Page 43 of Brandishing Betrayals

I leaned back in and sure enough, written small in the upper right corner was the date. Five years ago. “How long did this take?”

Slade looked over again. “We did that in 3 twelve-hour sessions. Then one final touch up session a year later after everything was healed up.”

“She came here for those?”

“Yeah,” Slade replied, her voice a little softer this time.

“And these?” I asked, pointing to the pictures the right, showing Maya’s thighs and arms, where there were skulls and more flowers wrapped around them. I saw the date said three years ago.

“No, those I did in Chicago at an expo. Maya always came to the convention center when I was in the city.”

I hummed under my breath as I took in all the new ink my girl had gotten in the last ten years. And yeah, she was still my girl. No matter how long we’d been apart, no matter what Marcos and Jason said, I would always consider Maya my girl.

“We had dinner with them last night,” I said, turning away from the cubical wall of photos to look at Slade.

Slade Cooper was a beautiful dark angel, utterly gorgeous and unbelievably sweet. She had long black hair to her waist, piercing green eyes, and was tatted and piercedeverywhere. For as sweet as she was, she was no pushover, though. She was used to tatting rough and tumble bikers, made men, and even the Don of the Seratelli Crime Family. She didn’t let anyone walk over her or use her for information—including me.

She leveled me with her steady gaze and raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? How was that?”

I sighed. “I dunno. Maya seemed sad, kinda out of it through dinner. She didn’t eat much, and kind of just pushed her food around her plate.”

Slade sighed and picked up the transfer paper. She motioned to the chair and I followed her direction. I pulled off my cut and shirt, folding them together and leaving them on the spare chair in the corner. “Did something happen?”

I frowned, thinking about the night before. “They came home from Chicago. They spent the weekend with her sister.”

Slade’s poker face was intact as she applied the transfer paper to the skin on my chest. “You think something happened?”

“I don’t know what to think. Maya came home looking kinda sad and out of it, from the weekend away. Luke said she saw her therapist on Saturday. When Marcos asked him about it while Maya was in the shower, he said that sometimes she got sad or scared.”

“That’s valid,” Slade said, pressing down on the paper on my chest, before she slowly peeled it away. “Everyone has their moments.”

“Slade, I know there’s more going on here. I know you’re still close—”

“Maya is one of my best friends, Nico. I won’t tell her secrets.” She snapped at me, her eyes narrowing.

I frowned, watching Slade’s face carefully. “I know. And you’re loyal to a fault, but if something serious is going on with her…”

“That’s Maya’s business. If she wants to divulge that with you, then she will.” Slade picked up her tattoo gun and got to work. It wasn’t like her to be so short or abrupt, it also wasn’t like her not to ask me about tattoo placement, usually she had me check things out for any adjustments I might want before she got to work.

Clearly, I had struck a nerve.

“I get that it’s Maya’s business,” I said a half hour later, breaking the silence of the steady buzzing coming from the tattoo gun. “I do, Slade. But this is Maya, if there’s something seriously going on with her, I would want to know.”

Slade paused, pulling the needles back. She sighed heavily. “I can’t tell you what’s been going on with Maya, but I can tell you this: look deeper. Think about it harder, Nico. Maya is tough as nails and will always shut out the world. Something must have happened that made her seek therapy. For a girl that never opens up and can’t talk about her feelings, why would she volunteer her feelings to a stranger?”

My mouth popped open. “You know something.”

Slade looked down, refusing to meet my gaze.

“You definitely know something. Slade, what the hell happened?”

She took a deep, shuddering breath, and when she lifted her head, I could see tears lining the eyes of the bad ass tattoo artist. She blinked them away quickly, taking another deep breath. “All I’m saying is, maybe there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to Maya. Please, be gentle with her, Nic. She needs you now more than ever.”

My heart clenched in my chest. “What do you mean?”

Slade shook her head and pressed the gun to my skin again.

When it was clear that Slade wouldn’t tell me anymore, I dropped my head back to the chair and sighed.What the hell was going on?

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