonderful job getting these photos for me. The pictures were of her doing her daily activities. It was always fun to play with Cecilia. Taunting her and watching her from her home was quite a lot of fun, too bad I had other things to do because I quite enjoyed it. She looked as beautiful as ever. Too bad that she was trying to take me down, maybe if I played my cards right she would join me. I lead her on for so long, who's to say I can't do it again. 

My smirk faded when I saw another photo. This time It wasn't of my darling little Cecilia. It was a picture of her new boy toy. I hated to admit that jealousy was boiling inside of me. What did she see in him? She most definitely downgraded. I wondered if he knew what Cece had been up to all this time. How much danger she was putting him in. From my friend, it seemed like he was totally in the dark. That's what I wanted. 

"Sir, If I may ask, why did you allow them to get away with the doctor?" I heard Carlos asking. I looked up at him as I took another drag of my cigarette, I leaned farther back into my chair. 

"We got what we wanted. Besides, it's all part of the plan." I chuckled. "Anything else I must know?" From what Carlos had explained to me is that they broke into the compound, which is exactly what I wanted to happen. 

"From security cameras, we saw one of their tech guys got everything on the hard drive. Before one of them destroyed the computer." Carlos explained to me. That's when we heard her saunter into my office. 

She giggled as she sat down on my lap, kissing me on the cheek as she wrapped her arms around my neck. "That just won't do." I said looking at Carlos and then back at her. "Darling, we have a change of plans. Remember what I told you..." I said, hoping she would understand where I was going with this. 

"Do you mean?" I nodded my head as she pulled her arms away from my neck. "This is wonderful!" She yelped as she stood up. "This is what I've been waiting for." 

"You can have as much fun as you want with him." I snickered as I brought the cigarette to my mouth once again. It was time to finally destroy Cece's life. She had been interfering in my plans too many times. I had tried to bring her back here and maybe kill her, However, her bastard of a father and that little Irishman got to her first. I was a bit disappointed they also got to the tech guy before we could. No matter, in this line of work you always had to come up with different plans. We needed to get that hard drive back. It was the only way we could continue our work with gene therapy. Once we got our hands on it and used it more, we would be unstoppable.

"You don't understand how excited I am for this." She said as she pulled me in for another kiss. "Will you be there as well?" She asked. I thought for a few moments and nodded my head. I had so many ideas and plans when it came to breaking Cecilia. 

When I nodded my head  and she squealed once again as she wrapped her arms around my neck. "We need to get to London. I know you just came back."  I explained to her as she nodded her head, following what I was saying.   "Carlos over here will get everything ready. I'll let you know when you can make your move. But it might take a few days." She pouted when I told her that.

"Oh, you are no fun sometimes." She rolled her eyes. Carlos had since left my office to get the plane ready. That's when I felt my phone ring. The caller ID was private but I knew it must have been them. 

"Hello?" I said as I picked up the phone and brought it up to my ear. I smirked as I waited for the news I had waited for the past few days. 

"It's done." The voice said through the phone. I could also scream and shout in excitement. However, I knew I needed to keep calm and carry on. "Phase one is complete." They added on. 

"Perfect, just as we planned. You know what to do. Don't let anyone suspect anything or I'll have your head." I told them in a threatening tone. I would hate for them to ruin everything we had planned. I hung up the phone and took one last drag of my cigarette before I smashed the bud of it into the picture of Cece's new boy toy. Just looking at him made me cringe in disgust. The sooner he would be out of the picture the better. 

"Phase two has begun." I said before she gave me one more kiss before walking out of my office. The sooner we got this done the better. I chuckled as I got up from my seat. This was going to be a lot of fun, I could already tell. I couldn't wait to break Cece. So much so that she wished she was dead. However, as I thought more about it, I wasn't going to give her that satisfaction. No, I was going to force her to live and see all the damage and hurt she created for herself and the people around her. I grabbed my suit jacket that I had placed on my chair and put it on. Next stop was London.

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(This will be a shorter chapter than the past couple of ones I have posted. However, I needed to get this done because it will make more sense in terms of where this story is going. Hope you all enjoy it. Thank you)