Flavio took Anastasia towards the elevator. She got in and waited patiently for the Underboss. Noah looked at her and then at his brother. "I don’t give a fuck how you will make it work, but she is to be kept safe. Pick trustworthy people to guard her. I have a feeling the Bazzoliwon’t go down without a fight. She might come in handy," he paused, lowering his voice. "I meant what I said to her. She doesn’t deserve any cruel treatment so remind her not to test me."
"Does this have anything to do with Sienna?"
"Everything I do has to do with Sienna. I want her death not to go to waste. As long as I have a word to say, no girl will be collateral damage in any of my fights. Whether she’s part of my Famigliaor not." His mind went from the image of his younger sister to Inéz, who had been put in a difficult situation. He’d promised himself he wouldn’t allow anything to happen to her and intended to keep that promise.
Flavio nodded, clapping his brother’s shoulder in a comforting gesture and moved to the elevator to take care of Anastasia.
CHAPTER 19
Ever since Inéz had woken up her stomach was in knots with anticipation of what was to come. She had a hard time trying to eat anything in the morning but needed to because she had another training session scheduled with Nicodemo at noon. The slow progress was unbearable, especially now when she would need the skills more than ever before. Her mind couldn’t focus on anything else other than her meeting in the club later that day. She knew that this time there would most likely be no dancing, but still, being surrounded by mobsters was far from ideal, especially in a place like that. Being so close to the person her Capo was trying to kill made her anxious. She wasn’t sure whether the fear would ever stop. Not until she was done with her task. And even then, she couldn’t be totally certain.
That was exactly why she was determined to learn how to properly defend herself. Earlier she’d had a feeling that it could be useful but couldn’t find enough motivation to keep pushing herself. But as she was sitting on the wooden bench, waiting for the Enforcer to get to the gym, she was more than ready to give it another shot.
Five minutes later the doors opened and Nicodemo stepped into the room already dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. He didn’t bother greeting the girl, immediately takingsome bandages from a shelf and threw them her way. It turns out that this would be the first time she had any kind of protection during their training. Usually, Nicodemo was a supporter of ’learning raw’ as he’d explained to her. Because of this Inéz had more bruises on her knuckles after each fight than she ever hadaltogether on her body throughout her life.
She raised an eyebrow. "You can’t have bloody hands while working in Gastone’s club. It would be suspicious, not to mention they value perfection in their women," he said in a low voice, putting his shoulder holster down on the cage’s floor and climbed in himself. Inéz joined him.
The girl had gotten used to training with Nicodemo, so being locked in a cage with him wasn’t that scary anymore. However, every time he prepared to strike she imagined all the women he handled in his everyday job as an Enforcer. Did he beat, hurt, kill or rape them? It was unthinkable to her, but Flavio’s words still rang in her head. He was the best at handling women. It paralyzed her whenever she remembered it.
"Alright, I’m fucking done seeing how scared you are. Ask me what you want to know and let’s get this over with. Because I cannot fucking train you if you keep cowering each time I make a move," he seethed.
Inéz thought the question through, realizing that this situation had the potential to go really badly if Nicodemo didn’t like her next words. Or misunderstood them. He could get furious and show her exactly what his job was about. A shiver went up her spine. But as Noah had already pointed out, she was too curious not to ask. "How come you’re the best at handling women?"
He frowned. "Who said I was the best?"
"Flavio said it when I asked why Noah picked you to train with me," she admitted, wrapping her hand at the same time.
"It just means that I studied through the course of my life the way they interact, attack, fight and defend themselves," he paused. "I have sisters and my father always thought it necessary for them to learn self-defense technics. I observed him teaching them and picked up certain things like gestures and moves along the way."
"As an Enforcer, you take care of women as well, right? What does that entail exactly?" Her voice faltered, not sure how to get straight to the point. Maybe he would pick up on it without any other additional clarifications.
And he did. "I have never raped a woman. Some mobsters think it necessary and no one can do anything to remedy that shitty approach. I don’t believe in it. Yes, I handle women sometimes. Only those that betrayed the Famiglia or are against us. Like Bratva women. The fuckers initiate them more often than not."
Inéz sighed with relief. She hoped for such an answer but never thought that it would be the one Nicodemo would offer her. "Can we now go back to training?"
She ignored him. "Have Noah or Flavio..." she began, choking on the words.
"Flavio for sure hasn’t. He’s too noble to ever do it. I can’t speak for Noah because we weren’t close before when his father was theCapo. I was in Sicily while
