Page 91 of Brandishing Betrayals

And so we snapped a bunch of family photos for the first time ever.

I wasn’t even upset about it. When I stepped away to give Maya and Luke a couple photos alone, I still had a broad grin plastered on my face. Despite the shitty early morning events, the day was shaping up to be better than I expected.

Marcos

My phone rang later that afternoon, just as I was pulling mytruck into Maya’s driveway. A quick glance at the truck screen showed it was my sister. My heart leapt into my throat as I quickly answered the phone while throwing the truck into park. “Hola, Manita.”

“Hey, Marquitos.” Kara’s voice was upbeat and happy, that had to be good news right? “I just got off the phone with D.A. Lacey Winters. She just left the county jail. My father has signed the plea deal.”

“Thank fuck,” I said, leaning back in the driver’s seat. I hadn’t realized how tense I’d gotten.

“Yeah,” Kara agreed. “Lacey thinks she can get this before a judge by the end of the week. It’s Wednesday, so she’s optimistic. Once my father is sentenced, the board will convene. Hopefully, you’ll have an answer by this weekend regarding Hillcrest.”

“Thanks, Kara.” I sighed and rubbed a hand over my face.

“How are things, otherwise?”

“There’s some stuff going down that I can’t talk about over the phone. Jason was shot last night, though.” At Kara’s gasp, I pressed on talking faster. “He’s doing ok, now. He’s at Maya’s. We called in the doc and he and Maya got him stable last night. He’s going to be ok.”

Kara let out a heavy breath. “Thank God.”

Nico

IfrownedasIwatchedMaya catch a midday nap in bed next to Jason. In the two days since Jason was shot and brought to Maya’s house, she’d barely left his side. She had taken the rest of the week off of work, and had taken care of Luke and her mother, of course, but she’d barely left Jason’s side if she didn’t have to.

At night, I’d catch her sitting up, wide awake, keeping watch. She took his vitals several times a day and wrote the numbers down in a little notebook she kept on her nightstand. Dr. Griffin had returned on Wednesday with more supplies for Maya,including a catheter, since they wouldn’t know how long Jason would be out for.

Griffin had been fantastic and had reached out a couple times since then to check on his patient, and Maya had given a detailed account of his well-being each time. If she wasn’t sleeping in the bed beside Jason, she was curled up in the recliner in the corner. Marcos and I had carried her to the bed a couple times, just so we could use the chair ourselves.

The stress of the ordeal was weighing heavily on her. Elaine had told me that she was barely eating, despite Elaine cooking meals for us. I had stocked the fridge with groceries, knowing money was tight. The life-insurance policy had covered the funeral expenses, but there wasn’t enough to cover other expenses, not until Elaine was able to sit down and finalize things with her lawyer to get access to Harry’s 401k.

I understood it was a stressful time, and adding Jason’s injury to the list wasn’t helping. Helping out with groceries was the least I could do. Marcos was busy with running the club and taking care of Luke. With it being the kid’s first week of school, he had homework on top of football practice, and he had another game tomorrow morning that Marcos was insisting Luke still attend.

Life was busy and still moved forward despite one of our brothers lying unconscious in bed for days. We still had jobs to do.

Marcos walked in the bedroom while I was lost in thought. “Kara just called; the D.A. got Carmichael before the judge this morning. He’s been sentenced to the ten years for racketeering and fraud for the shit against the firm, then an additional twenty years for the murder of Mac Taylor. Kara’s on her way to the board meeting to find out the status of the firm.”

“So we should know soon?”

“Yes.” Marcos nodded. “She said that it could take a couple hours, but she felt confident that by the end of the night she would be in possession of Carmichael & Associates.

“That’s great news,” I said.

Jason

I woke to the low rumble of male voices talking around me. My whole body was on fire, pain radiating out of certain places. My leg and shoulder were the worst. There was a dull aching in my neck that burned too.

I groaned and slowly opened my eyes.

“Hey man,” Nico said, leaning over me. “How you feeling?”

“Like I’ve been run over.” My voice was a rough gravel that hurt my throat. “Water.”

“Yeah, hold on,” Nico said. “I’ll fill the bottle.”

I watched him grab a hospital mug with a straw from the dresser and leave the room. I looked around the room and realized I didn’t know where I was, but Maya was sleeping in the bed beside me. “What happened?” I asked Marcos, though my eyes stayed on the sleeping Maya. There were bags under her eyes and her hair was a mess. She looked thinner too. Like the stress of the last several weeks had caught up to her.

“You remember going out with Axel, Blaze, and Phoenix?” Marcos asked, walking closer to the bed.

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