Page 100 of Brandishing Betrayals

“How are you feeling?” I asked Jason as I fell into step beside him.

He glanced down at me and shrugged his good shoulder. “Tired. Sore. But not horrible, I guess.”

My lips parted slightly in surprise. I was not expecting him to be so open about how he felt. He’d barely talked to me since he apologized for choking me that night weeks ago after Sunday dinner. “That’s uh—good—not good, I mean. I mea—”

Jason chuckled softly at my stammering response and I felt myself blush. “It’s not great, but I’m not dead. I’ll take it, and a nap when we get back to the house.”

“Yeah.” I nodded, glancing away.

The guys talked about the game while we continued to wait. As the parking lot steadily emptied, a pit of worry began to gnaw at my mind. Something was wrong. It never took Luke this long after a game to change. Most of the time he didn’t bother, he just threw his shoulder pads in his duffle bag and wore his cleats and lower body pads home.

“Something’s wrong,” I said, looking around. I immediately began walking toward the school, that pit growing larger inside me. Something was wrong. I knew it.

I took off running for the school doors without looking back to see if anyone was following me. I needed to find Luke now. I ripped open the school door and yelled down the hallway as I ran toward the locker room at the end. “LUCUS! LUKE!”

“LUKE!” Marcos shouted from behind me.

We burst into the locker room, looking around at all the bewildered faces. “Is Luke Candella here?” I asked.

Marcos’s eyes snapped to me; the shock apparent on his face. Guess I never told him that I gave Luke his last name. Now was not the time to discuss it though. I stormed through the locker room to the door in the back.

We went through the door to come out into another hallway, this one dimmer, extra-long, and clearly used for storage, but there at the end was Luke. Someone was dragging him kicking and screaming away from me.

“Luke!” I shouted.

“Mom!” he yelled.

The man dragging him turned and looked our way, grinning wickedly. I would recognize that jagged scar and those dead eyes from anywhere, even from a hundred yards away.

Dax fucking Hillcrest.

“LUKE!” I shouted, sprinting after them.

There was too much shit in the way, and some if it had been turned over, like Hillcrest had knocked it down, knowing someone was likely to follow him.

“MOM! DAD!” Luke cried, tears pouring down his face.

“Watch out,” Marcos said, pushing me gently out of the way. He took off, running faster, climbing and jumping over things, trying to get to Luke.

Hillcrest pulled Luke out of the door and into the bright light of the outside world beyond. “No!” I cried out, trying to keep up.

Marcos was on his ass, but they had a head start.

“Please no,” I whimpered as I climbed over a turned over bookcase, then a desk. Garbage and debris littered the space. Dust was kicked up, coating my skin and lungs.

It felt like an eternity before Marcos stormed through the door. It took me even longer.

Finally,I ran outside to the gravel driveway behind the school. Only there was no one there. No Luke. No Marcos. No Dax fucking Hillcrest.

“Luke!” I screamed out in anguish. I dropped to my knees as broken heart-wrenching sobs tore out of me. My heart shattered in my chest when I realized that even Marcos was gone. Despair tore at me.

Footsteps pounded on the gravel behind me and I whipped my head around to see Jason and Nico running toward me. “What happened?” Jason demanded.

Nico dropped to his knees besides me. “Maya, what happened?”

“Hillcrest!” I sobbed. “Hillcrest took Luke. He took my baby.”

Nico’s face fell as disbelief as his arms came around me.

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