Chapter 22
twenty-two
Valentina
“Where are we going?” I ask and slide into the passenger seat.
“It’s a surprise.” Gabriel revs the car, and I watch him, my expression thoughtful.
I look at his smirking face. “Can you at least give me some clues?”
“No.”
“Oh, come on. What kind of surprise?”
He chuckles. “I promise you’ll like it.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“Why not?”
“When you promise something, you need to stick to it. Otherwise, you lose the trust of the person. And I may be your wife, but I’m not sure if I can trust you. Can I trust you?”
“How about you decide for yourself in ten minutes?”
“Ha, clue number one. It’s ten minutes away.”
Gabriel shakes his head and smiles as we stop in a traffic jam.
“We should have taken my bike,” I murmur.
“A car is safer. It’s bulletproof.”
I turn to him. “Why would someone want to kill us in front of all these people? If they wanted, they could do it from anywhere, even when you exit the car. And they could still aim at your tires. You would lose control and crash.”
He shrugs. “Tell that to Salvatore.”
“Oh, right, I heard about the attack.” Just a few days after their wedding, Salvatore and his wife were ambushed.
Chased down in their car while bullets shredded the night.
They walked away alive, but the message was clear.
That attack was one of the key triggers that forced Cosa Nostra and the Camorra into an alliance.
The cars in front of us start to move, and Gabriel takes the next exit to the right.
“How is Isabella?” I ask, remembering how, a few days ago, I found her broken on the floor in the bathroom. Gabriel took me to their house to show my respect for the wife of the don, and what I saw made my insides hurt. My decision to be stronger grew even more.
“She left.”
I turn my head toward him. “Where did she go?”
“Back to Italy. Salvatore is going ape-shit and is doing my work and his. So, this gave me an opportunity to do something.”
“What?”
He parks and smiles. “You’ll see. Come on.”
I follow him through the double doors and stop when my eyes catch where we are.
I was so intrigued that I didn’t even look properly from the outside as we arrived.
Now, my heart is going to explode from happiness, not because I’m here, but because he thought of me and my needs and wants. Because now I know I can rely on him.
My lips spread into a smile, and I turn to him. “So, you fulfilled your promise to me.”
“I’m a man of my word. I don’t promise anything unless I’m sure I will deliver.” His low voice slices through to my core, and I almost wish it was the other kind of promise.
I lick my lips and swallow. I open my mouth to say something, maybe to play coy and ask what he means, but a gruff voice interrupts us. “You're late.”
Gabriel chuckles and turns toward the older man. His white hair contrasts with his all-black tracksuit. His eyes narrow with intrigue that he covers with displeasure as they shift from me to Gabriel.
“Only a few minutes.”
“A few minutes or not, I don’t tolerate tardiness, and you know that.”
Gabriel nods and turns to me. “This is Valentina, my wife. Valentina, this is Boris.”
I offer Boris a smile as his calculating eyes scan me from head to toe before his lips twitch, and he takes a step toward me, extending his hand.
“You're the opposite of what I expected.”I arch an eyebrow. “Oh, and what did you expect?”
“Anything other than you, my dear. I heard you trained before.”
“I did, but nothing professionally.”
“You don't have to train professionally to have it in you to be a great fighter. You just need to have it in here.” His finger taps his chest, and my lips pull into a smile.
“Oh, I have plenty of that. I didn’t have the means to have someone train me, but I did have a good teacher.”
“We’ll see about that.” He looks behind him and makes a move with his hand, summoning a woman who looks around his age. She may look old, but the muscles on her body and her stance say otherwise. “Ivana will show you where you can change, and I will test you so I know how to move forward with you.”
I’m about to argue that I didn’t bring any clothes when Gabriel passes me my gym bag.
“Thank you.” I grab the bag from him and follow Ivana. I didn’t even see him bring my bag.
“So, you're the woman who finally brought Gabriel to his knees.” Ivana’s voice turns my attention to her.
I smile sheepishly. “I wouldn’t say that. Our marriage was arranged.”
She chuckles. “You're wrong. Even if arranged, he is your husband, and that means he’s already on his knees and he doesn’t even know it.”
A laugh escapes me. I like this woman already. “I’m Valentina,” I say.
“I hope you know what you’ve got yourself into. Boris will not go easy on you.” She gives me a subtle wink.
I smile. “I never expected that. I just want a chance to do something I love.”
She shrugs and pushes open the door of a small changing room. “We don’t have many women coming here, but for the few that do, Boris wanted a safe space. The corner locker on your left is free to use. Change and come out when you're ready.”
I place my bag on the bench and smile before I strip off my clothes and change into my workout outfit.
“I’m staying.” I hear Gabriel as I enter the gym area where I left him and Boris.
“No, you need to leave. You can wait in your car. Your wife needs to be handled like anyone else, and you being here isn't fair to her or anyone here. If she can handle me without your presence, then we have a deal.” I listen to their debate as I approach them.
“What deal?” I ask from behind. There is a glint of surprise on Gabriel’s face, but it’s gone in a second.
“We had a deal. I’m taking you in, and I will train you only if you have what it takes. And that I will test now, but only if Gabriel isn't here.”
“So, what’s the problem?” I look between them.
Boris pins Gabriel with a hard look. “He doesn’t want to leave.”
I smile at Gabriel. “I can take care of myself. Besides, a deal is a deal. You don’t get a free way out of it.”
He tilts his head to the side and looks at me, then at Boris, and he narrows his eyes at him like they’re in a silent discussion.
“Fine, I’ll be in my car,” he says and leans in.
I think he’s going to kiss me, but instead, his breath brushes my ear.
“He may look like an old man, but trust me, he is almost as strong as I am. Show him who you really are.” And then his lips brush my cheek before he walks out the door.
“One more,” Boris shouts, and my breathing hitches as I, one more time, land on the floor.
I stand as quickly as I can and hop from one foot to another until I’m focused on him.
Boris tested my fighting skills in a way I never expected.
I failed a lot, but I always find my way back on my feet.
I also returned a few good punches. I saw surprise on Boris’s face as I did.
But I’m exhausted like never before. My daily workout at home doesn’t count as proper training for this type of match.
If he agrees to train me, I will need to work my ass off.
So, in order to finish this, I gather all my strength and launch forward at Boris, giving him hell until I lose the ground under my feet once again and land on my back.
“That’s enough,” Boris says, and I exhale a breath of relief and relax my muscles.
I feel Boris towering over me, but I keep my eyes closed and breathe.
“Come on. This was just the beginning.” My eyes open, and I look at the man.
He can’t be serious. Relief washes over me when I see a smile on his face.
He extends his hand to me, and I take it, letting him pull me off the floor. “Not bad,” he says.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I ask between breaths.
“I mean, you’ve got something. You’ve got fire inside you. I just needed to test how far you were willing to go. Because in a real fight inside this ring, there is no giving up.”
I search his eyes. “And?”
He smirks. “And this is just phase one. You're starting tomorrow until you're ready for phase two.”
“What is phase two?”
“Phase two is testing how far you're ready to go in a real fight. Now, you're free to go. I expect you here at eight a.m. sharp.” I’m about to ask him more questions when he turns and leaves me staring at his back with an open mouth.
I’m still thinking about phase two when I enter Gabriel’s car. He’s been waiting this whole time.
“So?” he asks.
“Apparently, I passed phase one of my training. Now I need to get ready for phase two.” I shake my head.
His eyebrows pull together. “He said that?” I nod. “We’ll see about that,” he murmurs and revs the car, and I close my eyes and drift off to sleep.
After almost two months of training, I’m getting ready for the test for phase two of my training.
Gabriel didn’t elaborate on what he meant by that, but Boris has been pushing me every day for six hours a day, and I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.
Not just because of training. Another thing is getting Gabriel for myself, and the other is having my father and that bastard of an ex in prison.
The charges against them were airtight. It didn’t matter how good their lawyers were, the evidence was solid, undeniable, leaving no room for argument.
They were sentenced to twenty-five years.
I’m in the ring with another female fighter, Cristina. She comes to me, gives me her hand, and smirks. “Whatever happens in the ring ain’t personal.”
Cristina has been nice to me the whole time we’ve trained together, so I only figure phase two of Boris’s training is when the fight starts and the hits start to be real.
The first hit I receive is to my stomach, and it’s hard. After five minutes of getting hit, barely returning any punches, and landing on my back with Cristina on top of me, she grits out, “This is an all-or-nothing match. Fight back as if your life depends on it. Nothing is fair in this fight.”