I get to the restaurant early, go right in and sit down at our usual table. I thought about bringing some of my guys with me, but if I fail today they’d go down with me, and this is my fight. Mine alone.

Father and Tony arrive at the same time, father walking a few steps in front of Tony. Dad leaves his bodyguards outside today, sends the waiter away as soon as he brings out the wine.

All I see is Tony’s face. He shaved sloppily, a patch of black stubble left under his ear. He has black rings under his bloodshot eyes too, so I think maybe I have pretty good odds. Not that a jetlag can compare to four broken ribs and a concussion. My hate for him will have to carry me. And I have a lot of that going back years. Him taking Kat made it boil over, and it’s still simmering.

Both Tony and my father are looking at me, so I might as well get this shit started.

“I want her back, unharmed,” I tell Tony. “And I want her today.”

“Or what?” he snarls. “She wasn’t yours to have in the first place, and you needed to be taught a lesson. So I taught it to you. Which is well within my rights, isn’t it, Papa?”

Dad’s looking at me, sizing me up it seems, but he turns his head to look at Tony. “Vinny broke the rules, you are right about that. But you had no right to take her either.”

Tony pales, the black bags under his eyes growing darker.

“I want her for myself,” Tony says to dad. “Are you ordering me to give her back?”

I shake my head.

“I’m telling you to give her back,” I say before Dad has a chance to respond.

“And I’m telling you no,” Tony counters, smiling at me like we’re five year olds, having a stupid, childish argument.

“I’ve had it with your petty jealousy and your vindictiveness. I love Kat, and I won’t let you have her,” I say. “I challenge you to a fight. One on one, just you and me. Let’s settle all this once and for all.”

Tony’s eyes go wide, and he looks on the verge of calling me crazy. Dad’s completely quiet, looking from one to the other. I think he’s slightly impressed by my balls in the matter, but he’s trying to hide it. It’s an old-school suggestion, straight from the streets my father rose from. This is how it’s done with honor, while what Tony did to me is low and dishonest. I could stab him in some alleyway for it in revenge and get away with it. But that’s not my way, and it’s not our father’s way. Tony knows that, even though he has precious little honor himself.

“I win and you stop fucking with me every chance you get, and let me take my rightful place in this organization,” I elaborate. “You win and you get to keep Kat.”

It hurts just saying the words, and he’ll have to kill me for that to happen, but honor demands sacrifice.

“You can barely sit straight,” Tony says, but there’s fear under the mocking in his voice.

“Should give you an advantage,” I counter. “Or are you too afraid of me despite my injuries?”

He should be. I have years of mixed martial arts training under my belt, and countless one-on-one combat training workshops completed, the last one by a group of elite Israeli army soldiers just a couple of months ago. I may have been nothing more than a common thug in my father’s organization for years, but I studied up for the job. Tony’s been in precious few fights himself. He lets his goons take care of that.

“Am I supposed to be taking this seriously?” he asks, looking at Dad.

“The challenge has been spoken,” Dad says, eyeing me like he thinks it’s not the best idea, since I am hurt, but he won’t say it. He is a man of honor and character.

“Alright,” Tony says, squaring his shoulders. “Name the time and place.”

“How about right now?” I say and stand, ignoring the pain that shoots up my side. “There’s a perfectly good basement downstairs.”

Tony looks at Dad, and I can see him struggling not to ask him to postpone this, or tell him he doesn’t have to fight me.

But Dad stands up too, and motions for his two bodyguards to come in.

As I follow them all downstairs, every painful step reminds me that all Tony has to do is get a few well aimed punches in and I’m done. But I won’t let him get that close. Adrenaline is already pumping through my veins, dulling the pain and making my senses razor sharp. Tony’s big, clumsy and untrained. Even with four broken ribs and my body covered in bruises, I can take him. And I will.

The bodyguards move the crates of wine stored in the basement up against the wall. I’ve already removed my jacket, shirt and tie, while Tony’s taking his time with his. He keeps shooting Dad sidelong glances like he’s still hoping Dad’ll call this off. Even if he does, I mean to pummel Tony today. He’s the one that needs to learn a lesson. One I should’ve taught him a long time ago. I am my father’s son. And I mean to have my rightful place in his organization.

Tony’s finally done undressing, and now we’re just standing in the middle of the room facing each other, neither making the first move. I didn’t think he would, he’s too much of a pussy deep down. Besides, I prefer to be the aggressor in a fight. Coming on strong in the beginning is my ticket to winning this fight. And I need to make it swift.

I charge him head on, and he swings out his right arm, missing my stomach by a mile as I lunge left and bring my elbow down, not hitting the base of his neck where I aimed, but getting him just below his shoulder blade. He howls in pain. My whole left side is burning, but the adrenaline dulls it as he rushes me, screaming something incomprehensible. I step away in time, stopping him from flailing into empty space by wrapping my arm around his neck and clenching. I land four quick, hard jabs in his side, before releasing his neck and stepping out of reach.

But I need him to go down quickly, and his sheer fucking bulk is preventing it. So I kick the side of his knee, making him scream in pain as it buckles, his weight bringing him down on top of it. I deliver a perfect uppercut, and he topples backwards, his face bright red, as I kneel on his chest, wrapping both my arms around his throat.

He punches me in the side a few times, the pain growing worse despite the adrenaline still rushing through my veins. But his arms are starting to lose their strength, as I apply more pressure to his neck, compressing the nerves there and his trachea.

“That’s enough, Vinny,” my father says sternly, but I don’t obey. Tony’s face is turning purple, he can’t breathe, and I’ve waited so fucking long for this. I’m grinning like an idiot, as I watch him lose consciousness.

“Vinny, release him,” Dad commands, and this time I do it.

“Do you need a doctor?” he asks, as his two bodyguards try to revive Tony. I struggle into my shirt and jacket.

I shake my head, although I probably do. “I need to get Kat. He probably has her in his house in Long Island.”

I move for the door, but Dad grips my arm. “He wasn’t wrong, Vinny. You had no right to claim her. She is not yours, she is mine.”

I just stare at him. After all that, he’s still not gonna let me have her? I knew he’d give me a talking to over breaking the rules, probably even punish me, I had no illusions that wouldn’t be so. But I didn’t think he’d prevent me from being with her.

“I love her, Dad,” I say, since it’s the only thing that’s crystal clear in my mind right now.

He smiles, and it’s a huge fucking relief. “I believe you. She’s here in the city, one of my men will take you to her. But once you’ve had your reunion and you’ve healed, we will talk.”

I’m not stupid, I can hear the warning in his voice. But right now all that matters is seeing Kat again. Everything will be alright after that.

* * *

KAT

Keys rattle in the lock, sending my heart racing. The lady brought my lunch and dinner half an hour ago, and she never returns until the next day.

I’m on my feet staring at the door, shaking, so sure I’m about to see Tony come to take me back to the nightmare of his basement, that I don’t trust my eyes when Vinny’s face appears in the door. My fright is turning to joy like ice melting in fast-forward motion, but I don’t trust what I’m seeing. It’s just an illusion. Just my mind showing me what I want to see more than anything else.

But so what if it is? Seeing Vinny is what I want more than anything else, and I’ll take it even if it’s just an illusion.

Once I realize that, I laugh happily and run into his arms, or more precisely arm, since he’s keeping the other one pressed to his side like he can’t move it. He grunts as our bodies collide, but then he squeezes me tight, his kiss telling me this is all real, that I’m not just imagining it. It also takes away the last of my icy fear, quickly filling my whole body with warmth, bliss, a million tiny butterflies fluttering happily inside me. I can hear birdsong, feel the warm spring sunshine on my back, even though we’re high up in an apartment building at the heart of a concrete jungle.

“I thought they killed you,” I mutter, joyful tears running hot down my cheeks at learning it’s not so.

“It’ll take more than a couple of Tony’s thugs to do that. Are you alright?”

I think of the basement, the darkness, my tentative hold on reality, as I lay on the hard concrete ground. But I nod. Because I am alright now that he’s with me. Just as I always was when he was with me. And always will be.

A large green bruise is covering the let side of his face, and there’s a bloodstain spreading across the left side of his crisp white shirt.

“Are you alright?” I ask, looking at it, and trying not to shake again. He’s still holding me loosely, but he looks down, following my gaze.

“This is nothing. Just one of my cuts bursting,” he says. “Are you any good at changing bandages?”

“I took a first aid class in driving school,” I say, trying to recall it, as I take his hand and lead him to the bedroom. I found some bandages and such rummaging through the cupboards in the bathroom a few days ago.

“Sit,” I say and point at the bed, then run to the bathroom.

He’s already taken off his jacket by the time I return, and I unbutton his shirt, while his hands run up and down my ass and back, a very inviting, desirous light in his eyes. He can’t be hurt badly, if he’s thinking about sex.

But I wince when I peel away his undershirt and see the bloody bandage wrapped around his torso.

“You need the emergency room,” I say.

He smiles, squeezing my ass. “You’re all the medicine I need. Hurry this up. I need to kiss you some more.”

I’m not sure he’s right, but it feels good hearing it, so I just start to remove his bandage. He doesn’t make a single sound of pain, but his body is so taut I know he’s feeling it.

He has several angry black stiches on the left side of his stomach and some have burst. But the blood has stopped spilling from the wound and it’s already scabbing over. I press a piece of gauze against it, have him hold it in place as I wrap a fresh elastic bandage all around his torso, trying my best to do it the way I was taught.

He lies down once I’m done, tapping the space to his right, and I need no telling twice before joining him. He motions me down for a kiss, and I obey, the taste of his soft lips, the feel of his arm caressing my back chasing away even my worry for him.

“Man, I hoped we’d be able to do more than kiss,” he says, chuckling as we’re catching our breaths later.

“I like just kissing you,” I say, smiling at him. Which leads to another helping of that sweet bliss.

“What will happen to us now?” I ask later, once the sky outside is turning grey, and we’re spent for the moment.

“I don’t know,” he says. “But I think it’ll be alright. I’m never letting anyone take you away from me again. I love you, Katarina, and I’m sorry I didn’t do right by you from the start.”

He didn’t mangle my name this time, as though he’d been practicing saying it just like I taught him.

“I love you too, Vinny. And I’ll go anywhere with you. As long as we’re be together, I’m happy.”

He kisses me again, softly, no tongue, his arm wrapped tightly around me. I snuggle up to him after that, getting so close I hardly feel any space between us. Just as it should be.