XXIX

"Let's get the class started." He suggests. I nod and tighten my ponytail, waiting for him to give some further instructions.

"Firstly, I'm going to show you how to use an enemy's attack to throw him off balance to the floor." He explains. I laugh inside, knowing I have already done this multiple times. I don't even know why I'm here.

"Hit my face." He demands.

I stand, thinking for a moment, but shrug it off and without asking any questions, hit him. My hand flies swiftly towards his chest, hoping to catch him off guard and land the punch on his torso. However, he manages to grab my fist beforehand.

"You can do better than that. I've heard a lot of things about you, Milana." He says through a continuous nod.

"I don't want to hurt a face like yours." I reply, feeling slightly doomed.

"Don't be shy. I can take it."

Hearing those words flipped some kind of switch inside me. Concentrating on the target, I turn my body to face right and charge with a straight arm towards his face. My fist hits him in the nose and he stumbles backwards slightly. Next, I throw him over my hip and onto the mat with a thud.

"Are you sure?" I ask, referring to his overly confident comment from before. His muscles stiffen and his breathing quickens. "Hm. I'm impressed." He praises. I smile optimistically and pin his hands down with mine.

"I think you're the one needing the lessons. Maybe you could learn a thing or two." I say in mockery as I release the grip on his hands and stand up. His eyes follow me as I walk away, smiling tauntingly at him.

I stride up to the boxing ring, slipping under the ropes and inside of the ring. I stand, hands on hips, in front of James.

He clears his throat.

"I see you... exceeded in the self defence class." He says, raising an eyebrow at Logan across the training centre. "I learnt more at nine years old." I reply with a laugh.

He laughs but quickly straightens his expression and throws me some boxing gloves. I pull them onto my hands as he watches, eyebrow raised, inflicting a challenge on me. "Let's box." I snap, smiling devilishly.

James and I tap gloves before we take a step back from each other. I signal for him to begin and he throws a right hook which i dodge at the very last second. "Nice try." I mock as I throw a punch and hit him on the arm. He doesn't back away from me, if anything he steps closer, fixing me with determination. I do a hasty uppercut and nail him below the jaw. When I could see the anger in his eyes, I knew my punches were effective.

He begins to throw more and more punches, missing me by inches each time. He storms closer and closer to me, backing me into the corner of the ring. That's when I knew it was time to move. He swung another right hook and I quickly duck under his arm, running behind him. He whips around instantly and I throw one more punch, making him stumble back and lean back against the ropes.

"Go easy on me." He pleads, forcing a smile. "I am going easy." I reply, swinging at him. He manages to duck this time and slither past me. I whip my head around just in time to avoid a punch headed straight for my jaw. Determination swirls around inside of me as I think of ways to knock him down. I quickly snap my right arm into a hook, hitting the bottom of his jaw effectively, knocking him clean off his feet.

I fleetly extend an arm out to him to help him up from the floor. "How was I?" I question. He rolls his eyes in annoyance and pulls off his gloves. "Not bad." He replies as he takes my gloves from me. We both climb through the ropes and jump down from the ring.

I adored every minute of training with James. Although I won, he still motivated me to fight my hardest. I respect him for that. As we walk out of the building, we both agree to pay more frequent visits to the training centre. Elliot pulls up outside and we make our ways inside of the car, and set off on our journey home.

The neon-bathed city streets pass us by outside, and gentle rain starts to fall on the windshield. As I stare out of the window, I can't help but feel that familiar instinct for trouble, as if sensing an unseen assailant.

Turning a corner, Elliot's sleek car rumbles down a lively street, before pulling up to my mansion. I thank him, and get out of the car with James by my side. We walk up the pervasive path to the mansion before he turns to me. "Are you coming to the masquerade ball tonight?" Hs asks.

My feet stop working almost instantly after hearing him say that. "Theres a masquerade ball?!" I snap. "Why did nobody fucking tell me!" I yell in fury, asI storm up to the door and watch as the guards smash a code into the keypad, letting me in.

I walk in to see several masks laid out on the table, with Francesca and Amelia stood behind them. "Can you please explain why you didn't tell me there's a ball tonight?" I say, walking around the table towards them.

"We talked about going out yesterday." Fran says in defence. "I thought that meant a club or something! Not a whole fancy ball!" I snap. She and Amelia both giggle at how angry I am. "It's fine, just call Miranda. She'll be able to get you a dress in time." She explains.

I sigh and pull out my phone to ring Miranda, my sisters stylist. She has always been helping Francesca with outfits, and I just hope she picks an amorous dress for me. We speak for a few minutes and I give her a rough description on the type of dress I want. I make sure she writes down a few notes before ending the call.

"Happy now?" Fran asks. I roll my eyes with a smile and pick up a mask from the table to examine it. "It's pretty." I compliment. She snatches it from me and puts it back down on the table. "Yeah and it's mine." She snaps. I raise my hands in defence and she laughs. "You know I have a weird feeling." I explain. "Like something bad is going to happen."

Both girls snap their heads up in unison and stare at me with insolent eyes. I shrug my shoulders at them. "What do you mean? Something with Nico?" Fran asks. My shoulders rise and fall once again and I lean against the table. "I can't explain it. It's just a feeling." I reply. They keep staring but nod slowly after a few seconds.

***

After spam texting several members of my family, I manage to find out that tonights masquerade ball has mafia leaders of every country and gang leaders of small states attending. This particular ball has been thrown by the leader of the Spanish mafia, Domenico. He went out of his way to invite the Levine's and the Cortez's.

I am sat at my vanity when I hear a placid knock on the door. I set my hair curler down on it's heat mat, rise from my stool and head towards the door. I fling it open to reveal one of our maids holding a large bag. "You're dress, Miss." She says as she passes the zipped up bag to me. "Thank you." I reply politely as she closes the door.

I place the bag down on my bed and unzip it. My eyes instantly light up at the sight of the dress inside. I hold it up and examine each and every little detail. It's perfect.

I walk over to my vanity to check that my makeup looks perfect, to make sure there are no flaws on the winged liner, or that my lipstick is too overdone. My long and wispy lashes have been adhered to my natural lashes, making my dark eyes seem as large of that as a doe. My raven hair spills over my head in loose curls that fall around my face and down my neck. I feel beautiful, proud even.

I next stand up to try on my dress.



I then slip into some lace up black heels and spray a generous amount of perfume. I know I look good. Time is a lost concept to me on nights like this, eight o'clock came and went before I knew it.

After finishing everything, I check the time on my phone and walk out of my room to head into Francesca's. The first thing I notice is her huge puffy red dress. She pulls her mask up to her face when she notices me. "Do you like?" She asks, giving me a twirl. I nod in approval and we walk downstairs together, side by side.

As we still have some time to kill before the masquerade ball, we head to the living room to join up with the rest of our family.

James, Harvey and Enzo are all wearing practically the exact same all black suit. The only thing which differs from each of them is their masks. One gold, one black and one silver one. Mom also walks in and is wearing a simple yet elegant navy blue gown.

Mom always dresses to impress. That's one of the things I love the most about her, she always knows how to look good. She also knows exactly how to tell me the right things, the things that I want to hear. But I know that she also has to be straightforward with me instead of sugar coating it all the time.

"Please no funny business tonight. Bring protection, but only use it if you must. I don't want Domenico to get a bad image of us." She explains whilst looking directly at me. I lean forward and nod at each of her words. "Oh, you have nothing to worry about from me." I reply.

I carry my gun everywhere I go, after all, Luca put a hit on me a while ago and he's still out there. He's out for my blood and wont stop until he gets it, but I'll make sure he doesn't. Luca Martínez of all people, will not get what he desires.

"Time to go." James expresses, standing up from the couch. I stand up shortly after him and he leads us out of the room.

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