ruthless

chapter 14: trauma and tears

Luciano's POV:

Dominico asks the question we all thought. What does she mean by torture? Pulling myself from my thoughts I look over at niki and her face displays shock. "Uh I worded it wrong training was just you know difficult" she shoves the last few pieces of steak from her plate in her mouth this is her family why lie

"Nicoletta I need to know what happened between your mother and you during your childhood you can't hide it forever" she stays quiet and her playful mood is gone. I notice Hazel grab her hand from under the table and she's a little more comfortable but still wants to avoid the question.

what has her mother done to her?It makes me angry knowing that she suffers under the surface of the happy and confident niki that we see all the time. I know that she's completely shattered inside, like me.

she stares at her father with dead looking eyes,her face shows no emotion. she clenches her jaw and her eyes want to let tears fall but she fights back. standing up her eyes and face fall once again "i'm not hiding it dad" she pushes her seat out and walks out. She pushes emotion down like it's nothing but when you're in this line of work it's very useful to have that skill.

Hazel sends everyone a look and runs after niki upstairs. Dominico sighs "why won't she tell me i need to know" he folds his hands on the table "is it that time of the month?" this actual idiot "vinchenzo how thick skulled are you,it's probably a wound that refuses to heal" shes told me about how she feels about her mother. She's explained to me the bare minimum of what she's experienced. I should ask her about it "your onto something luciano" Antonio takes another sip of his wine.

After about 15 minutes silence Hazel and niki come back down. Niki is shuffling being practically dragged by hazel. She sits back in her seat and Hazel sits next to her sending her a glare. Nikis eyes are puffy and her lips are swollen. Shes been crying. Clearing her throat she hesitates before she speaks.

"Um moms training was never easy. I've been stabbed, she put me in the middle of nowhere and left me to figure out how to escape. Um" she pauses "all these things have made me a good fighter and powerful in general" Dominico nods "that still doesn't answer my question'' she looks at hazel "it's not something i'm okay with talking about a lot of stuff happened and i still need time" Dominico looks confused "but i wanna help you and i'm your family yet you don't wanna talk to me about it?"

her face shows little to no emotion again but her white knuckles say different. i'm gonna wait outside for her tonight. "ok i think this is enough questions about the whore you like to call mother and wife i think we should get into a heated debate about how virginity isn't real" hazel is smiling and niki laughs a little.

...

stepping into my shower the water warms my freezing cold body. my mind wanders to niki after a while,her blue eyes that any guy would find beautiful,her confidence which is extremely sexy,that rage and anger she carries with her makes her powerful,also very hot,her lips that she bites down on when in deep thought that i so crave to have get your head out of the gutter.

she's just absolutely gorgeous and she drives me crazy. Since the first day we met, she told me to shake her hand properly. I knew she was different and i knew that she was confident and strong.

when i woke up to her trying to get out this morning i took my a second to re call last nights events. i wanted nothing more than to ask her to stay and just kiss every part of her body but i couldn't luciano stop she doesn't see you that way.

after my shower i change and head down to the couch by the fire pit the sound of the ocean waves splashing in the background is calming

"mind if i join you" my head turns to see niki with a huge blanket and a speaker. I can't help but smile "sure" she plops down next to me and gives me some of her blanket knowing that I'm a little cold. Taking the blanket she moves a bit closer to me,I look over at her and her head turns to me. "Why does my dad wanna know?" her expression is soft like she's removed a layer of protection over herself.