It's been three days of brutal workouts at the compound and a major load of school work. Safe to say I'm completely and utterly exhausted. Although I've really enjoyed shooting guns.

The feeling of pulling back the trigger releasing the bullet. It's so powerful. I hold up the pistol aiming at the target ahead. Once I correct my stance and feel confident. I pull that trigger. The bullet goes straight into the bullseye. "Hell yeah!" I shout to absolutely no one.

The recruits are scattered throughout the place. Some are on runs and some are inside practicing with weapons or fighting. It's feels kind of cool. Like I'm a part of some secret spy agency.

But this is the mafia.

I feel a manly presence behind me. I'd know who it is any day of the week. "Dante." I say not looking back as I load my gun.

We've been on better terms lately. After all it was his first offence. Not counting the whole kidnapping thing. I appreciated his apology. Plus I'm getting a dog out of it. So I'm happy. Just wait until he screws up next time. He's gonna have to make me dinner from scratch. It's a nice meaningful gesture that will allow me to possibly forgive him.

"I have a surprise for you." His husky voice whispers in my ear.

I turn around frowning. "Yeah?" His face goes from stoic to a small smile as he steps away from me. Bending down and opening a crate that I hadn't noticed because of the piece of meat in front of me, he pulls out a little black and brown Doberman puppy.

"OH MY GOD!!" I scream jumping. The gun in my hand flew out of my mind as I stared at the precious baby. It cowered away at a loud banging sound.

The entire room of recruits are all staring at me from afar. Not close enough to hear my voice but definitely close enough to hear the gun shot. Looking down I see that I've accidentally shot Dante's foot. I drop the gun on the floor with a loud clang.

"Fuck! Are you ok? Is the pup ok? Does it hurt? Of course it hurts. Oh shit! Are you gonna die? Can I have your room? Oh man! It's the end of the world-" Dante's hand covers my mouth silencing me.

"Calm down Principessa and stop with the bad language." What is his problem with swearing? I mean I get it but on another note, that nickname gets me feeling things I don't want to feel. At least not right now.

I nod my head acknowledging his command. Slowly he removes his hand. "Take the dog." I grab the little pup who quickly snuggles down in my arms.

Dante looks to a young brunette boy who's the closest recruit from across the room. "DONT JUST STAND THERE, GET ME A FUCKING DOCTOR." I find myself flinching at his loud scary tone as the boy runs past us and out of the room.

"Could you grab me a chair?" Now his voice is calm and endearing. Cool. I nod and run to grab a chair light enough to be lugged across the room.

Placing it just behind him he takes a seat and removes the pressure off of his foot. I guess I owe him a pair of Italian leather shoes.

"Sit." Dante states.

"Huh?" He gestures to his lap. I shake my head as my cheeks begin to heat up.

"I just gave you a puppy and as a thank you I got shot in the foot. So sit." Guilt eats me up in side. Warily I take two steps and plant my ass on his lap.

"Does it not hurt having me on your lap?" I pet pups head looking at Dante while swinging my feet.

"It's worth the pain." He boops the puppy's nose and watches as the little thing proceeds to lick the spot he touched.

The doors to the training area open and a small man runs in with a first aid kit. He kneels down in front of Dante's foot and gets to work. To distract himself from the pain he begins to talk.

"What are you going to name him?" He gestures to the pup.

I shrug. "Got any suggestions?"

He leans back into the chair thinking for a moment. "Bud? Bruce? Spike?" I scrunch my face.

"No those are so basic!"

"Well what do you suggest?"

I mull over his question for a moment "Raymond."

An evident crease appears inbetween his eyebrows. "Raymond?" I nod my head happy with my decision as I look down at Raymond.

"Yep. Then I'm going to get five more and name them Gary, Paul, Bernard, Clarence and Edwin."

"Five more? One for each mistake I make I'm assuming." I nod my head again.

"Indeed. You're a smart one." I boop his nose like he did to Raymond earlier. His nose scrunches in an adorable way as I do so.

It's hard to remain mad at the man when I have a lil puppy on my lap and have shot him in the foot. I believe it was me subconsciously getting some serious revenge.

But I also don't have the mental capacity to remain upset with him. Sure there will be less trust there but he's made an effort to make up which I appreciate and I'm not five so I can move on. If he does it again than I'll cut of his penis, easy peasy.

The doctor stands from his crouched position as I see all the blood on the floor next to Dante's bandaged foot and discarded shoe. Looks like someone got bloody murdered... I'm funny.

"I suggest walking with crutches as you don't want to put pressure on the wound. You got lucky, the bullet only grazed your foot and there were no fragments. It could've been a lot worse."

"Thanks doc." The man nods before grabbing the kit and leaving.

"I should've aimed better." I shake my head feigning disappointment with myself. Dante rolls his eyes as he taps my lower back in a 'get up' gesture.

After standing I hand him his crutches. "Since you can't drive do I get to?" I really want to drive his new sports car that came in last week.

"No, I'll call Xavier to come pick us up."

"Don't waste his time! Plus you're contributing worse to climate change if you make him drive all the way here and drive back again. I thought you were better than this."

"Fine." He grunts shoving the keys in my palm.

"If you so much as scratch my car? Raymonds gone and you can forget about the other five."

"You're acting as if I've never driven before."

"Have you?" I really dug myself a hole with that one.

"I don't believe that is relevant information."

His jaw clenches. It looks as if he's thinking about saying something but he decides against it and hobbles to his car. I shrug and follow after with Raymond.

I place little Ray in the backseat. I accidentally left his crate behind. Fortunately he has a leash so I wrap it around the headrest and clip him in.

I get into my seat and put my seatbelt on. Dante's already glaring out the window. "So what do I do now?"

"Place your foot on the brake." I look down at my feet to see two pedals.

"Is it the big one or small one?"

"Big one." I'm pretty sure I hear him mutter 'Jesus Christ.' Under his breath. That's not very holy of him.

I press my foot on the break. "Now push the hand break down and move the gear to drive."

I follow his instructions and the car slowly starts to move. It's kind of like a video game! Except this results in a real death if I lose. Worth it.

I pull out onto the country road. There's no cars in sight so I assume it's ok if I go a little faster. I roll down all four windows. It'll feel more powerful with the wind blowing in our faces. Plus Ray needs some fresh air, I don't want him getting car sick.

I slam my foot on the excelerator, possibly a little hard. We zoom down the straight road. Dante's yelling at me to slow down but I love it! The speed, the freedom it's just a weird sensational experience.

I ignore his yelling completely lost in my own world. His calls have somewhat blurred to the back of my mind. I spot a little duckling trail to the side. We aren't going to hit them but they're so gosh darn cute!

"SCARLETT STOP THE CAR NOW!"

My foot automatically moves to the break and the car skids to a halt. I look at him to see what the issue is.

He has an entire tree branch in his lap, leaves in his hair and a small cut on the bridge of his nose. Maybe I got too lost in my own world.

"I-I'm sorry. Maybe you should call Xavier." I look in the back to make sure Raymond's ok. He's laying on the seat with his tongue hanging out of his mouth sleeping. Weird dog.

Dante let's out a very annoyed sigh. "No, just drive slowly." I gulp nodding my head and slowly press my foot on excelerator.

The drive back to the house I only drove around 30km per hour afraid that I'd get lost in my mind again.

Eventually we pull up to the house. He helps me park the car. I get out and grab Raymond who's only too happy to walk and sniff his new home.

Dante opens the door for me although I feel I should be doing that for him but I proceed to walk in him following close behind. Xavier who must've been waiting looks at me and to Dante.

"What happened to you?" His gruff voice asked.

"Well, Scarlett got a little too excited to see her new puppy and shot me in the foot. So since I couldn't drive she did but she hasn't driven before, got lost in her own world and a tree branch hit me in the face."

For the first time in my life I see the stoic cold Xavier smile.