Another update! Woop Woop!!!! <3
I hope you enjoy this chapter like all the others guys!!!
Its a very emotional chapter for Skylar and it broke my heart to write it </3
Above is the song Arms by Christina Perri and its just perfect for this chapter! :)
Happy Reading!
Love, GrissyQuinn! <3
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"What happened to you?" Alexander asked as I got out of the car. He looked at my bruised cheek and bloody lip
"I'm fine" was all I said as I opened the trunk to reveal a still out cold and bound Kyle Lestrade. "He was just a bit hard to contain."
It looked like Alexander wanted to know more about what happened but after looking into my intense eyes, he nodded and let it go for the moment. "Take him down to the basement" he said to Jeremy and Angelo as we headed inside.
"Are you going to be okay?" Alexa whispered next to me and I sent her a nod back.
I started walking back inside, trying to ignore the pain in my ribs and face, but as soon as I started walking up the stairs I couldn't help but wince at the pain.
"Do you need help?" I turned to see Alexander, arms crossed and a worried expression on his face.
"I'm fine." I said to him again before continuing to walk up the stairs ignoring my pain. God knows I've been through worse and I was done looking weak in front of men for one night.
"Nyx, just let me help you" he insisted again
"I said I'm fine, Alexander!" with that I continued to go up the stairs ignoring my pain until I'm finally up in my room.
Once I was there, I quickly stripped out my bloodied clothes and stepped into the shower. I thought I would cry, that I would break down again but all I did was stare at the tiled wall of the shower as I let the hot water soak me from head to toe. I felt numb, I didn't feel hatred, fear or disgust. I just felt numb and it was strangely comforting.
I was there for so long my skin started to prune, my skin was a bit red from the constant hot water pouring down on it and the bathroom was all fogged up. Shutting off the water, I wrapped a robe around my body and walked over to the fogged-up mirror.
Wiping it clean, I stared at the reflection in front of me. My skin pale and pink from the hot water. My brown eyes dull and with bags under them. My cheeks bruised along with my lip. Untying my robe and looking down at my ribs, I see they had already started to bruise. As my eyes traveled down my neck, I saw a hickey where Kyle had sucked on earlier.
Anger rises through me as I tied up my robe again. Anger for everything at once, so much anger I couldn't stop myself from punching the mirror in front of me. The glass cracked as my knuckles started to bleed. But I didn't stop, I embraced the pain as I kept punching it again and again.
I punched it because of my father, because of that monster Johnson, for the seven years I spent at D. Impero. I punched it because today I showed weakness, because I froze, because my walls crumbled down against my will, all because a man touched me, and my demons rose to hold me down. I yelled out every time I punched the mirror, there was barely any mirror left to punch but I didn't stop.
I suddenly saw myself back at Johnsons special room at D. Impero. Hands tied up above me as my feet barely touched the ground. The room dark and reeking of blood and sweat. My blood and sweat. My body bare as Johnson approached with an ugly and evil smile. I sobbed uncontrollably as I kept punching at the mirror, the wall where the mirror used to be, I didn't know anymore. I felt blood run down my hand, but the pain didn't stop me.
Suddenly a pair of strong arms wrapped themselves around me stopping me from punching my knuckles raw. I just kept sobbing and trying to get away from the pair of arms holding me back as my cries filled the room.
The person turned me around and I saw a pair of familiar dark brown intense eyes. It was Alexander, he said nothing as he wrapped his arms around me and let me sob in his strong arms. He didn't tell me things were going to be okay, he didn't question my breakdown. He just held me, stopped me from hurting myself more as I sobbed. I sobbed until my body was limp against him and until my eyes ran dry.
I don't know how much time passed before Alexander carried me out of the bathroom and out of my room. He carried me to his room where he gently sat me on his bed and left to his bathroom, never saying a word.
I took the time to look around his bedroom. It was twice the size of mine and looked appropriate for a man like him. He didn't have much decoration or frames on the walls. He had a king size bed with blue and white duvets and many pillows on it. A small nightstand with a single lamp and a book next to his bed. A couch and a coffee table in the middle of the room. His balcony was bigger than the one in my room and I bet the inside of his bathroom was just as impressive. His room had a scent of his cologne and something else. A bit like vanilla with a bit of spice. For some reason, it calmed me down a bit.
A moment later, Alexander came out of his bathroom holding a first aid kit. Kneeling in front of me, he took my bleeding hand in his. He looked at it, trying to see just how hurt I actually was. It perplexed me to see him caring like this. Why would someone like him even care about someone like me? I was just one of his employees, someone he could use to kill on command. I was nothing to him. Yet here he was treating my injured hand.
"This may sting a bit" he said softly as he started wiping my knuckles with an antiseptic wipe.
I winced softly as he did. "Am I hurting you?" he asked concerned.
I shook my head "I've been through worse" I whispered softly, my throat felt raw and abused from all the sobbing and screaming.
He just nodded as he continued to wipe my hand. "It doesn't look like the glass went in to deep, you won't need stitches, but you definitely bruised your knuckles. I would think twice before punching anything for a while." he continued to wrap a bandage around my hand softly.
He looked up at me with soft yet intense eyes, his hand slowly rose to caress my bruised cheek and lip. His touch sent a wave of electricity down my body and I felt a slight shiver. His touch was making me feel things I didn't understand. I was feeling this wonderful thing down in my stomach, I had never felt before. It scared me a bit, it was new and yet it made me want to smile.
His eyes went up to mine and I swear it was like he could see my shattered walls through them. "What happened to you, Nyx?" he asked softly.
"Why do you want to know?" I whispered softly averting his gaze as he sits down on the bed beside me.
"I know you think I don't care for anything, as long as you kill on my command. That I when I solicited you at D. Impero, I only saw the name Nyx on the number one spot and that was it." He stood up from the bed and exited the room. He came back not even a minute later with a pair of underwear, a t-shirt and my pj bottoms. I blushed a bit when I imagine him seeing my underwear drawer.
He handed me the clothes and turned around, giving me a bit of privacy and respect. Taking off my robe, I started getting dressed slowly. Never once did Alexander try to have a look at me and that made me smile. He truly respected me and that was rare for me. For a man to respect me. I stared intently at his back as I got dressed. He was wearing a pair of low hanging sweatpants and a white t-shirt that did nothing to hide his bulging muscles. Looking at his back and tall muscular frame, made desire pool down at my core, it made me think of every place I'd like to explore with my hands and lips. I didn't understand the feeling, I hadn't felt anything like that in nearly eight years.
Once I was done, I cleared my dry throat and sat down on the edge of his bed again. Alexander turned around and looked at me intensely before continuing to speak. "Answer me this, do you really think that I would hire or even trust someone to work for me, to live with my family and take care of those that want to hurt my family, without knowing a thing about that person?"
"No. I don't think you would." I had been working for Alexander for a couple of weeks now and from what I've seen, he really cares about his family. I had no doubt he would die for any one of them, he would go to the ends of the earth to protect those he loved. That thought alone, made it clear that Alexander wouldn't hire just anyone.
"Exactly, Skylar. So I want to know because believe it or not, the moment you swore omerta, you became part of this family."
At the sound of my name my eyes went wide and my head instantly snapped up to look at him. His arms crossed and a ghost of a smile appeared on his face for my surprised reaction.
"You- you knew my name this whole time?"
He sat down again next to me "Of course I did."
"Then why didn't you say anything before? Why ask me to reveal something you already knew that day when we had our little match?"
"I figured you'd tell me when you felt ready. That day on the match was to see if your trust on us had grown. You told me the first letter of your mysterious name, so I took that as a step forward."
He gently moved my gaze onto him, into his dark brown intense eyes "You have walls , Skylar. Walls that destroy you when they shatter. Tell me, what happened to you?"
I felt my eyes start to water up again as I moved my gaze away from his and my face away from his gentle grasp. Alexander had been nothing but kind to be since I arrived here, but I never wanted to accept his kindness. It seemed too good to be true for me.
"Seven years ago, I was at a park near my home in Seattle." I started talking, I wasn't going to tell him everything just yet but maybe telling him how everything began would be a step forward for me. Nyx was strong but Skylar needed help, and maybe it was time that step by step, I would accept Alexanders help.
"It was a beautiful night, not a cloud in the sky." I felt myself immerse in my words as I told them. Almost feeling the same chilly air I felt that night. "I had just finished my first year at college. I went to that park almost every night. Laid down on the grass and listen to violin music. I love violin music." I felt myself smile a bit as I continued " That night I had fallen asleep and it had gotten dark, my mom had sent me about fifty text messages asking me where I was. Back then, I thought my mom was this nervous fragile thing that worked two jobs just trying to keep a roof over our head and food in our stomach. I thought my father was dead. I was proved so wrong and naïve that night."
I looked down at my bandaged hand and caress my fingers softly over it "On my way home, I was grabbed. They drugged me with chloroform and took me to D. Impero. Of course, I didn't know at the time, but I was so scared. I thought I was going to be sold into a sex ring."
Just as I was about to continue a soft knock on the door interrupted us. It was a maid with a tray carrying two small mugs. She quietly placed them on the table in the middle of the room before leaving quickly.
Alexander stood up and handed me one of the mugs "Hot chocolate?" I half smiled at him.
He sat on the floor and invited me to sit with him. "My mother says that hot chocolate is better had on the floor. It makes it more intimate."
I smiled at him and sipped the chocolate. Letting the warm sweet liquid warm my insides. "You are a strange man, Alexander. A Mafia man, Don of the Valentino family and here you are, sipping hot chocolate on the floor while a broken assassin tells you part of her story."
He chuckled "a story, I believe you haven't finished yet."
Taking another sip of hot chocolate, I continued my long story. "After I had woken up , two strange men told me I had been chosen. Chosen to be part of D. Impero, to be brutally trained to kill on command. I was eighteen, it made me sick to even hurt a fly. I thought, I would never see my mother again but not even a minute later she steps into the room. Covered in blood and looking proud. The woman, I thought to be a nervous wreck was a proud assassin."
"She made you join D.Impero?" Alexander asked still looking at me and listening to my every word.
"No, she actually didn't want me joining D. Impero, but my father had other plans."
"Who is your father?" At that I chuckled.
"You know my name but not my last name? Alexander Valentino, you didn't do your research very well." I teased him and he laughed a bit.
"D. Impero doesn't share much. I just knew you were Nyx and your real name was Skylar. It was all I could find on you."
"D. Impero, short for Diamond Impero. Owned by Maxwell Diamond, husband to Clarisse Diamond and father to Skylar Diamond."
His eyes went wide "Maxwell Diamond is your father?"
I nodded and continued the rest of my story " My father told me D. Impero had been part of my family for generations and that I was to be trained to uphold that family legacy. A legacy of ruthless assassins. I refused, told him I had rather die than be part of such a world. He then made me look into his eyes and said these exact words 'Oh sweetheart, that's what Oswald and Booth said before they shot John F Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln. You will beg for mercy and safe haven when we train you but not only will you join us, you will rise to take my place as leader. You Skylar... You were born to kill' . I will never forget those words. He made my life a living hell..." I looked down at the empty mug in my hands as I felt my hands grip it so tightly, blood started seeping through my bandages before Alexander took the mug away from me and pulled me into his arms again.
His arms gave a sort of comfort id never felt before, I embraced it none the less. "That's enough for tonight. You're not at D. Impero anymore, Skylar. You are at my house, and in my house no one will hurt you."
Those words made my heart do something it had never done. It skipped a beat, it felt like a piece of it had been fixed. So I stayed in Alexanders arms until I fell asleep, until for one night I felt like my shattered walls didn't make me weak. Because Alexander was picking up the pieces one by one and for once, I wasn't scared.
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Skylar is slowly opening up to Alexander and understanding that not everyone will hurt her!
Next chapter Kyle will get what he deserves *wicked laugh* >:D
Lastly, i want to dedicate this chapter to my friend Daliana! She has been my loyal reading from the start to all my stories even those not published here yet! <3 I love you Dallas! <3 Thank you for your never ending support and for fan girling with me over my own stories!!