Page 15 of Princess's Revenge

Andrea and I turn to him, he’s got an annoyed look on his face.

“I’m on my way,” he pockets the phone and looks at me, “You’ll get her back safe?”

“Of course,” I give him my shark smile.

He looks at Andrea, “You good with him?”

“I think it’ll be okay,” she turns and looks at me like a viper, “if he knows what’s good for him.”

I smile.She’s growing on me by the minute.

“Okay, see you guys later then,” Frank heads for the door.

When he’s gone, I put my hand on Andrea’s shoulder, “Listen, I’m sorry about before. It won’t happen again. I did what I had to in the moment. No hard feelings?”

She looks up at me with those bow-shaped lips and those brown eyes…and I have to stop myself from kissing her. I feel myself getting hard.

She sighs, “It hasn’t even been a full day yet. Something new is coming at me every fifteen minutes. I think I need more time to focus if I’m going to hold a grudge.”

“Good enough,” I laugh and find myself smiling at her honesty.

She gives me a curt nod and turns back to the target.

She deserves the truth. I’m going to give it to her. She’s been lied to long enough. There’s a dragon inside this woman and she needs a reason to let it out.

“Hey,” she jabs me in the stomach, “are we doing this or not?”

“Right,” I shake my head and come back to the present, “so I want you to forget about what Franky told you. When you’re training a rookie for a badge, those are the instructions you get, but when you’re training a warrior, it’s instinct that matters.”

She chuckles, “Warrior, huh?”

“Exactly. I want you to think of the gun as an extension of your arm. Don’t square your shoulders and plant your feet and all that bullshit. All you need to do is look at what you want dead, point with your arm and squeeze.”

“That’s all there is to it, huh?”

“That’s all there is. Now, point at the Cassaduchi and pull the trigger.”

She scrunches her face at me, “The what?”

Here’s where I unleash the dragon.“The Cassaduchi, over there,” I point to the target.

She laughs, “So is Cassaduchi the Italian word for target or something?”

“Don’t be silly, if I meanttarget, I’d just say—target.”

“Then what, pray tell,” she tries to force down her smile, “is a Cassaduchi?”

I stand back to give her some room to react…she looks at me in confusion. “Well, we’re playing pretend. Don’t forget to point the gun at the target, okay?”

“Okay?”

“When you look at the target, I want you to picture an ugly son of a bitch holding a gun. He’s pointing it at you. He’s standing over a car wreck and he’s pointing the gun at your family.”

She looks at me with hatred, “That’s not funny, Christopher. I don’t want to play your fucked-up game. You said you weren’t going to be an asshole.”

She turns to leave but I stop her, “It’s not a game, I said it’s pretend. Now, trust me, look at the target.”

She pauses to stare at me. I nod to her and she does as I ask.

---