Kapitel 9: Training (2)

CAT

William De Santi is the kind of monster you encounter in nightmares. The kind that finds you minding your own business, swimming in the ocean, and drags you down to the bottom by bearing down on your chest so hard you can't breathe. And when you finally drown to death, eats you up with no remorse.

The very one that makes you run for endless miles and just when you think you lost him, he somehow appears before you and eats you alive.

Okay, maybe I sound a bit ridiculous. But how else can I explain his desire to kill me in the name of training? He made me run ten miles on the treadmill and do two hundred push-ups. By the time he puts a gun in my hands, my entire body is sore and trembling.

"Get a hold of yourself. It's just a toy," He snaps.

"You wore me out." I retort. It's useless. He already knows that. Sure enough, I catch the hint of a smirk at the corner of his lips before it's gone.

Asshole.

I ignore him and lean against the wall before my knees buckle.

This is not the first time I'm holding a gun. Ivan taught me how to use a real one before even though I've only ever shot at a static target. We were still dating then, and he insisted I needed to learn how to defend myself just in case.

He was the paranoid kind, especially when it came to me. He always feared something bad was coming for me. Now I can't help wondering if he knew my real identity and was scared my biological father or his enemies would find me. Now that I think about it, his paranoia didn't extend to other people. It was always about me and his fear of losing me.

William's voice pulls me out of my thoughts. "Now's not the time to be thinking about your boyfriend."

I scowl at him. "Boyfriend?"

"The one you wrote about in your letter? I don't believe you wrote a random name in there. You needed to convince your brother you are fine, right?" He closes the distance between us, so he's in my personal space. I'm already leaning against the wall so I have nowhere to go to escape the fury in those intense, blue eyes.

"Before you think of double-crossing us, remember no one knows about your existence but us." He says in that deep, low rumble that sends his warning piercing through me.

I don't know what his threat is. Is he going to wipe me off the earth's surface with no repercussions? Is he reminding me that he managed to find me despite the difficulty, and that means he wouldn't have any trouble hurting my brother and Ivan? It takes all my strength to not drop my gaze. I don't want him to know how terrifying his words are.

To my relief, he averts his gaze first and grabs me by the arm to pull me off the wall. "You haven't even learned how to hold a gun yet." He then proceeds to bark orders about how I should position my arms and fingers and the only reason I do it right is because of my prior experience. William is the crappiest teacher in history.

When he swaps the toy for a real gun, I point it at him and pull the trigger. I know it's loaded with fake bullets and I deliberately miss him but his glare tells me he didn't find that as amusing as I did.

He rewards me by nudging me much farther from the target. "Since you are so eager to use the gun, hit the '10' twenty consecutive times and you can leave."

Great. What was I thinking, annoying him? I wasn't. That's the problem.

I wish Nico were training me. He'd be kinder about it, I'm sure.

I shake the thought off my head. I shouldn't be considering Nico as anything different from his brother no matter what an asshole the latter is. I'm sure he would shoot a bullet through my skull if his brother told him to.

_______

I'm stretching my limbs on the bed later when Nico knocks on my door.

"Snow?"

I groan. I want to open the door but I can't move a limb. "Come in!" I yell. Even that is nearly enough to knock the wind out of me.

Nico comes in and when he sees my pained look, the worry on his face is palpable. "Is everything okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Encountered the devil." I correct him.

He smiles and sits at the vanity. "Will was hard on you, wasn't he?"

Why is that so damn funny? "What is his problem?"

I know I shouldn't trust Nico any more than I trust Will, but I also need Nico to think I see him as a friend. I spend the next several minutes grumbling to him about what an asshole his brother was to me. He inches closer and takes my hand to massage my fingers. "I came to call you down for lunch. Will doesn't want you eating in your room anymore."

I groan. "He's trying to kill me."

He doesn't say anything in response to that but he does look like he's pondering my words. "Maybe 'kill' is a stretch. I could carry you to the dining room."

I have to search his face to see if he's joking. He looks serious.

"That's a tempting offer," I say after some consideration. "It's just…he will make my life worse if he thinks it isn't bad enough.

He laughs, but the fact that he changes the topic right after tells me he knows I'm not exaggerating it.

"I sent your letter to your brother. I couldn't trust messenger so I slipped it into his room."

My heart skips a beat. The De Santis have too much access to my home. Rico probably doesn't know how the letter got to his room. I don't want Nico to know what I'm thinking so I frown. "Right after giving it to your own brother, I assume."

He doesn't flinch. "I had to show it to them. They are convinced you will try to escape, Snow."

If it wasn't already obvious that he doesn't want to talk about it, the serious look on his face proves that.

"I get it." I avert my gaze and pull my hand away from his. "I don't want to risk my brother's life either."

He nods. "Good call."

That somehow hurts more than Will's threat, which is ridiculous. Don't tell me I started holding onto hope that Nico may be a different De Santi from his brother. Am I out of my mind?

_____

This is the most awkward lunch I've ever had in my life. I didn't feel this awkward even when I sat opposite Angelo Rossi for dinner after discovering he was not my father.

If eyes could emit fire, I would have long turned into ashes from all the glares piercing at me from all directions. Alma looks like she wants to rip me a new one but when our eyes meet, she looks away. She couldn't be bothered to talk to someone beneath her.

Nico attempts to strike up a conversation. "Did you know Snow studied medicine?"

I turn and shoot him a warning look even though I know everyone already knows that. He raises a brow at me, ignores me, and continues speaking to Esteban. "She didn't get to graduate but she has skills that will impress you. Maybe you two could—"

He is interrupted by a loud clank as Will's spoon knocks onto the porcelain surface of his plate. "Catalina is not one of us. Stop trying so hard to treat her like she is."

My face burns hot in embarrassment and anger. What an asshole!

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