3. Dance with the Devil

Gabriella

I might be in Colombia, but I always had her eyes and ears in Mexico. Creating a strong network of spies over the years to keep an eye on the enemy had been my brainchild. I selected a group of professionally trained spies who were the very best at their job. All of them had some connection and sense of loyalty to my father, who had saved them from perilous situations and they owed their lives to the man, so forget about any double crossing or greed getting the better of them.

I was waiting for the perfect opportunity to meet and enter the life of Alejandro Sanchez for years. I had to be patient because the most important part was creating a fake identity, virtually impossible to trace in order to infiltrate the Martinez family.

I had to create an elaborate cover and covering all loose ends took me almost 2 year, it was such an elaborate ruse that it was almost impossible to identify them as the same person. With that out of the way, I was just waiting for the perfect chance to enter Mexico and get ready for my assignment. I got the green signal from my trusted man, Sergio. There was a ball by the name blue rose ball to be organized soon. It was one of the biggest ball of the year in Guadalajara, Alejandro will be there for sure. I had only seen the man in photos, time to meet the bastard face-to-face.

I reached Mexico 2 months before the ball, in order to acclimatize to my new surroundings. My man had arranged a bachelor apartment, fit enough for a lower-middle class single girl.

My apartment had two small windows in the tiny living room. The outside view was not very exotic or nature intensive, it was just surrounded by other apartment units in a big middle-class housing complex. My living room had one medium size brown sofa, television and a dining table complete with a vase to keep fresh flowers. The walls had a few cheap paintings and other decorative items.

The bedroom had one large size bed and cupboards to store clothes and other things. The kitchen too had similar minimalist aesthetic. Overall it was a simple living space.

My disguise was that of an orphan girl by the name Gabriella Ochoa, who had just completed her degree in Business administration and was looking for a well-paying job in her field of study. Currently she was employed as a waitress in a famous café, during the weekends she helped at a local orphanage. Her work there involved looking and maintaining the orphanage finance and also interacting and playing with the kids there.

Being an orphan she would better connect with these kids and make them feel loved. This was a perfect set-up, very hard to doubt someone so simple with no powerful connections whatsoever.

Perfect disguise to avoid rousing any unwanted eyebrows.

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DAY OF THE BALL/

The ball was to last between 7pm to 11pm, I was dressed in a beautiful red strapless gown with a slit. I paired my outfit with matching jewellery and red heels. As this is a masquerade ball so i also wore a red and golden mask.I was looking strikingly beautiful that evening, making a few heads turn. I wore a red and golden mask.

I tried my best to act natural and mingle with the crowd. Now I was a Cheetah waiting patiently for my prey to arrive. I danced with a few guests and just around the hour mark, he arrived, fashionably late. His entry was dashing and all eyes were on him.

After all he was the big tycoon of the city, he had celebrity status. He wore a midnight blue suit with a red tie, white shirt. He was a good looking foe. I pulled myself back into reality as my anger peaked on seeing the killer of my mother and brother from a distance, I wanted to get close to him and finish him right there, somehow I managed to  compose myself and act natural.

I was dancing and mingling with the guests but my eyes were closely glued to him. After sometime we got an opportunity to dance together. I was indifferent towards him and acted like I did not care who he was.

"Hi, the name is Alejandro" he introduced himself

"and you?" he inquired.

"I love keeping secrets, it's my biggest thrill" I retorted.

He must have been really surprised because he stopped dancing for a few seconds stunned, but regained his composure soon enough. I wanted to understand this man from up close and personal. I could sense he was a little interested in me and I wanted to continue with this game.

"What brings you here?" he asked shyly. "Floating through a sea of humans, without revealing my true self. It so refreshing and exciting", I said with a smile.

He was smiling too, he had a great smile. I could sense he was visibly smitten. Our dance slowly picked up intensity and we had taken center stage all eyes were on us. As our solo dance was slowing down and we were dancing slowly and close to other couples he said

"you dance really well!, I have never seen you in any other event or balls, who are you?", he asked

"you ask too many questions" i said irritatingly.

Before he could say anything else I slowly mingled with the crowd and disappeared. I watched from a distance, as he searched for me frantically just like a young boy who got separated from his mother in a supermarket does. I quickly made my exit with Sergio, who had parked his car strategically in a blind spot. 

Alejandro

I searched for her everywhere, but she just disappeared into thin air, like an enigma. What's wrong with me, why am I chasing this random girl? I guess she was interesting and smooth to say the least.

After searching for a while I asked Carlos my main man and best friend to arrange for the guest list with a photograph, since I had closely observed her eyes and face, I would be able to point her out from the list. He teased me by saying

" what is it boss?, you smitten by some lady?", he said cheekily with a  smile.

To my surprise I could not find her on the list, this roused my suspicion, so I asked Carlos to arrange for the security footage. He did not say anything funny because he could sense the seriousness in the air.

Obtaining the footage took a little time, because the control room was located a few floors away from the ballroom. Once there we tried to observe the footage for a few hours and find the girl in red. To our utter shock, someone had tampered with the footage in such manner that the parts where I interacted with her were totally gone, in fact she was never seen in the footage during the timings of the ball. Either she was a ghost or I was losing my mind.

Carlos understood the situation, someone tampering with footage in our area meant a serious threat from some unknown enemy. He promised that he would look into this matter the next morning and called his partners to be prepared for the same.

That night when I retired to my room her face was still on my mind, enemy or not she had an effect on me, something no girl had done in my entire life, All my life I was used to being chased by girls, this was a first. A girl came and swept me off my feet, not gonna lie this was a welcome change from my stressful life.

Enemy or not, it was exciting! I tried to sleep, but I could not catch a wink that night. The prospect of being smitten with a potential threat to my life was so sexy! Around three am I decided to sketch her face from memory.

It took me 2 hours but I finally managed to make a satisfactory sketch, of the lady in red, her chocolate brown eyes piercing through me. Just like Mona Lisa what secrets did she keep in those eyes? I hope to find out soon.

"She moves in mysterious ways

Swaying through the timelines with her shaky silhouette

The more you try to catch her farther she gets

She is the lady in red"