THE PUZZLED PIECES: Broken Pieces

1|19 ♥ The missing piece to a mysterious puzzle. ♥

"Feelings are much like waves, we can't stop them from coming, but we can choose which one to surf" - Jonatan Mårtensson.

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The spring sun was high in the cloudy blue sky with high school students scattered about the school grounds during lunch break.

Cody was seated alone outside the school cafeteria, sipping ice coffee with a straw while working on something on his tablet.

To the common eye, he was just a regular minding his business, but ever since he had arrived, he had his eyes on a group of students having lunch at a corner.

Among them was one in particular; Jessica Riedes.

Red hair, blue eyes. Cody thought as he made a sketch of her on his tab.

While working undercover as a high school transfer student, and a part-time photographer, Cody was secretly under a mission to find someone who had been missing for years.

While the rest of the gang thought Santiago Morales to be dead, Cody hadn't quite believed so and that was what led him to carrying out a code zero; an underground term used to address an authorized secret solo mission, specially assigned from HQ to members of higher skills and status.

Cody had the skills but not the status yet so he had gotten help from a friend on the inside as he needed to do this on his own and for reasons best known to him without getting the others involved.

Well, he was also doing this for someone who had requested it specially.

It was risky because if HQ found out, they'd have his head, and so, he had to tread carefully.

While undertaking missions on the field, Cody couldn't deny that this particular one was his toughest one yet, and it wasn't even official.

There were so many dead ends to Santiago's whereabouts and identity that Cody had started to think he was actually dead and almost gave up, until he found a lead.

Jessica Riedes.

The red head happened to cross his sight one fateful day when he was out taking pictures at a Spot center, and even though it was a distant memory, Cody could vividly remember someone in his past who had the same striking blue eyes and red hair; Elena Morales.

At the time when Santiago was still working for the gang, he had gone by the name Santiago Ruiz. Cody had eventually put together his real identity as a Morales but kept it secret.

Even Marianna Recalde, the current leader of the gang who had been his supposed lover hadn't known about it until that fateful night when Santiago had a rundown with the gang.

Cody had overheard the conversation between Marianna and some other gang members who were actually spies sent by Alessandro Romano, leader of of the Italian mafia and also Marianna's father, to keep a close eye on how she handled things at the branch.

Apparently, they had discovered Santiago's true identity and being aware of Marianna's relationship with him, they had warned her to get rid of him.

For as long as Cody could remember, the Mexican and Italian mafia were sworn enemies for generations; The Morales family being the largest and most vicious part of the Mexican mafia were particularly the worst, but had fallen apart due to an incident that led to Antonio Morales's death years ago, which lessened the Mexican mafia's power gravely, giving the Italian's more power over the underground.

So ofcourse, the Recalde's being part of the Italian mafia didn't take it lightly that a sworn enemy was right under their roof, moreso that Santiago had a high reputation for carrying out missions exceptionally and destroying the target without fail.