Elegance with Expense

12. Half Alive

The gym was not a gym, it was a basement the size of the street I used to live on in London, probably bigger. It was littered with equipment I had never even seen before meaning that I definitely did not know how to operate such machines. There were racks of towels, probably used, and a pile of t-shirts in the corner. It didn't smell like sweat how I expected, it smelt quite fresh, like oak. I walked in with Armani since I had gotten out of my clothes before everybody else, I was changed in some gym clothes which consisted of a tank top and some black leggings. We walked over to where Vince and Michele were stood, still dressed in their suits with their arms folded over their chests, their hard stares still intensive.

'Stop looking so intimidating.' I said as I brushed past them going to sit on the bench built into the wall. I saw a chalk bucket at the corner with some wrap located next to it, I leaned over and grabbed the bandages placing them next to me. I stood up and grabbed all of my hair brushing it into a high ponytail with my fingers, I took the hair band that was around my wrist and used it to tie my hair in place, I then sat back down and started to unravel the roll of bandages and tore off a reasonable amount with my teeth. I had two long pieces of fabric on my lap, the three people that were in the room were still staring at me. I began to wrap my left hand since I was able to do it with my dominant one, but when it got to my right hand, I figured I was a bit stuck. I hated asking for help but I really couldn't do it. I walked up to Armani and handed him the other piece.

'Can you wrap my other hand?' I asked him quietly.

'Can I what?' He said mockingly bringing his ear closer to me.

'Don't make this any harder, I already hate asking for help.' I admitted. He shook his head and began to wrap my hand tightly, as he was finishing off, the others walked in looking like a pack of wolves. Xavier was walking in my direction and came quite close to me.

'Do you still want to do this?' Double checking with me, I nodded my head and sat down on the bench waiting for him to get ready. He chalked and wrapped his hands with the brief help of his eldest brother. He walked over to the fighting ring which they had in here for some strange reason, I followed him and got in on the other side after him. I made sure that my wrap was tight and stood up straight looking at him. Whilst he was warming up I decided to examine him to see if I could spot any weaknesses or injuries which I could take advantage of. He was jogging on the spot and I saw him stepping slightly lighter when he landed on his right foot, sports accident? I also saw that his left shoulder was raised the smallest bit which probably meant that it was fatigued more than his right one. He didn't notice me staring at him as I was warming up too. We both stopped when Romeo came into the middle and explained the rules one more time, I wasn't listening to be honest but I heard the basics and remembered the first time I was briefed. 

'Are you a hundred percent sure you want to do this?' Luca asked loudly from the floor.

'Why does everyone keep asking me this.' I responded slightly annoyed. I smirked unnoticeably as I turned back and realised I could knock him out with one of my signature punches, but I decided to taunt him for a while before I attempted that. 

Romeo left the ring and Xavier reached him arm out to signal the beginning of the fight, I shook his hand which meant that there was no hard feelings once it was over. 

He neared closer to me with his hands protecting his face, he lunged to my right but punched to my left, he hit my ribs but I dodged a possibly fatal hit. I moved my feet from his so he couldn't make an unexpected move and punched him in the face, not hard enough to knock him out, but hard enough to startle him, he stumbled back but was still in stance. He punched and I dodged, but he did manage to get one to my face which made the corner of my mouth bleed.