Page 4 of Brandishing Betrayals

Luke huffed out a heavy sigh and turned back to the TV.

My heart broke as the disappointment settled on Luke’s beautiful face. “Let me ask your dad, alright?”

Luke perked up at and grinned.

I slowly typed out a text message to Marcos.

Maya:

Luke wants to sign up for football through the Panthers travel team. Practices would be every tues, wed, thurs, from 4-6 pm. Is there any way you can take him to practice on those days? I would be able to pick him up.

I sent the message and exited the messaging app. I sighed internally, knowing that Marcos had been working his ass off the last several months, trying to save up to buy a house, so he could have a place for Luke to stay with him on the weekends.

My phone pinged a moment later. I opened the message app and saw Marcos’s reply.

Marcos:

Yep.

Straight to the point, as usual with Marcos. I forced down my disappointment from his one-word answer. I was grateful he was willing to do anything for Luke, but the distance Marcos put between the two of us hurt.

I shoved down the pain and disappointment and forced a smile on my face. “Your dad said he could take you.”

“Yes!” Luke shouted and jumped off the couch, pumping a fist into the air in excitement. “Heck yeah!”

His enthusiasm was infectious. I laughed and jumped off recliner to hug him. “Thanks mom!” He wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug.

I hugged him back, savoring his happiness. “No problem honey.” I held him a moment longer before he pulled away, bouncing over to the couch.

“I can’t wait to tell the guys tomorrow!”

I grinned and picked up my phone. “I’m gonna jump on the computer to register you, OK?”

Luke just nodded, already enthralled in the TV program.

I walked down the hall to my old childhood bedroom. Not much had changed in the room since I’d gone off to college. I hadn’t spent much time at my parents’ house after college. I had moved in with Marcos, Jason, and Nico almost right away.

I settled on the full-sized mattress and pulled my secondhand laptop off the nightstand. I pulled up the website info again and opened the registration page and paused—registration was six-hundred and fifty dollars.

My heart sank, clenching in my chest. It was too expensive. How was I going to pull this off, plus pay for my student loans, and help my parents with their bills? Things were tight enough as it was before I moved back to Mourningside. I thought of how happy and excited Luke had just been—the happiest I’d seen him since learning we were leaving our home in Chicago.

I couldn’t take that away from him, even if it meant I went without something else. I sighed and reached for my purse on the floor. I pulled out my wallet, taking out my credit card, and prayed there would be enough on the balance to pay for this—already calculating how much gas was in my car and how much food was in the house.

My parents’ car accident had eaten away at their savings and mine. Medicare didn’t cover a home nurse and state-run care facilities were horrible. I would do everything I could to keep my father home for as long as possible.

My father’s injuries had been extensive. He had already been slowly losing his mind to dementia before the accident, but since the accident, he mostly lived in his own world. He was bedridden and required a full-time nurse.

Thankfully my mother’s injuries weren’t as extensive. I counted my blessings that my mother was still able to move around, mostly on her own, and that she still had her mind. Though she was homebound now, no longer able to drive sincethe accident, she was able to help put dinner on the table most evenings, if she was up to it. Her energy levels were not what they used to be though; the accident had just taken too much from her body—she was frail.

I paid the fee for football and let out a deep breath when I received the payment confirmation.Thank God,I thought. I wouldn’t be crushing my son’s dreams and wouldn’t have to have an embarrassing conversation with Marcos where I begged him for money.

Marcos “Killer” Candela

Isetmyphonedownwith a frown. Maya had texted about Luke wanting to join the football team. I had expected it, Luke talked nonstop about it when we hung out together, but any conversation with Maya anymore was rough.

Dagger fell into the La-Z-Boy besides me in the clubhouse lounge. It was pretty quiet around the clubhouse these days, since the death of our former president Larry “The Butcher” Buckley and patched brother Henry “Ace” Harding. With Buckley’s death and the club vote, I was now president. I hadimmediately implemented some changes, including a ban on cocaine and any hard drug usage in the clubhouse.

My club didn’t seem to mind, most of the heavy users had been Ace and Buckley anyway. It might have been six months since Buckley had killed not only Ace, but a Prospect and Janey, one of the Devil Chaser’s—the women that hung around the Devil’s Psychos, looking for sex—but many of the women were still leery as fuck about the Psychos.

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