Loving a Killer | 18+

2.0 - Apologies

| Norah |

My arms burned and tingled as I pounded my fist into the sand-filled bag over and over. I huffed every time my fist hit the bag.

"Train Norah until you see that she is fit to defend herself," is what my father had ordered Maddox to do, and we had been doing just that.

These training sessions were much needed, yes, and would help on the hits that Maddox had found. Yet, ever since Maddox and I had talked about killing Viktor Kosta, I couldn't see past the pointlessness of our initial plan.

Maddox's plan had been one more of finality rather than small plays towards the game of 'who was going to back off first.' Yet who knew if killing Viktor would crumble the Russian mob or simply cripple it to the point of turning to an all-out war between us and them.

But I had told Adriano once that the war had already started.

Viktor killed my mother, he wanted to kill me.

So I wanted to kill him.

"Come on, Romaniello, you need to get aggressive," Maddox disapproved of my weakening hits. I sighed and hit the bag as hard as I could. Maddox barely budged behind the bag. I groaned and went over to the cold wall of the fitness room and slid down it. Grabbing my water bottle, I tilted my head back and savored every sip. It felt like I had been stuck in the Sahara and hadn't drunk anything in days.

Maddox sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. He folded his arms and walked over to stand a few feet in front of me. I looked up from where I was sitting and kept drinking. I picked up my sweat towel and held it to my face.

"You need to take this serious, Norah-"

"I am taking this serious!" I cut Maddox off in frustration, placing my towel down with a fist. "You're wasting my time on trying to teach me stupid hooks when I need to learn how to fight."

Maddox didn't respond. He was quiet and a sort of astonishment was subtly present. I could tell he wasn't used to being cut off. Yet, I could tell he was partly amused by my quick retort.

"We're never going to kill Viktor if I don't learn the important things soon and quick," I continued, adamant about learning what would help me murder Viktor Kosta.

"If we go too fast you won't learn anything and you'll be of no help to me when the time comes to kill Kosta," Maddox countered with me.

"If we go too slow the Russians have more time to figure out who I am and kill me before I can even finish the job," I debated with him. Maddox didn't respond.

Maddox shrugged plainly and went back to the wall parallel to mine where his stuff was. He pulled off his grey t-shirt and threw it towards his water bottle. He turned to me and started walking towards the center of the room, cracking his neck and fingers as he went.

"What are you doing?" I asked, beginning to get frustrated. I kept my eyes from looking over his inked body.

"You said you wanted to learn how to fight," Maddox stated, unamused.

I raised my eyebrows in surprise but got up quickly. I walked to where he was and faced him.

"Show me how you fight," Maddox instructed me. He looked me from head to toe and smirked, almost like he knew this was going to be a sight to see.