After the eighteenth time of knocking her on her back, I stand over her, irrationally furious. “Gesù Cristo, why are you wasting my fucking time?” I shout down at her, enjoying her shock. “Why are you here? Everyone else is years ahead of you in these skills! Why don’t you go home and stop pretending to be anything other than a useless Bratva princess?”
I’ve never been punched in the dick before.
Fuck…
The next thing I’m aware of is lying sideways on the mat, knees up, and breathing through my clenched teeth. When I get up, I’m throwing her off the cliff, I swear to fucking-
“Go to hell! You have been a complete asshole to me since day one! Do you think I wanted to work with you?” Tatiana’s screaming at me, fists clenched and looking like a warrior princess. “Why do you think you’re God's gift to this place? What do you get out of trying to make me feel like nothing?”
“You shouldn’t be here,” I hiss between gritted teeth, “you’re not tough enough for this place. You’re fragile as fuck.”
“I am not fragile!” she shouts back. “Do you really think you’re the worst problem I’ve had this year? You’re not even in the top three, ty pridurok, you dick! I’m not going anywhere!”
The crippling agony has receded just enough to let me get to my feet again, looming over her. “Face it, you’re not going to make it through the next month, much less the year. Go home.”
“Shut up!” She pushes me away from her but I keep following her.
“Go home, Bratva princess,” I snarl, so fucking furious and knowing I’m not angry at her, but she’s here, right in front of me, and flinching as I yell at her.
“No! I’m not going anywhere!” She goes up on tiptoe, shouting in my face.
“You don’t belong here!” I’m bellowing back at her and she’s holding her ground, then her furious little face crumples and she hits my shoulder as hard as she can.
“I don’t have anywhere else to go!” Tatiana screams.
Stumbling backward, she sits down abruptly, drawing her knees up, tears pouring down her face. “There’s nowhere else for me to go.” Her head drops to her knees and she’s sobbing like her heart’s been torn out and I am such a bastard.
Running my hands down my face, I take a deep breath. Sitting down next to her, I almost smile as she scoots away from me, still crying.
“I’m sorry… about your parents,” I offer awkwardly.
“Don’t talk about my parents.”
“My parents died together, too.” Why am I telling her this? “They were in an attack at a New Year’s Eve party. My mom died that night and my father held on for a little while… I think someone told him mom was gone, and then he was, too.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, still hiccupping sobs. “That’s horrible.”
“Yeah,” I chuckle humorlessly. “Finally, something we can both relate to.”
That, and the fact that neither one of us has a home to go back to…
We sit together in the gym, the last rays of the sun disappearing over the cliffs. When it’s too dark to see, I stand with a groan, feeling a vicious twinge from my cock, which is still holding a grudge about that punch. Holding my hand out, I wait for her to take it. She eyes my outstretched fingers suspiciously for a moment before accepting my help getting up.
“Sorry about punching you there…” she says, gesturing awkwardly at my crotch.
“No, you’re not,” I’m laughing, even though my dick doesn’t think it’s even remotely amusing.
Trying to hide her smile, she shrugs.
“We have another ten days before Professor Zimmerman evaluates your fighting skills,” I said. “I’ll reserve one of the gyms for longer sessions, they’re usually not in demand later in the evening.”
The hope on her face unnerves me, like she really thinks I’m someone she can count on. “Oh?”
“There’s some tricks I haven’t shown you yet,” I admit, rubbing the back of my neck. “It’s not about who’s the biggest in a fight, it’s about who’s the smartest. We’ll start again tomorrow, all right?”
Nodding, she smiles cautiously. Her eyes are red and her cheeks are wet, but she still has a smile for me. “Okay. That’s really… thank you.”
“C’mon,” I said, “I’ll walk you back to your place.”
Chapter Seven
In which Tatiana learns that guns are helpful but never there when you really need one.
Tatiana…
There are ten different buildings within the Academy’s high stone walls, a few smaller outbuildings, and a lovely, huge greenhouse where a lot of the food served in the dining room comes from. Then, there’s the lighthouse. It’s right on the tip of the grounds jutting forward on a jagged outcropping of rock, and while it once guided sailors safely home, it’s primarily used as a seedy spot to get high and have sex. Maybe I’m too conservative, but having sex on a grimy stone floor in a rickety structure seems extremely non-erotic.
I’m heading to the Digital Arts building, which is the closest to the lighthouse, making it somewhat secluded. It’s five minutes before my Dark Web lecture and Mateo and his three little chuckle buddies step out from behind a shed.
“Where’s Toscano?” Mateo says with a smirk that seems permanently affixed to his face, “Doesn’t he usually have his mouth buried in your pussy?”
Sure enough, his posse of scumbags starts chortling on cue.
“Get out of my way,” I sigh, trying to walk around him.
Grabbing my arm, he leans in, “Why don’t we spend some quality time together? I think we had a bad start. That puttana, that bitch Athena tried to poison you against me.”
Granted, Athena doesn’t seem to like me any more than when I moved in with her, but it didn’t even take her warning to let me know what a pig Mateo is. Still, he’s oddly popular with the girls here, so I have no idea why he’s bothering me.
“Yeah, calling my roommate a bitch really shows the respect you have for women,” I said, yanking my arm away. When his eyes narrow to dark slits, I try to soften my comment. “I hear you’ve got a dozen of my fellow classmates begging for your time, so I’ll let you go-”
“Let me go?” he said incredulously, “I don’t think you know how things work here, puttana,”
“I’m going to be late for class,” I said wearily. “I get it. You’re in charge. You’re the top dog. Have I covered it?” He’s still blocking the path and his creepy buddies have formed a half-circle behind me.
“Not until you give me a kiss with that pretty pink mouth of yours,” he goads me. “Kiss me sweet and I’ll let you go.”
Lev always reminded me to find at least two or three ways out of anywhere I happened to be. The exterior stone wall of the Academy blocks me on one side, and there’s a little grove of trees on the other.
Trees it is.
Leaning closer, I whisper, “Let me tell you a secret.”
Intrigued, he bends down a bit and is slightly off-balance on the rocky path. “Yeah, baby?” He’s grinning, the smug little prick. I swing my backpack hard and nail him in the side of the head. He hits the ground with a satisfying “oof!” as I dart through the trees and onto a more traveled path, students looked at me in surprise as I burst through the trees. I can hear him screech “Puttana!” as I head into the Armory building.
He’s such a dick, but I know I’ve made a serious enemy here.
“Take a breath, hold it, squeeze the trigger on the exhale,” I whisper, focused on the target, shooting carefully, precisely until the clip is empty.