Page 30 of Brandishing Betrayals

“I told you never to come back here,” he growled in my face, his multi-colored eyes glaring down at me.

I focused on the gnarly scar bisecting the left side of his face as I struggled to breathe. “You don’t control me,” I ground out, between clenched teeth.

He squeezed my neck tighter.

“Everything alright here?” a man’s voice asked, somewhere behind Dax.

He let go of me instantly.

It took everything I had to stay on my feet and not cause a scene in the semi-busy outdoor mall. I looked over his shoulder to see a security guard in a black T-shirt that had a company logo on the front left. “Yeah,” I muttered, “fine.”

Dax walked away, shooting me a look over his shoulder as he pushed past the guard.

I didn’t wait around either. I took off in the opposite direction, ignoring the security guard and hightailing it for the parking lot.

Things were quickly getting out of hand with Dax Hillcrest, and once again I wondered if I should go to Marcos or Nico and confess everything.

Marcos

“Heyman,”IgreetedNico as I walked into the clubhouse Sunday evening.

“Hey bro.” Nic smiled and stood from the couch he was sitting on. I leaned in and slapped his hand with Nico’s in a brotherly handshake-hug, that involved a lot of back patting.

“How was your weekend?” Nic asked.

I grinned widely. “It was great. Amazing. I picked up Luke from the pool. Then we got dinner at McGrady’s and hit the arcade. It was awesome.”

“Why do you look so exhausted?” Nic chuckled.

“I gave him my bed. I slept on the couch, or tried to. I didn’t sleep much.” I groaned and took a seat on the loveseat across from where Nico had been sitting.

Nico frowned. “Time to buy a house?”

“It’s past time.” I sighed. “Shit’s tight, you know? I’ve been saving, but we aren’t earning what we used to, and nothing legit that’ll convince a bank to give me a loan.”

Nico was completive for a moment as he rubbed a hand over his jaw.

“We could do it together,” Stone said from behind me.

I looked over my shoulder at my buddy, frowning slightly. “We haven’t lived together since Maya left.”

Jason rounded the couch slowly, running a hand over his spikey hair. “Yeah…and we haven’t been doing well on our own either.”

“So what are you saying?” I asked, leaning back to look at my brother.

“We pool our resources. I’ve got cash. I haven’t spent much in the last couple years,” Jason clarified.

“Same. I’ve been squirrelling money away from the jobs,” Nico said. “We know you were paying for Kara’s undergrad, but you should talk to her about that. I bet she doesn’t know.”

I sighed. My sister definitely didn’t know and I hadn’t planned on telling her either.

“Dude, Kara is rolling in cash, she would be so pissed if she knew you were paying her loans for her. She probably thinks they were paid off by her father,” Nico said, shifting on the couch. “There’s no way she’d allow you to continue to pay them if she knew.”

“Talk to her,” Jason said. “Then we can pull our funds together and put down a hefty down payment on a house. I know you’ve been looking in the neighborhood where Maya’s at. And Karalives in that neighborhood too. It makes sense for us to move there.”

My heart fluttered in my chest. “You guys would do that?” I didn’t know why I asked it; my brothers would do anything for me.

“Hell yeah!” Nico exclaimed.

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