Chapter three

He has watched too many people he love walk out of his life willingly or unwillingly, he has seen, with his very own eyes, some of his best and most loyal men fall to their death in the course of serving him, when they least expected it, just like his own father, the only other people he has left and can proudly call his own, his family, is Jordan, his little brother, and Kaitana herself, his best friend, partner in crime and equal, he can bear just about anything, say physical pains and sufferings, but he would never be able to bear the pain if he loses either one of them.

Kaitana rolled her eyes dismissively at his show of protectiveness which amuses and grits on her nerves at the same time, she hates it when he treats her like a kid, when he acts like she's not strong enough to look out for herself even though she sometimes find it cute and adoring. Kaitana has had her own fair share of suffering and hardship in life, born, along with are now late twin brother to a single crackhead mother who sold them for money to maintain her lifestyle, she had lived through the most difficult and trying times of her life with a stubborn resilience, a common trait she shares with Kilian, it's something they both recognized in each other from the first time they met at the foster home, it was the reason they became instant best friends and finally decided to run away from their "prison" to seek their fortune.

'Kil I'm not a kid! I've had my fair share of this life, You don't have to get protective all the fucking time. Just open the damn envelope and see what's in it for you!' She fires as him.

'Kaitana...'

'I swear on Klaus's grave, if you call my name one more time, i'd punch you straight in the gut' she threatens him, eyes blazing with seriousness. 'Open the damn envelope now and stop wasting good time!' Times like this, kilian knows better than to push her any further, he merely nod his head in acknowledgement and tears the envelope open to behold a thick wad of papers and documents.

'Dominic Ivanova, he's sixty years of age and the founder of the NOVA Chain of companies, they invest in practically every money making venture, tech, construction, agriculture, healthcare, education, you name it all. Dominic is a very private man, there is hardly anything personal about him out there, he detest the public life and to that effect, he once sued a media house till it went under for daring to publish harmless private photos of him vacationing in one of his many beach house, he has been married six times and now presently preparing for marriage number seven, weirdly, his first wife, Monica Solaano is still very much in his life, infact she still lives in his main manor with him, along with their twenty year old daughter, lucy-rose who recently graduated top of her class with distinctions from Harvard in business management, rumour says she has quite the clever head on her shoulder but despite that, her father still finds her lacking because she's obviously not the boy child he desperately wanted, to keep his legacy going, he also can't seem to sire any boy child with any of his ex wives which in my opinion, might be one of the reasons for his constant divorces and the rinse and repeat processes...'

While Kaitana was rattling off the information he was already gathering from fast scanning the papers, Kilian listened regardless, enjoying her enthausic brief as was giving as if she were in a coperate boardroom meeting with potential investors, but he paused briefly when he came across a startling picture of the man who kaitana has provided to be Alvaro, it occurred to him that he had never imagined what Alvaro looks like physically, his foes appearance has surprisingly never took precedence in his mind for the slightest moment, but if it had, he wouldn't have looked anything like the sharp, traditionally Handome man in an expensive coffee brown talilored suit, sitting in a modern recyling chair with leg crossed and an unit cigar hanging from the corner of his mouth, he doesn't seem a day older than forty, the only thing that gave his real age away has to be the slight greying of his hair which he didn't see fit to dye in order to match his slim, healthy and young build like most men in his position would have done. Alvaro doesn't have the typical look of most of the underworld lord his age, mostly obsessed with bald head or receding airlines, large stomach like barrels of rum and tobacco stained teeth.

From his pictures, Dominic Ivanova looks like the typical shrewd business man, the kind that makes hard bargain and see it through, the kind who built an empire out of nothing but his good brains and guts, the kind that commands whole lot of respect and attention when he steps into any place... Yet! He doesn't hold the aura of someone who occasional drops his clock of elegance, to dabble in the business of the underworld kingpins, but somehow, this man had managed to stay faceless for decades, managed to evade everyone who ever sought him out, and though it hurts his ego to do it, Kilian had to admit that his opponent is one very smart and intuisive man, extremely powerful with enough resources at his disposal to bend everything to his utmost will... Alvaro aka Dominic Ivanova is larger than life itself.

Despite his earlier notion to dismiss the man as completely harmless from his demure appreance, Kilian knows better than anyone else, how much looks can be deceiving and how deadly the repercussion of it can be, unlike in movies where the bad guys always look the part with ripped bodies and scary faces, in reality, the bad guy can be that obsessed, pudgy neighbor of your's who only stops eating only when it's time for a drink, just like most of the underworld lords, the bad guy can be that scrawny little kid you dismiss on the street as nothing but an urchin just like how he and Kaitana started, working in the corners, the bad guy can be that greying grandma with a walking stick like Angela, the feisty old, drug dealer woman who took them under her wings and prepped them for the life... The bad guy can be anybody.