They had worked out the details of their plan over the last week. Now they were all boarding their plane. BTS, their bodyguards, and the two sisters. They were all headed for Argentina.
Julieta was nervous. Was there a coming confrontation? What would happen when she saw Mr. Gonzalez and Santiago? Would she be able to keep a straight face and play along?
“Hey. What’s wrong?” Jin, seated in the plane next to her, bent over towards her.
“What if I give us away? How will I act like I still like and trust them?”
“Remember what I said before? Just pretend it’s the old days. Back when you did trust them. Get in contact with your old feelings and act out of them.”
She leaned back and tried to imagine it. Mr. Gonzalez emerged from his office.
“Julieta, darling girl, how ARE you? I’ve missed you so much! When are you returning to us? Are you tired of South Korea yet?”
“I’ve missed you too, Tío Pedro. It’s so good to see you, but South Korea is wonderful!”
“I’m more worried about myself than I am about you.” Jin’s murmured words broke into her reverie.
She glanced at him. “What do you mean?”
“How am I supposed to hide the fact that I’m in love with you? That I’ve kissed you?” His eyes found her lips longingly.
She laughed. “Yeah. I understand. I think we shouldn’t make eye contact. And you should walk behind me.”
He laughed. Then he sobered. “The problem is everyone knows about my father’s connection to you, so we will have to act like friends. But only friends.”
“We’ll help you,” Namjoon piped up. “If any of us notices either of you slipping out of character, we’ll come to your rescue. Right, guys?” Namjoon’s eyes traveled around the group. They all nodded.
“And I think we should leave Tia behind when we tour the facility,” Tae murmured. “For the same reason.”
Tia nodded. “But I’m not happy about it! I’m going to wonder what’s going on!”
“No, you’re not. You’ll have eyes and ears on us the whole time. I’m going to wear my sunglasses with the little spy cam in them and the listening devices will be up and working before we arrive,” Yoongi informed her. “You’ll see the whole thing through my eyes.”
Tia felt slightly better. She still didn’t like being left behind while they all went off on a grand adventure tomorrow.
—
Two days later, Julieta and the boys headed for the factory while Tia chilled in the hotel. Or so they all thought. But Tia realized this was the perfect moment to check out Tío Pedro’s office. He and Santiago were both busy leading BTS on a tour. She would be able to sneak in and out without being seen.
Yoongi had planted spy cams in all the offices of the corporate headquarters earlier this afternoon. Tia was watching the video now. It was clear that a secretary was the only one in the building. And a security guard, of course. Tia had a clear path to Mr. Gonzalez’s office. And Santiago’s. She grabbed an Uber and made her way to the offices.
She greeted the secretary, an old friend of hers. She told her that she needed to pick up some files for Julieta. The woman smiled and waved her in.
Alone now, Tia made her way first to Mr. Gonzalez’s office. Quickly, she began to rifle through the paperwork on his desk. It seemed like a normal pile of files and correspondence. She turned towards his file cabinet. She pulled on the top drawer. It was locked. She tugged on the second drawer. Also locked. She tried all five drawers. With no success. She could feel time flying. She swung around, her eyes searching the room. Looking for anything incriminating. Surely, there had to be something!
She walked to his desk and opened the drawers. Curiously, none of them were locked. That seemed strange. She tugged on the bottom right drawer. It was stuck. She realized this one was locked. That piqued her curiosity. She looked inside the middle drawer for a key. She didn’t find one. But as her fingers slid along the edges inside the drawer, something felt off. She tugged the drawer open further and found a loose bottom nestled against the back corner. She tugged on it and it lifted upward. It was a false bottom!
As she pulled it up to reveal a key underneath, she realized that this desk had once belonged to her father. She grabbed the key and immediately bent to try it on the bottom drawer. It slid easily to the right and the lock clicked. She pulled the drawer open. Inside she found a wealth of audio tapes. Audio tapes? What on earth was on them?
She just knew. Her gut was screaming at her that the evidence they needed was in this drawer. But how could it be this easy?
She didn’t hesitate. She grabbed them and began to cram them into her purse. She was so thankful that she carried around a backpack as a purse! As she shoved the last tape into her bag, she closed the drawer, locked it, grabbed some hand cleaner from her bag and a Kleenex off his desk. Then, she held the key with the Kleenex and grabbed another tissue into which she rubbed the hand cleaner, then she cleaned off the entire key. Praying this would remove her fingerprints. Then she wiped down the drawers and the desk and the handles on the file cabinet. After she’d put the key back and locked the false bottom into place.
As she turned to head out the door, she heard voices down the hallway. Her heart racing, she slid behind the door. She was about to be caught!!
