The Chronicles of City Lights and Modern Love

The following day I had decided what I wanted to do. I didn't want to take part in Neil's business, but I did want to do everything in my power to ensure that the man who killed Luciano never killed anyone again. When I told my grandfather this, he seemed at first disappointed. No doubt, he had hoped that I would have been inspired to join him so that I would one day become his successor.

I told Carmine my wishes, and his response surprised me.

"I was hoping that this would have scared you away..."

I simply frowned at him.

"I guess I should have known better," he added finally, "and I guess we'll need to teach you how to use a gun..."

This idea scared me a little, but I was happy that Carmine hadn't protested anymore. Whether or not he agreed with my decision, there wasn't anything that he could have done to change my mind, and he knew that.

That afternoon, Carmine and Freddie took me into the spacious yard to have some shooting practice and then later we were going to practice hand to hand combat. Before stepping back to watch, Freddie looked me up and down in my workout attire and smacked me on the arse. I responded by smacking him in the face.

"Don't touch me, Freddie," I berated.

Carmine laughed as he propped a large piece of plywood board against a tree about 15 metres away. On its surface, the silhouette of a person had been painted. After doing this, he walked back towards me and handed me his gun, a serious look now on his face.

After showing me how the gun worked logistically, he said, "look down your arm, take a deep breath, and when you exhale, shoot...and be ready for the recoil."

I did what he told me, and the bullet hit the silhouette in the middle of the head. I looked at Carmine, and the somewhat scared look on his face made me feel sick.

"Nice shot!" Freddie exclaimed.

I looked past him to where Neil had set himself up on the outdoor lounge to watch and the smile on his face made me feel even worse.

"Try again," Carmine said hoarsely.

Once I had used up all the bullets in the gun, and had not strayed more than a centimetre from my target each time, I decided that I had had enough shooting practice for one day.

"Let's see how you go in hand to hand combat!" Freddie said enthusiastically.

"You've already had a taste of how she goes hand to hand, haven't you Freddie?" Carmine said, composing himself.

Freddie's face dropped as he remembered the number of times I'd used my combat skills on him, one of which had culminated in a black eye and busted lip.

Carmine laughed, before turning to me.

"Come on," he said. "Let's see how you go against me...I promise I'll go easy on you."

We went inside to where they had cleared some space.

"OK," Carmine said as we stepped onto a foam mat they had set up. "I'm going to attack you, and you defend yourself."

He stepped toward me, and grabbed onto my arm with both hands. In one fluid movement, I used a basic defense move, grabbing my trapped hand with the other to pull it upwards and out of his grasp, then I lashed out at his chest with the heel of my palm, knocking the wind out of him and making him bend at the middle, before kneeing him in the ribs.

Freddie laughed as Carmine doubled over in pain and looked at me with a shocked look on his face.

"Don't go easy on me," I said seriously. "No one else would afford me that courtesy."

His jaw dropped and he stared at me for a moment, but then composed himself and stood up straight, shaking off the pain.

"As you wish."

Now that I no longer had the element of surprise on my side, I needed to concentrate more. Carmine was actually a very skilled fighter. He was stronger than me, but I was faster. He came at me with a number of advanced moves, and I was able to avoid most, but some didn't miss, one of which connected with my side quite forcefully. This seemed to upset Carmine as much as it upset me. I inhaled as the pain shot through me, but I ignored it and kept going, turning around and landing a roundhouse kick into his rib cage before dropping to the ground and employing a foot sweep from the front. He hit the ground with a thud, landing on his stomach, and before he composed himself, I leapt onto his back, immobilising one arm with my weight and pulling his other arm upwards to apply a joint lock. I held it for a moment before relenting and allowing him to roll over beneath me.

"Well," he said slowly, propping himself up on his elbows "...you sure showed me..."

He then looked me up and down, as if he had only just become aware of the fact I was straddling his waist.

I blushed and stood up, before offering him a hand to help him up.

"Don't take it too hard," I said, with a smirk. "I excel at a lot of things..."

He laughed. "I've noticed..."