Sixty- Four

"Hit me!"

"I can't."

"There is no such word as can't. Now try again and hit me!"

"We've been going at it for three hours straight already, Neriman. I can't."

"That's truly disappointing to hear, Mila. I never took you as a quitter."

"I'm not. I'm tired."

"You're quitting. Admit it."

"Winners never quit," I growl, wiping my sweat cladded hair out of my face.

[Yes,] "Evet that's right, so is, quitters never win and you are a quitter." Her left eye twitches as she tries her best to infuriate me more than I already am.

"You know what, I don't need this shit," I say bitterly as I start to unravel the hand wraps embedding my knuckles. "I asked Aydem to teach me what he knows and I was hinting more along the lines of fire weapons."

"You already know how to aim and shoot. What good is a gun if you are approached from behind?"

"What good is face to face combat if I'm outnumbered?"

"You have seen me fight and I have been outnumbered. These." She growls as she taps her hands. "Are your deadliest weapons. I have killed people with these bare hands, Mila. Discipline and self-control can be lethal when they mix. Now, hit me!" She snarls short of a roar.

"Whatever. I'm done for today." I huff feeling emotionally and mentally drained.

I know Neriman means well and she is right, but, we've been going at this for hours and still, I am unable to land a single blow. She's fast and moves with the grace of a poised dancer.

[No] "Hayir, Mila." She snaps. "It's not 'whatever' when you are in the middle of a war and you have a son and husband to protect. It works both ways, if you can not protect yourself, how will you be able to protect your loved ones?" Her chest rises and falls vigorously as she speaks.

I stop unravelling my hands and I look up to meet her gaze. "Don't try and guilt trip me because it won't work." I lie as rage slowly begins to lick my feverish skin.

"I'm not trying to guilt-trip you, Mila. You can do that all on your own in your head. I've seen the way your mind ticks."

"You dont know me, Neriman. So don't pretend that you do, okay?"

"I know that if you were to come face to face with Castello again you would freeze like a scared little mouse. He took Sandro from you once, what's going to stop him from doing it a second time?"

"I'll be ready for him this time around. There's no doubt about that." I toss the hand wrap on the ground and I start to unravel my other hand. "As you mentioned, I already know how to aim and shoot a gun."

"It's not enough."

"It's enough for me. This isn't the life I want to live or expose Sandro too. The mafia life is brutal, it changes people and I want nothing to do with it."

"Well, it's a bit too late for that don't you think? The father of your child is a Peker by his true identity, you are staying in one of Turkeys' most notorious family's mansion under their protection. You are about to marry Aydem and into the family. We are nothing like the Italians and we stand for the greater good of people." She says defensively as she wipes the back of her hand across her brow line.

As I toss the other hand wrap onto the ground. "Do you wanna see how we fight back in New Zealand?" I ask with a smirk curving upwards on my face

Her eyes narrow and she wipes the tip of her nose with her hand. "Bring it,"

I run towards her at full speed and just before I reach her, I crouch down and tackle her rugby style. She yelps, landing flat on her back with a shocked expression on her face and I straddle her, pinning her arms down beside her head.

"Gotcha." I laugh.

"Now what?"

My brows knit together, "What do you mean?"

"You have me on my back, my hands pinned downed, now what?"

"I-uh, Oh, shit..."

Unexpectedly, she thrusts her legs up, arches her back into the air, and before I know it, I'm the one who's on my back with my arms pinned down by her knees and her fingers wrapped around my throat. "I got you and you're dead." She titters with a look of amusement and disappointment on her face.

"Fine," I snarl and grit my teeth. "You win!"

Running the tip of her tongue across her top teeth, "It's not about winning." She huffs as she rolls off me and onto her back beside me. "You have the potential to be great, but you're deliberately stopping yourself from being so. Why is that?" She asks as she turns her head to the side to look at me.

I exhale sharply and take a few moments to think, "I suppose it's because I'm used to being told that I'm a failure and I'll never amount up to anything. You know when I first met Ace, I had a feeling he was too good to be true and that I didn't deserve someone as caring and genuine as he made himself out to be. He wined and dined me, showed me around like the little naive girl I was. I fell for him hard, the next thing I knew, I was his verbal punching bag and Trent's to use however he wanted." My voice trembles when I think back to all the abuse I have endured by the two of them.

"I'm sorry. No woman should ever feel the need to seek out a male's approval. You should already know that you are enough and maybe it is the man who needs to lower his expectations because we aren't goddesses and I have yet to come across a man who resembles anything close to a god." She sits up and peers down at me. "Aydem loves you. I know what you saw this morning hurt you and possibly brought up some feelings that have no right to invade your body. He is sorry and he made that very clear when he punched Sedar in the face after you both emerged out of your bedroom this morning. To be quite frank, he was livid and I had to walk out of the office because my loyalty belongs to my brother, but, I also didn't want to stop Aydem because Sedars' plan was stupid and it wasn't thought out very well. He hurt you, Aydem and Mercedes. She was pretty pissed off with him too because she caused you unnecessary pain when she showed you the photos." she adds as she stands to her feet and holds her hand out for me to take.

I place my hand in hers and rise to my feet with her help, wiping the dirt off my ass. "I can't heal what is broken if the pain is invisible. But, I do know that Aydem is capable of healing me if I can learn to drop my guard, and for me to do that I need to know how to protect myself and Sandro first." I swallow thickly. "I'm willing to free my mind and thrive on what you can teach me if I haven't stuffed up the opportunity already." I raise my hands and put all my weight on my back leg.

Neriman chuckles, "Hit me!" She says with amusement, enjoying the honesty between us a little too much.

This bitch is going to kick my ass...