Page 28 of Savage Poet

He grunted, “Whoever this guy is he isn’t worth you, Diana.”

“I know that…” I twisted the ends of my sweatshirt in my hands.

“We’re done for the day. Cut this shit out and I’ll still train you, but we need to re-group. For now, we need to make your mind stronger, we’ll train your brain to fight… ignore the pain, ignore the emotions… in the moment when you face your opponent, you’ll morph into something else.”

“…That’s what I’ve been trying to do. How? How can I get there?”

“Not by doing time like I did. But I can share with you everything I learned when I was on the inside. I had to change in order to survive. You’ve never been in a world like that. Where nothing exists except for the instinct to survive.”

“You don’t know that,” I whispered huskily, remembering the feel of Roque’s hands around my throat.

“The fuck? Who? I want a name. Now!” Carlos’ fists ball.

“It was a long time ago. I was a child.”

“That’s even more reason.”

I swallowed hard. “Thanks for the offer. But I want to take him down myself.”

He studied me intently. “I get that.”

“Good. I’m sorry for being a pain in the ass. But please don’t quit on me, okay?”

“Fine. But no more bullshit. We’re gonna train harder than before mentally and physically.”

I pushed off the brick wall. “Good. I’m ready. Let’s get back to work.” Lifting my chin, I turned around and open the door. He followed me back into the gym and this time when we grappled on the mat I was focused as hell. My mind was blank. All I thought about was how to take down my opponent…searching for weaknesses while trying to get in his head and find his next move before he makes it. The two of us sweat and spun, strained and shook. He might’ve outmatched me in years and weight, but I had heart and grit; enough to make him even wonder what hit him as I popped Carlos with a quick jab to his throat and smiled wickedly as he fell back.

We called it a night and after a quick shower, my heart sunk noticing Zio waiting.

“Zio?”

“Get dressed. Quickly.”

“What’s wrong?”

He checked the locker room again to ensure no one else was here. When he did speak his hiss was low and full of fury. “What have you done? All this time we waited. It was almost perfect.”

“I don’t—”

“Silencio!” His weathered face was full of tension. “The Salvatore’s and The Lamatti’s are all over Princeton. They’ve descended like locusts. My connections have told me they’re looking for two high school girls. One with light skin and cork-screw curls. The other… small in stature with long brown hair and dark eyes.”

My heart pounded furiously.

“I-I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? You’re sorry? If they find me…they’ll make the connection to you. We’re both supposed to be dead. The Fiorelli’s aren’t supposed to walk the earth unless they’re ghosts. And for decades we were living, breathing ghosts. You just couldn’t wait until it was time, eh? I trusted you, Romina. I trusted you not to fuck up.”

I hung my head, wrapping the towel closer around my shivering body. “What can I do?”

“Nothing. It’s too late. We must become gypsy’s again and move.”

“No! I like it here!”

“You should’ve thought of that before you crashed his college party. It was reckless and dumb. We’ll be lucky to lay low and escape. They’ve got all the main roads under constant surveillance.”

“So? We live like hermits as it is. No one knows us. Besides. If we leave, they’ll know. If you pull me out of school…they’ll find out and trace us.”

“I know,” he sighed. “It won’t be easy to run this time.”

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