Chapter 9

"Mr. Kazimir!"

Upon entering the main hallway, Kazimir smiles as his young friend, Khristina, runs over to him, giving him a big hug.

"Could I get you to watch her for a while? I gotta meet with some potential buyers on the estate."

Looking up at the girl's eldest brother, Dréy, Kazimir nods.

"You're not keeping it? For memories and things of that sort?"

"Nah. Turns out my old man put it in his will that it was to be sold in case something ever happened to him and mama. So, here we are."

Patting his little sister's head, he waves and walks out of the building.

"So, what're we going to do today, Mr. Kazimir?" Khristina happily asks, as the two head down to a small break room.

"Well, I have an important meeting. I doubt it's that important, but I was called in for it anyway. Here's my phone, you can watch some videos on it or something while I go sit through it."

Khristina forms a huge smile on her face, taking the phone.

"Okay! Thank you!"

The young man softly smiles before heading to the briefing room.

He looks around for an empty spot, before seeing someone wave their hand at him.

*"Him? Out of all people?"*

Kazimir makes his way over and takes a seat next to his newest co-worker.

"It seems as if your friend had another person in mind."

The two men both look over at Pierre, who was currently talking with one of the female detectives.

"Oh, we're not friends, only co-workers, but, uh, thank you for the spare seat. Caio, wasn't it?"

The man nods and smiles.

"How's the little La'rine girl doing? My parents divorced when I was around her age, so it must be hard on her knowing they're both dead."

"Uh, she seems to be in quite good spirits, but how'd you know I'm watching Khristina?"

Caio shrugs, his teal eyes gazing towards Kazimir.

"You must've forgotten about me being a spy."

"Oh, right."

The room suddenly goes quiet, everyone turning to the front.

"Ah, here we go." Caio says, resting his head in his hand.

Walking to the front, the blonde-haired twin, Dayne, folds his arms, looking at a couple of the slightly frightened detectives in front of him.

"Your captain has put me in charge into splitting you all up into two groups; one for drugs and one for crime."

He begins to call out names, and Kazimir looks around a bit confused, catching Caio's attention.

"You look as if you've seen a ghost. Is everything alright?"

Turning to Caio, Kazimir shakes his head.

"I'm a rookie, I'm not supposed to be joining teams!" he whisper yells.

Caio points to Pierre.

"You may want to speak with him."

Getting up from his seat, Kazimir walks over, tapping Pierre on the shoulder.

"What the- Oh, it's just you."

Kazimir rolls his eyes.

"I'm pretty sure I'm in the wrong meeting. This is for professionals and I'm a rookie."

"No, you're in the right one." Pierre says, tapping his fingers on the table.

"No, I'm not. The man is calling out names I'm not even remotely familiar with."

Pierre groans, taking out a piece of paper from his notebook.

"See this? I asked Uzini to promote you and he just did. No questions asked."

"Well, where is he? I have school to attend and being a rookie was only part time, which I could easily handle. But not this." the young detective whispers.

"Then go take it up with him, not me."

Kazimir furrows his brows and slams his hand on the table.

"You dumbass, you're the one who got me into this professional mess!"

"AHEM!"

The two men look up and over to Dayne, who was staring right back at them.

"I'd like a word with you both after I'm finished."

Pierre loudly groans and rolls his eyes, looking back up at Kazimir.

"See what you got us into?"

"I wouldn't have had to if you came and spoke with me first about my secret promotion."

Going back to his seat, Kazimir sighs out of frustration.

"They both must see potential in you if they'd just willingly promote you like that." Caio says, giving him a smile.

"Potential my ass. I can't juggle a full-time job along with school. That's just too much." Kazimir says with a sigh. "But I also can't just quit. Not now at least."

Caio chuckles.

"Well, that's life. It gets hard but it's only up to you to find small adjustments that make it easier."

The young man glances at the table.

*"Find small adjustments?"*

"Kazimir Cizetto."

Immediately snapping out of his thought process, he looks up, making eye contact with Dayne.

"You'll be assigned to the crime group."

Nodding, the young man looks back down.

*"Would that mean I'd actually have to quit school?"*

Lost in his thoughts, Kazimir jumps upon hearing his co-worker's voice.

"Hey, get the hell up. Blondie wants his word."

Kazimir stands up and follows Pierre to the other side of the room, where Dayne stood. He turns to Kazimir, before speaking.

"How old are you?"

"19."

"And you?" Dayne asks, turning to Pierre.

"None of your business."

"You both seem to be quite younger than I, which is something I can understand. However, you two are also working in a professional setting, having loud outbursts while one is speaking. Now, tell me. Does that sound anything of being professional to you?"

"Uh, no sir." Kazimir replies.

Pierre crosses his arms.

"Professional or not, you're gonna come across people who don't give a damn about what the next person is doing, especially when it comes down to law enforcement. If you don't like it here, go back to being a spy. It's a useless job anyway, so it fits you."

Dayne's brows furrow.

"Useless? I'm a spy who collects information. Without people like me, your pathetic job wouldn't even exist."

"No, it absolutely would. You're just mad because Uzini made me lead detective of the drug team and you can't do anything to change that, now can you?" Pierre asks, with a smug smirk on his face.

Pinching the bridge of his nose out of frustration, Dayne looks up at the ceiling.

"I called you over here to talk about having a better work ethic. Does this place not do background checks because how the hell did someone like you even get hired?"

"Excuse me."

"What?!" Dayne and Pierre simultaneously yell, turning to Kazimir.

"Can I get back to what I was assigned to? I'm sure my team is probably having an important meeting right now and instead I have to listen to two bastards argue."

Dayne groans.

"Just go. Both of you, just get the hell out of my sight."

"Good, nobody wanted to- hey!"

Kazimir hits Pierre's arm, motioning for him to drop it.

The two men go their separate ways, Kazimir walking over to where his new group stood.

"I'm guessing the conversation didn't end well." Caio says.

Kazimir shakes his head no.

"Excuse me?"

Turning to the side, the two men come face to face with a young, brown-skinned, curly dark-hair and brown-eyed woman.

"I was told to give you both this. It's a paper that states what everyone in the group is assigned to."

Kazimir looks down at it, raising a brow.

"DNA?"

The young woman softly smiles.

"Yes, it means you're in charge of scanning any type of evidence for DNA. If you need further instruction, I'll be happy to help."

Kazimir nods.

"Oh, okay. Thanks."

"You're welcome." she replies, before walking off.

"Pardon me, but I think you dropped something."

The young woman turns around, looking into Caio's eyes.

"Did I?

"Yeah, your name."

She giggles and shakes her head.

"That's a pretty good pick-up line, Mr. My name is Nia Ellison. I just joined two days ago."

Caio smirks and puts a hand in his pocket.

"Nia? Short and cute, just like you."

The young woman smiles, looking down at the ground.

"Sir, I thank you, but I'm already married."

"Oh? That's too bad. Anyway, I'm Caio Níserraté."

"I'm Kazimir Cizetto. Nice to meet you, Nia."

"It's a pleasure to meet you both. I hope we all can become great friends, though."

She quickly walks off, handing a paper to someone else.

"She's so beautiful." Caio says, looking down at the paper. "I wonder if she'll let me take her out for lunch one day."

Kazimir watches as he gets up and walks over to where she was.

"Oh! Khristina!"

Walking out of the room, the young detective heads straight for the break room, finding the small girl happily watching a kid's show on his phone.

"Hey, Khristina. You hungry?"

She looks up and shakes her head.

"I had nuggets and french fries with Dréy but can I have a dessert? He didn't buy me one 'cause he said I would be too hyper."

"Of course. What would you like?" Kazimir asks.

"A triple chocolate ice cream cake!"

"Uh, sure. I'll just call Dréy and tell him we're going to be at the ice cream parlor."

"No!" Khristina yells, holding Kazimir's phone behind her back "Tell him we're gonna be at the grocery store 'cause then I won't be able to get my ice cream!"

Kazimir chuckles.

"I don't think that would be a good look for me lying to him, Khristina."

The young girl sighs, handing Kazimir his phone.

"Alright, go call him."

Dialing his number, Kazimir puts the phone up to his ear.

"Yo." Dréy answers.

"Hey, Dréy. I was just calling to let you know that Khristina and I were on our way to get ice cream."

"You wanna watch her for about five more hours?"

"Sure. I don't mind." the young detective replies, shrugging.

"Fine wit' me."

The eldest brother quickly hangs up and Kazimir sighs.

"What'd he say?!" Khristina asks, jumping up and down.

"He said you can get your ice cream cake, but I have to watch you for about five-

"YAY! Come on, Mr. Kazimir! We're gonna be late!" Khristina interrupts, grabbing his hand.