Page 72 of Brandishing Betrayals

I wondered if she would tell Luke. She’d been pretty open with him about everything else…so maybe. The last thing I wanted was for Luke to hate me. I needed to make it clear that I was looking out for his best interest.

“Have you talked to Maya this week?” Nico asked, his voice low.

“No,” I admitted. “Not since Monday night. She hasn’t been coming to practice early this week. She just pulls up as practice is ending and then waits for Luke to come out, then she pulls up and he gets in and they leave.”

Nico huffed a laugh that ended into a coughing fit.

“That’s it,” Jason snapped, standing up. “I’m taking you to the ER.”

Nico didn’t move, not even to crack an eye open. “Fuck off.” He grumbled.

Jason shook his head and ran his fingers through his spikey blond hair, making the bedhead style even more messy. It was an usual move for the usual stone-faced man. “We need to get a doctor on payroll.”

“Too bad we couldn’t go to our nurse,” Nico shot back.

I shook my head. We probably could have called Maya to look over Nico tonight, if I wasn’t worried that I already burned that bridge with her.

“I’m fine. Leo sent over a doctor before you guys picked me up. He said I’m just heavily bruised, but I’ll live.” Nico said.

That was news to me. “Just failed to mention that tidbit when we carried your ass in here?” I asked.

“No need. You were already brooding over your own bullshit. Mine’s being taken care of. I’ll go to the family dinner Sunday night and apologize in front of everyone. Leo will sit down with me after.”

“Youhopehe will sit down with you after, asshole!” Jason snapped, leaning down into Nico’s face. “You don’t know for sure that he’ll help at all. For all you know he’ll make your ass wait fuckingyearsfor anything more.”

Nico shook his head. “I made it clea—”

“You didn’t even get to negotiate terms. He demanded what he expected from you to rejoin the family and that was it. Stop fucking lying to yourself that you got anything out of this deal.”

I shook my head. The last twenty-four hours had been the same between the two of them. Ever since Nico woke up in the backseat of my pick-up truck and rambled on about Leo’s demands, Jason had been ready to fucking fight.

It was a losing battle, but Nico was in no shape to fight back. I would have to find a task for Jason to keep him occupied or he was going to drive us all insane.

Maya

Luke’sfirstfootballgameof the season dawned bright and early Saturday morning. An eight-a.m. football game on a Saturday morning should be illegal. I was still reeling from being served the legal papers the day before and didn’t sleep much. I wondered if Marcos would be at the game that morning and anxiety gripped me. It was getting harder and harder to see my guys and not confess, to not break down and cry and beg them for forgiveness.

Life was just getting harder and harder to navigate.

After dropping Luke off at the school entrance, I drove over to the parking lot and took my time in the vehicle. The game didn’t start for another twenty minutes, and I wasn’t too worried about finding a seat in the stands; it’s not like I couldn’t just squeeze in anywhere being there by myself. I really didn’t want to be there too early and then get trapped by one of the guys—Marcos or Nico especially.

Sitting in my car, listening the music softly, I looked around the parking lot of all the happy families laughing and joking as they headed toward the football field. Tears lined my eyes of how much I missed out on—how much I denied my son—by leaving. When we were in Chicago, we’d had that with Jenna and Brad—family outings and happy mornings—but those were hard too with how expensive everything was in the city and I was a single mother, not making anywhere close to what Jenna and Brad were making.

And there were only so many times I could handle my sister offering to pay. It just sucked.

I was ruminating over my life when my passenger door opened unexpectedly and I startled. “Probably should start locking your doors, Maya.” Hillcrest’s nasally voice grated on her nerves.

Turning to face him, I finally snapped. “Fuck off, already. I’m tired of playing you—”

Hillcrest’s hand wrapped around my neck and he slammed my head backwards into the glass of the driver’s door behind me. Choking me, he leaned into my space, despite the center console between us. “Ah, ah, ah,” he tsked, squeezing my neck tighter. “You’ve been a bad, bad girl.”

I gulped—or tried too—as I stared at him in fright.

“I think you’ve forgotten what’s at stake here,” he continued.

I tried to shake my head vehemently. “I haven’t! I haven’t said any—”

“Stop lying!” he shouted in my face. “I saw you Monday night, making out with Candella at the end of your driveway. And you spent the night at Gage’s on Saturday. I’m done playing around, Maya. Now you get to deal with the consequences of your actions.” The let go of my throat abruptly and pulled away.

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