Chapter 1 #2
I sauntered up to him, and he stiffened. ‘Boop.’ I tapped his nose with my index finger. He flinched like I’d slapped him. ‘You’ve missed me, haven’t you? Admit it.’ I grinned maniacally, and he took a step away, his frown deepening into a scowl.
‘Don’t touch me. I don’t want your crazy rubbing off on me,’ he spat.
He really made me want to punch things… so I punched him in the nose.
There are two things in your life you can’t choose: your enemies and your family—not that I chose Drakos or his nitwit nephew.
Being a few years my senior, Dimitris used to beat seven bells of shit out of me when I first started training at ten years old.
I grew quickly and was lithe and fast, plus I trained like a warrior and fought like a cornered animal.
But, as they say, there’s no such thing as fighting dirty when you’re fighting to win.
Dimitris soon had the tables turned on him—karma’s a bitch, but I’m a bigger one.
Checking my watch, I assumed Drakos would be overseeing the training of the baby assassins, so I left Dimitri clutching his bloody nose and stalked towards the dōjō.
In martial arts, the dōjō is a special place—an honoured place where students and masters come together for deliberate practice to develop their skills in the various arts of self-defence.
At the door, I removed my boots and slipped in quietly. The tatami floor was soft underfoot, and I stood in the shadows as Drakos faced off with Mimi, one of my students. Both wore crisp white cotton Karate Gi, and as they bowed to each other, I could feel the air tighten.
Drakos struck—lightning-fast. The roundhouse kick he attempted would have knocked out teeth and cracked bones, but Mimi twisted and turned wickedly fast, dodging each attack. Her body twisted just enough, slipping out of reach by inches. Then again. And again.
She was smoke—untouchable, fluid, impossible to catch. A smirk tugged at my lips… that girl was good. Damn good. And she was mine.
A split second of indecision, and Mimi was exposed.
Drakos struck like a snake, slipping behind her and locking her into a rear-naked choke hold.
Her eyes widened in panic as she gasped, struggling for air—until her gaze found mine across the dōjō, and I motioned with my backward swinging elbow and pointed to my crotch.
Mimi swung her bent arm, and it landed squarely in Drakos’s crown jewels.
He grunted, his face contorting in pain as he doubled over, one hand instinctively dropping to his groin.
Mimi scrambled free, her stance guarded, her hands trembling slightly as she faced him. She didn’t blink.
Drakos straightened slowly, fire in his eyes, teeth bared… a wolf denied the kill.
‘Sensei.’ I stepped out of the shadows, and Drakos’s gaze fell to me as I bowed low.
‘Please excuse Mimi. I’ve been training the girls to fight dirty, so her…
improvisation… is entirely my fault.’ I raised my eyes, calm and unflinching.
‘As you once told me—“clean, gentlemanly fighting will get you nowhere but dead in the real world.”’
‘There is no place for dirty fighting in the dōjō,’ he growl-murmured.
‘I’m sorry, Sensei.’ Mimi bowed low.
‘Your punishment is to perform the ritual cleaning of the dōjō every day for a week.’
‘Yes, Sensei,’ she whispered, bowing again.
Well, I guess that’s better than a black eye or a broken arm,’ I mused to myself. After my mom died, and as my stepfather and guardian, Drakos had broken my bones, but had never broken my spirit—which enraged him.
‘Get out,’ he barked, turning his back on her. Mimi didn’t need telling twice—she bolted like a rabbit. ‘Cordelia, welcome home.’ His gaze travelled from my toes to my face.
‘Thank you, Father.’
Calling him that made my stomach twist like I’d swallowed glass, but I’d learned the hard way—pick your battles—and never poke the snake when he’s already watching.
He might be twenty years older than me, but he was still strong and fit, and annoyingly handsome.
Worse, he held a card I couldn’t afford to fold—one he used to keep me on a leash.
‘I assume your trip went as expected?’
‘It went very well, thank you.’ At my words, an extremely slow and very wide grin unfolded on his face, making him look creepy, and causing a cascade of spiders to skitter down my spine.
‘Let me change and we will go to my office, my little flower.’ I fought not to gnash my teeth at the pet name. I hated it, but not as much as the hatred I felt for him.
As we entered his office, an assistant scurried in carrying a tray of tea and a selection of bite-sized confectionery. I poured for us both and snaffled several petit-fours as I sipped my tea, and as Drakos settled behind his desk, a rapid knocking on the door made him curse.
‘Enter,’ he grunted with displeasure.
The door opened—and light spilled in. She was fifteen going on fifty—still soft at the edges but already walking with the grace and confidence of a woman in bloom.
Olive skin, light brown hair that tumbled to her waist, and eyes the colour of warm hazelwood.
She was everything good and bright in my life.
She looked just like our mother. And that made me both fiercely protective and permanently on edge.
‘Cordie!’ She ran in and threw her arms around me.
‘Guinn, baby.’ I kissed the top of her head, then held her at arm’s length. That’s when I saw it—a bruise on her cheekbone, darkening into the shape of someone’s careless anger.
My stomach turned molten. I dropped my hands, curling them into fists so tight my nails bit into my palms.
‘What happened to your face?’
‘Oh, it’s nothing.’ Her eyes flitted to Drakos. ‘It happened in training.’
Bullshit. Guinevere wasn’t some clueless little girl. She held her own in self-defence, and her mind was sharper than anyone’s in the room… but she was also fifteen and still under his control—and I wasn’t free enough to protect her. Not yet.
Drakos knew exactly what she was. A prodigy. A diamond. She was already overseeing his IT operations between classes—hardening his network, laundering his data trails, slipping through firewalls like smoke. She was the future of that side of his empire… Or so he thought.
‘Can I stay with Cordie this weekend, Papa?’ Guinevere’s pleading gaze met Drakos’s stern expression.