Chapter 3

As is typical of her, Kaira barges into the office and begins questioning her cousin about hot-button issues related to their jobs. "Any progress in trying to locate our target, Enzo? It's been days, and I needed an exact location so we could proceed with our next course of action."

It has always been the same way for her; she is always hot on her heels about her mission. But it is even more so now considering that she is under a great deal of pressure to carry out the work assigned to her and successfully complete the mission. She needs to do this prior to tying the knot with the unknown fiance she has.

Enzo, as is customary for him, would just have to irritate his cousin in the early morning since that is simply who he is before giving her any vital information and useful advice. "Good morning, my dear cugino, and future agente dei servizi segreti. Why the sullen face? Were there not enough men to satisfy your desires at the bar last night? I don't think you had a wonderful sleep last night because of that fact, and now you seem to be too uptight this morning. Want to cruise the city for a while? Who knows, we might get a chance to have a glimpse of an unlikely man that can help lessen your stress."

"Zip it, Enzo! I am warning you. I am, really, not interested in participating in any more of your silly antics and stupid games at this time, so just shut the hell up and provide me the reports, cugino! Kaira went on to say, "I really can't do this now, not so much now when I am already stressed out about all this fucking wedding bullshit and trying to finish this hell of a mission."

As he went slightly closer to his cousin, Enzo muttered under his breath, "Shh. Kai, please be a little more quiet and be a little more careful of what you have to say. Are you forgetting that we are on your father's property right now and not at the institution? You don't really want us to get caught in the end and suffer extreme punishments, would you?"

Kaira's next reaction is one of a mixture of displeasure and annoyance. And yes, she is annoyed and frustrated, but not really with her cousin but just with the way things are going for her. Life is becoming unbearable for her at this point. She is having a hard time balancing her time with dealing with their transactions in the Costra Nostra and then having to locate the heir to the cartel, which will be her ticket to completing her mission in the institution, but what is worse is her upcoming wedding to an unknown man chosen by her father. "I actually don't give a damn right now about what happens to me. I am so freaking over this. Why does it seem like the universe is conspiring against me and punishing me for something that I don't even know why?"

"Hey there, cugino." Enzo stood up and walked toward his cousin. Him being older than Kaira by a few months, he takes it upon himself to act like the big brother that his cousin doesn't have. And besides, it is only the two of them who are partners in crime over everything that is going on. "When did you start being overly cynical? This is not the Kaira that I know, and this is not how the future agente should be. You are the fearless Kaira, isn't it? You are not even afraid of standing in the way of a bullet, but why is it that I feel extreme fear and anxiousness in you right now?"

Kaira might have been overly courageous in the past, but right now, with each day that passes, she is slowly losing that bravery she has in her, especially knowing that one day, she'll be married, and when that happens, it is a probability that all her dreams will just go down the drain, just like what she is expecting her marriage to be. "I am slowly slipping back into the depths of despair as my impending marriage draws closer. I really don't want to get married, Enzo. Yes, I have accepted it, but it still does not change the fact that I am not ready for that. And it's really hard to find the mental fortitude to even be fearless right now when all I want to do is just run away from all of this."

If Enzo could only do something for Kaira to help her get away with the contracted marriage, he would have done it by now. But there is only so much that he can actually do, and as much as he wanted to help his cousin, what can he really do against Kaira's father? No one will ever find the strength to go against the will of the Don. "I am sorry, Kai, that I am really not being of help to you with this dilemma. I wish I could do something for you about this marriage thing, but just like you, I really don't know what to do to make your father change his mind."

There is practically no way to escape the forced marriage, and that is something that Kaira is perfectly aware of. Everything here is practically spelled out for good once her father arrives at a decision. And the only thing she can think of is to split from her husband as soon as she is capable of escaping their harsh situation.

"It's alright, cugino. We both know anyway that we genuinely can't do much of anything. Papa had already made the decision for my life, and the only way I could exert control over this life that I've been given is when we are able to successfully complete our mission and move as far away as possible from this truly awful reality that we are having. And I just hope we can achieve that sooner or later. I don't want to go crazy having to deal with any more of papa's decisions over my life."

To give his cousin some sympathy and support, Enzo could only offer Kaira a pat on the back. His cousin is right to say that everything has been decided for them. Once Kaira's father has made up his mind, they are really left with no other option but to follow the orders. In this kind of costra nostra, where Kaira's father is the leader, they are still only followers. "We must simply keep looking for a means to enable you to somehow get away with this marriage."

"We need to complete the assignment, Enzo. We really do have to infiltrate the Heralde clan, and that is the only means we have. And the sooner we achieve that, the faster we can escape this world. And this is why we really have to locate the heir as quickly as we possibly can. I need to be able to start with my plans on how we might bring Luca Hendrix behind bars."

Only an unrelenting sigh could be shared between the two of them. Even though it was still early in the day, it appeared that the cousins' stress because of what was ahead of them was already starting to show. "We may be forced to travel to America again just to see him, Enzo. And the next time we come across him, I will guarantee that we won't be able to lose sight of him anymore."

"This will be harder for us, Kaira. You know your father won't easily permit your travels, not unless it was he who initiated and ordered for us to go." Enzo was right; the last time, they were given a task by his father, which is why she was able to go to America and meet Calix Hendrix. She would already have defied her own principles and obtained that man's information if she had only known at the time that he would be essential to the accomplishment of her mission. If she had done so, their circumstances would have eased by now.

All Kaira can do is massage her temples in the hope that maybe an idea will suddenly come to her, but no matter how hard she tries, she literally cannot think of any other possibilities. "Fuck it, I am unmistakably losing ideas on how to go about this." she laments.

"Why don't we start making use of our connections in the costra nostra, Kai." Enzo suddenly blurted out.

When Enzo made that statement, she raised an eyebrow in his direction. "What?"

"We obviously have a lot of connections to the underground here because of your father's influence, and so does the Heralde cartel, I believe. And since they are part of a big drug syndicate in America, they would have to have links over here as well since, one way or another, they cannot make transactions here if they don't have the connections, right? And, if I were to make an educated guess, I'd say that if their ties also happened to somehow be connected to us, we might just be able to quickly learn more and gather a lot of information about Calix Hendrix, and then we can find him easily. And the quicker we locate him, the faster you can entice and seduce him. Once you do, we can acquire the necessary information that we need. And then we can move forward with our operation."

Kaira feels grateful for Enzo's presence in circumstances such as this one. He certainly gives Kaira the boost she needs when she is starting to lose confidence in herself. "That is a brilliant idea, Enzo. We must really make use of both influences we have around here to our advantage. Well done, cugino. I'll proceed to check to see whether anyone knows about him, and then you head out and seek out more information from the institution's security team."

"I got that order loud and clear. I'm on it, cugino." Enzo replied back as he retreated to his place and began making calls to several of their team members to assist them in obtaining the needed information.

While he was at that, Kaira was thinking of the possible contacts she could tap to find Calix Hendrix. It won't be easy, of course, but at least they have somewhere to start, and with them using both their legal and illegal influences, she is sure to find Calix Hendrix in a matter of days. And when she does, it will be the start of work for her. The only wish she has, though, is that the man she deems as her saving grace will not be the cause of her downfall.