Chapter 9: Annoying Other People

“Blue or green?” I asked Thea. 

“What?” She frowned as she looked up from the file she was reading about the mission she was going on in a few hours. 

This was one of our last few days here before we went to the headquarters so everyone was busy doing something or the other and I was just bored. 

“Which colour button do you think Lucas will press? Blue or green?” I asked her.

“Why will he press any button?” She asked. 

“Oh he will.” I waved her question off. 

“Okay…” She spoke cautiously.

“Now, blue or green?” I asked. 

She looked at me sceptically and with confusion clear on her face.

“I mean, I can make a red button but red stands for danger so people get cautious about such things. Blue and green are like safe colours.” I grinned at her. 

Red usually stands for a long wait in front of the traffic light and green stands for nature. 

What people don’t understand is that nature is dangerous too… 

“What exactly are you doing, Mia?” She narrowed her eyes on me. 

“Merely messing with your brother a little. That’s my favourite pastime.” I shrugged. 

“Didn’t Archer give you extra work for some reason? Shouldn’t you be doing that?” She asked. 

Ah! That evil boss of mine whose job seems to be to just make me miserable… 

“He just gave me like a hundred names to do background checks on. It’s not my work though. I’ve fed all the names into this program I made and It’s doing all the work for me.” I informed her. 

“Don’t let him know that. He’ll just give you more work.” She warned me. 

Believe me, I know that… 

He loves to annoy me.

“That’s why I need to pretend like I’m actually doing some work. So, I decided that I should pull a prank on Lucas.” I explained to her. 

“So, blue or green?” I asked again. 

“Green.” Thea smirked, leaning a little to get a closer look at the screen in front of me. 

“This will just take a minute now.” I told her as I continued typing the code.

“This looks totally… foreign to me.” She sighed as she stood up straight. 

“It’ll be fun to watch when your brother gets here.” I smirked. 

“You know, I never thought that I’d see someone who could hack into my brother’s system.” She told me. 

“Well, nice to meet you too, Thea.” I smiled at her before turning back to complete putting the trap in motion. 

“I’m serious. You’re not going to go unnoticed at the headquarters.” She remarked. 

“Well, if Archer and I’s feud goes on and he keeps trying to get to me by pulling stuff like he did yesterday, I’d be the talk of the town!” I huffed. 

“Pizza?” She asked with an amused look on her face. 

“With extra cheese actually. It was good, great even, but the company wasn’t.” I rolled my eyes. 

“Was that the comment which got you all this extra work?” She asked. 

“It was something along those lines that got me in trouble.” I shrugged nonchalantly. 

“Hey, if you will be finished with the work before seven, why don’t the four of us go out for movies or something again?” Thea suggested. 

“Is Oliver on board with it?” I frowned. 

There was no way that that poor boy would want to go out again. 

I mean, last time when he didn’t even realise that we actually got caught by Archer, he kept panicking till we got back. 

Lucas literally had to tuck him in bed! 

And these are the type of people who are supposed to be a part of the mafia since birth… 

The world really is a weird place… 

“What are you girls doing?” Lucas asked as he came back from his break. 

“Thea wants to go to watch another movie tonight.” I told him. 

“The four of us.” Thea grinned. 

“Is Oliver okay with it?” Lucas asked in shock. “Last time it felt like sneaking out caused that poor boy to go into shock!” He commented. 

“If not him then the three of us? I mean, we all did have fun, didn’t we.” Thea pouted. 

“Archer already hates me too much. I cannot get into any more trouble right now.” I sighed.

“Mia-” Lucas started but he was cut off. 

“Like I told you yesterday, I don’t hate you, Ms. Queen.” Archer’s voice startled us. “I merely don’t trust you yet.” He told me as he walked in the room. 

“Which is why I need to be on my best behaviour right now.” I said as I turned back to my screen. 

Thea and Lucas sighed as the two of them continued with their work. 

“Luke, I want you to accompany Thea on her mission today.” Archer told Lucas. “She would need someone to hack into the computers and gather every piece of information we can possibly get from there before blowing the place up.” He explained. 

“I am not going with her! The last time I did, I ended up with a bullet in my arm!” Lucas protested. 

What?! 

Woah! That sounds like the mafia I’ve heard about and seen in the movies! 

It’s so cool! 

“The bullet just grazed your arm.” Thea huffed. 

“I am not going with her!” Lucas whined. 

“You have to. I can’t send anyone else with her.” Archer shrugged. 

“What about Mia?” Lucas frowned. 

“She’s got work to do.” Archer replied. 

“I’ll do her work!” Lucas argued. 

“She’s not trained to go into the field yet!” Archer groaned. “And I don’t completely trust her yet. 

Lucas made a face as he looked from me to his sister before turning to Archer. 

“Fine!” He sighed. “But if I get shot again, I’m telling mom and dad about it.” He warned his sister. 

I had to place my hand on my mouth to stifle my laughter at the childish warning as Lucas turned to his computer. 

“Mia, when you’re done with your work for the day, just come to my office.” Archer ordered. “And dress up for a work out.” He added as he eyed my jeans and top. 

“Whatever you say, boss.” I replied, smiling through my gritted teeth. 

Smile through the pain… 

Just this morning, he made me run a mile, punch the punching bag for half an hour and made me exercise for another two blasted hours. 

So, to say that my muscles were in so much pain that I was ready to sleep forever, would be an understatement. 

But apparently that wasn’t enough for the devil… 

“Hey! Guys, I won the lottery!” Lucas exclaimed. 

“What?” Archer frowned. 

“I won!” Lucas grinned as he looked at his screen. He clicked on a button and suddenly, the colours on his face drained. 

“What happened?” Archer asked. 

“Someone’s hacking me!” Lucas panicked. “They have access to all my files and I can’t do anything!” He said as he tried to do something on his computer. 

Thea and I started laughing as Lucas covered his face with his hands. 

Lucas was still panicking as Archer eyed us as we laughed to our heart’s content.

“Why don’t you just unplug the computer?” Archer asked Lucas. 

“That wouldn’t work.” I said as I wiped the tears that fell from my eyes as I was laughing. “I already have all the files from his computer.” I smirked. 

“What?” Lucas asked, alarmed. 

“Bro, you need to be a bit careful!” Thea commented. 

“How can you win a lottery you didn’t enter for?” I asked, chuckling. 

Lucas scoffed as Thea and I threw our heads back and started laughing again. 

“You two are so mean!” Lucas pouted like a child, crossing his arms. 

“And you’re in the mafia, buddy.” I reminded him as I placed a hand on his shoulder. 

“Ha!” Lucas rolled his eyes, shrugging my hand off of his shoulder.

“That was so fun! His face was so funny!” Thea continued to laugh. 

“So you like annoying other people too.” Archer raised an eyebrow at me. His eyes showed amusement but he wasn’t laughing with us. 

“Well, you aren’t the special one, Knight.” I stuck my tongue out at him. 

He rolled his eyes at that. 

“Get back to work.” He told the three of us. “And if you have free time to hack a friend just for fun, then maybe I should assign more work to you.” He looked at me. 

“You might be young but I still picture you as a cranky old man who loves to torture his employees.” I told him plainly. 

To be honest, no one in this world can actually picture a magnificent piece of art like him as something other than marvellous… 

But I don’t want his ego to grow any more. It’s already a little too big. 

“Get back to work.” He sighed. “And come to my office when you’re done.” He looked pointedly at me before turning around and walking out of the room. 

“How’s it all back to normal?” Lucas frowned at his screen. 

“I copied all your data. That’s why.” I shrugged as I looked at my screen. 

“What kind of an IT expert are you?” Thea asked her brother, hitting him on the back of his head with a rolled up file full of papers. 

“Ouch!” Lucas cried out. “You know that does hurt, right?” He huffed, rubbing the back of his head. 

“Why else would I be hitting you if it didn’t hurt?” Thea rolled her eyes. 

“Guys! If you’re going to have a sibling’s war, can I get my popcorn first?” I grinned. 

Thea rolled her eyes but couldn’t hold back the chuckle as she left the room. 

“You know, the way you talk to Archer would have already gotten you killed if you weren’t so good with your work.” Lucas commented. 

“I am pretty awesome.” I tossed my hair back. 

“I’m serious.” Lucas sighed. “You would have to tone it down a bit when we get to the headquarters. People won’t appreciate it all there.” He told me. 

“I’m not trying to be a rebel or anything.” I rolled my eyes. “Being a bitch is all I’ve known for the past four years. It’s hard to just turn it off.” I explained. 

“Then start acting respectful to him from now for practice. Because people don’t just get to the headquarters like you.” He told me. 

“What do you mean?” I frowned. 

“People at the headquarters are the best of the best. They don’t exactly take insults lightly. They are super loyal to the family.” He explained. 

“So why am I going to the headquarters when Archer doesn’t even trust me?” I asked. 

“Because you out-hacked the best hacker Archer had.” He smiled sadly. 

“You mean you?” I inquired. 

“Yeah.” He pressed his lips in a thin line. “You’re going to attract a lot of attention because you are a new recruit.” He warned me. 

“Thea told me about that too.” I nodded my head as I processed what all he just told me. 

“Just watch your back there. We trust one another but people aren’t exactly going to act nice with a girl who their boss found at a bar.” He shrugged. 

“You make it sound like Archer and I were actually going to-” I started but Lucas cut me off. 

“Weren’t you?” He smirked. 

“That’s not the point! The point is that I now know that he’s a real intolerable ass!” I huffed as my cheeks turned red at the memory of what drunk me was going to do. 

Well, to be completely fair, he wasn’t my boss back at that time… 

And I was trying to act rebellious. 

On that note, I nailed it! 

I mean, what could be more rebellious than joining the freaking mafia?! 

Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be enough to make my parents pay attention to me. 

I am supposed to be missing, right? But according to my knowledge, no one knows that I’m not at home. No one’s noticed that I’ve been missing.

No one cares… 

“You do realise that you just called your boss an ass, right?” Lucas smirked. 

Before I could defend myself, he spoke up again. “And I’m not saying that he isn’t one but you can’t say that in front of people at the headquarters.” He explained.

“I’ll try to act nicer.” I grumbled. 

“I’m just looking out for you, Mia.” Lucas sighed. 

“I know. And I understand.” I smiled at him. 

But I still hate the fact that I would have to act nice… 

Archer is relatively an okay-ish person but I still love to annoy him. I love to make him mad. 

But I can’t do that anymore. 

And I know that he would use this as an opportunity to get back at me. He would use this as a way to annoy me from now on. 

This is so not fair! 

But staying alive is more important… 

So acting nice it is!