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Fighter
Part 2
October 2012
He wasn't use to this schedule- getting up at nine am and working out all morning. Johnny Zacchara was more the type to drink until the wee hours of the morning, wake his neighbors by playing sad songs on his piano at dawn and then crash into bed until afternoon.
And then maybe, if he was in a decent mood, he would do some boxing to keep in shape before his evening of work as a mob boss.
Now he was up with the crows, or close to it, and spending all morning tangling with a beautiful woman. Kristina might only be twenty but she was far from a little girl now- in her body, her spirit and her mind.
It didn't take him long of showing her self defense moves, cozying up to her and wrapping his arms around her, to realize she wasn't still the slight, fragile girl of her teens. Not only had her body grown and changed but deep inside of herself she had been through so much that she had lost her childlike innocence somewhere along the way.
"Twist my wrist counterclockwise. Don't worry. You won't hurt me." He showed her how to disarm someone with a knife. "You gotta be prepared to do whatever it takes to survive the moment. If you freeze up then he gets the upper hand but if you know what to do then it becomes second nature to just do it. Remember stay alert. Don't let anyone sneak up on you."
They did a couple more techniques, leaving her panting. She said "I'm not up for this. We've been at this a week and I still feel like I'm not getting it. Maybe I'm just fooling myself to think I could learn to defend myself for real."
"You're doing great. It doesn't come overnight. Hey, look at it this way: whatever you do pick up puts you that much more ahead of the game the next time something goes down. And you know something is gonna go down again. It's just a matter of time in this town."
She picked up a water bottle and held it against her chest, to cool off, before taking a drink of it. Johnny ripped his gaze off the spot where water was sliding down her skin, into her shirt, from the condensation on the bottle.
He was doing his best to remind himself that Kristina was very much unlike any other woman he had ever had in his life. She wasn't street smart and world weary like the dancers at his strip club, wasn't as self destructive as Maxie, Lulu, Lisa or Carly (always looking for a way to wreck themselves and then breaking down once they accomplished their goal) and she wasn't as strong and confident as Olivia.
Kristina was uniquely her own kind of woman. Broken deep inside but determined to keep fighting. Naive in a lot of ways to men but well aware of the mob world and all it's inherent dangers. She had matured a lot since back when she was sixteen and crushing on Ethan, but a bad marriage would do that to a woman. He still found it weird to think she had been someone's wife.
It proved his point that she wasn't a child anymore but he also knew that he shouldn't look at her the way he was...with desire and want, hunger and need. It was probably just because he was so lonely lately.
He needed to ignore the urge. The only problem was that he was rarely ignored a dangerous impulse or bad idea in all his life. He usually jumped head first right into them.
XXXXXXXX
Maybe this was a bad idea, Kristina thought, as she drank down a gulp of water, her eyes on Johnny as he watched her.
Not only was she struggling to pick up all the self defense moves he was throwing at her, she also was wondering if she had picked the right guy to train her. Ever since the first time Johnny wrapped his arms around her waist (to show her how to get out of a hold) she had felt a jolt of sexual awareness between them.
Right now the last thing she needed was another complicated situation with a guy. Even though Johnny was nothing like Keifer, Ethan or Trey, who were all nothing like each other, she still was smart enough to realize that she couldn't go falling for a new guy when the ink on her annulment papers was barely dry.
She needed to focus on making herself strong enough so that she stopped shaking in fear whenever she walked on the docks alone, or got in her car late at night, or slept in bed alone in the apartment she had recently rented for herself.
Kristina was determined to learn enough and become good enough with knives and guns to put up one hell of a fight the next time some loser came after her. To get there though wouldn't be easy. And she would never get there if she gave up.
"All right. Lets try that last move again," she told Johnny.
He smirked. "Ready for more?"
"Bring it on."
XXXXXXXXXXXX
While Kristina was taking a shower, after their training, Johnny dumped his bottles of booze down the drain, while muttering to himself "This is the last thing I need right now..."
"Talking to yourself? I hear that is a sign of genius."
He laughed as he turned to face her. She had changed back into her jeans and blouse and her hair was slicked back in a ponytail. The dampness of her skin caused the shirt to cling to her slightly and he did his best to ignore those curves that were tempting him to sin.
"More like a sign that I'm on a fast train to crazy land, just like my grandfather."
"You're nothing like Anthony was."
"I'm more like him than you'll ever know."
"I don't see it."
"Yeah, well, it's there." He walked around her and into the living room. "So you bored yet or will you be back bright and early tommorow?"
"Guess I gotta since I'm still nowhere near ready to defend myself when the next Joe Scully type comes my way."
He helped her put on her coat, moving her hair over the collar. "We'll get you there, sweetie. I promise you that."
With a smile she murmured "That's why I came to you. I knew you'd understand."
He grabbed his coat and opened his cell phone. "Bring around Ms. Corinthos- Davis car now," he said into the cell and then opened the door to his apartment and motioned for her to walk out. He followed her out the door.
Johnny always walked Kristina to her car to make sure she got there safely. He could have asked one of his men but he didn't trust them with her. She was too precious to put under anyone else's protection but his own.
She had come to him for help and he was going to give her all he had to give- in the self defense department- before sending her on her merry way, back to the college boys that she needed to date to learn more about the world. He was definitely not the man for a delicate woman like her- even if she was battle scarred now.
Kristina would never come close to being as damaged as Johnny was- not if he had anything to say about it- and that is just the way it should be. He would resist his baser impulses that said to seduce her into his bed just because he could and he was lonely.
She deserved way better than that, way better than him.
