Chapter 26
Hihi, Mrs & Mrs Smith.
You are headed back to New York. You will be going undercover to protect Judge Matthews' daughter at the Miss America beauty pageant. As you may know, he will be overseeing the sentence of gang lord Marina Blue after the FBI caught her a month ago to this date. Her gang the Serpiente have made it clear they will be retaliating.
This mission appears to be a long one and will continue throughout the entire Miss America process, starting with the luncheon you will be attending as soon as you return. You will be assigned other missions in between inactive periods.
Lastly, we would like to apologise for interrupting your uninterrupted days off. The FBI thought the pair of you would be the best agents for the job.
More details soon.
Rio would be lying if she said she hadn’t been royally pissed off when she received the message from Hihi at dinner in Italy last night. She and Agatha had to leave soon after, a boat out of Portofino was waiting for them and then they were headed to the airport.
They’d told Jen and Alice to stay for the remainder of the trip, there was no point in them all missing out just because she and Agatha had a mission. She’d wondered if there would ever be a time when the four of them could hang out without a mission interrupting them.
As much as it irritated her to no end that she couldn’t enjoy the rest of her birthday; she’d always put her job first…second? After the Zip and Zazzle mission, after she and Agatha had fought, after they’d laid bare their feelings after Rio had comforted her in the shower, Rio had this terrifying realisation that maybe her job wasn’t first…
Agatha was.
She didn’t like it. A person was not supposed to come before her job, she wasn’t supposed to put her duty to her country and protecting the lives of civilians above someone who was perfectly capable of holding her own…and yet she was.
She didn’t do it willingly, but her heart seemed to win out over her head in the matter.
She looked at Agatha now as she drove them to the Miss America luncheon. Her wife in an all-black number; a black off-the-shoulder knitted jumper and black trousers. The deep red lipstick she tendered to wear painted her perfect lips.
Rio wished they could swap outfits. She was wearing a light pink flowy dress with small white flowers. Rio wouldn’t be caught dead in it on a normal day. She was wearing it because Hihi had made her pose as a Miss America contestant for their undercover, and Agatha was to be her coach.
She didn’t understand why Hihi would make her do it. Agatha had all the knowledge on how to be a pageant girl. She’d been friends with some, although Agatha corrected her and said they were more acquaintances. Her wife had been to luncheons, and brunches, and soirees like every teenager on the Upper East Side. She would know how to go about this correctly. Rio didn’t have a clue.
Rio watched as Agatha drummed her fingers on the steering wheel as she drove. This wouldn’t be unusual, but Rio knew her wife. Ever since she’d returned from the bathroom once they’d gotten the text from Hihi at dinner, Agatha seemed… (she didn’t want to say off) off.
At first, Rio put it down to being pissed off that Hihi had ruined their trip. The way she kept fidgeting, had nearly broken the zipper on her luggage case as she tried to close it in the hotel room, the way she held Rio’s hand so tightly on the journey home she almost cut off her blood circulation multiple times.
But then she wasn’t talking, not really. Rio thought it was because she was tired. She’d been running around the entire day yesterday trying to make sure Rio’s day was perfect. This morning, Agatha’s talking, or lack of it, was the same as last night. Her sarcasm and snarky replies came just the same, but they weren’t nearly as frequent as Rio knew them to come. As if her wife’s thoughts were elsewhere.
Rio knew better than to ask. She figured out that patience was best when it came to her wife. That she shouldn’t push her because she would tell her at some point when she felt comfortable to.
She turned her attention away from Agatha and back onto the stupid flowy dress stuck on her body. Hihi thought it would make her appear younger considering she was going undercover as a twenty-three-year-old.
“What’s wrong?” Agatha asked, stealing a glance at her.
How about you tell me first? “It’s this dress,” Rio groaned.
Agatha smiled. “You only have to wear it for a few hours.”
“Good because then I’m burning it.”
Agatha smiled again.
She should’ve laughed at that, or told me she would burn it with me, or made a remark about how her dramatic flair is rubbing off on me.
Rio resisted the urge to sigh. Instead removing one of her wife’s hands off the steering wheel where it continued its tapping, intertwining their fingers, and rubbing soothingly on her hand with her thumb. She hoped the action said:
I’ve got you. I’m here for you. Tell me what’s bothering you when you’re ready.
***
Half an hour later, Rio was sat at a table with five other pageant contestants in a banquet hall in The New York Palace Hotel. She was posing as ‘Miss Delaware.’ What Hihi had done with the real Miss Delaware, she didn’t question.
Her mission subject, Kalani-Rose Matthews next to her. The other girls, ‘Miss Washington,’ ‘Miss Chicago,’ ‘Miss California,’ and ‘Miss Massachusetts.’ Were having a conversation about what colleges they went to, and Rio had to force herself not to zone out or look for her wife across the room chatting away with the other coaches.
Rio didn’t want to say she hated pageants. They’d definitely evolved from what they used to be in the late 90s/early 2000s. The contestants were judged for more than the size of their bodies or the looks of their faces. They were now asked how they wanted to change the world, what they did to act on those changes and more, but still. It would never be a process that Rio would willingly put herself through.
“What about you, Rio?” A soft voice asked.
She peeled her eyes off her wife and blinked, realising the entire table was staring at her.
“Sorry…could you repeat the question…please?”
Miss Washington smiled. She kind of reminded Rio of Alice without the red streaks and with neat layers instead of her rough wolf cut.
“Where do you go to college?”
“Oh…NYU.” Of course, Rio wouldn’t mention the fact she graduated over a decade ago now.
“My sister goes there!” Miss Massachusetts shouted. “What course do you do?”
Rio stirred. “Biology.”
That got a lot of sounds of approval from the group.
Rio smiled nervously. She was way out of her depth. She couldn’t be around all these confident pageant girls, not when she’d just been called poor and that she’d come from nothing by her wife’s mother. She was surrounded by girls whose mothers would probably think just the same.
Evanora’s words still stung, as much as Rio hated to admit it. As much as Agatha’s words had quietened the thoughts and the ring she gave her solidified the truth behind them, she couldn’t shake the feeling that Agatha deserved better than her. It wasn’t true, of course, her wife had told her that much. But her brain liked to fuck with her.
“Are you married?” Miss Chicago asked her, she nodded at the ring Rio hadn’t realised she was playing with.
In the time Rio had gotten lost in thought the conversation must’ve moved on because the question didn’t sound out of the blue.
“Erm…” Was she supposed to say she was married? She didn’t think it would affect the mission, but it didn’t seem right for her undercover persona. “Sort of,” Rio settled on. “It’s more of a promise ring until I get the actual thing,” she explained.
“Well, that man is very lucky,” Miss California replied.
“Girl,” Rio corrected with a smile.
“I knew it!” Kalani-Rose exclaimed. “So, you have a girlfriend?”
Rio nodded.
“What does she look like? Describe her to us,” she urged, resting her head on her chin and leaning in. The other girls around the table copied her actions.
“Erm…” Rio stirred some more. “She’s got silky dark hair and eyes the colour of the ocean.”
Rio was aware that she probably meant is she blonde or brunette, or does she have green eyes or brown. But she couldn’t undermine Agatha’s beauty by simplifying it like that. Her wife’s beauty was not simple. It was the type that would attract hundreds of thousands of people to museums just to catch a glimpse of on a portrait, the type of beauty people would go to war for, the type of beauty that ensured you got everything you wanted.
“What a lovely way to put it,” Miss Washington said.
Kalani-Rose rolled her eyes. “So, what I’m hearing is you like brunettes?”
“I guess so…yeah?”
“You ever been with a blonde?”
As much as Rio hated to admit at the time, Alice was right, her type hadn’t changed since high school.
She shook her head.
“Shame. You should try it out sometime. We’re quite fun,” Kalani-Rose smirked.
Rio wasn’t religious, but she thanked a higher power that her wife was not around to hear that. Their mission subject would soon become their mission target.
“Come on, Kalani!” Miss Washington groaned. “She just told us she had a girlfriend.”
“I always go after what I want, you know this. How else do you think I won Miss New York, huh?” She turned back to Rio. “Tell your girlfriend she’s got some competition.”
Rio fought the urge to laugh. Who did this girl think she was?
“I couldn’t possibly lie to her. Healthy relationships are built on trust after all,” Rio replied, taking a sip of her water.
Kalani-Rose didn’t seem deterred by her remark. “Until the foundations start to fold in on themselves,” that smirk returned.
Rio was so fucking glad Agatha couldn’t hear this conversation.
“Okayyy,” Miss Chicago said hastily. “Let’s move on, shall we?”
***
Agatha was refreshing her phone for what seemed like the billionth time that day.
Unknown number: Get rid of her or they’ll kill her.
Agatha: Who will? Who is this?
Radio silence.
How dare they send her some cryptic text message and then not elaborate? Firstly, get rid of Rio how? Divorce her, hide her, kill her? And they’ll who the fuck was that? It wasn’t lost on Agatha that she had a city’s worth of enemies dating back to even before she was an FBI agent and instead simply the daughter of a multimillionaire.
But something seemed off, the threat was so random. And why weren’t her enemies going after her? If they really wanted to harm her, would they seriously take it out on Rio? This is how she knew the threat couldn’t be coming from her mother. Evanora liked to harm Agatha directly. She wouldn’t bother going after Rio with more than words. It would be a waste of her time and skills.
So…who the fuck was it then? And who had texted her?
She debated telling Rio about the text, technically, she still was. She didn’t want to hide anything from her wife, but she couldn’t think of a good reason to tell her, not when she didn’t know anything. At the same time, she wanted to tell Rio so that she could be on higher alert, not that Agatha would let anything happen to her as long as Rio was…
Where the hell was Rio?
Her wife and mission subject chairs were empty. Agatha sighed and tapped on Rio’s text messages knowing she’d probably get her faster that way than turning on coms if she wasn’t in the position to talk.
Agatha: Where’d you go?
The reply came almost five minutes later, and good because Agatha was just about ready to flip this whole building upside down, scared that someone really had killed her wife.
Rio: toilet.
Agatha: And you didn’t think to fucking tell me?! Something could’ve happened to you, Ri!
Rio: …???
Rio: we only went to the toilet? i’ve got my gun on me. we’re fine.
Agatha: You should’ve told me.
Agatha watched those three little dots appear and disappear three times before Rio’s next message came in.
Rio: no, you’re right. i should’ve told you. i’m sorry.
Rio: our mission subject is a real weirdo btw.
Agatha found herself laughing.
Agatha: Weirder than you? What’d she do?
Rio: you don’t wanna know.
Agatha: Well now I must know.
Rio: trust me, you do not.
Agatha: Rio…
Rio: i miss you <3
Agatha: Shut up. What’d she do?
The reply didn’t come as Rio sauntered back into the room with Kalani-Rose, sat back down in her seat, and made a show of placing her phone on the table, a knowing grin on her lips.
Agatha sighed. Match made indeed.
***
Two hours later, Agatha was still sitting at the same table she had been except now she was surrounded by other coaches. Nobody was saying much, just watching the girls across the room as they conversed.
That’s when Agatha saw the first glimpse of a threat. A server that had been to Rio’s table three times in the space of ten minutes, seemingly for no obvious reason. The girls' drinks were full, their food had been cleared away and the appropriate cutlery had been reset.
Rio was eyeing her too. Every time she came over, she watched her like a hawk as she faffed around with whatever she was doing.
It was the sound of glass shattering minutes later that got everyone’s attention. Rio was apologising profusely as Kalani-Rose was laughing. Agatha couldn’t help but smile, she was sure Rio had done it on purpose, but it brought back memories of their second mission when Rio had knocked over a tray in The Met.
That’s when a gun went off.
Screams and shrieks started soon after. As everyone ducked and fled for cover, Agatha caught sight of another waiter trying to flee the scene by slipping out the fire exit. She was on his tail immediately, yanking the fire exit door open and following him outside.
“FBI! Stop!” She yelled; gun drawn. Of course, her request was unanswered.
She sprinted after him and caught a glimpse of his black uniform disappearing through the black gates at the entrance of the hotel.
Then he was gone.
Swallowed by the bustling streets of the city.
“For fucksake,” she mumbled as she stepped out onto the street.
She searched for him for fifteen minutes before she concluded he was gone. Agatha, understandably, was fuming. This was her fault, right? She should’ve been paying more attention; she shouldn’t have been letting her thoughts consume her again because that’s the only way she could’ve missed an armed waiter in a room with little over one hundred people.
She walked back into the hotel, her spirit decidedly crushed.
Well…until she saw Rio. An unharmed Rio.
“What happened?” She asked once she’d poked and prodded at Agatha to make sure she was alright.
“I lost him,” Agatha huffed.
Rio sighed. “Next time.”
“What happened in there?” Agatha nodded to the banquet hall.
“The server slipped something into Kalani-Rose’s drink. I caught it. Knocked it over. After the gun went off most people ran. I stayed with her until her bodyguards took her off me.”
Agatha raised her eyebrows as if to say, ‘Fair enough.’ “This doesn’t count as a failed mission, does it?”
“Shouldn’t do. We’ve done our jobs,” Rio replied. “She’s alive.”
Yeah, but she could’ve been killed. You too. “Yeah, she is.”
***
The wives were back at home snuggled up on one of the larger velvet red chairs in the cinema room. It wasn’t really meant to fit two people, but Agatha had insisted, and she knew Rio couldn’t bring herself to tell her no.
They were watching the news coverage of the luncheon. Of course, a shootout at a Miss America pageant event would make it onto the news. You couldn’t get a clear shot of Rio or Agatha, that was probably due to the FBI’s involvement, but Kalani-Rose was everywhere.
The pageant's social media team had gotten most of the incident on video as they were filming most of the event anyway. An image of the gunman flashed on screen. Daniel Gomez the news told them. This was followed by the news anchor telling people to stay on high alert and report any sightings. He was on the run.
Yeah, because I let him slip through my fingers.
Agatha committed the light brown hair and green eyes to memory. If she saw him, she was taking him down no question about it.
“Well, at least we have a face and a name,” Rio told her.
“We wouldn’t need them if I had been paying attention,” Agatha mumbled to herself, well at least she thought it was to herself.
“Hey,” Rio nudged her with her elbow. “Don’t do that. This isn’t your fault.”
“But isn’t it?” Agatha wasn’t saying it to get some sort of sympathy. She meant it because wasn’t this all her fault?
“No.” Rio kissed her once. “It isn’t.” She kissed her again.
Agatha’s lips twitched. She wouldn’t smile because she believed it, she would smile because how could she not whenever Rio’s soft lips were on hers?
Her wife clapped her hands and stood. “I’m going to make popcorn and snacks and we’re going to watch whatever film your heart desires so you can get out of this self-loathing you’ve gotten yourself into.”
Agatha smiled fully this time. “Can we watch Miss Congeniality? It seems very fitting for this mission.”
“Whatever you want,” Rio repeated. “Be back in ten.” She kissed Agatha one last time before exiting the room.
Agatha grabbed the remote and pressed rewind to the video that showed the shooting. She wanted to see what she missed. Upon first watch, she saw the same thing she saw for the past four watches: Daniel retrieving a gun from underneath his server's tray and firing it into the air.
Okay…simple…that’s what happened. But Agatha knew she was missing something. She felt it in her gut.
She rewound the clip, zooming in on Daniel and putting it in slow motion. She watched it like that three times before she finally caught something. She sat up in her chair and leaned in. It was a blink-and-you-miss-it moment.
Daniel appeared to be aiming upward as soon as he fired his gun. But was he? He seemed to hesitate, lagging as his gun trained on something else before he shot into the air. He did this for a split second and Agatha seriously considered if she just grasping at strings.
…Or maybe she wasn’t. Why would anyone shoot at nothing?
She zoomed out to try and identify what his gun was momentarily trained on. Sure enough, it was Kalani-Rose across the room. So, why didn’t he shoot her? This was the perfect opportunity. Was this supposed to be a warning to get her father to make the right choice about Marina Blue’s sentencing?
She rewound the clip again and paused it to the exact moment she thought Daniel had his gun trained on her. Agatha’s eyes flicked between Daniel holding the gun and Kalani-Rose at the table. Rio was next to her, her face blurred as she expected.
But wait…
Agatha got up from her chair and stood just before the large screen. She pressed her finger against the screen and dragged it across it to follow Daniel’s line of fire.
Her heart dropped.
The gun hadn’t been pointed at Kalani-Rose…it had been pointed at Rio.
No. No, that can’t be it. I’m seeing things.
She repeated the action three more times. The first and third time her finger landed on Rio, the second and fourth time it landed on Kalani-Rose.
Agatha needed to sit down. The screen was hurting her eyes, and she wasn’t wearing her glasses.
I’m grasping at strings. Why would this have anything to do with Rio? She told herself.
When her phone buzzed against her thigh, Agatha almost jumped out of her skin. She clicked it on.
Unknown number: I bet you’re trying to convince yourself it’s all in your head.
And now Agatha understood. The warning wasn’t for Judge Matthews. The warning was for her.