Page 19 of Brandishing Betrayals

Dagger:

We’re at my place.

I didn’t even think about it, I slid my phone back in my pocket and started up the bike again. It wasn’t until I was halfway to Dagger’s that I thought about what I’d even say to her, if she’d even want to see me.

After keeping her at arms-length for the last six months since she’d returned, and practically ignoring her unless it pertained to Luke, I knew she wouldn’t be receptive to anything from me. I didn’t care, though. I needed to see her.

Maya

Iwokethenextmorningto the alarm on my phone blaring from the nightstand. I tried to roll over, only to roll into a hard body. I froze, startled.

“Easy, Little Dreamer,” Nico’s deep voice muttered in my ear.

I relaxed slightly, only for the memory of Jason’s hand wrapped tightly around my neck, to crash over me. I shimmied out of Nico’s hold and leaned over him to grab my annoying phone off the nightstand on Nico’s side of the bed. It was five a.m. I snoozed the alarm and clutched my phone to my chest as I rolled back over.

Nico curled around my back again and held me tight. “When do you have to leave?”

“I start at seven,” I responded, my voice hoarse. My throat hurt, it was dry and scratchy and sore. “We have to leave by six-fifteen so I can drop Luke by the day camp at six-thirty, and still make it to work by seven.” I whispered the words, not wanting to break the moment, but also because it helped my throat. I loved every minute wrapped up in Nico’s arms, even knowing I didn’t deserve it. It hurt to speak though, everything felt raw.

Nico hummed softly and held me tighter, like he knew exactly what I was thinking. “Call into work today, take Luke to camp and we’ll hang out at my place.”

I sighed. “I don’t have many sick days. I can’t.”

“Baby, your voice sounds like you ate glass,” he muttered.

I grunted. He was right, and my throat fucking hurt, but I did not have the time off to spare. “I have five sick days left for the year. I can’t afford to use them, not with my dad being how he is and school starting next month. Luke gets sick every fall with the back-to-school ick.”

Nico hummed again, and my phone alarm started going off again.

I sighed and extracted myself from his arms and got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. I had to shower still, since I didn’t wash my hair last night. I had to make Luke lunch for camp, and I had to— “Shit,” I swore, when I looked in the bathroom mirror. The bruising around my neck was already dark red and purple.

“Fuck, Dreamer,” Nico cursed as he walked into the bathroom, blinking at the light. “That’s not good.”

Tears welled in my eyes as I took in the red and purple fingerprints around my neck. Blood welled under the skin. I looked rough. “Fuck,” I whimpered. I couldn’t go to work like looking like this. I worked in a women’s health clinic; my boss and coworkers would know immediately that there werehandprint bruises around my neck. I wouldn’t be able to explain them away.

Nico immediately turned me away from the mirror and pulled me into his arms. “Take the day, baby,” he said softly in my ear. “Take the day. You have us now. If Luke gets sick in the fall, we can be with him.”

I frowned and leaned into his chest. Would they really be there if Luke was sick? Yes, yeah, they would. I knew in my heart that Marcos would drop everything if he knew his son was sick, and if he couldn’t, Nico would.

I thought I would have been able to include Jason on the list of people that would drop everything for my son, but after last night, I wasn’t so sure. Jason had never physically hurt me like that before, even when he used to punish me in the past, he had never left lasting marks anywhere other than my ass.

Would he drop everything for Luke? I didn’t know, and I wasn’t sure I wanted him around my son.

“Call in, baby. We’ll go to my place for the day. I’ll take the day off, too.” Nico rubbed up and down my back soothingly as he spoke softly.

“Do you live with them?” I shifted in his arms, pulling away slightly to look up at him.

Nico frowned and a shadow passed over his blue eyes. “No,” he shook his head. “We have our own places now.”

I saw it in his eyes, what he wasn’t saying. I saw the pain and heartbreak there. The pain and heartbreak that I put there. “Nic,” I spoke softly.

“Don’t.” He shook his head.

I didn’t listen, though. “How long has it been since you’ve lived with them?” I pressed him. I needed to know, even though I had a feeling I already knew the answer.

He gave me a tight look. “Since the rental house…since you left.” Nico ran a hand through his shoulder-length blond hair, musing the messy locks.

I gasped, my mouth dropping open in shock, even though I had known it in my gut. “Nic,” I murmured.

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