"Are you in or not? I don't have the time for this…"
Mia was ready to dish him a plate of her chaos, but he quickly cut her off.
"Hey! Calm your balls. I'm your best bet. You know I can find him faster than the police can, right? I have connections."
"Of course you do."
Her side comment made him scoff. "Just to be clear, I'm only getting myself involved in this mess because I want your forgiveness. I don't give a flying fuck about your damn husband."
"Don't talk about my husband like that." Mia snapped.
"Oh, you want me to sugarcoat that?" Claus moved a little too close to her and cupped her face in his hand. "I still and only care about you, Cariño."
Mia closed her eyes for a moment, enjoying the sensation his touch sent to her body. She suddenly realized what she was doing and then yanked his hand off her face.
"If you're going to help, then you better get to it."
Claus responded with a smile. He checked his watch again. "You should have some coffee. I'll make some calls real quick."
He didn't stay a sec longer to convince Mia to take her coffee. Doesn't seem like he was persuading her in the first place. It sounded more like an instruction Mia dared not disobey. She relaxed a bit and sipped the coffee while he was gone for a while.
It was his third call, yet there wasn't any progress according to Mia. Claus just kept jotting something down in his note without giving her any update. Mia was already getting impatient, as her ass warmed the cushion and her cup of coffee sat on the table, empty.
"If you can't help. Then tell me. Don't make me sit here, waiting while my husband could already be dead. I didn't come here to drink coffee, you know."
Used to every side of her, Claus ignored her, his attention still on the calls he'd been making.
"Cody!" Claus finally spoke openly to someone. "Long time, homie. Where are you? ... Mira, uno de los míos acaba de enredarse. Do you know of any take-offs? ...Can I come meet you then? ... Okay. Nos vemos."
He faced Mia, who was already about to rain him with questions. He checked his watch again. "Get ready. We have about...errrm...eleven minutes to get out of here. We're leaving."
"Leaving to where?" Mia questioned, still seated on the couch.
Claus turned back to face her. "To see someone. And you can ask your questions while you're getting ready."
"I'm not moving an inch until I know where we are going, who we are going to see and why we have a countdown." Mia persisted.
"Fuck, girl, do you really have to be this difficult?" The words might have reached her ears, but they didn't go through her head. Claus had to give in.
"Well, the whole situation with your husband is not something we can talk about on the phone. It could be tapped. We have to go meet him in person. Is that clear?"
"Does he know where Rick is?"
Claus closed his eyes to control himself. "He has valuable information, but I can say nothing to you right now because someone…anybody might be listening. Pass the cup and get your ass off that couch."
Mia handed him the cup, and his hands brushed hers, sending tingles down her spine. They locked eyes, and she blushed, quickly removing her hands from the cup.
"I'm ready. Let's go. Rick's counting on me."
"Now, that's more like it. I have to get my keys and a few things. I'll meet you outside."
"Sorry?" Mia's expression changed from being motivated to look for her husband to that of fear.
"There's no way I'm going out there alone. It's dead out there."
"But you found your way here, alone. Didn't you?" Claus asked, impatiently. He's already picking up some important things.
"Claus, I'm not going to…"
"I'll be right after you. Just walk out that damn door the same way you came in and walk straight down. I'll pick you. We have less than seven minutes to do that."
Mia walked cowardly out of the house. She didn't look back, not even once, as she hurried down the quiet street.
It wasn't up a minute before Claus pulled up in a black sports car with lots of curves and lines. Mia was surely impressed but quickly remembered that he probably bought it with the money he got from illegal businesses, like the one with her parents.
"Get in!" He called from inside the car. She stepped in. A fresh car smell filled her nose, mixed with his 'yet to be identified' scent, of course.
Slapping his legs onto the brakes, he pushed the handbrake into 'drive' and sped off. The breeze brushed through Mia's blonde hair, the sun barely hot from the warm spring season.
"You haven't told me why we have a countdown." Mia broke the silence.
"I guess I have to tell you everything now. Don't I?" Claus responded without looking at her.
"Inasmuch as it has to do with my husband, you can't keep anything from me." Mia replied.
"We'll see how much of that you can stomach." Claus blurted.
"Don't underrate me, Claus." She protested. "Start by telling me why we are in such a hurry."
"Because if you can find me on your own, it'd take about an hour before my cover is blown. That's if the house isn't already bugged."
"But nobody knew I was here. Nobody followed me." Mia argued.
Her innocence made Claus scoff. "That's what you think. It's easier to find you. They can trace you to me now, so I have to be careful moving on."
Mia took her time to take in what Claus just told her. She's familiar with the whole cover thing; she just needs to get used to it again like before.
"What makes you think they aren't listening to our conversation now? What if I'm the one who has been bugged?"
Claus looked at her for the first time since he started driving. "You're everything but stupid. And I heard your explanation of how you found me. I know you're not bugged because I checked you out the moment you stepped in my door."
"You checked me out?" Mia teased.
"That's not the point here, lady." Claus didn't fall for it.
"You're no fun." Even though he heard the mumbled statement, he didn't respond.
It was already late afternoon, and they were yet to get to Cody's house.
"How far away is this guy we are going to meet? And do you trust him?"
"Do you trust ME?"
Mia paused for a moment, like she was contemplating the answer. Then she replied. "It depends. I know you are good at bad things. If that is what you mean."
"You know I have done some good things too."
The images flashed through her head like a trigger. Images of when he helped an entire community of sick people with medicines and treatment, or when he brought trucks of food to people in the orphanage home, playing with them, or even when he organized a fundraiser for an animal rescue foundation. But it wasn't enough. It wasn't enough to make her forget how her parents splurged on the floor when his shots passed through their brains.
How could someone make a mistake by pulling the trigger twice?
"I have no memory of that." She lied.