Page 82 of Brandishing Betrayals
Jason hissed over by the door, and I looked over at him to see him leaning against the wall, with his arms crossed over his chest.
Ignoring him, I pushed Maya further. “Then what happened?”
“Then I told him to f-off. I wasn’t going to leave! I swear, I didn’t want to! I promise you I didn’t want to!” She sobbed harder against my chest.
“Shh, it’s ok, it’s ok,” I murmured. “I know, baby girl. I know.”
“But he had already shot Marcos and Jason the week before.” Maya’s voice caught in her throat again.
I made eye contact with Jason as he watched on quietly, while I slowly coaxed the truth from her. “Yeah, I remember how rattled you were then,” I muttered.
“I was so fucking scared!” Her voice broke as another sob tore through her. “Then, the party at the clubhouse. I wasn’t feeling well from when we played in the woods. I couldn’t get ahold of you guys. I tried calling, but no one would pick up! I was going to stay home.”
“I know, baby,” I soothed. “We saw the missed calls and heard the voicemails.”
“My head wasn’t right after how we left things during the scene—when Marcos brought up renegotiating in the middle of the scene—it fucked with my head, I didn’t know what to think. Then I woke up alone that morning, and I was still experiencing sub-drop and some after effects from the hypothermia—I wasn’t in a good place.”
“We never should have left you alone,” I said.
“I knew I had to see you, if you weren’t answering the phone. I was going to ask you take me to the hospital—I knew something was wrong.”
I sucked in a breath, my eyes darting to Marcos and Jason.
Marcos face had fallen, his tan skin looking almost pale, while Jason’s mouth opened, like he was going to say something, but quickly closed it.
“But then at the clubhouse… I saw Marcos smiling at her—at Trish—and I just lost it. During our fight Trish told me who she was to Dax, and passed along a message from him, the same message he delivered when he cornered me in the grocery store: leave town or he’d kill you guys and my parents.”
Maya shook her head and tried to pull away from me, but I held her and Kara tightly still. “I don’t know, it hit differentcoming from her, seeing her in the clubhouse, like nothing was safe anymore. Then you got arrested that night, Nico, and Marcos texted that Hillcrest had you framed for false charges…” She broke off shaking her head. “In my mind, I had to go. It wasn’t safe anymore. Hillcrest could get to you guys at any time and he had the power to have you arrested. I couldn’t be the reason you guys were killed…so I left.”
“Jesus fucking hell.” I let out a deep breath.
“And Luke?” Marcos’s voice was gruff, but soft.
Maya pushed away from me, and I finally let her so she could turn to face Marcos directly. “I didn’t know I was pregnant until I was in Chicago for a week. I swear, I didn’t leave here knowing I was pregnant.”
Marcos looked absolutely gutted. The emotion in his dark eyes was heart breaking. I felt it too, but right now wasn’t the time to fall apart in front of Maya. We needed to be strong for her, we could fall apart later.
Maya’s face was wet and blotchy, her makeup was mostly rubbed against my dress shirt, but I didn’t care, she was still the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.
“Why didn’t you come back?” Jason asked, his voice so hoarse and soft I almost didn’t hear him.
Maya wiped at her eyes as she started crying again. “I wanted to. I was going to, but then I heard you and Marcos were arrested and sent to State—”
“Fuck,” Marcos swore.
“Everything I heard from Creekton wasn’t good.” Maya shrugged a shoulder. “All I knew was that Creekton or even Mourningside wasn’t safe, and I had my baby to protect, so I stayed away.”
Jason nodded his head once, as if the answer was enough for him.
“Maya,” Kara spoke softly. “I’m so sorry. I wasn—”
“Don’t.” Maya shook her head as more tears fell. “You had your own shit going on. Don’t do that. I can’t hand—” A sob broke out of her again and I pulled her back into my arms, tucking her head under my chin.
“Thank you for telling us the truth, Maya.” I pressed a kiss to the crown of her head.
“I’m sorry,” Maya cried, as sobs wracked her body. “I’m so sorry!”
There was nothing we could do to change the past, but hopefully with time, we could move forward.
