Chapter 664: Cocky

Mina stood in front of a large cargo ship with just the clothes on her back and her money. She waited in the spot she was told to wait, and after a full hour, a man with caramel brown skin and short curly hair stood in front of her. Half of her face was covered in bandages; she had taped most of her cash to her body and padded herself up to make it appear more natural. Her shape looked boxy, but there were many people who had similar figures, and she hoped it would go unnoticed.

"You Ami?" the man said. He had a thick New Portshire accent that Mina only recognized from television.

"Yes," Mina replied, giving herself an accent as well. She had spent enough time with Mills to mimic the way the woman spoke, and that was what she planned to do.

"Talk to me Ami. What do you need?"

"Safe passage," Mina replied, keeping her responses short, but the man just looked at her quizzically. "I'm hiding from someone."

"Did that someone do that to you?" The man pointed at Mina's bandaged face with a raised eyebrow.

"In a way," she replied, not seeing a need to tell the man the truth.

"Where are you trying to go?" The man questioned. Mina could tell he was studying her, trying to see if she were a threat, and she wanted to quickly take those thoughts out of his mind.

"I haven't given it thought. Mills said that-"

"Mills?" The man interjected, a slight hint of excitement in his voice as he spoke. "Where is she? Can you get her to meet you?" Mina shook her head slowly.

"If I call her; I'm dead." The man sighed before extending his hand.

"Leal," he said. Mina took the man's hand, intending to shake it, but he squeezed her hand tightly, twisting her arm behind her back as she cried out in pain. "What game are you playing?" He growled, and Mina whimpered. Her ribs were still sore, and the man was making her body move in an awkward way.

"There are no goodbyes between us," Mina shouted, and the man released her abruptly.

"Where did you learn that phrase?" Mina looked at the man incredulously. It should be obvious that she learned it from Mills, but he must have wanted to hear her say it.

"I learned it from Mills," she said, wiping away tears she had not known were falling. "Listen, I can pay you, but if you don't trust my words, just let me walk away now. I will find another path." Mina turned to leave, slightly limping because her injured leg had not fully healed.

"Wait," Leal called out. "Follow me," he said.

----

Mina entered a hotel with Leal, terrified of all that could go wrong. She shifted her body weight from side to side, considering making a dash for it while they waited for the elevators.

"Relax," the man said. "I'm not the decision maker. My brother is." Mina just looked at the man who sighed heavily. "Did Mills tell you anything before sending you to me?" Mina shook her head, and Leal took the opportunity to explain the situation, which only filled her with dread. "Just be cool. I will vouch for you."

After an extremely awkward and angsty elevator ride, the pair walked into a hotel room and Mina quickly turned her back on the scene before her. There was a man who looked similar to Leal engaged in a very lewd act on the sofa, but he did not even react to their intrusion.

"Who's the mummy b*tch?" he asked, making Mina roll her eyes. She could tell what kind of man she was getting herself involved with, and it filled her with worry.

"She's cool. Sent by Mills." Mina heard someone falling, before she heard the man on the sofa shout for privacy. She started to head toward the door, thinking the man had finally realized what kind of position he was in.

"Not you," he growled. "Turn around and look at me."

"Are you decent?" Mina asked, not interested in seeing the man's private part again.

"The f*ck does it matter? I said look at me."

"No," Mina said sternly. She knew she needed to put her foot down before it was swept from under her. The man chuckled, and she could hear cursing as a belt buckle rattled.

"I'm 'decent'" he mocked, and Mina peaked behind her before fully turning to the man. "You said that Mills sent you? Why?"

"I need to get away undetected. No one can know where I am."

"Why?" Mina furrowed her brows, feeling as though the man was asking too much information.

"Does it matter?" she asked, and Leal smirked at her response.

"What is your name?"

"Ami, and yours?"

"Nael."

"So, Ami; what is Mills up to?"

"She's fine if that's what you are asking; getting married soon, and I don't want her involved." Mina could see that her words affected both men, who flinched at the mention of marriage. Nael lit a cigar and took a deep pull from it.

"Never thought she would want that kind of thing." Mina did not respond, instead she waited for the man to get back on topic. "Where do you want to go?" the man asked, and Mina shrugged.

"I haven't put any thought into that. I was thinking that you'd be able to find a place suitable for a lone woman to start over in peace." The man leaned forward on the couch, flicking the ash off his cigar before replying.

"Tell me something Ami. How much mon-"

"I will pay you 20k for safe harboring, and another 20k when you've found me a place." Nael smiled at the woman's interjection, but he could not see how she could have that amount of money unless she stole it.

"You get that injury for being a thief?" Mina shut her eyes tightly, responding to the man with her eyes still closed.

"I earned my own money. My injuries are because I fell for the wrong person." Mina did not know, but she had struck a chord with the man, who rubbed his fingers together, indicating to her that he expected payment.

"How do I know you aren't going to just kill me after I give it to you?"

"You don't," the man said casually. "But if your f*cked up face is any indication, I'm guessing you don't have a choice." Mina shrugged because the man had a point. She was clearly injured, and she could only imagine what people must think happened.

"Fine." Mina shrugged her backpack off and pulled out 10k, not twenty. "The rest is hidden somewhere around the docks." Nael's eyes went wide as he picked up the stack. It was not that he had never had that amount, he had plenty, but his curiosity had been piqued.

"You walked around with 10k on your back, and you didn't think it was dangerous?"

"Look, the person I'm running away from is ten times worse than any mugger. If I want, I can make another 10k in the next ten minutes." Nael smirked at the woman.

"You're a cocky b*tch, aren't you?" Mina just glared at the man, who laughed loudly as he took in her annoyed expression. "Damn, they really f*cked your face up," he said, and Mina rolled her eyes. Her face was injured, but a lot of the blood on the bandage was old or fake.

Underneath the wrapping, Mina had used yellow food coloring and petroleum jelly to make the bandage stick to her face as if the wound had become infected. The purpose was to prevent people from recognizing her from her stupid AccuVision commercials, and Minor acting roles. She did not consider that there would be negative reactions to the bandages, but she did not care. The man before her seemed like an extremely bad person, and the way he spoke to her combined with the way he shouted at the woman he was being intimate with, told her that he was beyond dangerous to her personal safety.

"Your wound, does it need medical attention? I don't want some random b*tch dying on my ship; it's bad for business."

"No one should know I was there. You can throw my body overboard." Nael smiled and stood.

"I'll show you where you'll be staying," he said.

With the 'formalities' over, Mina boarded the ship she had been asked to stand beside. It was poorly maintained, but in sturdy condition, so she did not feel as though it would sink in the middle of the ocean. She was led to a room which held just a single twin bed and a dresser. She was told the rules of the ship and mealtimes before a balding man waddled into the room panting. He claimed to have spotted a market trend that needed 'emergency' exploitation, and Mina found herself snorting at the man's words.

"What's so funny?" Lael asked. He had not spoken much, but he kept staring at her, which made Mina feel uncomfortable.

"There is no 'emergency exploitation'. Either the trend is there or it's not. Market bubbles don't instantly pop unless they are forced to."

"What do you know?" the balding man snarled, and Mina chuckled. "I know that you have no idea what you are talking about." Mina heard a gun cock, and when she looked up Nael had a gun pointed at her. She closed her eyes, readying herself for death, but the man roughly tapped her forehead with the pistol, forcing her to open them.

"Explain it to me," Nael said. He had long suspected his accountant of stealing from him, but without knowledge of the field, he was in the dark. All he knew was that sometimes he made money, and sometimes he lost it, but that was the nature of investing.

Mina went into detail, but she could tell that Nael was not following her words. However, the man who had come in rambling off nonsense looked sick, and Mina got the sinking feeling that she had just cost someone their life. She tried to backtrack, but Leal stopped her, and ordered the balding man to surrender his laptop, which he conveniently held in his hands.

"We've been trying to go clean for a while now," Lael said. "But it's hard when we keep losing money." He ordered the man to power on the device and show Mina the financial records.

With just a single glance Mina knew they were false, and the 'accountant' knew it. He tried to flee, but a piercing whistle sounded through the room before Mina heard a body thump to the ground. She covered her ears, rocking back and forth as memories resurfaced in her mind. Memories of President Lee, how she had almost killed him and how hard he fought to protect her.

"What the f*ck is wrong with her?" Nael asked his brother, who was just as confused. "I thought you said she was sent by Mills?" Mina could hear the man approaching her from behind, and he tapped the laptop with his gun before roughly tugging on her hair. "Who sent you?" he asked, and Mina repeated what she had been saying the entire time, making sure to focus on her accent so she did not break character. "Talk to me Ami. I'm not a very understanding person, and you are striking me as very hard to understand."

"I've never seen anyone killed before," she replied, and Nael chuckled.

"You still haven't. Your back is to the body." Mina heaved, and Lael pulled the laptop off the desk in front of her.

"Has Mills gone soft?" He asked, and Mina was handed a container to empty her stomach.

"She and I were friends, not partners," Mina replied. "She worked with guns, and I work with numbers."